I came across Kon Satoshi's work by accident as I saw Paranoia Agent, Paprika and Perfect Blue without realising it was his work. I only when I went to find out who had the audacity to play with my mind that I found out it was the same person.
Following on from excellent Perfect Blue Kon Satoshi brings us Millenium Actress about Genya Tachibana who goes to interview a reclusive famous actress Chiyoko Fujiwaraabout her life from a school girl being discovered in the 1930's through the war years to the end of her career.
All through this time she is searching for an artist she helped escape from the secret police in the pre war years who gave her a key to the most important thing in the world whilst dealing with the conflicting traditional and modernisng ideas of the post war period especially for women as her mother wants her to give up her career as a woman can only be happy if she is a wife and mother.
There are some very funny moments especially as Tachibana helps Chiyoko reenact some of the scenes. However, characters from Chiyoko's past appear in the reenactments more and more so you are not sure if you are seeing a reenactment or Chiyoko's memories.
Whereas Perfect Blue was a psychological torment, Millennium Actress is a bitter sweet story and Chiyoko never finds out what happened to the artist she spent her life searching for and we never find out what the most important thing in the world is.
Sadly Kon Satoshi's untimely death meant that we are unable to see him make his masterpiece which I feel was coming and he is a massive loss to the world of animation.
