World Animation Presentation – ‘The dream and reality of Satoshi Kon’

9th November

_{Animation, a method of art making, is a display of still objects’ animated movements. It is an artistic medium of storytelling. The emergence and evolution of Japanese animation have been one of the major factors in the development of modern art, and Japanese animation has been an unassailable force in the animation world. From the early 1960s to the 1990s and to the present day, its rise has played a very significant role both for Japanese and Asian culture, and it has even profoundly influenced the rest of the world. Personally, Japanese animation has played a huge influence on me since I was a young age. Therefore, I would like to choose one of my favourite artists/animators from the 90s in the Japanese animation industry – Satoshi Kon.}

_{I mainly studied three of his films; Perfect} blue(1997), Millennium Actress(2001) and Paprika(2006). Because of his debut animated picture, Perfect Blue (1997), which incorporates science fiction, fantasy, and dreams_{, he is also renowned for his masterful narrative. (Napier,2006) For the creation of his animation, Satoshi Kon utilises psychological theory, which has been debated and settled over the years. By telling a mystic plot with a quick shift of scenes or flashes of the character’s memories and consciousness, he investigated the border between delusions and reality, producing even stronger social and psychological consequences in animation. Ortabasi argued that Satoshi Kon’s films might be better suited as live action, However, Satoshi Kon demonstrated the benefits of two-dimensional animation by displaying a smooth transition between the virtual and the real, demonstrating how perception, reality, and dream can be harmoniously combined to produce an amazing glitter (2003) Napier.}

THE DREAMY WORLD – Editing and storyboard

Creative style：

^{1. The use of the play-within-a-play style of expression. This way the characters or events can be described in many ways, leading the audience to participate in the construction of the film and thus to think about and explore the deeper meaning behind the narrative.}

^{2. The multiple narrative spaces constitute a new way of expression, leading the audience to navigate between unreal and real-time space, such as dreams, memories, hallucinations and the internet.} 

^{3. The stream-of-consciousness creative approach blends space, time, reality and fantasy experiences, completing the transition and bridging of back-and-forth developments through a fluid camera language.}

THE REALITY WORLD – Details and restoration

^{Along the line of consideration, Satoshi Kon showed a really high level of detailed animation to the viewers, the meticulous control of lighting, storyboard, character design, and the small things like the restoration of items or materials from life. For example, ‘Perfect Blue’(1997) tells a story about mima’s changing life from an idol to becoming an actual acceptable actress. The restoration of mima’s room in the film is one good example. The fish tank and goldfish; the clutter of the room; the decor of the desk or even the presentation of the web blog of mima’s room. All these seemingly unimportant details look messy and imperfect, however, this is an indication of highly realistic and is the power of Satoshi Kon.}

^{‘Inspiration comes from life, significant factual and spiritual experiences contribute to dream subjects’ (Freud, 1900) and sources and dreams reflect on reality. And Satoshi Kon’s animation sources come from reality without a doubt because of his meticulous approach to the details. From the part when the protagonist broke into the room of the suspected culprits Himuro’s home in Paprika(2006), we can clearly see the construction of the inside of the room; the heads of the figures placed steamily in the cupboard one by one, the columns of toys as well as the robots, the photographs on the walls and the heads whose paintings have been subtracted.}