Summary

• Satoshi Kon was one of the greatest directors in anime.
• Satoshi Kon's mixture of surrealism with character-driven writing made all of his works great to watch in one way or another.
• Losing Satoshi Kon is a tragedy the world of anime may never truly recover from.

For most of my time as an anime fan, Satoshi Kon was always a name I was familiar with, but it had never gone further than that. I knew that he had created a lot of beloved and surreal anime that were often ranked among the best anime movies of all time, and that his death in 2010 was seen as a major tragedy in the anime community, but for one reason or another, I never engaged with any of his works.

All of that changed in 2023 when Perfect Blue was announced to be returning to theaters. Perfect Blue was always one of those movies I had never made time to watch, so it was the perfect opportunity to finally check such a classic film.

Not only did it live up to its hype, but it was good enough to inspire me to finally go through Satoshi Kon’s library. I found that Satoshi Kon’s work was some of the greatest anime I would ever watch in my life, and it kills me that I took so long to realize that.

Perfect Blue Was Everything I Love About Magical Realism

A Surreal Descent into Mental Breakdown

The first thing that stuck out to me about Perfect Blue was the art and animation of Satoshi Kon’s direction. The fluidity of the characters’ movements and the attention to detail in every piece of art were always amazing to look at, especially with the knowledge that it was somehow supposed to be almost 30 years old. Tying it all together, of course, was how Satoshi Kon’s shot composition and camera work always worked to bring out the dark nature of Perfect Blue’s story​​​​​​.

Satoshi Kon’s brilliant direction also did wonders in emphasizing the surreal nature of Perfect Blue. The film is famous for its surreal visuals meant to highlight the mental breakdown the protagonist gradually suffers throughout the film, and through a combination of art, animation, and music, every scene in Perfect Blue perfectly sells itself as a wonderfully surreal film, which at the same time grounds itself in the thoughtfulness and maturity of its writing. Perfect Blue was a masterclass film on all fronts, and it’s still amazing that it was Satoshi Kon’s debut work.

A part of why Perfect Blue resonated with me is probably due to my love of magical realism. The works of Haruki Murakami have helped to develop my appreciation of fiction for well over a decade, and any works with similar themes of magical realism have become some of my favorites to read or watch. As such, while it doesn’t fully lean into the genre, Perfect Blue’s elements of magical realism perfectly resonated with my love for that style of writing, and I’m still in disbelief that something of Perfect Blue’s quality can exist.

How I Reevaluated My First Introduction to Satoshi Kon

Paranoia Agent Was Kon's Only Series for TV

While Perfect Blue was what sent me on my journey to loving Satoshi Kon, it technically wasn’t my first experience with his work. Years ago, I watched Paranoia Agent, the only TV series Kon made before his death, and while I liked it fine enough, it didn’t leave much of a lasting impression on me after it completed its run on Toonami. After watching Perfect Blue, though, I took another look at Paranoia Agent, and thanks to my newfound appreciation of Kon’s work, I realized that Paranoia Agent was an underrated gem that appealed to my biggest interests.

I had always thought the animation and overall direction of Paranoia Agent was as great as it was bizarre, but it took me too long to understand just how good Satoshi Kon made it. Every scene in Paranoia Agent is a perfect execution of surrealism and genuine craft, whether that’s through the stellar animation or in how thoroughly detailed and constructed the story is from start to finish. Paranoia Agent isn’t my favorite anime, but it’s one of the best-directed anime I’ve ever seen, and it wasn’t until I dove into Satoshi Kon’s work that I truly realized that.

Paprika Made Me Realize How Far Animation Could Go

Satoshi Kon's Most Famous Movie Is Also His Masterpiece

If Perfect Blue and Paranoia Agent were what made me take a genuine interest in Satoshi Kon’s work, then it was Satoshi Kon's final film, Paprika, that solidified him as a legend in my mind. The surreal stylings of Satoshi Kon’s work hit their peak in Paprika. The story always tries to be as weird and absurdist as possible, and the creative and utterly unhinged artwork and animation to accompany it makes every scene a delight to behold. Satoshi Kon was always famous for his visuals, and no work illustrated that better than Paprika.

By the time I finished watching Paprika, I had a newfound appreciation for not just Satoshi Kon, but for animation, in general. I couldn’t the last time I had seen 2D animation that not only embraced the medium's freedom to the same extent as Paprika, but also managed to so thoroughly pair that with gripping storytelling and an all-around engaging cast. While not necessarily his best work, Satoshi Kon’s work with Paprika has some of the best direction in all of anime, and there was no better story to cap off his career before his death.

Satoshi Kon’s Most Grounded Stories Were What Hit Me the Hardest

Tokyo Godfathers & Millennium Actress were both produced by Madhouse

I was motivated to become a fan of Satoshi Kon by his surreal stylings, but the stories that hit me the hardest were his more grounded works: Tokyo Godfathers and Millennium Actress. While Tokyo Godfathers is certainly goofy and plays around with its animation a lot, it is also a very grounded story of found family and what it takes for a person to be happy. The story was certainly emotional, but the contrast between its largely grounded nature and what I knew as Satoshi Kon’s style probably helped to sell its strengths more than I could have imagined.

I found myself in even more awe of Satoshi Kon’s direction with Millennium Actress. Millennium Actress leans more towards magical realism than Tokyo Godfathers through the genius decision of portraying Chiyoko’s interview as the characters personally witnessing her history, and in doing so, Chiyoko’s story of living a life of loss and heartbreak hits as hard as it possibly could, much harder than if it was simply being told conventionally. The best magical realist stories use their absurdist elements to enhance the grounded ones, and nowhere did I feel that work as effectively as I did with Millennium Actress.

Satoshi Kon’s True Talent Was the Humanity of His Writing

While Kon's Visual Storytelling Made Him Famous, His True Strength Was His Writing

Satoshi Kon always wrote his characters with an incredible amount of humanity dwelling within them.

As I delved further into Satoshi Kon’s works, I realized that his true area of expertise wasn’t animation, but writing. No matter if he was trying to be goofy, heartwarming, or horrifically dark, Satoshi Kon always wrote his characters with an incredible amount of humanity dwelling within them, whether it was through the dramatic events people would be forced through or the simple fact that Kon wasn’t afraid to make even his heroes flawed. As amazingly abstract as Kon’s animation was, it would have been lifeless without his talent as a writer.

There Will Never Be Another Satoshi Kon, & That Kills Me

Satoshi Kon Was a Genius Like No Other

After several months, I finally realized how much of a genius Satoshi Kon was, and in turn, I finally realized how tragic it was that he was gone. The feeling of euphoria that Kon’s work brought me will always stick with me, but he died in 2010, so I can never experience that for the first time again. His final film, Dreaming Machine, was in production before his death, but it remains unfinished because no director would ever be able to match Satoshi Kon’s style, and if that doesn’t highlight how irreplaceable he is, then nothing will.

Satoshi Kon’s death is a tragedy the world of anime will never forget, and it took me far too long to realize why. Satoshi Kon understood animation on a level that other creatives can only dream of, and I can’t the last time any anime resonated with me the way his works did. Even without my love of magical realism, I would have always loved Satoshi Kon for the life he brought to animation and storytelling, in general, and it took too long for me to realize that.