GMU Pop Culture Journalism

A Tribute by a Fan to Satoshi Kon

Adding to the numerous fan tributes to the passing of Satoshi Kon, Otaku USA Magazine editor-in-chief Patrick Macias gives his thoughts on the man’s body of work in a feature that he penned mere hours after the news of his death. This article, I think really shows just how raw any anime fan was when the news of Kon’s death. It had felt like that we had been hit upside the head with something hard and Macias’ article really shows that very very well. All I can say with this is that this is an article from someone who has seen his movies and had incredible respect for the man. He starts his feature out like a regular news article which just states the obvious of what exactly happened, right after the news was breaking out on Twitter.

The second paragraph mentions other days like that one by mentioning when industry stalwarts Osamu Tezuka and Shotaro Ishinmori passed away. He also mentions that the fan reaction of when he passed away has been near universally united in sadness and sorrow which is something that doesn’t happen too much at all because of the diversity of anime. Next he goes into his own experiences watching the film and talks about how he felt when he saw the films on screen for the first time he had seen the movies, then he goes into what he thinks made Kon such a fantastic director and melds that with more personal experiences before concluding his piece.

Overall I have really no issues about this feature, yes it may read more as a personal eulogy for Kon’s life, but it is wholly appropriate for the suddenness and tragic nature of how he passed away. It is unfortunate that Macias never got to meet the man before his passing, if he had that would have been a fantastic extra piece of information that would have been great to add to this article. Even without it, its a touching piece about how Satoshi Kon was someone that did so much for a medium in such a short amount of time.