Perfect Blue

J-pop idol group CHAM! has spent the last two years entertaining its fans. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and CHAM! must see one of its , Mima Kirigoe, leave the group to pursue her acting career. While Mima's choice is met with a mixed response, she hopes her fans will continue to her.

However, Mima's life begins to change drastically after her departure from the group. Wanting to shed her pop-idol image, she takes on a role in a crime drama series, and her career as an actress gradually becomes more demanding and taxing for both Mima and her manager, Rumi Hidaka. To add to Mima's growing unease, an obsessed fan who is incapable of accepting that Mima has quit being an innocent idol, begins stalking her; a new anonymous website begins to impersonate her life with intricate detail; and CHAM! also appears to be doing better without her. One by one, each disturbing development drives Mima to become increasingly unhinged and unable to distinguish reality from fantasy.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kirigoe, Mima Main

Iwao, Junko Japanese

Uchida, Mamoru ing

Ookura, Masaaki Japanese

Hidaka, Rumi ing

Matsumoto, Rica Japanese

Sakuragi ing

Hori, Hideyuki Japanese

Murano ing

Ebara, Masashi Japanese

Rei ing

Niiyama, Shiho Japanese

Mima Fan C ing

Doi, Tadashi ing

Suyama, Akio Japanese

Blue ing

Taniyama, Kishou Japanese

Actor ing

Maruyama, Masao Producer

Maseba, Yutaka Producer

Inoue, Hiroaki Producer

Kon, Satoshi Director, Script, Character Design

Reviews

Jun 14, 2025

MushokuTen

Recommended

Perfect Blue is a film that crawls under your skin and stays there—a masterclass in psychological horror that trades jump scares for something far more insidious. Satoshi Kon's 1997 masterpiece follows Mima Kirigoe's brutal coming-of-age story in reverse: as she sheds her pop idol persona for an acting career, the film peels back layers of identity until nothing feels real. The genius lies in how Kon weaponizes the medium itself—animation's fluid reality becomes terrifying as Mima's grip on sanity dissolves. Scenes where her reflection moves independently or her stalker's camera lens invades private moments aren't just scary; they're violations that make you complicit in her ... unraveling.

What elevates Perfect Blue beyond mere thriller territory is its prophetic understanding of celebrity culture's dark underbelly. The film predicted our current era of digital doppelgangers and performative identities decades before social media, with Mima's torment coming not from any supernatural force but from the mundane horrors of fandom and capitalism. Her stalker's obsession mirrors modern parasocial relationships taken to their logical extreme, while the entertainment industry's exploitation of her trauma feels ripped from contemporary #MeToo stories. Even the film's visual language—the way TV screens and computer monitors frame Mima's breakdown—feels eerily prescient of our screen-obsessed present.

For all its brilliance, Perfect Blue remains a punishing watch that refuses catharsis. The animation's rawness (particularly in violent sequences) hasn't aged gracefully, and Kon's commitment to psychological realism means the plot deliberately withholds satisfying answers. But these aren't flaws so much as necessary discomforts—the film earns its 8/10 rating by being profoundly disturbing in ways most horror never attempts. It's the kind of work that changes how you see other films (from Black Swan to Parasite), yet so emotionally grueling that its greatest achievement might be making you never want to experience it again.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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May 22, 2025

1stDecame4Danime

Mixed Feelings

It's not a bad movie, but it is a bit boring, and barely qualifies as horror, far far more of a drama.
The commentary/exploration of idols/idolization-obsession/parasocial relationships/performance industries/(s)exploitation, oneself/one's persona/other's perception of you, delusion/reality/fiction, mental health, etc. was decent aside from embracing lookism of beauty=good, ugly=evil. Though some of it did seem a bit surface level.
The story itself involved a lot of empty fluff scenes, and overall very little of interest happens other than in proximity to some dancing, SA, and a few scenes of violence.
The plot itself is kinda predictable as only 3 or so options are presented for the narrative antagonisms and most end ... up being shown as such, and an unreliable narrative means most any of the other possibilities could conceivably be true as well.
It was much more cohesive than the similar Paprika, though less visually interesting. I liked this marginally more.

(There's also a hilarious plot point where the character she's acting as within the meta-show starts off as a non-character sister after the murders are already happening, and the writer guy is stuck on who to make the killer while the show airing, then he decides to have her SAd as justification for her becoming the killer... so the only possibility would be that they did a flashback to setup this random sister as a SA survivor which would be hilariously terrible storytelling in a murder mystery to retcon her character, and kinda makes the meta narrative surrounding that tv show fall apart, but I suppose it does mirror the almost tossed in antag whose background gets dumped in at the end.)

6/10 (where 5/10 is average)

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Apr 14, 2025

shiratori90

Not Recommended

The Japanese audio isn't very good. Considering the era, that's understandable.

The script, or to be more specific, the way it's shown, didn't appeal to me. I struggled to understand the message behind it, and this was the most difficult of all I've seen so far, because even though I understood that the protagonist has created mental problems about who she really is, it was all very rushed and poorly presented. It could have been much better.

The soundtrack is good, but the presentation problem I mentioned earlier is a sin here. For about 10 seconds, it managed to make me anxious. After that, nothing stuck with ... me.

I understand that mental problems can come to those who work in this field, but I didn't feel anything for the protagonist. All because of the same problem.

I don't recommend it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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