sme_no_densetsu "Perfect Blue" is a 1997 anime about a young woman transitioning from a career as a pop idol to a new vocation as a serious actress. She finds that the metamorphosis is not an easy one when she tackles a sexually charged role that upsets her fans. One such fan appears to be stalking her, while her own doubts about this new direction take a toll on her psyche to the point that the line between fantasy & reality begins to become blurred.Produced on a miniscule budget of three million yen (approx. $25,000 in U.S. dollars), it must be admitted that the movie shows its limitations at times in the animation. That being said, while the visuals aren't exactly elaborate, they're consistently kept fresh with interesting directorial choices and dexterous editing that alternates between fantasy & reality with ease.The narrative is, to a certain degree, purposely difficult to follow, particularly as the movie progresses and the protagonist's state of mind begins to deteriorate. However, I found it to be adequately comprehensible on my first viewing. I wasn't entirely convinced by a late twist that seemed to come out of left field but I found that it made more sense on a second viewing.The story combines well-executed elements of the psychological thriller genre with a finale that ventures into more operatic territory reminiscent of Italian giallo. One or both of those approaches may not appeal to all viewers but I find that the movie's overall success as a psychological thriller may actually be overshadowed by its exceptional depth. This is a movie that's filled to the brim with astute observations on perception, idol worship and the nature of reality.This, I feel, is what elevates "Perfect Blue" above most anime movies (and most live action movies, too, for that matter). While it's unlikely to appeal to everyone, if you're looking for a smart and effective psychological thriller then "Perfect Blue" is well worth your time, regardless of any preconceived notions that you may have about anime. Sadly, the director (Satoshi Kon) succumbed to cancer at the young age of 46 but not before producing four distinctive anime films, of which this may be the finest.

lewiskendell I usually pride myself on figuring out the twist or ending of a thriller long before it's formally revealed, but I'm proud to say that Perfect Blue kept me in the dark right up until it was ready to divulge its secrets. Anyone who likes anime and is looking for a good mystery will fall right in love with Perfect Blue.It's difficult to give much of a sense of what the film is about with spoiling the plot. But essentially, its about a Japanese pop singer named Mima who leaves her musical group and decides to become an actress. She's not entirely happy about the things that she's forced to deal with in her new career, and she starts experiencing odd hallucinations as people around her start to die in brutal ways. This is definitely an intense movie, and some of the scenes are very violent. It's nothing that a fan of action anime hasn't been exposed to before, but it bares mentioning anyway.I thought the pacing was a little slow at the beginning, but this pays off well once the story gets going, so maybe that's not too big of a deal. The art style leans toward realism in a very pleasing way that aids in telling such a serious story. I'm sure that there are not very many serious anime fans that haven't seen Perfect Blue, and with good reason. It's an excellent thriller that surpasses many of the live-action movies in the genre that I've seen recently.

