Satoshi Kon in DC

An ominous feeling filled the air as I finally arrived on the National Mall (DC) early Saturday morning, after a long and seemingly slow-motion trek pushing through tourists and the like. This past weekend marked the end of this year's National Cherry Blossom Festival. And right smack in the middle of all the mayhem, laid the Fifth Annual Cherry Blossom Anime Marathon at the Meyer Auditorium in the Freer Gallery of Art.

As I walked to the ticket box office to pick up the "first-come, first-serve tickets," I was greeted with a long and winding line that seemed to have no end. I was pleasantly surprised at the turn out this year. From old to young, from novices to experts, the crowd represented both extremes of the spectrum and everything else in between. From the looks of things, avid anime fans were the minority group in this event. The line moved pretty swiftly and after a brief moment of anxiousness for fear of running out of tickets, I had my hands on my passes to the four movies featured this year -- "Yu-Gi-Oh: The Movie," "Tachigui," "Tokyo Godfathers," and "Paprika."

Running all day alongside the movies, was a sort of documentary of the evolution of anime fandom, presented by the DC Anime Club. The audience took to "Tachigui," the live-action anime hybrid by "Ghost in the Shell" director Mamoru Oshii, differently. Some deemed it boring or confusing, while anime "fans" were able to pick up on its comedic elements and enjoy the movie. Expectedly, however, the highlight of the day was the second half of the line-up.

"Tokyo Godfathers" took the audience by storm and as Satoshi Kon put it most succinctly, "Tokyo Godfathers" embodies happiness. His introduction nicely set up the stage for the movie. Constant laughter filled the auditorium and the uproar did not subside until the ending credits started to roll. It was amazing to see how many poor souls had yet to see this movie (and many others), let alone the fact that it's been available on DVD for ages. And unfortunately, many will never know the greatness that is anime. But back to the topic at hand...

A short Q&A session rolled in before the viewing of "Paprika." I say short, because I still feel utter resentment and disappointment that I was unable to ask my question. Out of all the questions asked, two, at most, were viable. The rest screamed pure ignorance...just Google your damn simple question and let others ask theirs. Excuse me, like I said, resentment on my part, still ensues. So with the exception of his answer to my question unasked, we learned that Satoshi really enjoys directing full-length movies. He currently has no plans to create another TV series to follow "Paranoia Agent." In actuality, "Paranoia Agent" did not arise with the intent of creating a TV series. Perfectly good ideas that arose but couldn't be implemented while Satoshi was working on "Perfect Blue" and "Millennium Actress" was "recycled" and led to the creation of "Paranoia Agent." In the mean time, Satoshi is currently working on his newest full-length movie set in the far far-distant future, rather than the frequent not-so-distant anime works. For Satoshi "followers," you can bet that the world created by him will be anything but ordinary.

The day was full of ups and downs, but in the end, it was nice to watch these movies again and a great pleasure to see Satoshi Kon. And just for those of you who are curious as to what my question was...I wanted to know what his mind-set and inspiration was when he created "Paprika." Be that as it may, his introduction to "Paprika" was perfectly said, a world of imagery at best. The ride back home was just as crazy as coming in. And you know your life revolves around anime when you've spent a whole day watching anime movies at the Cherry Blossom Marathon and when you finally get home, you pop in more anime.