Satoshi Kon (Paprika and Millenium Actress) has died at the age of 47

[WanderingKnight]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

C'mon now, it's Satoshi Kon's last touch on the anime world, it'll be hard seeing it knowing that he will never again grace it, but as his fan I think it would be hard to not see it as well.

I just don't know. It depends on how much has Kon put into that. The feeling of it being his last movie, and the idea that it was finished by someone else, is just too sad to bear.

I'll probably end up watching it anyways.

Words can't describe how sad I felt all day long today.

[Kunagisa]

Last statement.
Backup post.

This is his last statement before he passed away, due to the unstable nature of the website because of massive inflow, you might at times (depending on region) find yourself unable to access it; hence the 2nd link as a backup.

Chinese translation is available by kinnsan at here.

I cried reading this, especially this part by his mother on his bed,

「ごめんねぇ！丈夫に産んでやれなくて！」
"I'm sorry ... I wasn't able to give[/bless] you [with] good health when giving birth to you."

My heart aches for this family at this very moment of this post. I have not watch his work. I don't know if he is a legend among animators. All I know is a great person passed away with all the love in his family as shown in this passage. This is enough for me to grief for them. I strongly urge anyone with the ability to read Japanese or Chinese to take a look at the links.

RIP.

I apologize that I can't translate this into English as I really am not comfortable doing it at this moment nor I have enough confidence in my mastery of the English language.

[Last Sinner]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

It only starts getting really painful when you're "nearing the end". The pain can get relentless especially if the entirety of your pancreas is pretty much a tumor already and when the nerves have been invaded. The pain from aggressively relentless cancers are those that aren't relieved even when you're so maxed out on morphine that your completely sedated yet in pain.

Edit - I just saw the report and he had bone metastasis. Christ almighty.

I've seen a patient with this. It's horrifying. I'm going to be directly responsible for some cases like this next year. I don't think I'm ready, hell even the oldest oncologists here say that no doctor will ever be ready no matter how many cases they've seen. It's that bad.

Correct. From my days in university science, I believe cancer development goes like this:

1. Cancer cells mutate to the point they lose programmed cell death and controlled reproduction, thus becoming effectively immortal and reproduce without any control mechanism.
2. Cancer cells lose adhesive properties to other cells - cell-cell adhesion (collagen and elastin) is pretty important for communication between cells and keeping things in order.
3. Cancer cells develop the ability to produce metallo-proteases - enzymes that will literally eat through your muscle and blood vessel walls. They will then develop vessels into the bloodstream, allowing the cancer to have food supply and grow. You're in trouble already if you're at this stage. Not fatal, but this means cancer cells have also developed the ability to get into your bloodstream. Preventing cancer re-occuring at this point becomes freaking hard.
4. Metastasis - The killer part. Cancer cells develop motor skills. I.e. They are able to move about with their own free will to any other part fo the body. Once you reach this point, you're screwed. It is inevitable that even if you removed the original source of the cancer, it's spread through your body.
5. Receptor mutation. The metastatised cells develop receptor mutations to bind to other cells in the body. You will lose a dying battle here.


Kon was at part 4 - metastasis. This is the fatal part. He was doomed. Couple that with the fact that there is no truly effective treatment for pancreatic cancer available yet - on top of being one of the most painful - horiffic. But to think it metastatised to his bones as well - freaking hell. Bone cancer is about next in line in severity after pancreatic - flock. No person deserves such a triple whammy, especially him.


Two other famous cases of people being struck down by pancreatic cancer are Patrick Swayze and Bill Hicks. Swayze (starred in Dirty Dancing, Ghosts and Point Blank) was diagnosed with the condition in January 2008. In January 2009 he still looked reasonably healthy and thought he was winning the battle. Then he gradually fell apart physically and passed away in September 2009, aged 57. Hicks (revolutionary comedian/philosopher) learnt of his ailment in April 1993 and also had it spread to his liver. February 1994 he was gone at the age of 32. Tool and Radiohead were heavily influenced by his work.