billgo234 Anime is often seen in a stereotype that I find a bit unpleasant.Usually, anime is seen as something as not to be taken seriously or at least not too seriously. Most content is full of unnecessary sex and violence. One could argue that sex and violence is not necessary anyways. Well, the whole thing about sex and violence can be used as a benefit to telling a visually compelling story. Now I'm not the type of person to care if nudity is involved or not in a movie. I really could hardly care because if I wanted porn, I have the internet for that. The thing to take away from anime is usually robots fighting or having five large breasted woman going after some poor young man that we as men dream about being in the situation. But it's a problem. It's because of these tropes that now we don't give knowledge to a wider audience that can accept necessary sex and violence to a story that makes sense and is well done. Especially taking that concept, and placing it into the visually exciting realm of animation. That point goes to this film, 'Perfect Blue.' 'Perfect Blue' is about a pop singer named 'Mima Kirigoe,' who decides to leave to world of being a pop singer to become a acclaimed actress. This leads to a series of bizarre and creepy fan notes, a stalker making a website with eerily creepy posts, and murder. All with the addition of psychological thriller of our female lead questioning if the real her was her 'Pop Singer' self.Let this be the first thing I say about it, this film was brilliant for it's amazing atmosphere and directing. Usually with animated films, they were not often directed very cinematically, adult or children films. Usually with older Disney films they would have this constant use of long shots and medium shots. There weren't that many that focused on their lighting and cinematography. I think it really started to change when you saw 'Anastasia' for the first time how much of a movie it felt. It felt compelling with it's characters feeling less like cartoon mascots and more like real actors. It's impressive. One could argue that if you want an animated film to be more like a live action film, why not film it like that then? That was the big complaint from a lot of critics that saw 'Perfect Blue.' The purpose of animation, that people see as, is this stereotype that because it's animated, it has to be crazy, wild, bodies have to stretch, or at the very least, there has to be some form of fantasy or science fiction. But with this film, there's nothing like that in it. Other than Mima's ghostly figure she creates in her mind, there isn't a lot of visual elements that would almost force into the direction of having it be animated. So the question being, why not just film it instead? Why did it have to be animated? My answer, "Why not?" I mean, there is so much of untapped potential in this world of animation it's baffling. This movie reflects that great atmosphere I've found in most Hitchcock thrillers, but it just happens to be a cartoon. I mean, yes, it's Japanese animation so it looks a bit cheaply done. The big critique I have of this movie is when you finally meet the stalker in the film, the English dub voice actor, I think was a bad choice. His voice almost seemed comical looking back at it. Which sucks because otherwise I was totally compelled into the film, and even after he's gone from the film, you do get immediately sucked back into it. It was just the only thing to put me out of the film, other wise, the writing was interesting and the editing was pitch perfect. But the real show stealer that really makes the film, is that cinematography. The uses of lighting and shading as if you were directing a live action drama, being applied to a animated film. It's astounding to look at visually.Overall, it's amazing to see how much seriousness and suspenseful tones were added to a film of animation. My hope is to see more films like it in the future. Again, the stalker's voice chosen in the English dub kind of put me out of the tone, but otherwise, it's damn near perfect. What's best is, again, after the stalker's gone, it puts you back into it. That's great considering there's so many movies out there who have a third act curse where after the third act hits suddenly it ruins the rest of the film, but in this case, after he's gone, it picks you back up and into the feature, so I got to give it props for that. The ending was complete, and it felt overall a satisfying film. It's an animated treat that is best not to be shown to children. It's an adult feature. A mature one. One that I feel should be the one used as a frontier to having cartoonists see that they don't have to be comical to tell a story in art. That what really matters is a good story with strong visualization that can hold audiences attention, without it be obnoxious. If anything, this film, highly underrated.

Peter Downey Mima Kirigoe is a bouncy pop star whose profitability has almost been exhausted by the music industry; Mima's agent wants her to make the difficult transition into acting despite the protests of her manager, Rumi. Mima's fans from her pop career aren't happy about this change either, and tensions turn violently quickly. But who is committing these vicious acts?Satoshi Kon makes us question what we perceive publicly may not be what happens privately. He uses this dichotomy to criticise how people are run into the ground by the entertainment industry, privately these people are trading their dignity for fame, but to those on the outside, such as Mima's stalker, it all seems glamorous or even self- indulgent. Kon, however, doesn't just ridicule people who run the industry, but asks what type of person wants to enter this industry, and what does it take to succeed in it? And he believes it can only be the mentally unstable.This belief frames the film; Kon chooses to give the film a psychotic tone and feel, as an audience we are disconnected from it all. Kon uses editing to blur the boundaries of reality; in the scene where Mima first reads her stalkers blog, Kon jumps back and forth between the two slowly warping her stalker into Mima herself.The script also obscures the reality of the characters, if you look at that blog it does not just detail Mima's movements but her exact thoughts and feelings. These two characters seem to share a psychosis, and the constant repetition by Mima of saying "Who am I?" makes it obvious how Mima feels about herself. Yet I was left unsatisfied.The animation is the first thing I had a problem with, Kon draws the characters in a clichéd Anime manner. Mima for example is big breasted, and has large facial features. Kon also uses bold colours to distinguish the characters from the background; this felt like a budget constraint rather than a style choice. The backgrounds are lethargic as well, and this becomes apparent when the action is fast paced, especially in the climactic scene of the film where it becomes hard to understand how things are happening. This is highlighted even more by some of the interesting scenes, especially the scene in the bath.I wasn't worried about the characters either, now I know this is intentional, but when you consider that the film is trying to unravel a mystery it is hard to care about that when those effected by it are unlikable. Mima is annoying airhead, her manager is weak and self-absorbed, her agent is sleazy, and her stalker is just weird. Adding more scenes like the one in the bath would have made me feel more engaged, the run time is only 85 minutes so this wouldn't have slow things down and added depth.Kon took a huge risk in picking such a complex topic for his debut film but it feels like an incomplete artistic vision.