This review will contain spoilers Well thats an experience I am sure to not forget any time soon or ever actually. I got around to watching Perfect Blue and suffice to say it was unique experiencing. I honestly thought I was following it to somewhat a teeth but sheesh my mind is all kinds of messed up now. Before I knew it got all kinds of weird trippier and much more confusing harder to follow. But I had fun and it was exhilarating top if all off. I wont pretend like I got everything the movie depicted since that might end in a big oof moment. So I will only explain things I feel most comfortable with. And who knows If I somehow stumble into the zone. I might just keep the beat going and pour on all kinds of fancy words that just make sense to me at least. No but really Perfect Blue movie took my whole poor damn brain and threw it on the ground multiple times before picking it up and throwing it against a brick wall. Perfect Blue is a psychologicalthriller written by Yoshikazu Takeuchi and directed by Satoshi Kon. Two absolutely incredible individuals. Sadly Satoshi passed away a long time ago leaving us only with his few collections of masterpieces that left a massive print on this world. Satoshis name will never be forgotten. May he rest in peace. The story is about Mima a pop idol who quit her career to act. Now she fights to come to terms with her new life and self as she gradually becomes disconnected from reality. Mima was forced into it by the society and surroundings and was not able to make her own decision. Simply cause real life doesnt work like that for famous people. I can honestly see this happening in real life. That might be one of the many reasons why so many actors and actresses get a case of depression. So the movie definitely hit harder beside my brain feeling like it got slowly disintegrated over time. It was a realistic depiction of life in many ways. Because those famous people dont get to make their own decisions without feeling threatened or scared. So if Mima tried to just reject this offer to become an actress it might end up harming her because there are people like that out there. Who knows what kind of shit storm the dirtbag who look so shady would get her into if she simply didnt follow along with the script? Mima is doing everything according to someone else wills to not cause any negative commotion for others. But By doing so she is completely neglecting her own damn feelings and dismissing them lightly. Over time Mima grows anxious and gets sad confused to the point that she is unable to separate her dream from reality anymore. Mima wanted to do things her way but was unable to without feeling afraid. The people around causing her to do these things know she is suffering but wont help. They only care about their sorry butt and uses Mima simply as a property to flourish their own business. She gets so damn out of touch with everything she goes down a shady path of modeling where the purpose is you guessed she is to show how her womanly qualities and rack in that cash. I wonder if she went there to perhaps create a new identity and not let the past come back to haunt her again? Whatever the case that one scene during an acting session was absolutely disturbing and beyond eerie and creepy. Ive never been so terrified of animated figures. Those facial expressions to every slightest detail made the experience much more uncomfortable. Oh yeah there was nudity alright and lots of it. Enough to make other anime or movies feel tame in comparison. It was dipping its toes in the hentai realm just lightly. As I was saying before those faces are nightmare fuel. Seriously I am not gonna get a wink of sleep at night ever again and probably see those facial expressions for all time. Theres also plenty amount of gore not the kind you can go through without flinching. Nah that was some real shit with disgusting sound effects and the blood looked genuine. That one stab through the eyes had me go on pure cringe session although I went back to watch it again since I rarely see that kind of depiction of violence in anime. It was mesmerizing on top of being as brutal as all hell. Honestly this whole movie held my attention from the start to the end no doubt. There are many ways to interpret Perfect Blue. For me its somewhere along the lines of losing your cherished identity and coming to terms with your new life. While at the same time fighting back the previous you that now haunts you. But before I get into all that. I want to say that Perfect Blue nailed the mood. During the elevator part for one when Angel of love started playing. It was creepy such a song begun echoing slowly in the background before it came closer. Then when the elevator opened all went blank for a moment and you get this awful scene of the guy brutally killed with his eyes pulled out of his sockets. It sent a mad chill down my spine. I watched the whole movie in complete darkness. I regretted every minute when the movie started to ramp up not turning the light on. Its also one the few times I have seen in an anime where the smallest movement can tell you so much