On the 10th anniversary of Kon’s passing, we need his work today more than ever. For now, there’s a teaser of a documentary about Kon being floating around done by a French film company.
Kon is easily my favorite dead filmmaker. Not that it really helps–but as others said better than me repeatedly, that his ability to craft a movie that blurs the boundary of reality and fantasy is unmatched, especially if we frame it from the bounds of anime filmmakers.
From the perspective of where I live, in an increasingly polarized society due to socio-economic and political reasons, more people are being challenged to tell fiction from facts. Fantasy is ever more the salacious escape from the troublesome world. Clearly, dead man makes no movies. What would it take to get a Kon-type movie capturing the the vibe of 2020? I want some work that appreciates media literacy in this space, it’s something I have sorely missed in the past 10 years…
Like, when the dialogue in this fandom space is buzzing about anime works like Kon’s films, it elevates my quality of life. Literally those things gave people a reason to talk about these complex masterpieces instead of, I don’t know, whatever that’s happening in anime today. Even if Paprika seems to be the only thing people love to talk about on the surface (at least, Perfect Blue is the one everyone seems to remember). I’ll take that over like, I don’t know, the Promares and the Fate/Go_straight_to_Tsukihime_never of the day. Okay, yes, it doesn’t mean other works can’t mutually exist just fine with what I want. But this is the world we live in: no new Kon movie until the foreseeable future? Maybe Shinkai can be the next Miyazaki but what we need, and had always needed, is the next Kon.
Leave a Reply