Satoshi Kon Films

[Mania Pipe]

I wanted to make this thread for one of my favorite anime directors; Satoshi Kon. He was a brilliant man who is well known for using his style in animation of blurring the lines of reality and fantasy. He also seemed like a cool guy during his interviews. Unfortunately on August 24, 2010; he sadly passed away due to pancreatic cancer. I was seriously devastated after hearing the news after and wanted to pay my respects for the man. However, people will always remember him for the works he's done and how he's given inspiration to others. 
 
I'm going to start off with the films that I saw of his material and talk about how I felt about them. So, let's begin...
 
Perfect Blue (1997):

 
This is a film about a singer named Mima Kirigoe of the J-pop band called "CHAM!" Upon doing her last performance at a concert as a singer; she decides to change her career to acting. However, things start to go really south for her as people around her are being murdered as a certain fan who's not to happy about her sudden career change. Especially a certain fan of hers, a creepy stalker named Me-Mania and things start to fall apart around her as she begins to slowly lose her grip of her on reality.
 
This was definitely an interesting anime for me to witness. The opening for this movie totally caught me off guard with its peppy J-pop feel and originally thought it would be something cheesy... until I saw the rest of the film. I really did love the soundtrack, thanks to music composer Masahiro Ikumi, as it has a balance between sweet and lighthearted and downright creepy and scary factors to the film.
 
Millennium Actress (2001):

 
This story revolves around documentary filmmaker, Genya Tachibana and his cameraman, Kyoji Ida, who are investigating the life of a woman named Chiyoko Fujiwara. She tells them her long years as an actress searching for a man, a revolutionary and painter, who gave her a key after helping him escape police custody and since then, she became an actress so that she could find him. While telling her story; both Genya and Kyoji are literally drawn into the story like they're both really there during Chiyoko's days as an actress acting out in various genres and eras.
 
Definitely one of my favorite anime films. They really put the heart and efforts to it with this film and with the help of Susumu Hirasawa for the composition, it made the emotional moments really powerful. I don't want to say anything about the parts towards the end of the film, but all I can say is; I found myself tearing up.
 
Tokyo Godfathers (2003):

 
This is film about three homeless people - Gin, Hana, and Miyuki - who discover an abandoned newborn baby, Kiyoko. The trio soon set out to find the baby's parents and return her to them, but soon get caught up in many awkward and strange situations along the way.
 
This was a... strange one to watch. It's certainly geared towards comedy by making light of the situations that the gang would get caught up in. But the film still manages to go into depth with these characters and we get to see them before things really hit the fan for them. It also tells a story of miracles, family, love and forgiveness. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and for its weird yet hilarious antics. 
 
Paranoia Agent (2004):

 
A story that begins with a character designer, Tsukiko Sagi, who created the quite popular pink dog Maromi. After being put under stressed from the repeating her success, she is soon attacked by a young boy on inline skates wielding a bent golden bat, named Lil' Slugger. However, the two detectives; Keiichi Ikari and Mitsuhiro Maniwa, soon discover that Lil' Slugger is targeting people who are in a state of crisis and how he is able rescue people from their tragedies.
 
This was the first anime of Satoshi Kon's work that I've since back in 2006 on Adult Swim. It was so interestingly weird for me to watch, but I was just engage with the story and how the episodes play out with each individual character unveiling their secret lives. I happen to catch this show by curosity and... it suck me right into it. It actually caught my attention through this opening:
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtWJM25FwU0

 
Ever since I first saw that opening, I was never able to get it out of my mind and wanting to keep watching it because it was so weird. Seriously, I will never forget this fucking opening.
 
Paprika (2006):

 
In the near future, a new psychotherapy treatment called "Dream Therapy" would be utilized by the use of a device called "DC Mini." A device invented so that the user can use the device to view people's dreams. Dr. Atsuko Chiba, head of the team, had underwent her illegal use of the machine to help psychiatric patients outside of the research facility as her alter-ego, "Paprika".
 
This was it. Throughout the years of watching anime, this one became one of my all time favorites. The visuals were just beautiful and how they creatively blended them with the real world and fantasy aspects. The music was also amazing, thanks to Susumu Hirasawa, and I was on the edge of my seats watching this thing. I absolutely loved the ending theme to this movie as well:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21JuYIPHMF8&hd=1

 

It was such a beauty to listen to and it still is today. <3

 

And last but not least, the film I look forward to seeing when it finally comes out:
 
Dreaming Machine (TBA):

 
According to an interview with Anime News Network; Satoshi Kon said that this film focuses on Ririco, Robin and King; three characters who are automated robots and that there will be no human characters, only robots.
 
The soon-to-be final film of Satoshi Kon. This film was halted because of the lack of finances, but recently Masao Maruyama, one of the producers of the film and founder of Madhouse, says that he intends to finish the film before 2015. So there maybe hope.
 
So, if you've seen any of his work, then please post your thoughts and feelings about him and his anime films. What did you think about them? And what were you experiences while watching them?
 

R.I.P. Satoshi Kon (1963 - 2010)

 

 

We will forever miss you... ;_;