Perfect Blue (1997).

So I stumbled across this on my laptop and thought I'd give it a whirl, actually forgetting why I acquired it in the first place. It's actually often labelled as the best anime movie ever made. Directed by Satoshi Kon, Perfect Blue is about a pop idol named Mima Kirigoe, who leaves her girl group CHAM to pursue an acting career. Initially, she plays a small part in a TV series called Double Bind, but later her character is written a more prominent role, involving a rape scene which she voluntarily agrees to do, to the dislike of her manager, Rumi. Mima also has a stalker, Me-Mania, who, apart from being the most scarily drawn anime character ever, appears to be the one behind "Mima's Room" - an online blog supposedly written by Mima for her fans. The persona behind Mima's room maintains Mima's more innocent pop idol image. Upon reading this website, Mima realises that she has a stalker, and a very good one at that. As the story develops, Mima starts to doubt herself, as the difference between pop idol Mima and actress Mima becomes more prominent. As Mima gets more attention as an actress, the people around her start getting murdered. Thus she becomes entangled in race to find out who the killer is before she is harmed herself.

As Mima starts to break down, she experiences hallucinations of her former self and has recurring dreams, so much so that she doesn't know what is reality and what isn't. The audience shares this as many of the scenes are repeated but with different outcomes, so you are just as confused as to what is reality. The plot of Double Bind kind of intertwines with the plot of the film, creating more interlinking scenes and characters, continually stressing the juxtaposition of reality and fantasy. The film climaxess to a scene where Me-Mania finally gets his hands on Mima, though she manages to escape. A clever plot twist is then slotted in, kind of turning the whole film around. I shall not reveal. There are strong themes in this film, one being multiple personality disorder, and knowing who you really are, and what you really want. I found the detailing of Mima's room especially satisfying as it really captured busy city life well. The animation and drawing style is more realistic than I am used to seeing but nonetheless did not deter from the attraction of this film. High contrast colours and heavy lighting is used to give a more dramatic effect which works really well in this genre.

This film has often been compared to Alfred Hitchcock's works. It certainly is very thought provoking and left me still not sure what really happened in the middle of the film. Another viewing is probably necessary to sort that out, but I really don't want to see Me-Mania again. Something very different from the artistic, cheerful anime that I usually watch but still intriguing.