Story
Mima Kirigoe is a pop-idol, part of the j-pop group CHAM! However, to the dismay of many of her fans, she has decided to leave that part of her life behind her and make become an actress. Her first role is in a TV. show called “Double Bind”, a psychological drama series. As she makes her transition, she discovers her former band members are having more and more success while Mima is struggling. Eventually she discovers a website called ‘Mima’s Room’ which recalls the intimate details of her life. She turns to her manager Rumi Hidaka, but is told to ignore the site. From this point her mental breakdown begins.
The story is easily the standout part of the film for me. It is really well told and the scenes where you see Mima’s breakdown are pure brilliance.
It is a pretty hard hitting story, and will leave you thinking by the end of it. From the very outset you get a great feel for the character Mima, and you want to see her do well. Her actual breakdown is also incredibly well done, as I said before and is probably the best part of the story.
There are a few scenes that really stand out, especially when the hallucinations start playing with what Mima believes is real or not. This was pretty amazing to watch, although for some it will leave the film a little bit hard to follow. Also the scenes where Mima is running after the hallucination were very nicely done, and certainly help create the breakdown really well. Even the scene in the strip club was great (if a little bit protracted in my opinion) because it really helps build the character, and the tone for the rest of the film.
I would love to mention more, but I would just be spoiling what happens, so I’ll stop on this subject now!
The other characters aren’t quite as well developed in my opinion. Rumi is quite interesting, and is someone I would have liked to know more about because her role in the story is so important, and in the end I didn’t really understand how her story was actually resolved. Me-Mania was pretty well developed, and he made for a great character, but I think I would have liked to know more about him as well.
This under-development in the characters leaves the ending feeling almost disjointed from the rest of the film. At first when I saw the resolution in sight, I was pretty excited. I thought I saw what was going on, but (and maybe this is actually a good thing) it turned out to be completely different to what I wanted. It left me thinking, okay it was a twist for the sake of having a twist. Saying that, I did like the ending, but it could have been better or possibly just could have been hinted at better.
Visuals
The animation is top notch, all the movements are pretty fluent, and I think there was only one scene where someone’s arm moves in one of those fantastic ways without breaking. Apart from that I am fairly sure everything else was really nicely done. By today’s standard it is pretty average, but definitely not bad.
The look of things like Mima’s apartment, or the city itself really helps build the atmosphere. The city seems over crowded, a place that makes you feel like you’re always been followed. On the other hand you have the apartment which is small and cosy; a haven from the outside. Yet once she starts receiving the emails, it seems like a prison, where the world watches her from the outside. These sort of visual aspects in the film really build the tone, and add that creepy atmosphere you need to make a psycho-thriller work.
Sound
I’m going to start with the voice acting now. I loved it. Mima’s voice actress Junko Iwao (Hikari Horaki in NGE, I believe and Tomoyo in Cardcaptor) does a superb job. She sounds sensitive, yet confident, but as her breakdown begins her voice almost becomes empty with emotion. All her lines are well delivered (especially those about the internet… which I thought were hilarious… Sad times before the internet)
The rest of the character’s give great performances but Iwao does manage to outshine them all. I think the only voice that maybe wasn’t as great as it could have been was Me-Mania. His voice suited the role, but I was expecting something a lot different. Not a criticism by any means was just waiting for something different.
The music was something that didn’t stand out to me for some reason. It didn’t take down the enjoyment of the film for me, considering I only notice the music when it is truly spectacular. I did actually like the songs CHAM! sing because I feel they suit the type of group they are, and in the elevator scene, I thought it was really damn cool.
I haven’t seen the dub yet, and I may try and update this review when I have. The rest of the sounds in the movie are great, everything helps build the atmosphere, which I really liked. All I can really say on that.
Overall
I gave good few criticisms, but I want to say now, it’s a fantastic movie. Highly recommend it, if you’re a fan of psycho-thrillers. The ending is a little jarring, but the story is solid, the voice acting great, and the characters believable (for the most part) I have read that the movies could have worked better as a live action movie, and I am inclined to agree. However I don’t think the scenes where Mima was chasing the hallucinations would have been as well done, and ended up just been a little bit silly.
Overall Perfect Blue is a brilliant movie and really worth a watch. One of those movies that I think my dad would like, and he isn’t the biggest fan of animated movies unless they are Pixar!
