Satoshi Kon

Satoshi Kon (今 敏) is a Japanese director of anime films. Kon started his career as a manga artist and editor in Young Magazine, and then made his screenwriting debut with "Magnetic Rose", a section of the anthology film Memories. Kon made his directorial debut film, Perfect Blue, in 1997, followed by Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, Paprika and the television series Paranoia Agent. A fifth film, The Dream Machine, is also in production. All of his works as a director have been made by Studio Madhouse, where he is a staff director along with Rintaro and Yoshiaki Kawajiri. He is a founder and part of the 15-member steering committee of the Japan Animation Creators Association (JAniCA) labor group.

Early career
Satoshi Kon is a film director from Kushiro, Hokkaidō, Japan. Kon attended Musashino College of the Arts and intended to become a painter. After college, he worked with Katsuhiro Otomo on the manga World Apartment Horror. Kon entered the anime industry by working as set designer for Roujin Z (1991), for which Otomo was the screenwriter and mechanical designer. Kon's early work was strongly influenced by Otomo due to Kon's experience with him. Afterwards, Kon made his screenwriting debut with "Magnetic Rose", a section of the anthology film Memories.

Directorial work
In 1997, Satoshi Kon released his directorial debut film Perfect Blue, which was turned into a feature film from an original video animation in the middle of production. His next film, Millennium Actress, was released in 2001 to several film festivals and won numerous awards. Having created two films that blend dreams and reality, Kon decided to work on a more linear and traditional story and directed Tokyo Godfathers, his only film to date that doesn't deal with subjective reality. After creating the television series Paranoia Agent, Kon finished work on Paprika, a feature-length film that received a wide release to cinemas worldwide in 2007.

Style
Kon's work often deals with a vast range of themes, mostly emphasizing the psychological well-being of his characters. For instance, Tokyo Godfathers, his most comedic storyline, also explored lighter themes of personal guilt, loss and suicidal ideation.

Both Paprika and Millennium Actress drew great attention into addressing some of the aforementioned themes by stepping between the boundaries of reality and fantasy, i.e. breaking the fourth wall, having characters perform certain actions which are impossible in the real world, etc. This style can be comparable to the works of writers such as Philip K. Dick, whose own novels challenge the nature of reality to that of the dream.

Writer

 * Memories (Magnetic Rose) (1995)
 * Millennium Actress (2001)
 * Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
 * Paprika (2006)

Director

 * Perfect Blue (1998)
 * Millennium Actress (2001)
 * Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
 * Paranoia Agent (2004)
 * Paprika (2006)
 * Good Morning (part of Ani*Kuri15) (2008)
 * The Dream Machine (2011)

Animator

 * Roujin Z  (1991)
 * Perfect Blue (1998)
 * Millennium Actress (2001)
 * Tokyo Godfathers (2003)