Additional Posters Part 2:

A hallucinatory puzzle of existential illusions. Perfect Blue Remastered was inmersive on the big screen; if Im being critical of the remaster some of the line drawing seems smoother trade off for the colors popping more (but the animation style is more general on background stuff anyway; and that works well in key scenes like the pizza delivery). The world needs more animated thrillers. Perfect Blue well balances the darkness of murder with the more upbeat pop music and anime sensibilities with some wild unique narrative devices. The stalker stuff starts pretty quickly after a musical number and just when things might seem normal PB uses film within a film amusingly (they got me a few times) and gets gritty. The fake animated schlock is surprisingly intense and pairs well with the visual illustration of her anxieties to create a vague sense of being as unsure what is real as the lead. It's surprising how unsettling animated gore and grit can be. The end reveal is chilling and effective. It's an engaging cinematic experience but there are a lot of elements that need to work together, or characters/events that must be flexible/unreliable, for the concert to come together like it does. A twist works because it doesn't match what came before but that makes it fall apart in hindsight. I am who I am.

I was pleasantly surprised by Perfect Blue; not being a huge fan of anime, I wasn't expecting much. Undeadcow is right about the effectiveness of animated gore; I gasped at least twice toward the end of the film when violence erupted and blood flowed. I also loved the scenes showing the early days of the Internet, particularly the cameo by the Netscape browser.

I couldn’t really care less about anime, so i wasn’t all that excited about this. That’s the point of the challenge however. Step outside your comfort zone.
It held my interest enough and I liked the story itself.

A DVD of this was one of my first DVD purchases, and perhaps my first anime purchase. Not sure what made me buy it, have always avoided manga and anime, not because I dislike it, but because I might like it, and my addictive hoarding personality can’t afford new hobbies/genres to collect. It was definitely a DVDTalk inspired purchase though. Someone must have posted a reel.com deal or something. So I always think of this forum when I stumble upon this disc in my collection.

Definitely watched it back then, but didn’t remember much if anything on my re-watch in the theater yesterday. Love this film. Undeadcow explains it well, there is a lot going on, and it all blends well into a satisfying story.

And yes, loved that Netscape cameo!

Not really my cup of tea but an ok watch

It's been at least 25 years since I've seen this. While I remember the general style and broad story points I forgot all of the specific twists and turns (of which there are many). Anyway, I think this is a great movie and really pushed the boundaries of what you think anime is. Satoshi Kon's entire filmography is great and he died far too young.

Not much an anime fan, but I’ve had the UK steelbook for many years. Finally watched this one and it delivered the goods. This was definitely capturing the dawn of the internet. It was pretty funny to see all that, especially with my attitudes on the worth of social media and the internet in general. I thought it was really effective and shows there can be deep ‘cartoons’ that have something to say. I have a full plate of the things I really want to see, and I’m glad I have not ventured too far into anime because I’m afraid I would go down the rabbit hole.

I can see why they just remastered this as it does scream 90's and earlier anime. The story was interesting and, without knowing anything really about the movie, you wonder if Mima (think that's the spelling of the name) was going crazy or had another personality. Then the film kicks off in the last act and made a lot more sense. Nice plot twist there. I still don't see how it got so much acclaim (maybe due to the era and everything or me comparing everything to like Death Note or Demon Slayer maybe) but it is worth a watch or two. One of the better subpicks so far.

Perfect Blue? Perfect movie! This is the first Satoshi Kon film I've seen, and I was very impressed. This is a psychological horror film about the challenges a young woman named Mima faces as she transitions from being a pop singer to an actress, her mental health struggles as she faces increased pressure from her management and demanding fans. The opening brilliantly cuts between her on stage, being worshipped by fans, and the mundane tasks of her life outside of work. Buying groceries, riding public transportation, she's just a normal person, but as a pop star she's idolized by men who have no idea she's as isolated and alone as they are. The decision to leave music behind to pursue acting is controversial for some of her fans, and she starts receiving threatening mail that accuses her of betraying her followers. This movie feels way ahead of its time in addressing parasocial relationships and toxic fandoms who feel entitled to the stars they obsess over, though I understand that the pop-idol culture is pretty extreme in Japan, so it may have been more relevant to their culture back in the 90s.

After discovering a blog that claims to feature her diary entries, Mima's identity begins to fracture. Someone is watching her and posting these updates while pretending to be her, but they know way too much about her personal life to be lucky at guessing. Committing fully to her new career, she agrees to film some scenes with adult material that shocks and appalls her fans. Something that's very interesting/disturbing about pop fandoms in Asia, is that singers are supposed to maintain a perception of purity, they are not supposed to discuss or reveal any type of relationship. I suppose the idea is that they must remain accessible to fans, as if fans could fall for and maybe even fantasize about a relationship with the singers themselves. Frankly, it's delulu, but I'm sure the companies repping these artists are all too happy for fans to cross those lines if it makes them more money. Speaking of management, shame on them.

There are several scenes of negotiations between the production company and Mima's representation, and I couldn't help but notice that she was silent throughout. While discussing potential storylines, they don't ask Mima what she thinks, the agency speaks for her, they reserve the right to decide what type of image she'll have in the public eye. It's ironic that the company representing her is called an agency, when she has none of her own. Things get increasingly spooky and violent, someone is murdering people in Mima's orbit that are pushing her towards a less pure and more mature line of work. Mima herself loses her grip, as a psychological battle between her two identities rages on. Disorienting and disturbing, the viewer is never sure what's real and what's a delusion. Featuring lots of surreal imagery, including shots of Mima in reflections, and framed in TV/PC monitors, almost like she(or her former pure persona) is trapped and desperate to break out. It's easy to see the influence this movie had on Western psychological horror films such as Black Swan. This is an important movie to demonstrate that anime can be important works of art just as much as live action films are. This ain't Spirited Away, do not watch with the family.

Just not my thing.

While story is interesting, I found the way it is told tedious and confusing at times...though that may well have been the creator's point from what I have read.

Several disturbing scenes that seem to feel worse watching them animated than live action.

I did watch the bumpers from the Joe Bob Briggs showing after I watched the movie from alyxstarr's link and thought he did several good and surprisingly cerebral sum-ups and trivia about the movie. Briggs also gets a little choked up discussing the note that the writer/director wrote for his family after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was only given 3 months to live and soon died. He said that the same thing happened to his father and you can tell how affected he is in that moment. It is very touching. He discussed it around the 1 hour 25-minute mark on the link for those that want to check it out.