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I greatly miss Satoshi Kon

Satoshi Kon (1963-2010) was an anime film director who passed away almost 12 years ago, and he was only 46 years old. He left us with such unique and beautiful animated films that explore dreams, psychology, and society (Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paranoia Agent, Paprika) and we all know he was incredibly talented and different from others.

Ever since I've completely gone through all of Kon's films and watched all these videos made about them, I feel that Kon was indeed the most extraordinary anime director of all time. He pushed the cinematic boundaries of animation and made it into something else that no one has ever done.

If Satoshi Kon had lived and finished Dreaming Machine, which according to him in a 2008 interview for Anime News Network:

"On the surface, it's going to be a fantasy-adventure targeted at younger audiences. However, it will also be a film that people who have seen our films up to this point will be able to enjoy. So it will be an adventure that even older audiences can appreciate. There will be no human characters in the film; only robots. It'll be like a "road movie" for robots."

This indicates that Kon was planning to change his style to make his work more mainstream, with Dreaming Machine being his first film that's suitable for all ages, a break from his previous adult-focused anime films. A children's film will certainly push Kon into the spotlight as it would attract both younger audiences and his adult fans (those who enjoyed his past works - Perfect Blue, Paprika, etc).

If Kon succeeds to make his name more well-known in the west, while keeping his iconic filmmaking style, Kon will rise up higher than he was ever able to do so in the late 1990s and early 2000s. As it has been shown that Kon's film budgets were raising as time went on, with Paprika's budget being a tremendous $2.6 million dollars, we can only imagine how it increases had Kon lived to make Dreaming Machine and future films. By the end of the 2010s, Kon would've had at least six or seven feature films made. The overseas release of Paprika only indicates his chance for success in the west is getting better than ever.

By this time, Kon would be considered a major director of the anime industry, most likely getting bigger budgets than we could ever imagine. Kon's talent, combined with a good script and a large production team, would only lift him to be more creative and free with his style, and soon he would be known as one of the most important directors of animation history.

The success of Dreaming Machine, the future Kon films, the very idea of Satoshi Kon being alive in the 2020s... Ironically enough, all of that is nothing more than a dream. Right now, the animation industry needs geniuses like Kon, and the world needs artists like Kon to make it less meaningless. How I miss Kon's ability to shape reality and dreams together to form a world that's more lively than our boring world.

The world needs another Satoshi Kon, that's all I can say, that's how much I respect this man. Rest in peace, and farewell, Kon. We miss you.
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