Note: this review contains spoilers for Paprika.
Though Satoshi Kon may have passed before his prime, his films serve as a testament to the power of animation to blend dreams with reality. His final film, Paprika, based on Yasutaka Tsutsui’s 1993 novel of the same name, takes this idea to its logical conclusion, even making it a central plot point. Though watching the English dub of Kon’s series Paranoia Agent spurred me to seek out his filmography, one point of interest with Paprika in particular was seeing that the Christopher Nolan film Inception had been compared with it, though it had been years since I had seen Inception, so I was able to view Paprika on its own merits. After watching Paprika through an English dub on Blu-ray, it’s safe to say that Satoshi Kon’s cinematic career ended on a high note.
