What a way to start a day. It was going to be one of those, nothing happened, today, days. Then I found out that Satoshi Kon had passed away last night.
The director of Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent and Millennium Actress was only 46 when he died due to pancreatic cancer and was working on his latest feature Yume-Miru Kikai (The Dreaming Machine).
I have to say a few words because this chap was inspirational for me.
If you were to ask any reasonably versed anime fan the name of key auteurs within the art form, then his name would invariably come up because his films were always striking and individual. Let me pile on more relevant adjectives: his work was always creative meaningful, deep, vibrant, beautiful, imaginative, and most of all important.
He was one of the chaps you could name-check in any discussion about films. You could hold his work up as being just as important as live-action films and show those who still believe animation is simply a children’s game that it can be much more.
The first film I watched was Perfect Blue, late night on the Sci-Fi channel. As far as I was concerned, it was the perfect thriller much more to my tastes than 99% of other works in the thriller genre and was worth staying up late for.
The last film I watched was Tokyo Godfathers earlier this year. Like all of his work, the two were deep, beautiful and humane with genuinely interesting themes that spoke to my imagination and those of others.
The anime world and the creative world has just lost a dreamer. Thank you for the entertainment.
Genkinahito 
Devastating news. Such a loss.