about a character. I knew Rumi was shady from the beginning. Her eyes and subtle behavior of her was just so ominous from the getgo. So we knew Mima is confused and cant tell apart a dream from reality. Satoshi makes sure that the viewers feel like a complete dodo brain by putting you into Mimas shoes and dragging you along for a brain aching ride. Mima ends up creating a personality reflecting her popidol self to show how much she hates her current life. She is starting to doubt and those feelings took form as her idol self. Mima is more or less having a fight with herself failing to accept reality and just move on. While the illusion occupying two other people. For one Memania just wants to keep Mima for himself for selfish desires. Gosh that face of his is so disgusting and gives me mad chills. Seeing him smile gives me almost a heart attack. That scene with him when he was trying to do the nasty with Mima when his voice was revealed. It was genuinely more terrifying. That whole scene had me at the edge of my seat and I was scared for Mimas life. Every movement plus the sound effect felt precise and packed with weightiness and value to nail that scene absolutely. As I am writing this review my opinions for Perfect Blue are starting to change. So I honestly appreciate it much more now than I did at the start of this article. Rumis character is simply delusional and is trying to steal that identity of Mima that lingers in the air without a host. Satoshi clearly depicts a situation where Mimas previous identities come back to haunt her in realtime. Rumi is a former idol and might just want to go back to her peak days where she doesnt look like a pig. I think I get that Mima saving Rumi from Truckkun is essentially she beating her old self and finally moving on. Mima is not confused anymore. She knows she is the one and only Mima. So Rumi was kind of life a steppingstone for Mima to accept growth and maturity. Thats why she was so thankful despite the shit she went through previously. Btw how that pig almost died cause of something so idiotic is damn hilarious. What a joke. There was another thing that made this movie experience so much more and that was the oustanding soundtrack. I always turned my volume up especially those tunes when everything is about to turn trippy or upsidedown came on. It was always chilling and made me keep up my guards for any kind of surprises if it may throw at me. Yet I still almost fell off my chair when Memania suddenly closed the distance between him and Mima. As for the artstyle I already touched upon it. But its unique and honestly gorgeous and so full of depth if that makes sense. Its one of the few more realistic depictions of artstyle I have come across in anime. The way Satoshi Kon uses all those other events to confuse the shit out of you is merely ingenious as well. I lost count all the times I believed the acting scenes where the reality or other matters. Mima is not the only one losing things during her run but me too. My brain honestly feels like goo and is fried up. But I loved watching Perfect Blue it had tons of symbolic themes. I caught only a few. I honestly dont know if I even got them right to begin with. I wanna throw some praise for the absolutely stunning voice acting especially Mima. Its like I have an angel inside of my head speaking. Seriously I love that soft hesitant voice of hers which is so quite refined and has many subtle details to truly nail Mimas character. Also Mima was such a fun character to follow. I adore her quite a lot and she is a pleasing sight for some sore eyes. Best girl anyone? Overall I recommend this masterpiece directed by Satoshi Kon and written by the equal alike genius Yoshikazu Takeuchi to everyone. You have to watch it at one point. Its truly a work of art and I can see myself rewatching it a lot in the future. Well something tells me if I went back and saw it now. My interpretation would be so different. Yes there are honestly many ways to describe what the hell just went down. This review/analysis I guess is solely what made the most sense to me. Perfect Blue is one of the few anime that comes closest to perfection I have so far but its not without flaws. It can be quite hardtofollow and many things in the movies will have you secondguessing never be able to come to a decision. I loved it tho. The way Satoshi Kon put us into Mimas shoes or how the editing was done to really make us confuzzled over what the hell we just saw is so refreshing. I have not seen many shows that make my brain feels empty but I guess after this you bet I will change that and watch more trippy acid shit that has a purpose and value. I can honestly see why Perfect Blue is so highly praised by many. I am here to tell you it truly deserves every bit of it. This is a movie not even lasting two hours but each watch will give you new things to chew on. A brilliantly wellcrafted eerie and indepth study of character that shows how easy it is to manipulate the human mind and how fickle and delicate we are as beings. Just a step in the wrong direction can make you feel genuinely lost and beyond help.