New books on Spirited Away, Satoshi Kon by Andrew Osmond

<a href="http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_8070.html">The BFI have recently published</a> "<em><strong>Spirited Away: BFI Film Classics</strong></em>" by British writer<em><strong> </strong></em><strong><em>Andrew Osmond</em></strong>, describing his book as tracing "<em>connections between Spirited Away and Miyazaki's prior body of work, and provides an account of the film's production and the creative differences between Miyazaki and his collaborators, arguing that Spirited Away uses the cartoon medium to create a compellingly immersive drawn world.</em>" Coming in at 121 pages, "<em>Spirited Away: BFI Film Classics</em>" is out now with an RRP of &pound;9.99.

<em>Osmond </em>will quickly follow the above with <a href="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2008-06-29/stone-bridge-press-to-publish-english-book-on-satoshi-kon">an upcoming 96-page profile</a> of famed anime director (<em>Paprika</em>, <em>Perfect Blue</em>) <em>Satoshi Kon</em>, called "<em><strong>Satoshi Kon: The Illusionist</strong></em>". This will be published on the 1st of September, with a slightly higher RRP of &pound;14.99.

Sounds great, Ill be looking forward to it, particualrly the Kon book.

Definitely the Kon book for me. The Spirited Away book sounds like a nice companion piece for Helen McCarthy's too, since that was published a while back so doesn't feature any of his films after Mononoke Hime.

Hi, thanks very much for the plug! Just to clarify, I am not a novelist, that's a different Andrew Osmond (I think there are several of us out there). I'm a freelance journalist for SFX, Sight and Sound and other magazines.

Also, I think the page-count for the fortcoming Kon book is only a provisional one. Obviously the final count will depend on factors like how many pictures we use, how big the print is, etc.

can you tell us more about what to expect? a biography? commented filmography? I'm curious.

Hi, I presume you're asking about the Kon book. The balance will be similar to Helen McCarthy's book on Miyazaki (which was also published by Stone Bridge Press). In other words, there'll be some biographical info at the beginning on Kon's early life and career, but the bulk of the book will be 5 chapters on each of his anime to date (Paranoia Agent will have the longest chapter, natch). In each case, there'll be a production history, fun 'points to note,' a synopsis, a review and release information.