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Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

PROMOTING GOOD ANIMATION (With Satoshi Kon’s “Paprika”)

While I don’t necessarily subscribe to the ideology that art ought to be placed in categories of “good” or “bad (ESPECIALLY in any forum that I’M a part of, because who am I to judge),” there IS something to be said for having a vision and holding true to it. In creating something for yourself, FIRST. And in the spirit of promoting animation that I’m PERSONALLY a fan of (of which there’re a LOT of candidates, like Disney’s “Mulan” or Pixar’s “Toy Story”), I figured “Paprika” would be a good place to start.

For those that know of him or his work, Satoshi Kon was something of an “auteur” in animation. And for the PAINFULLY brief time he’d been directing prior to his passing in 2010, Kon explored the different kinds of dualities you might find in life. “Paprika” might’ve been his fourth and final animation to release, but sources within his studio have since shared that a fifth, unfinished film (titled “Dreaming Machine”) was in production.


Easily, one of the most IMMEDIATELY identifiable traits of Kon’s animations are their often dream-like presentation. And, in the case of “Paprika,” the premise LITERALLY revolves around dreams. With bright, saturated colors, “airy” movement and EXCEPTIONALLY unique, tight editing, Kon takes what would otherwise be JARRING shifts in perspective and environment and makes them as easy-to-swallow as a five milligram pill of melatonin (…I have crippling insomnia). Knowing this, it’s TRULY remarkable how few animations take even HALF as many risks as Kon’s when the physical limitations of animation are quite-literally ZERO (as compared to live-action).


Ultimately, “Paprika” is an exploration of people. How we see ourselves, how we remember things and how those things we remember manifest themselves in our mind. For those of us who like rewatching movies (and getting more out of them), Satoshi Kon’s got you covered, too! With a GENEROUS dose of visual symbolism, there’s nothing more fun than catching something you’d COMPLETELY MISSED at first blush- or even that you DID see, but didn’t fully understand why it was framed that way (like the scene at 1:35 in the video, where the camera’s focus shifts from Paprika “the character” to her real-life counterpart in the car, signaling that maybe even the opening credits were something of a daydream while also connecting the two characters for the viewer without having to EXPLICITLY say that they’re the same person through some kind of exposition).

Regardless of whether or not you like Japanese-style animation, Satoshi Kon is in a class all his own and I COULDN’T recommend his films more! They’re a visual and auditory FEAST, if nothing else! The name of the game is “nuance and attention-to-detail,” and Kon was a PRO.


For those interested, Satoshi Kon’s films have versions with either Japanese or English voice-actors. BOTH are exceptional.

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