Mima Kirigoe announces her ambition to leave the squeaky-clean manufactured J-pop girl group Cham to embark on an acting career, much to the chagrin of her fans. Her initial role of a one-line part in a psychological TV-drama called 'Double Bind' is unpromising until she is coerced by her avaricious manager to move further away from her original squeaky clean image by agreeing to a salacious rape scene. As Cham move onto greater things without her, Mima is soon partaking in steamy nude photo sessions.
Meanwhile someone is charting her inner thoughts in diary form on the 'Mima's Room' Internet fan site with an uncannily unerring accuracy. Haunted by the skulking presence of former fan Mi-Maniac, with no one but her duplicitous chaperone Rumi to turn to as her image becomes more and more manipulated by those guiding her career, she is tormented by a delusionary manifestation of her former pop persona. The divisions between her personal, public and imaginary identity become increasingly confused as events in 'Double Bind' begin to echo that of her life and various characters involved in the production begin to die violently.
Imagine an adult version of Scream that's animated and kickass. Thats what you get with Perfect Blue. An intelligent adult pyschological thriller anime style, with plenty of trippy sequences, great characters, and decent english voice acting. I can't speak for the japanese version since I don't speak it, but Im pretty sure it's just as badass if not more. This is not your average anime film, it has lots of japanese pop culture undertones but it's a sleak sexy thriller til the end.
-Monkey Shit