Ironically, the weather was absolute hell in Adelaide today. Fitting for the passing of a true legend.


Local club pres approved of my idea to have a Kon-only night since we're pretty gutted by this around our parts. (Paranoia Agent was #1 in our annual poll in 2004) I'm probably going to do a marathon re-watch of Paranoia Agent this weekend.

[Highman]

Originally Posted by stuopidget

Last statement.
Backup post.

This is his last statement before he passed away, due to the unstable nature of the website because of massive inflow, you might at times (depending on region) find yourself unable to access it; hence the 2nd link as a backup.

Chinese translation is available by kinnsan at here.

I cried reading this, especially this part by his mother on his bed,

「ごめんねぇ！丈夫に産んでやれなくて！」
"I'm sorry ... I wasn't able to give[/bless] you [with] good health when giving birth to you."

My heart aches for this family at this very moment of this post. I have not watch his work. I don't know if he is a legend among animators. All I know is a great person passed away with all the love in his family as shown in this passage. This is enough for me to grief for them. I strongly urge anyone with the ability to read Japanese or Chinese to take a look at the links.

RIP.

I apologize that I can't translate this into English as I really am not comfortable doing it at this moment nor I have enough confidence in my mastery of the English language.

Thank you just thank you!

[Highman]

Originally Posted by Last Sinner

Correct. From my days in university science, I believe cancer development goes like this:

1. Cancer cells mutate to the point they lose programmed cell death and controlled reproduction, thus becoming effectively immortal and reproduce without any control mechanism.
2. Cancer cells lose adhesive properties to other cells - cell-cell adhesion (collagen and elastin) is pretty important for communication between cells and keeping things in order.
3. Cancer cells develop the ability to produce metallo-proteases - enzymes that will literally eat through your muscle and blood vessel walls. They will then develop vessels into the bloodstream, allowing the cancer to have food supply and grow. You're in trouble already if you're at this stage. Not fatal, but this means cancer cells have also developed the ability to get into your bloodstream. Preventing cancer re-occuring at this point becomes freaking hard.
4. Metastasis - The killer part. Cancer cells develop motor skills. I.e. They are able to move about with their own free will to any other part fo the body. Once you reach this point, you're screwed. It is inevitable that even if you removed the original source of the cancer, it's spread through your body.
5. Receptor mutation. The metastatised cells develop receptor mutations to bind to other cells in the body. You will lose a dying battle here.


Kon was at part 4 - metastasis. This is the fatal part. He was doomed. Couple that with the fact that there is no truly effective treatment for pancreatic cancer available yet - on top of being one of the most painful - horiffic. But to think it metastatised to his bones as well - freaking hell. Bone cancer is about next in line in severity after pancreatic - flock. No person deserves such a triple whammy, especially him.


Two other famous cases of people being struck down by pancreatic cancer are Patrick Swayze and Bill Hicks. Swayze (starred in Dirty Dancing, Ghosts and Point Blank) was diagnosed with the condition in January 2008. In January 2009 he still looked reasonably healthy and thought he was winning the battle. Then he gradually fell apart physically and passed away in September 2009, aged 57. Hicks (revolutionary comedian/philosopher) learnt of his ailment in April 1993 and also had it spread to his liver. February 1994 he was gone at the age of 32. Tool and Radiohead were heavily influenced by his work.


Ironically, the weather was absolute hell in Adelaide today. Fitting for the passing of a true legend.


Local club pres approved of my idea to have a Kon-only night since we're pretty gutted by this around our parts. (Paranoia Agent was #1 in our annual poll in 2004) I'm probably going to do a marathon re-watch of Paranoia Agent this weekend.

It would be better If the sun would shine today that means a new day has begun and a wish has come true. Today it was sunny for me things are looking up.

[WanderingKnight]

Seeing how Kon used the metaphor of dreams in all of his works, I wrote this little piece. It's still rough and it can probably be improved; if you want to do so, by all means do it. I'm not a master of the language, and it's been a while since I wrote something so seriously.

