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Perfect Blue/Paprika Director Satoshi Kon Passes Away (Updated)

Jim Vowles, a member of the Otakorp Board of Directors for the Otakon convention, has announced on Tuesday that director Satoshi Kon has passed away. Kon was 47. The staff of Otakon confirmed his passing with Madhouse studio founder Masao Maruyama. Maruyama had wrote on his Twitter account on Tuesday night in Japan that an important director of the studio had suddenly passed away. However, Maruyama declined to name the director at the time.

Kon began working as a manga creator on such works as Kaikisen (1990) before deciding to delve into the anime industry with the art design of Hiroyuki Kitakubo and Katsuhiro Ōtomo's Roujin Z video in 1991. He then worked on the script and art direction of "Magnetic Rose," a segment of Otomo's 1995 science-fiction anthology film Memories.

Kon first drew worldwide attention with his feature film directorial debut, the psychological suspense film Perfect Blue, in 1997. He would follow that with a string of critically acclaimed anime projects: Millennium Actress (2001), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Paranoia Agent (2004), and Paprika (2006). At the time of his passing, Kon was working at Madhouse on a new feature film called Yume-Miru Kikai.

ANN interviewed Kon in 2008 as he was beginning work on Yume-Miru Kikai.

Update: The Tokyo Shimbun paper reports that Kon's age was 46.