World of Animation – Group Presentation (Satoshi Kon)

INTRO

Satoshi Kon was a Japanese animator, director and manga artist born in 1963. He started off his artistic career doing manga, with his first manga being a short story called Toriko published in Young Magazine. He would later become an assistant to manga artist and Akira creator, Katsuhiro Otomo and collaborate with him on various works. These included the OVA, Roujin Z, where he would get his first anime credit as an animator and background artist, and the anthology film, Memories, where he wrote and did design work on the segment, Magnetic Rose. His first directorial work would be on episode 5 of the OVA of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 3: Stardust Crusaders. Kon would make several more manga in this time, until he quit to become a full time anime director. He was approached by Madhouse studios co founder, Masao Maruyama, where he would direct his first feature length film.

MILENIUM ACTRESS

Millennium Actress was Kon’s second film, 5 years after the release of Perfect Blue. The film follows an interviewer (Genya Tachibana) and his cameraman (Kyoji Ida) meeting and creating a documentary about the actress, Chiyoko Fujiwara, who retired from acting and escaped the public eye for 30 years. The film shows the story of Chiyoko’s life and career through the lens of both her real life and through the films she appeared in, blending the two together, with people from her life reappearing as characters in her films, like Genya appearing in a sidekick role in the movies or a solider Chiyoko met when she was younger appearing in an antagonistic role. Like his previous film, this film is about a young woman getting into acting. However, while Perfect Blue commented on the exploitation and negative aspects of the entertainment industry, Millennium Actress shows Kon’s love of cinema through the use of aesthetics of the productions that Chiyoko appeared in, representing a number of genres with everything from chanbara to sci-fi, with many of the posters of the features appearing in being parodies of actual films. Millennium Actress showcases the use of blending different time frames, for example, the part in the chanbara movie where Chiyoko hops on a horse. As she rides through an edo-period landscape, a cloud of smoke covers the screen and we are suddenly transported to the meiji-period with Chiyoko riding a horse and carriage. This was Kon’s first film to feature the music of Susumu Hirasawa, a member of the electronic rock group, P-Model, known for composing the soundtrack to the 1997 anime adaption of Berserk, who Kon was a big fan of. His score brings an other-worldly tone to the film, but continues to maintain the tone of the film. The animation direction and character design was done by Takeshi Honda, a key animator on several Ghibli films, who continues the more naturalistic style for characters seen in Perfect Blue. This was Kon’s last work in which he used traditional cel animation, with the rest of his work being animated digitally. Like Perfect Blue, the film was a critical success.

TOKYO GODFATHERS

Tokyo Godfathers was Kon’s third film, released 2 years after Millennium Actress in 2003. The story follows a trio of homeless people finding an abandoned baby during Christmas and them trying to find it’s parents by travelling through Tokyo. Tokyo Godfathers is a departure from his other work by straying away from the theme of mixing reality and fantasy, being a more grounded film. Tokyo Godfathers is also more comedic in tone than Kon’s previous work, with comedy deriving from things like the character’s expressions, the banter between the 3 protagonists or the absurdity of the situations the trio get into. The situation the characters are in and the troubles they face are portrayed realistically, but the tone is kept light through the comedy. The animation direction and character design for the movie was done by Kenichi Konishi, who gives Kon’s characters a more exaggerated and cartoony style of movement, contrasting with the more naturalistic movement style of his previous movies, showing off the character’s personality and emotions through their actions, facial expressions, etc. It was also the first Kon’s work to animated digitally rather than cels. The soundtrack was provided by Keiichi Suzuki and his band, the Moonriders, who also produced the soundtracks for Nintendo’s Mother/Earthbound series and several of Takeshi Kitano’s films, such as the Outrage trilogy. The score fits in with the Christmas aesthetic of the film, while at the same time being fitting in with the band’s eclectic style. While the reviews at the time were more mixed compared to Kon’s previous films, it has been critically reevaluated in recent years and has become a cult classic like the rest of Kon’s works.

References:

Berserk cassette cover:

Berserk Forces Collection | Berserk Wiki | Fandom

Children of the Sea poster:

Watch Children of the Sea (English Langauge) | Prime Video (amazon.com)

Earthbound cover:

EarthBound | Angry Video Game Nerd Wiki | Fandom

Godzilla poster:

File:Gojira 1954 Japanese poster.jpg – Wikimedia Commons

Jojo’s Bizzarre Adventure gif:

Mr Monopoly can’t escape | JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure | Know Your Meme

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure VHS cover: