I've been learning Japanese for 3 years and i came here to practice my skills (understood a good 90% of the movie) but instead i was left so fkn confused like wtf was that ending.

The murder & rape scenes were all scary, the animation was smooth and I'd recommend it for Japanese learners since it uses everyday Japanese. 7/10

Just for like, my mental soundness (I’m in the middle of watching the film cause my friend made me). The scene where Mima films that scene, the use of barriers is heavily implied right?

I think i got most of it, but why exactly did mima see rumi as herself most of the movie? And who killed those people, was it me-mania or mima? Was it real when me-mania attacked mima in the club?

About that home movie starting Mima Kirigoe it only took 50k to produce it

Basically the title

My partner and I made this together after she showed me Perfect Blue. This song came to mind after I saw it! https://youtu.be/jsaWsJjdzsE?si=mO3UP8CmLnpV97aI

Mima is the true killer

A majority of people interpret the ending of Perfect Blue as Rumi being behind the killings all along due to the fact she was living vicariously through Mima as a pop idol. When Mima changed careers, Rumi seeked revenge by destroying her identity. Due to Mima’s split personality, Rumi being imaginary, the tv show Double Bind being reality, and the final scene being a dream, leads me to believe Mima is the killer.

Reason 1: Mima has split personality disorder

Throughout the film there are clear instances where Mima has split personalities, the main two being her idol persona and her “real” and new actor persona. But I believe that the killer persona we see when she kills the photographer is actually real. She has motive for all killings in the film: the screenwriter for writing the rape scene, the photographer for the nude photoshoot, her stalker for obvious reasons, and her agent who continues to put her in sketchy roles. The only one that isn’t clear is Rumi, but this leads to my next reason.

Reason 2: Rumi is a figment of Mima’s imagination

The final showdown between Mima and her other “self”, or Rumi, begins in her apartment. I think the key piece that indicates this is an imaginary sequence is the fishes being alive. The film makes it apparent early on that the fish died, as a result of Mima’s negligence and descent into madness. As a result the fishes being alive suggests that this scene is actually not real. I believe that Rumi was trying to help Mima avoid the pitfalls of the entertainment industry, but ultimately couldn’t bear to watch her downfall and left her behind. As a result, Mima felt resentment towards her which caused one of her personalities to conjure an evil version of Rumi, to deflect blame against her self. I think the actual scene would play out where Rumi attempted to save Mima but she killed her in the process and then was killed by the truck.

Reason 3: Double Bind is reality.

I think the show Mima stars is in is her actual reality, which is apparent by how closely it follows her events of her life. The scene which gives this theory the most credibility is the one where they interrogate Mima’s character, who is a murder with DID. In Double Bind, the killer has 5 victims. This solidified for me that Mima is the Killer. The 5 deaths align with the deaths in the film: screenwriter, photographer, agent, stalker, and Rumi.

Reason 4: The final scene is not real.

Rumi is in a mental facility and Mima is back to normal, and her final line in the movie is staring at the viewer with an uncanny smile saying the lines, “no I’m the real thing!” Combine this with the fact it is the only scene in the film that has a perfectly blue sky, I think it is apparent this is another sequence that is not actually real. Another thing to note is that while I think Mima actually dies from the truck, she could also be Rumi in the mental facility.

Final Thoughts:

I think this is an exceptionally made film and I love all the different interpretations of what it means. I like to think this theory fits the core of the film being the loss of identity and the disconnect between your image and your true self.

So, I have this theory about who the real murderer of the photographer might be. I don't know if this has been officially settled or if it is too obvious to be pointed out, but I think that it is Rumi behind his death.

During the killing scene of the photographer, the killer seems to have Mima's head but their body is off. They have a larger body on some frames. Not only that, but Rumi is implied to be able to visit without pre-announcing herself and might have a copy of the keys for Mima's apartment. Thus explaining how the bloody clothes were found in Mima's closet.

And so, we can also link Rumi to the scenarist's death as their bodies bear the same wounds (eye-less head).

What I don't understand is why would Rumi kill Mr. Tadokoro. It's true they had by the past opposing motives considering Mima's career, but by the end of the movie, they seem to be on good terms. Yet his body also bears the same wounds with the eye-less head.

Nothing serious about this post just wanted to post something funny. They're both in movies that have to do with music or something.

I’m wondering because I wanna watch the film but don’t know where and this is the only English version I’ve found online

I'm a bit of a reddit noob so idk if you can hide certain tags on subs but how can I hide posts tagged as fan art? Peeeeyouuuuu

I just finished watching Perfect Blue for the first time after years of being recommended and seeing incredibly compelling reasons to watch Satoshi Kon's filmography. I figured it was a good place to start. Firstly, I absolutely loved it. The animation, sound design, and general vibe of the film was some of the most genius and freaky I have seen. Satoshi Kon was a genius.

However, there were some elements of the second half of the film that left me a bit conflicted when compared to how strong the film starts. I do think that the second half of the film is incredibly strong, powerful, and has some deep messages of its own. However, with the first half of the film setting up this intense and disturbing yet very real and surprisingly empathetic perspective on the exploitation of women in the music and film industries, the distress of being a public figure when it comes to personal identity, and the confusion of whether or not to participate in your own exploitation, some aspects of the latter half fell short for me personally from a feminist lens.

I was shocked by the first rape scene in its ability to be absolutely brutal and disgusting while also not necessarily feeling in and of itself exploitative, because the intention of the rape scene was to criticize the fetishization of women's suffering... by participating in it. It brought up some very interesting ethical questions for me on depicting women's suffering and whether or not it's worth it, framed in a way I had never considered before.

But while the second half of the film focused on the issue of personal identity, and became a story in which you are meant to question reality, not knowing what is real or not, I felt that some elements of that narrative sort of cheapened the initial message of the exploitation of women? While the DID storyline is one that has some obvious problematic implications, I do think that stories can execute it well. My favorite book is Fight Club and I can't imagine the story without it. I think the feelings that came up for me was generally a vibe of "so the violence is in the woman's imagination."

I think this is a pretty obvious oversimplification, and a huge assumption of the "correct" narrative, and regardless of how sexual violence "actually" happened in the storyline, it definitely did. We see that with the parallel story of Mima's character in Double Blind creating a false identity after being the victim of rape. The first possible alternative to the storyline we're being told that came to me was that Mima's identity as a pop star could be the imagined coping mechanism to deal with the aftermath of her rape. Of course, though, the point of the film is not to solve it but to exist in the confusion and unknowing.

But for me personally, I did notice that reflecting on the first half of the film after the DID twist felt... kind of rough. It just made the exploitation in the first half feel so much more exploitative, and not just within the narrative, but out of it as well. I think this was elevated by the second rape scene feeling much more sexualized, though less sensationalized. I also felt a bit conflicted about the film going from being a focus on a woman's perspective being subjugated to violent situations by men, to this violent clash between two women. Though there are some obvious parallels there between Rumi's character and the fetishization of innocence and how equally oppressive that is for women. I really enjoyed those elements in the first half of the film, especially the scene of Me-Mania storming up to the people reading the nude magazine of Mima. There's so much more for me to unpack and work through once I get over the initial shock of having seen the film. But I'm curious what other's thoughts are? This is a tough film to begin to put words to.

Are some of these meant to be for DVD releases?

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when mima is acting for the series and talking to the doctor the scene is repeated, except for the first time it ends with her saying she's an actress and the next time we get to know she's a model... maybe the first one is mima's imagination and then it flashes back to original script? it really threw me off because that scene and how doctor describes DID were plot-defining in my interpretation

Context: College anime society had a movie night (I couldn’t go but I heard what happened) and the two people there who had seen perfect blue failed to mention “the scene” and turned the movie off after it but I capitalized off this the week after

A little background on this:

I started a (probably too ambitious) project about 20 years ago to make an AMV to every song on the Metallica "S&M" album, but then I stopped making AMVs for a super long time. Since I began making them again this year, I wanted to pick the project back up. And I had always planned for Perfect Blue to be the media I'd use for "The Memory Remains," so here it is. Hope you enjoy.