R.I.P. Satoshi Kon

[quadruplify]

Director Satoshi Kon passes away

This is breaking news just coming in as I type this, emanating from the Twitter account of GAINAX's Yasuhiro Takeda and later confirmed by Madhouse's Masao Maruyama via the Otakon committee, but the renowned and much-admired anime director Satoshi Kon passed away yesterday at the age of 47.

During his life, Kon was responsible for a numer of high-profile animated efforts featuring his distinctive themes and styles, not least the movies Perfect Blue and Paprika, as well as the Paranoia Agent television series.

I'm sure it goes without saying that Satoshi Kon's influence will be immensely missed by anime fans around the world, and our thoughts go out to his friends and family with this tragic news.

I seriously can't believe it. Normally I don't get worked up over "celebrity" deaths, but Kon is someone whose work I absolutely admire, so I'm just shocked and saddened right now. This can't be happening. ;_________________;

I'll probably update this entry as more info comes in.

EDIT: More links:
@ io9 (also contains info about how his film Paprika helped inspire Inception)
@ AnimeNewsNetwork
@ IMDB
@ LA Weekly (recommended)
@ Onion A.V. Club (recommended)
@ /Film (recommended)