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| If you’re a fan of anime, or someone who follows me on twitter, or someone with a dA account, there’s a good chance you’ve already heard about Satoshi Kon‘s death of pancreatic cancer. There’s also a pretty good chance you have no idea who he is, which isn’t a crime.
Satoshi Kon was an anime director. His movies include Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika. He also directed the TV show Paranoia Agent. He’s the kind of person I would call brilliant and my father would call a presumable drug addict. His work dealt a lot with the human mind and how it shapes the world around us, and he did a lot of amazing experimentation with animation to portray this. My favorite movie I’ve seen of his is Paprika, which is one of my all-time favorite films. If I were to describe the premise, it may sound startlingly similar to inception: Scientists have created devices that allow them to enter other peoples’ dreams. Inception’s release actually made me think a lot about Paprika lately, which made Kon’s death hit extra hard. But the two are very different films, and Paprika really needs to be seen to be understood. Allow me to point you to the Opening Sequence as a taster. I can’t claim to be the most devoted Satoshi Kon fan. I’ve never seen Perfect Blue, and I just now obtained Tokyo Godfathers. But even so, his death felt surprisingly like a punch in the gut. It’s one of those things that makes me look at my own work (a page of which I interrupted to write this blog post) and think “why the hell aren’t you making something more intelligent and amazing than this?” The fact is that now isn’t the time; I’m not at a skill level in my writing or art that I could make something like that even if I wanted to. But I’ve got time, and it’s something I’ll be working towards. |
   
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I’m trying to keep this blog post pithy and avoid rambling, so I’ll end it with this:
I’m not a religious person, so this isn’t a “RIP Satoshi Kon” message. He’s already executing on that objective, I’m sure.
I’d say this is more of a recommendation to watch some of his stuff, even if you aren’t a fan of anime in general. He really did have a unique voice and style. It’s possible that there will still be one more film of his, but there’s no telling what state the movie’s in until they make an announcement. One can hope.
SK is the first “celebrity” I’ve ever cried at the death of, but I don’t think I cried out of pity for him as much as selfish frustration. He was only 47 years old. We all got short changed.
So I’ve been working off and on to get the site back to a reasonable level of presentation. I’m done with most of the basic fixes now, but I’m interested to hear your guys thoughts on the site. Does the layout look reasonably professional? Does the lightened box around things look stupid? These questions are pressing! (Don’t forget that it’s probably best to check on an archive page, considering the layout fail the Mango pages cause) Any opinion or advice is appreciated. I’m no professional at this site design thing, that’s for sure.
| As you comment (if you so choose), you may notice that all the blank avatars have been suddenly replaced with random KB characters. I uploaded some basic options that you can choose from if you don’t want to upload your own avatar. Tell me if you have any trouble with it or if any display incorrectly. I should probably make a non-administrative account to test it, but I… I don’t wanna? If you have a particular panel you’d like to be your avatar, just tell me and I’ll upload it to the set (assuming it isn’t a drawing I regret). I’ll probably go back and add some Mango ones now that I think about it. |
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In other general goings-on, I’m currently fixing up some of the earlier Mango pages to send in to Scholastic. I’ll tell ya how that turns out. This weekend I’m leaving for a week trip to visit my sister and my mom, where I’ll be meeting my sister’s new dog. That’s Her—-> So. Goddamn. Cute. You know I will be spamming you with pictures at some point because PAPPY. In tertiary news, I’ve recently gotten a bug up my butt to start a Rainbow Brite redraw project of sorts. If you remember RB for ultimate nostalgia action, just hit up my dA gallery for the first 2. Of course, there is much to be done, so I’ll be trying not to spend ALL my time on such extravagances. *doodle Stormy doodle* |  |
