This bibliography collects scholarly publications on Satoshi Kon and his works written in English that I am aware of. Whenever possible, and if this is not clear from the title of a particular entry, the actual work or works that it discusses is noted.
[Page last updated: April 16, 2023]
2023
- Woodard, Sean. “But illusions don’t kill”: An examination of giallo tropes and gender in Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue.
In Matthew Edwards & Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns (eds.). Bloodstained narratives: The giallo film in Italy and abroad (pp. 164-181). Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
*** NEW ***
2022
- Freedman, Alisa. Down in the dumps: Tokyo wastelands and marginalized groups in Japanese film and anime.
In Jennifer Coates & Eyal Ben-Ari (eds.). Japanese visual media: Politicizing the screen (pp. 97-117). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
[Tokyo Godfathers] - Jensen, Casper Bruun, Auld, Eaun, & Brown, Steven D. In the forest of virtuals: The modes of existence in Tokyo Godfathers. Mechademia: Second Arc, 15(1), 15-33.
- Keene, Andrea Constance. Japanese pop idols: A feminist pragmatist read of Perfect Blue. Journal of Asia-Pacific Pop Culture, 7(2), 200-219.
- Wells, Paul. The best part about goth sluts is how versatile our aesthetics can be: Latour, Kon, and animating cosplay performativity. Mechademia: Second Arc, 15(1), 34-53.
[Perfect Blue; Millennium Actress]
2021
- Grajdian, Maria Mihaela. Social critique and visionarism in Kon Satoshi’s animation movies. BRUKENTHALIA. Romanian Cultural History Review, 11, 1199-1210.
*** OPEN ACCESS ***
2020
- Carew, Anthony. Dreams and nightmares: The animated worlds of Satoshi Kon. Metro, 205, 68-75.
*** NEW *** - Loriguillo-Lopez, Antonio, Palo-Errando, Jose Antonio, & Mazal-Felici, Javier. Making sense of complex narration in Perfect Blue. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 15(1), 77-92.
2019
- Josephy-Hernandez, Daniel E. Reflections on the translation of gender in Perfect Blue, an anime film by Kon Satoshi. MonTI. Monografias de Traduccion e Interpretacion, special issue 4, 309-342.
*** OPEN ACCESS ***
- Torrecila Cabrera, Angelica. Allegories of Japanese women in Paprika by Tsutsui Yasutaka and Kon Satoshi. Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, 19(3).
*** OPEN ACCESS ***
2016
- Levy, Dylan. A girl divided: The fragmented shōjo in Perfect Blue. Flow: A Critical Forum on Media and Culture, 22(07).
*** OPEN ACCESS *** - Teodorescu, Alice. Blurring the screen: The fragmented self, the database, and the narratives of Satoshi Kon. Ekphrasis: Images, Cinema, Theory, Media, 15(1), 63-74.
[Perfect Blue, Paprika] - Vernon, Alice. Digital sleep and the performance of lucidity in Paprika. Performance Research: A Journal of the Performance Arts, 21(1), 115-119.
2014
- Annett, Sandra. The nostalgic remediation of cinema in Hugo and Paprika. Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance, 7(2), 169-180.
- Mishra, Manisha, and Mishra, Maitreyee. Animated worlds of magical realism: An exploration of Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress and Paprika. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 9(3), 299-316.
- Villot, Janine. Chasing the Millennium Actress. Science Fiction Film and Television, 7(3), 343-364.
2013
- Chang, Yen-Jung. Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress: A feminine journey with dream-like qualities. Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 8(1), 85-97.
*** OPEN ACCESS ***
- Schaub, Joseph Christopher. Otaku evolution: Changing views of the fan-boy in Kon Satoshi’s Perfect Blue and Paprika. In John A. Lent and Lorna Fitzsimmons (Eds.), Asian Popular Culture: New, Hybrid and Alternate Media (pp. 59-78). Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books.
2012
- Norris, Craig. Perfect Blue and the negative representation of fans. Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, 4(1), 69-86.
