33 Facts About Satoshi Kon

Satoshi Kon was a Japanese film director, animator, screenwriter and manga artist from Sapporo, Hokkaido and a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association.

Satoshi Kon was a graduate of the Graphic Design department of the Musashino Art University.

Satoshi Kon is best known for his acclaimed anime films Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika.

Satoshi Kon died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 46 on August 24,2010.

Satoshi Kon was a classmate and close friend of manga artist Seiho Takizawa.

Satoshi Kon entered the Graphic Design course of the Musashino Art University in 1982.

In 1991, Satoshi Kon worked in anime for the first time as an animator and on background design for the film Roujin Z, which was written by Otomo.

Satoshi Kon began working around 1992 as a scriptwriter, layout artist and background designer for Magnetic Rose, one of three short films in Katsuhiro Otomo's omnibus Memories.

Satoshi Kon worked as one of five layout artists on Mamoru Oshii's Patlabor 2: The Movie in 1993, along with other animated films.

Satoshi Kon then worked with Mamoru Oshii on the manga Seraphim: Wings of 266,613,336, which was written by Oshii and drawn by Satoshi Kon.

In 1997, Satoshi Kon began work on his directorial debut Perfect Blue.

Millennium Actress was the first Satoshi Kon film to feature Susumu Hirasawa, of whom Kon was a long-time fan, as composer.

In 2004, Satoshi Kon released the 13-episode television series Paranoia Agent, in which Satoshi Kon revisits the theme of the blending of imagination and reality, as well as working in additional social themes.

The series was created from an abundance of unused ideas for stories and arrangements that Satoshi Kon felt were good but did not fit into any of his projects.

Satoshi Kon participated in the TV program Ani*Kuri15 broadcast by NHK in 2007.

That same year, Satoshi Kon helped establish and served as a member of the Japanese Animation Creators Association.

In May 2010, Satoshi Kon was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.

Shortly before his death Satoshi Kon composed a final message, which was uploaded to his blog by his family upon his death.

Satoshi Kon says, "If a talented director from overseas is willing to take on the project, it is not entirely without possibility," suggesting that the project is not entirely without a chance of restarting.

Satoshi Kon stated in 2007 that the music of Susumu Hirasawa had been the greatest influence on his expressive style.

Satoshi Kon said that he has learned a lot from Hirasawa's attitude towards music and production, and that he owes a lot of the stories and concepts he creates to his influence.

Satoshi Kon says that he is influenced by everything he has been exposed to in his life, including writing, painting, music, film, manga, anime, television and theater.

Satoshi Kon has learned a lot from Osamu Tezuka and Katsuhiro Otomo in manga, Hayao Miyazaki in animation, Akira Kurosawa and many other great Japanese and international directors in film.

Satoshi Kon was familiarized with Tezuka's manga and animation works such as Astro Boy, The Jungle Emperor and Princess Knight in his childhood.

Satoshi Kon was an avid watcher of anime titles, such as Space Battleship Yamato, Heidi, Girl of the Alps, Future Boy Conan, Galaxy Express 999 and Mobile Suit Gundam during his junior and senior high school years, which Japanese anime fans of the time were crazy about.

Satoshi Kon was enlightened by the New Wave's way of overwhelmingly depicting a story in which nothing in particular happens, focusing on a character who could never be the protagonist of the story.

Satoshi Kon has said that his drawing style has been influenced by Otomo, as he used to work as Otomo's assistant when he was a manga artist.

Satoshi Kon had been watching only live-action films since he started college.

Satoshi Kon watched most of the movies on video and made it a routine to draw manga based on the setting, format and direction of the scenes.

Satoshi Kon was very much inspired by Haruki Murakami, whose works have been translated into many foreign languages.

Satoshi Kon has been a long-time fan of Yasutaka Tsutsui since before he directed Paprika, and was especially influenced by reading Tsutsui's works intensively when he was around 20 years old.

Satoshi Kon has had a great influence on many influential directors around the world even after his death.

Christopher Nolan's 2010 film Inception was noted by several critics and scholars to have many striking similarities with Satoshi Kon's Paprika, including plot similarities, and similar scenes and characters.