5/5 Psychologically Brilliant
  by Ana Mardoll (United States)
Perfect Blue / B00000JL42

*Spoilers*

When young idol Mima leaves her pop girl-band group in the hopes of breaking big into an acting career, she becomes entranced with a new website ("Mima's Room") that purports to be written entirely by her and which details her thoughts, dreams, and desires to the public. Although Mima knows that the website must be run by an imposter (after all, if the 'real' Mima was the website author, then she would know that...wouldn't she?), she becomes increasingly confused and concerned when the most private details of her life are posted for all to see - private details that most people would have no knowledge of.

And as Mima struggles with her acting career and is forced to make difficult choices in 'how far' she is willing to go to further her career (including a difficult 'adult' acting scene), she becomes increasingly disassociated from reality and cannot seem to tear herself away from "Mima's Room", where the perfect 'Mima' there seems so much larger than life than the 'real' Mima. And what of her various colleagues who keep meeting with serious injuries, accidents, and outright murder? Are the scenes - increasingly violent - that Mima is acting on stage just acting...or is it reality, edited into a TV show in order for her to cope?

This particular director, also involved (I believe) with Millennium Actress and Paprika, is a master at blending reality with fantasy (dreams and/or movies) in such a way that you can never be quite sure which is the fantasy and which is the reality. This thriller movie will mess with the viewer's mind, as we wonder what the nature of Mima's life truly is, and whether she is an innocent victim or a crazed psychopath. I was pleased that the resolute ending is clear and unambiguous, but with a touch of irony that I deeply appreciated. I won't say anymore, for fear of spoiling the surprise, but can only say that if you enjoy having your mind messed with, you will enjoy "Perfect Blue".

Content warning, though: This movie depicts a lot of female nudity (and not just the common "above-the-waist" variety) and also depicts Mima acting out a graphic rape scene for her TV series - a scene that could be considered highly triggering for some.

5/5 Not Your Stereotypical Anime
  by Sylvia M. Hiatt
As an avid anime watcher, I've seen all of the staples. Akira, Princess Mononoke, Sailor Moon, DBZ, Gundam....and as much as I absolutely adore all of these animes, Perfect Blue is what I consider to be the pinnacle of what a good anime should be. The art, even this many years later is stunning and mind-bending, the characters believable and well rounded, and the story line will just blow you away.

When I meet people or have friends who haven't seen anime, my other fellow nerds often say that I should ease them into the genre with something familiar. A good mech story, or a Miyazaki film...and as good as those are, they are just a little stereotypical for what you'd expect from an anime. Perfect Blue, on the other hand, to me, is more like a actual full length thriller that just happens to be animated. It's an excellent transition movie to get people into anime.

5/5 A Compelling Psychological Thriller: Animation for Grown-Ups Only
  by Monty Moonlight (TX)
Based on the novel by Yoshikazu Tekeuchi, "Perfect Blue" is the story of a beautiful rising pop starlet named Mima who decides to leave her singing trio under the urging of her agency to become an actress instead. It becomes an inner struggle for initially innocent Mima, who does not want to give up her singing career and is uncomfortable with the exploitive route she is being steered into of nude photo shoots and rape victim roles. Mima becomes psychologically unstable as she struggles to separate fantasy from reality, especially when she starts to receive visits from her own former, untainted pop-star self. Add to that a suspicious website, a horrifically ugly stalker, and a sudden string of murders focused on those who have tainted Mima's image, and it all becomes too much for the troubled beauty, but a final confrontation makes everything startlingly clear.

Directed by Satoshi Kon, 1997's "Perfect Blue" has often been described and praised as a Hitchcockian achievement. How much of this praise stems from the amazement some may have of seeing such a story done in animation I really don't know. Still, it IS an excellent film. I won't deny that I correctly guessed the true antagonist of the story very early on, but enough red herrings are floating about to keep you unsure throughout the film anyway. Going along for the ride with Mima, the audience soon becomes as unsure as she is of what is real and what is not. The scenario is well thought out and disturbingly played out, and beautifully drawn. I was a bit worried at the opening, as the animation there was not much to be thrilled about (good drawings, but not much movement), but it quickly picked up and began to look more like other Anime films at least. In the big argument about Japanese animation vs. American animation, if their is one, it's in the story department and willingness to not limit the medium to children's fodder where the Japanese win out (though, don't get me wrong, I'll always be a Disney guy over anything else). "Perfect Blue" is a film strictly for adult viewers. There's violence, there's nudity,... think of it like any R-rated psychological thriller you might go to the movies to see here in the U.S., only this one happens to be animated. And, if you like that genre, "Perfect Blue" is as good as any live-action example.

The DVD is widescreen and comes with Japanese and English dialogue, and subtitles too, of course. It's an unrated director's cut (the one I have is, anyway), and there is a neat menu of extras in the form of a mock webpage like the one in the film. It features interviews with the director and voice actors (unfortunately, we don't get to see the English dub ones, just hear them), a recording session for the pop-group in the film (Cham), a photogallery, audio track, theatrical trailer, and other Manga 2000 previews.

5/5 An excellent psychological thriller anime.
  by Robert Thompson (Under Your Bed!!!)
Don't let the very beginning of this movie fool you, this is not a movie for children. A pop singer ditches her usual routine to become an actress on a TV series. As a result and particularly crazed and obsessive fan decides he'll force her to become a pure pop singer again. It ends up taking the course of a particularly disturbing psychological thriller that lets you think you know what's going on only to show you that you're wrong. I enjoyed the art a great deal but the animation is pretty flawed. I actually really liked and got into all the characters except for, surprisingly enough, the main character Mima. She's dimwitted, annoying, and quite frankly unlikable. Despite these drawbacks Perfect Blue is still a smart and mesmerizing anime aimed at adults.

5/5 I love it!~
  by Aaron Joseph (~In Constant Transition~)
Almost in a genre of it's own, Perfect Blue is a deep and involving masterpiece... I would recommend the purchase of this movie to anyone, regardless of their tastes or interests in art or entertainment... I've never watched a movie this deep before... it's almost enough to make one regret watching it, for the fact that one wouldn't be able to again watch it for the first time. I won't spoil the plot at all, but it can be slightly confusing at times, alternate realities seemingly intergrated into one...