Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue is the tale of an idol singer, Mima, who decides to move into acting and leave her band, the oddly named Cham, behind her. But there’s a nagging doubt in her mind, and as the band she left becomes more popular without her, her own self doubt seemingly takes form and begins to haunt her… And just how is the website known as Mima’s room able to write down her own thoughts?

It’s a psycho/slasher thriller advertised as a sort Hitchcock meets Disney effort, and I can see why the comparison was made. The direction is fairly artistic, with some scenes rendering the perfectly innocent into something more disturbing. As Mima’s imagination runs away with her, the line between that which is real and that which is imagined starts to blur, and the viewer is left to wonder for themselves what is really happening.

It’s drawn in a realistic style which helps lend a great deal of weight to the film’s credibility, which can only be a good thing for the general market.

Although the ending was superb, I was dissatisfied with the middle of the story. Although I liked it, it wasn't as chilling a psycho thriller as I think it could have been.

Perfect Blue is a poignant film which is a must for fans, and certainly a film that should be shown to entice people to explore the medium further. Get this on BBC 2 and you’d have a lot of people looking at anime in a different light.