I still remember your first dream. That in which you taught us how fine the line that blurs dreams and reality is. How those distant dreams we are made to believe in day in, day out are sometimes the counterpart to a crude nightmare. You were young, and so were we; the image was rough, but your feelings were pure. We were all enticed, we all fell, willingly, under the spell of your dreamy eyes.

How can we forget your second dream? A dream which taught us a little bit more about you, your passion, your hopes and dreams? A dream filled with nostalgia, but with a glimpse of hope for the future? A dream that rewinded the clock, that showed us all a side of you and of your influences we had never known. The dream of an actress, the dream of her fan, the dream at the end of a road long traversed, and the key that tied it all together.

Then came your most earnest of dreams, covered in a coat of playful innocence, in which we got away from dreaming for a moment, and were confronted with the crude reality. But dreams never escape your imagination, and so were we imbued with the dream of overcoming the harshest of very real tribulations.

Earnest was that dream, and earnest is what followed, though there was no playful innocence to accompany it. Reality hit us hard, backed us away from dreams for a moment, though the feeling of unrealness still lingered in the air. An unrealness that proved very much real -- it was not only in what you dreamed, but all around us. It was the dream that taught us about the false dream we live in. A dream that made us look around our reality.

And then your magnus opus, the most elaborate of dreams, the boldest, the most audacious. In which you took us down in an almost lysergic trip down the dreams of dreamers dreaming dreams, in which fantasy and reality finally engulfed each other and all was one. You were our dream, and we were yours, in this rabbit hole without an end, in this trip with Lucy and a glittering sky, in this most fantastic and most terrible of dreams.


Farewell, Dream Weaver. We will never forget all the dreams you weaved for us.

Let me know if you understand what I mean, I intended to reference all his major works.

[kujoe]

Such a sad day... His mother's statement is such a poignant and sad little thing, but bittersweet.

I'll probably never watch Millenium Actress the same way again... while Tokyo Godfathers will bring out a wider smile from me from now on.

I'm often reminded of the fact that life is indeed short. I guess this event has inspired me and made me realize to get off my butt and not delay things any further.

Time to roll up my sleeves.

[Last Sinner]

Great piece, WanderingKnight.

Here's my thoughts:


Whenever I was asked to name directors I truly admired and would defend to the bitter end, I would name three - Kon, Shinkai and Watanabe. Three directors that covered the spectrum of the magic that is anime. I would always put Kon at the front of those three because I came across him early in my days of walking the anime landscape. The master of the mindbend, the pyschological prophet, the dreamwalker.

But you knew one important thing. You knew to separate the line between dreams and reality. You knew that blurring that line was to desecrate reality and oneself. To walk in the realm of dreams is a good thing, as long as one didn't do it at the expense of living a proper life. This was something you believed in strongly and it was apparent in all your works and interviews. Sadly, many didn't want to listen, or maybe they don't even know how to anymore because they have abandoned reality for their own fake dream. Perhaps if they did know how to listen, things would be better in the industry.

You said two things in interviews that cut me to the core and left me in awe with how true they are. First one was 'The true horrors of the universe lie within humanity itself.' You didn't need the paranormal, monsters or demons to instill tension and thrills. You could do it with an everyday person that became extraordinary. Perfect Blue created them with such ease and shock. Paranoia Agent was such a tantalising mix of black humour, reality checks and illusions of the mind but hit its mark perfectly. And horrors emerged from seemingly normal people. Paprika showed the horrors within our own minds and the conseqeuence of them merging with reality. Yet within those horrors, you were still able to show the beauty in life and the resilience of humanity. The eternal, desperate hope of Millenium Actress, the unlikliest heroes in Tokyo Godfathers, the surreal beauty fo Paprika. You would take us on a trip and blow our minds away, then tap us on the shoulder and remind us to return to reality, lest we let our minds get lost within the world of dreams and became the horrors we dread.

