Animation Division
Excellence Award
TOKYO GOD FATHERS
KON Satoshi
©2003 Satoshi Kon - Madhouse/Tokyo Godfathers Committee. All Rights Reserved.
Profile
KON Satoshi
Born in 1963 in Hokkaido, Japan. Film director, writer, animator, and manga artist. Directed the critically acclaimed Perfect Blue (1998), Millennium Actress (2002), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), and Paprika (2006). Died at age 46 in 2010 for pancreatic cancer while in production for the next film Dreaming Machine.
Award Reason
At first sight, this work reminded me of THREE GODFATHERS by J. Ford. There may be some who might think from the title that this is a story about the Mafia. While actually this is not a Mafia story, it is amusing that it does include some Mafia-type episodes. The squalid scenery described in detail looks like Tokyo in a different dimension, and the "happy coincidences" that would be too embarrassing to set up for a movie drama performed by actors enabled here successive happy endings. The approach and narrative of this work clearly demonstrates the author's deep and thorough understanding of the effects of animation.