Perfect Blue is also noteworthy for how it looks at the nature of being a celebrity, no matter how minor, in the internet age. The narrative keeps you on the edge of your seat as it delves deeper into the psychological horrors Mima faces. The film explores themes of identity, reality, and the blurred lines between them as Mima becomes increasingly uncertain about her own sanity. As she transitions into acting, her life takes a dark and unsettling turn as the stressful nature of the Japanese entertainment industry takes its toll on her. Mima has just turned 21 and feels that she has “aged-out” of being in the group CHAM! whose style includes dressing in Lolita Fashion and pretending to be much younger than she actually is. Perfect Blue follows the story of Mima Kirigoe, a former pop idol who decides to pursue a career in acting, leaving her singing career behind. Presented by Anime Expo ®, the largest celebration of Japanese pop culture in North America, and Iconic Events Releasing, AX Cinema Nights™ features the best new and classic anime films in movie theaters across the country.” From their website “AX Cinema Nights™ brings passionate fans together for immersive and unforgettable community experiences. For that very reason, it’s easy to characterize Kon as an accidental director. At that point, Kon had already made Perfect Blue for the otaku market, thinking it would not be seen by the general public, and since psychological thrillers were an untested genre to be realized for the anime market, it was unclear how anyone would react to the film in any way. To his utter bewilderment, the Perfect Blue project was ordered to be re-conceptualized and reformatted for a theatrical release. He saw himself as a largely failed manga author, and worked as an assistant for Katsuhiro Otomo for a time making live action films. He was known for working on an OVA version (of the now very popular in the west) series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure that was fairly successful. Satoshi Kon was hired and tasked with making a straight-to-video release based on the Takeuchi novel after working on a couple of similar projects. It’s especially interesting that Perfect Blue even happened the way it did. Like most tortured artists he leaves a legacy that transcends him in death, and I am glad he is finally getting recognition. For those unaware, Satoshi Kon died of pancreatic cancer in 2010 at the age of 46, leaving the world feeling as if he was some sort of failure. Perhaps something like this, despite having a small audience in the grand scheme of things, will help expose a whole new generation to the works of Satoshi Kon. I had never had the opportunity to see any of these films on the big screen, so I was very excited for the opportunity. That is the exact reason that I was practically “over the moon” when I saw an initiative from Anime Expo called “AX Cinema Nights”, that was showing this and a handful of other Satoshi Kon films as “Satoshi Kon Fest”. I won’t rant about that on here, as that’s a topic for another day, but I feel like Satoshi Kon could be one of the most underrated and unsung film directors of the 21st century. So influential was this film, that a litany of Hollywood directors “borrowed from it” on numerous occasions, with one director, Darren Aronofsky, basically stealing entire portions of the film for his Oscar-Winning ventures (as a result I avoid his films). His eye for scene compositions, flawless match cuts, and the balance between happy and unnerving scenes gained him a cult following unheard of for an anime director in the West. While the film is loosely based on a novel called Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, the film is almost undeniably the Magnum Opus of Satoshi Kon. A Film by Satoshi Kon, re-released as part of Satoshi Kon Festġ997’s Perfect Blue is easily one of the greatest achievements in animated film ever.
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