Secondly, the very apt line of 'The females in anime don't exist in reality.' How true that is. Some people could really use that advice. You've been kind to your female characters overall and you haven't shyed away from using women as your protagonists rather than the stock standard moe girl. You stuck to your beliefs, even if it meant that it wouldn't get you the money. You aimed for quality and to be different. Grace and forlorn longing in Millenium Actress, visceralness and salvation in Tokyo Godfathers, darkness and light in Paranoia Agent, sexy and intelligent in Paprika. And quite frankly, the dear doctor in Paprika had the finest breasts I've ever seen in anime. But you'd remind us that this was all fantasy in the mind and that women in reality are still the real thing and the best. You were one of the few that didn't need a moe girl to turn heads. And while moe is sometimes a good thing - in measured amounts - it shouldn't be the only type of female. You dared to bring something different to the table. Furthermore, you gave us adults. Thank you for that.

But there is one thing that has concerned me greatly. It isn't the last minute revelation of your passing - that's part of your culture and fair enough. You had things you needed to attend to and you deserved time to yourself in your final months. What I don't get is that you were supposedly in poverty? Why...how is it that a genius like you, that pushed the envelope and was one of the industry's champions, was in financial hardship? Clearly your studio partners at Madhouse respect you, but from what I hear, they're in financial trouble too. Was it that the subsiduary owners gave you mere crumbs from the financial pie in your contract? Was your success and respect so undervalued by those paying you for your masterpieces that they were content to let you struggle? Even in your weakest moments? Kon - why is that? You were one of the greats. Yet you suffered - so much. And we didn't know until it was too late.

When I think of Satoshi Kon, I will think of a man that dared to dream and aim for the stars, but kept his feet on the ground and cherished reality. He was able to find the highest of highs and lowest of lows within us mere humans. I will think of a guy who never made one dud title - he was always at the top of his game. And that is incredibly rare. Someone with a mix of twisted humour and enlightened optimism. Someone who enjoyed the anime medium and tried to inspire his viewers to aspire to be more than just the norm. We can take a lot out of what Satoshi Kon achieved in his short time on this planet.

In closing, I have a few hopes. I hope that his wife is given the support she needs to carry on and afford to live a decent life. I hope his mother realises that while genetics weren't kind to Satoshi Kon, that she did humanity a great favour by gifting her son to planet Earth for 47 years. You needn't apologise to us, ma'am. It is us who should be thanking you. I hope that other stars of the industry needn't have to live tightly despite their success and that they get some long overdue reform for their rights within the industry. I hope that the industry realises that it needs to move forward and not rely on genres and styles that are becoming stagnant. And I hope that those who were followers of Satoshi Kon will make sure that others will know of the great work that he did.

On a final note - it is rather eerie how similar Satoshi Kon and Bill Hicks were, to me anyway. Revolutionaries, masters of their field, never given the financial respect they deserved, stuck to their beliefs and strengths rather than cave into the demands of TV/sales, willing to say things as they really were, victims of pancreatic cancer (Edit: Just found out apparently Satoshi Kon smoked a lot - argh. Christ there's another thing in common him and Bill had!), died way too young. I reckon if Bill had lived to see Kon's work, he would have liked the man. I can somehow picture those two hanging out in the next life. Now I get what Tool said when they called Bill Hicks 'Another Dead Hero.' Sums up exactly how I feel about Satoshi Kon. Dead but not forgotten. Not by a long shot.

[Reckoner]

Originally Posted by stuopidget

Last statement.
Backup post.

This is his last statement before he passed away, due to the unstable nature of the website because of massive inflow, you might at times (depending on region) find yourself unable to access it; hence the 2nd link as a backup.

Chinese translation is available by kinnsan at here.

I cried reading this, especially this part by his mother on his bed,

「ごめんねぇ！丈夫に産んでやれなくて！」
"I'm sorry ... I wasn't able to give[/bless] you [with] good health when giving birth to you."

My heart aches for this family at this very moment of this post. I have not watch his work. I don't know if he is a legend among animators. All I know is a great person passed away with all the love in his family as shown in this passage. This is enough for me to grief for them. I strongly urge anyone with the ability to read Japanese or Chinese to take a look at the links.

