Oshii and Kon

Water, oil and two impossible people.

Cover detail from Seraphim 266613336Wings

Certain directors stand apart in Japanese animation. Hayao Miyazaki, everyone knows. Isao Takahata’s name and impact are huge. A whole list extends from there: Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira), Osamu Dezaki (Ashita no Joe), Rintaro (a lot of things).

High on that list, in the upper ranks of anime notoriety, are two others: Mamoru Oshii and the late Satoshi Kon.

Oshii-mania hit its peak when his Ghost in the Shell (1995) helped to popularize anime worldwide. He became an icon. But Oshii is an outsider at heart, and his films since then have been too stubbornly weird to blow up again. By contrast, Kon was a cult director when he died in 2010 — his real fame arrived posthumously.

The films of Oshii and Kon aren’t very similar, and the two of them lived different lives. Still, their stories are entangled. They knew each other, and worked together, before Ghost in the Shell or Perfect Blue. They could’ve made history as a creative team. And yet they were incompatible to an explosive degree.

“The level of conflict we experienced as collaborators,” Oshii has said, “was totally new to me.”¹

That’s the story we’re exploring today. Here we go!