Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue (パーフェクトブルー Pāfekuto Burū) is a 1997 Japanese animated psychological horror-thriller film directed by Satoshi Kon and written by Sadayuki Murai. It is based on the novel Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis (パーフェクト・ブルー　完全変態 Pāfekuto Burū: Kanzen Hentai) by Yoshikazu Takeuchi. The film stars the voices of Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shiho Niiyama, Masaaki Okura, Shinpachi Tsuji and Emiko Furukawa.

Plot
A singer quits her band to become an actress and sheds her "good girl" image to further her career.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) This was the first feature film from Satoshi Kon.
 * 2) Incredibly sympathetic female character.  They make you feel for her and you feel sad whenever you think something bad might happen to her.
 * 3) Gorgeous animation.
 * 4) The themes involve shedding light on the true horrors that can come from being an idol or as a more general stance, anyone who has admired my tones of people and constantly in the spotlight. This is a unique premise as it's handled very well.
 * 5) Appealing character designs.
 * 6) Interesting use of color pallets. The most notable is the color red, which is very prevalent throughout the whole film as symbolism.
 * 7) Amazing voice acting.
 * 8) The whole movie is an intense, suspenseful thrill ride that never lets up even for a moment.
 * 9) Excellent cinematography.
 * 10) The movie accurately depicts how a person might go insane and even become delusional due to being constantly stalked by a crazy, obsessed fan.
 * 11) The scenes where the movie delves into the main heroine's mind can be really trippy and awesome.
 * 12) The movie is able to scare without using much gore.
 * 13) Despite coming out in 1997, this movie can still be seen as a reflection of society more than 20 years later, which makes it a timeless experience.
 * 14) The film has allegedly inspired the popular Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan.
 * 15) Great haunting soundtrack.
 * 16) The visual tone of the film is dark and gloomy, which only adds to the creepy atmosphere.  Also, it's not too dark to where you can't see what's going on, which is good.
 * 17) Mima Kirigoe gets lots of character development.
 * 18) Much like two of Satoshi Kon's other feature films, Paprika and Millennium Actress, this movie has a really strong, interesting, likable, and deep main female character.

Reception
Perfect Blue has a 77% critic rating and a 88% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, a 4.1/5 on Letterboxd, a 7.9/10 on the International Movie Database (IMDB), an 8.32/10 on MyAnimeList, an 83.02% community approval rating on Kitsu, and a 4/5 on AnimePlanet.

Videos
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