RIP.

I apologize that I can't translate this into English as I really am not comfortable doing it at this moment nor I have enough confidence in my mastery of the English language.

Not my translation but here is the first part translated that I found.

"May 18 of this year, an unforgettable day.
My wife and I received the following prognosis from a cardiologist at the Musashino Red Cross Hospital:
"The pancreatic cancer is terminal and has metastasized to the bone. You have at most a half year left."

It was so sudden and such an unfair fate that we two alone could not cope with. (“could not parry”)
Even though, I usually deep inside myself did think: “No matter when you die, it can't be helped”, this was just too sudden.
Certainly, there may have been symptoms. Since 2 – 3 months, I had been feeling pain on my back and my knees etc. I became unable to put any strength into my right knee, got problems walking and even by going to acupuncture and chiropractics it didn't get better.
And then the result of doing MRI and PET-CT is this sudden declaration of how much time I got left.
It was like death was already just behind my back, and I couldn't do anything about it.
After the diagnosis, my wife and I searched for a way to survive. Desperately.
I received the support of reliable friends and extremely strong persons. I refused the cancer medication and tried to survive by believing in a world-view that differs slightly from that of the rest of society.
I felt that rejecting “the norm” was fitting for me. Anyway, I had never had a place among the majority, I thought. It was the same for medical treatment. I thought this and that about what kind of intrigues might be hidden behind the scenes of today's leading contemporary medicine. (??)
“I'm going to survive with the world-view I chose!”
However. Just like with the creation of a movie/work of art, I couldn't change things only with my willpower. The symptoms did keep getting worse day by day.

On the other hand, even I, as a member of society, have accepted about half of the world-view of the norm. I'm properly paying my taxes after all. Far from outstanding but without a doubt I am a full member of Japanese society. That's why, separately from my private world-view I chose to survive, I feel that I have done the necessary “preparations in order to be able to die properly”. Even though, I didn't do them properly at all.
The first was, by receiving the cooperation of two trustworthy friends, creating a firm to manage the copyrights of Satoshi Kon, ephemeral as they may be, and so on.
The other one was to write down my last will, in order for my wife to inherit my fortune, even though it is not much, without a problem. Of course, it's not like there would have been any conflict over the inheritance. I just wanted to take away at least one of the worries of my wife, who was going to stay behind in this world and that would calm down myself, who was about to leave.
We were helped out by a friend, who amazingly managed to swiftly deal with my wife's and my terrible administrative work and the preparations etc.
Afterwards, when I put the final signature on the testament while being half in a comatose state because of life-threatening pneumonia, I even thought exhaustedly “now I can finally die”.
After all, I had been brought by ambulance to the hospital two days in a row. I was hospitalized and examined thoroughly. The result: complication with pneumonia and a considerable pleural effusion.
When I asked the doctor directly, his answer was extremely matter-of-fact, which in a way I am grateful for.
“Wait … one day or two days … and even if you can overcome that, probably it'll be over this month.”
While listening I thought “I'd like to see the weather forecast”, but the situation was very stressful.
It was the 7th of July. A quite cruel Tanabata.
And then, I decided right away: “I want to die at home.”
It might become a last big disturbance to the people around me, but somehow they found a way to bring me home.
The efforts of my wife, the cooperation of the hospital, which while being kind of an attitude of “already gave up” actually did really help, the enormous support of a private clinic, and finally lots and lots of coincidences, that I cannot consider anything else than gifts of the heavens.
I couldn't believe that coincidences and inevitableness being connected to each other without interruption so perfectly could exist in reality. I mean, this is not Tokyo Godfathers after all."

