Influential animated film director Satoshi Kon has died of pancreatic cancer, it was learned Wednesday. He was 46.
According to a statement posted on his office's Web site, Kon died at 6:20 a.m. Tuesday. No funeral will be held, in accordance with his wishes, the statement said.
Kon won a number of prizes for his "anime," including "Perfect Blue" in 1998, "Millennium Actress" in 2001 and "Paprika" in 2006.
"Paprika," based on a novel by Yasutaka Tsutsui, is a science fiction story about a therapist who can enter other people's dreams.
"Director Kon is the writer I trusted absolutely. It couldn't be sadder as we can no longer see his works," manga artist Yuki Masami wrote in a Twitter message.
Kon continued to post messages on his own Twitter account until Monday. He was producing a new animated work titled "Dreaming Machine."