- Perkins, Chris. Flatness, depth and Kon Satoshi’s ethics. Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, 4(2), 119-133.
[works covered: Perfect Blue, Paranoia Agent]
2011
- Wells, Paul. Playing the Kon trick: Between dates, dimensions and daring in the films of Satoshi Kon. Cinephile: The University of British Columbia’s Film Journal, 7(1), 4-8.
2010
- Figal, Gerald. Monstrous media and delusional consumption in Kon Satoshi’s Paranoia Agent. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 5, 139-155.
- Ogg, Kerin. Lucid dreams, false awakenings: Figures of the fan in Kon Satoshi. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 5, 157-174.
2009
- Gardner, William. The cyber sublime and the virtual mirror: Information and media in the works of Oshii Mamoru and Kon Satoshi. Canadian Journal of Film Studies, 18(1), 44-70.
*** OPEN ACCESS ***
- Osmond, Andrew. Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist. Berkeley, CA: Stone Bridge Press.
- Perper, Timothy, & Cornog, Martha. Psychoanalytic cyberpunk midsummer-night’s dreamtime: Kon Satoshi’s Paprika. Mechademia: An Annual Forum for Anime, Manga, and the Fan Arts, 4, 326-329.
*** OPEN ACCESS ***
2008
- Diffrient, David Scott. From Three Godfathers to Tokyo Godfathers: Signifying social change in a transnational context. In Leon Hunt and Leung Wing-Fai (Eds.), East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film (pp. 153-171). London: I.B. Tauris & Co.
- Ortabasi, Melek Su. National history as Otaku fantasy: Kon Satoshi’s Millennium Actress. In M. MacWilliams (Ed.), Japanese Visual Culture: Explorations in the World of Manga and Anime (pp. 274-294). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
2007
- Mes, Tom. Requiem for a dream: The films of Satoshi Kon bring the depths of the subconscious into bright anime light. Film Comment, 43(2), 46-48.
- Ortabasi, Melek Su. Indexing the past: Visual language and translatability in Kon Satoshi’s Millennium Actress. Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, 14(4), 278-291.
- Ortabasi, Melek Su. Teaching modern Japanese history with animation: Satoshi Kon’s Millennium Actress. Education About Asia, 12(1), 62-65.
2006
- Napier, Susan. Excuse me, who are you: Performance, the gaze, and the female in the works of Satoshi Kon. In S. Brown (Ed.), Cinema Anime: Critical Engagements with Japanese Animation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan (pp. 23-42).
- Rickards, Meg. Screening interiority: Drawing on the animated dreams of Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue? IM: Interactive Media – E-Journal of the National Academy of Screen & Sound, 2.
*** OPEN ACCESS ***
2005
- Bryce, Mio, & Stephens, John. Japanese popular culture and character fashioning: The quest for subjective agency in the animated films, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Perfect Blue. International Journal of the Humanities, 1, 311-321.
2004
- Sharp, Jasper. Perfect Blue – Satoshi Kon, Japan, 1997. In Justin Bowyer (Ed.), The Cinema of Japan and Korea (pp. 161-168). London, UK: Wallflower Press.
- Yokota, Mamao. Satoshi Kon’s transition from comics to animation. International Journal of Comic Art, 6(1), 250-265.
1993
- Pollack, David. The revenge of the illegal Asians: Aliens, gangsters, and myth in Kon Satoshi’s World Apartment Horror. Positions: Asia Critique, 1(3), 677-714.
Hi!! Great list! I am doing my thesis on the work of Satoshi Kon and I was wondering, if you have read and still have some of this digital documents, if I could ask for it? It’s super difficult to find of this studies online and free. Thanks a lot!
Paulina,
I have some of these, but not all of them. If you would like to see any specific ones, let me know, and I’ll see what I can do!
Also, for finding these kinds of materials “for free”, it’s always a good idea to check with your school’s library! Even if they do not have that book in their collection or subscribe to that journal, they can usually get it for you from another one!