While my wife was running around making plans, I turned to the doctor saying, “even if it's only one day, or even half a day, at home there are still things I can do!”.
After that, I was left to wait for death, alone in a dreary/dark sick room.
I was lonely, but what I thought was: “Maybe dying isn't all that bad.”
There wasn't any particular reason, maybe I wouldn't have been able to take it otherwise, but I was so calm, it surprised me myself.
Only one thing I really did dislike: “I just don't want to die in this place.” Looking around, suddenly something started to move out of the calendar on the wall and spread across the room. “Oh man … a parade from a calendar? My hallucinations aren't even one bit individual.”
I felt amused by the fact that even in a time like this my “professional consciousness” was working, but actually that might have been the moment I was the closest to death. I really did feel death next to me.
While I was enclosed between the world of death and my sheets, thanks to the efforts of many people, I was miraculously able to leave the hospital, and to reach my home.
Even dying is exhausting.
To be clear, I am not criticizing the hospital, please do not misunderstand.
I just wanted to go home. Home to the house I'm living in.

[Archon_Wing]

Man, life sure is fleeting. It wasn't until lately that I remembered to finish Paranoia Agent-- a great mind just left us; can't take them for granted.

[Yuutsu]

Satoshi Kon's last words were incredibly powerful. They brought tears to the eyes of a guy even as jaded as I am...

http://www.makikoitoh.com/journal/sa...ons-last-words (Here's a full English translation).

[MeoTwister5]

It won’t appear tomorrow, but I like his moon better. After the full moon begins to wane. But after fourteen nights, starting tomorrow, I hope to see it again. I gotta go. - Man of the Key, Millennium Actress.

I think this described the man perfectly.

[velderia]

Originally Posted by kujoe

I'll probably never watch Millenium Actress the same way again...

Ironically, I did watch Millenium Actress after his death. I had the DVD right next to me and had to put it on. I sobbed. When I read his last words this morning I sobbed again. Watching that movie was a different experience from when I first watched it. I was able to feel somewhat better though. It sucks that he didn't finish the project he was working on but at least he was able to make these movies, and he sounds like he lived well before.

RIP Satoshi Kon. We lost a major talent in cinema.

[Reckoner]

While he didn't actually finish the film he was currently worked on, it was nearing completion before his death, so despite the finishing touches not being done by him, it will essentially be HIS film.

Like I posted before, he was watching rushes of the film only some days ago before his death meaning that the film was about 80-90% done with most of the remaining work being editing and sound.

[velderia]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

While he didn't actually finish the film he was currently worked on, it was nearing completion before his death, so despite the finishing touches not being done by him, it will essentially be HIS film.

Like I posted before, he was watching rushes of the film only some days ago before his death meaning that the film was about 80-90% done with most of the remaining work being editing and sound.

That's really good to hear. Thank you. I'm glad it's nearly done. Most of the outlets made it sound like it wasn't near complete. I misunderstood.

I will be seeing this movie as soon as I can.

[MeoTwister5]

I was given a link towards the original Japanese text of his final public message, and while the greater majority of the contents passed over my head, the final line was too obvious not to notice:

じゃ、お先に

The translations I saw translated this to literally "I'm leaving now" but IIRC, you use this the last three characters when you're trying to emphasize to people left in the place you're leaving that you're leaving before them, rather than simply leaving.

I might be completely wrong about this, but this sort of changes the meaning of his farewell, because in this case he's literally telling people that he intends to go ahead before us, suggesting that he still intends to meet whoever he meant that letter for in the next life.

[Raiga]

Originally Posted by Yuutsu

Satoshi Kon's last words were incredibly powerful. They brought tears to the eyes of a guy even as jaded as I am...

http://www.makikoitoh.com/journal/sa...ons-last-words (Here's a full English translation).

I cried. I seriously cried, and I don't remember the last time I shed tears emotionally.

[Highman]

Originally Posted by Raiga

I cried. I seriously cried, and I don't remember the last time I shed tears emotionally.

I didn't shed tears but at least my heart is in sorrow for him. Great man, just a great man.

[Aaerul]

The Anime industry took a huge crushing blow with Satoshi's death. There are hardly any auteurs now and there were hardly any left to begin with. Satoshi was a genius. And he could quite easily have been one of the best animator/director in the world.

[Reckoner]

After rewatching every Kon film, I feel more sad than ever about it, especially after I resaw Millennium Actress.