Flatness, depth and Kon Satoshi's ethics

Abstract

This article offers an exploratory reading of two works by Kon Satoshi: his debutPerfect Blue (1998c) and the television series Mo -so -Dairinin/Paranoia Agent (2004b). The goal of this article is to work through the relationship between social ontology and ethics embedded in these two examples. To do this the article develops a concept of ontological flatness, both as a description of the specific late modern phenomenon of the levelling of value distinctions between previously differentiated and privileged sources of social identity, and a method of representation Kon uses in order to both portray and critique this condition by pushing it to its logical conclusions. It is argued that rather than a gleeful celebration of this postmodern flat condition, there is a distinct modernist humanism in Kon's work: whereas the effect is ontological flatness, the goal is always to regain a sense of rooted perspective, or depth. This Archimedean point is anchored to a concept of the responsible human actor, who works through existential suffering as a matter of ethical obligations outside of historical and technological determination. Thus, while representing the postmodern experience of the self, in this aspect we can situate Kon's critique within a modernist tradition in Japanese political thought.

Fear Thy Neighbour: Socialisation and Isolation in Animal Crossing

“…In other words, these are texts that originate from a context which they influence in turn. Works from visual popular culture recurrently narrate a general malaise and concern about isolation, social disintegration, and the uncontrollability of everyday life (Inoue, 2012;Perkins, 2012). Thus, the horror genre has been frequently used in Japan to examine the social breakdown of the times by, for instance, disturbing the pattern of everyday life and challenging the audience's expectations (Allison, 2013, p. 113).…”

Making Sense of Complex Narration in Perfect Blue

“…Perfect Blue was the directorial début for Kon, who until then had been known as a mangaka, animator and screenwriter for anime productions 2 under the protection of Katsuhiro Ōtomo. The film has been the subject of publications with methodologies ranging from feminist theory (Napier, 2006) and fan studies (Ogg, 2006;Norris, 2012) to the identity crisis in the Japanese horror film genre (Iles, 2008), ethics (Perkins, 2012), and representations of psychology in the animated medium (Rickards, 2006;Choo, 2014).…”

“…Perfect Blue has been the subject of numerous publications within the fields of feminist theory (Napier, 2006) and fan studies (Norris, 2012; Ogg, 2006), as well as linked to the identity crisis in the Japanese horror film genre (Iles, 2008), ethics (Perkins, 2012) and representations of psychology in the animated medium (Choo, 2014; Rickards, 2006). Most of these studies identify narrative complexity as one of the defining features of the film (Napier, 2006; Norris, 2012; Perkins, 2012; Rickards, 2006). However, these essays all prioritize the application of theory to textual analysis, a characteristic feature of the predominantly transnational culturalist approaches in anime studies, one whose top-down approaches may have the effect of simplifying the complex storytelling of the texts in order to focus on the sociocultural realities to which the story refers.…”

La narración compleja en el anime postclásico: La ambigüedad narrativa en la animación comercial japonesa

“…La película es objeto de publicaciones cuyas metodologías van desde la teoría feminista (Napier, 2006), los estudios sobre fans (Ogg, 2006;Norris, 2012), la crisis de la identidad en el cine de terror japonés (Iles, 2008), la ética (Perkins, 2012) y la representación de la psicología en el medio animado (Rickards, 2006;Choo, 2014).…”

“…¾ "un complejo y fino psycho-thriller […] Perfect Blue es mucho más compleja que una película de terror convencional" 351 (Napier, 2006: 23 y 32), ¾ "narración por capas" ("layered narration"; Rickards, 2007: 6), ¾ "lo aparentemente postmoderno de Kon, divorciado de las narrativas lineales y los bien establecidos límites de la realidad y de lo imaginado" 352 (Perkins, 2012: 131);…”