Satoshi Kon Should Have Directed the Sailor Moon Movie

I've only just now been made aware of the death of anime writer and director Satoshi Kon. Kon, for those who don't already know, created the films Perfect Blue, Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika, as well as other projects. His work was critically lauded, to the point where he was hailed as the successor to Miyazaki.

To be perfectly honest, his films were, until quite recently, among the only anime I had ever seen-- at least, that I had seen at an old enough age to begin to appreciate cinema. I had seen Princess Mononoke and Akira, as well as parts of Ghost in the Shell, when I was younger-- too young to appreciate or critisise them adequately. But somehow, the films of Kon grabbed my interest in a way that other anime didn't at the time.

Anyway,the point of all this is that as part of my little Sailor Moon movie project, I was going to tentatively suggest that Satoshi Kon be the director. It would be oddly fitting, after all, for an anime director to helm a live action anime adaptation (even if the anime being adopted was far more artistically conservative than his work). It would also be intriguing to see what the money and resources of Hollywood could produce in the hands of an imaginative anime director like Kon. Plus, there's already a precendent for this sort of transition-- Hideaki Anno, director of Neon Genesis Evangelion, made the transition into live action filmmaking, directing a series a series of dark, artistic, and acclaimed live action films. . . and also Cutie Honey.

But, it's not to be. I've posted a couple of videos below, if only to give some idea of what could have been. But really, you should just go out and rent his movies.