The late Satoshi Kon — director of Paprika and Paranoia Agent — was one of the greatest animators to ever walk this earth, and the impact his body of work had on cinema is so rich and dense, we’re only now fully unpacking it. If you don’t believe me, see for yourself.
In this excellent video essay, editor Tony Zhou of Every Frame a Painting breaks down just how masterful Kon was with manipulating time and space through editing. He shows concrete examples of Kon’s rapid transitions and match cuts. He even shows how the techniques employed by Kon were not simple tricks to tell a story, but a crystallisation of his metaphysical view of society.
Kon passed away four years ago from pancreatic cancer at the very young age of 42, but his brief body of work is flawless and will continue to inspire film-makers and animators around the world.
Satoshi Kon – Editing Space & Time via Extremely Animated & Cartoon Brew
Comments
12 responses to “See How An Anime Master Manipulated Space And Time”
that was great thank you
OK, where is that gif from? Google Image search doesn’t help. (Unless it’s Paranoia Agent?)
Paprika
Looking at some shots from Satoshi Kons movies and matching them with the gif, it appears to be “Paprika”. It looks interesting.
The top gif is from ‘Perfect Blue’. An older thriller he made. Very good movie
Was also Kon’s first major work in anime 😀
It is Paprika, a very cool movie.
Great article, thank you for bringing this out!
The total mind tricks Kon employed w/ the editing on Perfect Blue have always been damn amazing.
I love Kon. LOVE!
I’d never seen Ohayo, I almost just burst, it was soo good!
@sughly
Awwww that was great!! Totally missed this article, thanks jimjim! Really enjoyed that. Makes me want to put on a Kon film later tonight, agh so good