Acclaimed Director Satoshi Kon Dies

Uk Anime.Net broke the news in the West last night, following a flurry of Twitter rumours that the visionary director Satoshi Kon had died of pancreatic cancer yesterday morning. He was just 46.

If anyone could be termed an auteur in the field of anime movies, it was Satoshi Kon, whose movies attracted critical acclaim in the West to a degree that no other anime did. He made his mark with the breathtaking and mind bending psychological thriller, Perfect Blue, followed by the ode to Japanese Cinema, Millennium Actress. Then there was the off-kilter family movie, Tokyo Godfathers, and most recently the sci-fi thriller Paprika, which some might say provided inspiration for this summer's hit Inception. He also found time to create a fantastic television series, Paranoia Agent.

Early on in his career, he also served as screenwriter on one of the segments in Katsuhiro Otomo's Memories. Satoshi Kon was an astounding director whose varied work always extended the borders of imagination, and tested the limits of animation as a medium. In an industry where we in the UK usually only get to sample a small segment of what is produced in Japan, it's telling that practically his entire filmography is available to buy here on DVD.

At the time of his death Satoshi Kon was working on The Dream Machine. With his passing, anime has lost a genius talent whose best days were surely yet to come. His presence will be sorely missed.

Follow up news at ANN.