Satoshi Kon
Satoshi Kon loved dealing with the abstract, surreal, and fantastic. All of his movies have at least brief nudity and violence, and are thus not recommended for children. The plots of his works also often become complex quite quickly and you may not have an entirely enjoyable experience with his movies if you don’t have a moderate intellect or the ability to suspend your disbelief and be absorbed into the universes that he creates. Satoshi Kon died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 46 on Aug. 24, 2010 before finishing his fifth anime movie that will now be released posthumously in 2011, Dreaming Machine.
Perfect Blue (1998)
Pāfekuto Burū (パーフェクト・ブルー)
“Reality” is meaningless in this movie until it’s all sorted out in the end, so don’t put much faith in it. The plot follows pop-star Mima Kirigoe as she tries to leave her childish singing career behind her and get into the world of acting. The oddities come primarily from the creepily devoted fan-base that she built while she was a singer. Certainly worth the watch and full of good plot-twists. Not for kids.
Millenium Actress (2001)
Sennen Joyū (千年女優)
This was a good anime. Its main theme is unrequited love, but in a way that I wouldn’t really put the shojo label on it. Most of the movie is spent in flashbacks of the past as an old actress, Chiyoko, reminisces about her life to some journalists. They are all very literally transported into these memories and essentially experience her stories first-hand. The main theme carried throughout her memories is the love for a man that she only briefly met. It’s good, so watch it.
Tokyo Godfathers (2003)
Tōkyō Goddofāzāzu (東京ゴッドファーザーズ)
This movie is more grounded in plausibility and what could be called reality than all of Kon’s other films, up until the very end. I wouldn’t suggest this as your first Satoshi Kon experience, though as the subject matter is a bit of an acquired taste. The plot follows a hobo, Gin, a transvestite (okama) Hana, and a runaway girl, Miyuki as they try to figure out how to return a baby that they found to its rightful mother. The creepiness factor of the relationships between the main characters and others is enough to put this one on the back-burner until you’ve seen at least one of Kon’s other works. But, all in all, it is a good movie, with lots to give if you’re willing/prepared to reach out and take it.
Paprika (2006)
Papurika (パプリカ)
This is Kon’s newest anime, and also my favourite of the bunch. The animation is simply breath-taking. The plot is hard to explain, but regards a woman, Paprika, who has the power to enter other people’s dreams through the use of a device called a “DC Mini”. Essentially, she is charged with stopping someone who is ripping the barrier between reality and the world of dreams. This anime is enchanting and a definite recommendation to anyone old enough to see an anime quite rightfully rated R (in the US, it’s PG in Canada).
Mamoru Hosoda’s biggest credits before The Girl Who Leapt Through Time are mostly Digimon movies, but also include the excellent One Piece Movie #6, “Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island”.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
Toki o Kakeru Shōjo (時をかける少)
This is seriously a good one. Very well-developed characters, awesome animation, and a solid story based upon a book by the same name. It’s quite shojo, as can be gathered from the title. It deals primarily with the relationships between the characters and how the main character, Kazuko Yoshiyama tries to helpfully manipulate them through the use of her seemingly randomly acquired ability to jump through time. There’s no epic travelling to the dark ages or anything, just hopping back and forth between a couple of days, but it’s very interesting and a great non-Digimon movie from Hosoda.
Summer Wars (2009)
Samā Wōzu (サマーウォーズ)
(Remember to click on the images to enlarge them!)
The second original full-length anime to come from the mind of Mamoru Hosoda. This film really does solidify Hosodasan as a huge contender in the anime movie genre if The Girl Who Leapt Through Time was not enough to convince some people. Presented in two very distinct styles (as pictured above), the story revolves around Kenji Koiso who is conscripted into “working” for one of the older girls at his school by accompanying her to the 90th birthday party of her grandmother out in the country. Taking place in a mildly fictionalized version of 2010 Japan, most everything is the same, except some mutant facebook/Farmville/Animal Crossing/Second Life social network connects almost everyone (and everything) in Japan. The movie avoids dystopia by portraying this social network much like facebook is today, enhancing people’s lives and businesses instead of consuming them. Anyways, trouble happens both at the grandma’s birthday and in the online world and Hosodasan is able to shape it into a wonderful portrayal of Japanese culture and the deep family/clan bonds that still largely remain from feudal times, while mixing in a very large helping of pleasant strangeness that can only come from anime. Perhaps Hosodasan will be able to fill the large shoes left by Satoshi Kon after his recent passing and become the premiere director of surreal (but not too surreal) anime. Touching, genuine, and enthralling from start to finish, you would be doing yourself a great disservice if you didn’t watch this gem of contemporary anime. Recommended for anyone with a heart who wants to see a great story about the power of family.
Takeshi Koike
Takeshi Koike has been working in the anime industry (primarily as an animator) on feature films since 1987. His directorial debut for anime feature films was Redline which easily stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the best productions from Studio Madhouse’s more popular directors. Koikesan has a very promising future as an anime director and is set to very handily outshine his mentor, the anime director Yoshiaki Kawajiri. For the record, almost none of Kawajiri or Koike’s movies are appropriate for family/child viewing.
Redline (2009)
Reddorain (レドライン)
In spite of the praise that has been heaped upon Redline, I was not actually expecting it to be that good. The movie’s over stylized and exaggerated characters brought Yoshiaki Kawajiri (incidentally a mentor of sorts for the movie’s director, Takeshi Koike) immediately to mind, and I have never appreciated Kawajirisan’s work. Within 20 minutes of starting to watch Redline, though, all of my reservations were blown away. The movie, which seems to be at least partially based on Kawajiri’s similar Running Man segment from Neo Tokyo, follows a car racer named “Sweet JP” as he competes in two large races, the Yellowline and then the Redline. The Redline race happens to be held on a planet that doesn’t want it to be, so the Redline racers have to dodge not only each other’s artillery, but also that of the entire planet’s military. While the characters are mostly light on meaningful personality, and the story is little more complex than “he’s in these two races”, the movie turns out to be a flashy action ride that should not be missed. While on the hostile planet for the Redline race, the story does take an Akira-style turn for the bizarre, but with all the other weird and crazy things assaulting your senses throughout the movie, it doesn’t seem as out of place as it otherwise might. Do yourself a favour and catch Redline on Bluray some evening and enjoy a ride that you won’t soon forget.
