May 7, 2025
Perfect Blue
Perfect Blue (1997) is a Japanese anime psychological thriller exploring voyeurism, obsessive stalking, and losing grip on reality. This isn’t your average jump-scare horror movie – it’s the kind that builds the tension and never lets it go.
The film follows Japanese pop idol Mima Kirigoe, who leaves her group to become an actress. This decision, which shifts her public image to be more mature, is met with some disdain from her fans. She repeatedly encounters an obsessive stalker and finds a detailed blog about her life written from her perspective, sending her into a state of extreme paranoia. All the while, her new role as an assault victim starts taking a serious toll on her mental health. Mima begins to experience psychosis, and the people around her are dropping like flies. The mystery pieces itself together but not in the way you think. Trust me.
If you enjoyed the immensely popular 2010 Darren Aronofsky film Black Swan, you would be intrigued to know that its themes and approach are strikingly similar to the much lesser-known Perfect Blue. Despite having used the film for inspiration in his earlier work, Aronofsky denies taking inspiration this time around. The contrary is pretty clear when watching the films, so it’s disappointing to see how little credit Perfect Blue gets, with it being virtually unknown to western audiences in comparison to Black Swan.
This movie truly covers all the bases: beautiful animation, impressive voice acting, hard-hitting themes, and edge-of-your-seat entertainment. I can’t recommend it enough.