October 12: SATOSHI KON DAY!

So… an announcement.

We have autonomously decided that today (Oct. 12), which of course arrives earlier here in Japan, is official SATOSHI KON 今 敏 DAY, since it would have been his 52nd birthday.

誕生日おめでとう.

Kon-sama, I wish you and your mojo were still with us.

Your body of work, as is, was absolutely magical — having impact as it did on Western filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Darren Aronofsky — and you were a lovely guy to interview and yack with!

Thanks, mate. You are so missed.

Now, everyone needs to help us go celebrate the man’s life by reading/watching his back-catalogue!

Some suggested viewing?

Kon worked as the scriptwriter, layout artist and art director of the stunning film ‘Magnetic Rose‘ 彼女の想いで, the first of three shorts in Katsuhiro Otomo‘s omnibus Memories (1995), and in 2004 Kon released the fascinating, quirky 13-episode television series Paranoia Agent 妄想代理人.

But I love his feature films.

Perfect Blue (パーフェクトブル 1997), Paprika (パプリカ 2006), and especially Millennium Actress (千年女優 2001) — one of the best anime films ever made.

Millennium Actress is poignant, exhilarating, hilarious, sad. It also had a huge influence on my novel One Hundred Years of Vicissitude.

Manga-wise, check out Seraphim (セラフィム 2億6661万3336の翼), which he did in collaboration with Mamoru Oshii (of Ghost in the Shell fame), and OPUS — both of which have been recently re-released by Dark Horse Comics.

Kon is definitely an artist to celebrate and remember, and there’s no better way to do this than by (a) returning to his work for another look, (b) sharing his magic, or (c) discovering it anew.