I can’t imagine why people nowadays don’t find anime to be the coolest thing.
I mean, who wouldn’t want to be interested in something where everyone is sounding the death knell and blaming the fans?
Doesn’t that sound like the fun party you would want to be seen at?
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One thing that struck me in the wake of Satoshi Kon’s death was the fact that a number of pro- and amateur-industry commentators have crafted a narrative of The Doom That Came To The Anime Industry that they must add to at all times.
For those people, Kon’s death can’t just be the premature death of a talented individual, it has to be tied into the ongoing narrative of how Japanese cartoons are going to Hell in a handbasket.
I’ll cut them some slack, along the people whose first concern seems to be “is his last film going to be released?”, as they are common responses to death, particularly the deaths of creative people who you only really know through their work.
I’m more curious as to how commentators form their ongoing narratives in their writing, and more importantly, identifying what my own are. Pretty sure I’ve been guilty of selling the anime doomsday scenario into the past, especially in the Hate Fun posts (which are mainly hyperbole and exaggeration, plus incredibly easy to write), though I’ve tried to move away from that somewhat this past year towards getting a better, broader perspective.
I think Ben speaks for how many of us feel. In some ways it feels like Kon was ripped right before he was at his prime, before he was ripe, before he can really claim a spot among the immortals like Miyazaki and Oshii. And before his passing we all thought he’d get there for sure.
That said, I get what you’re getting at, yeah. But there’s another way to look at who Kon was and what his passing really means in a relatively small industry.
I think Ben’s piece avoids everything I was talking about, indeed it was what I had in mind as the antithesis of what I was criticising in that it focussed on the man and his work, rather than coming on like “Where do we go from here? Who will save us now?”