I haven’t been on the internets since I was getting a driver license upgrade from my provisional to my full license, I heard the news that Satoshi Kon passed away today.
Official word likely isn’t to come for several hours yet due to the time difference, but according to a tweet from Yasuhiro Takeda from Gainax, it appears that acclaimed writer and director Satoshi Kon has passed away this morning.
Satoshi Kon came to American audiences awareness initially back in 1997 with his directorial debut with Perfect Blue, as released by Manga Entertainment. Kon had gained some notice before with the lush and engaging film Memories in which he wrote the Magnetic Rose segment of, but it was Perfect Blue that garnered him the most attention. From there, he went forward with a number of other films such as Millennium Actress, initially released by DreamWorks in the US, and then Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika which came out from the Sony label in 2003 and 2006 respectively. Satoshi Kon also tried dabbling in TV a bit with the short run series Paranoia Agent which played to some of the themes he’s used in movies in the past.
Satoshi Kon is one of the few directors to break the barrier a bit in his appeal to mainstream western audiences as his films have been well regarded in Hollywood and in the indie film circuit.
– Source
Even though I haven’t seen any of his works, he will be missed in the Anime community. I give my condolences to his family.