Perfect Blue (1998)

The critic finds this striking anime far removed from typical noisy genre fare, delivering a story that could work in live action while using animation for unique effects. It is praised as scary, funny, poignant and thoughtful, with thriller set-pieces ranking with the best of De Palma or Argento, and singled out for its insightful look into the life of a Japanese media sensation.

The critic finds Perfect Blue a delirious and culturally astute invention that explores fame, fan obsession and the blurring of reality through a doppelgänger nightmare. It singles out the film's complex structure of dreams and psychosis, along with its critique of media and internet fame, for praise.

The review describes the film as an effective woman-in-peril psycho-thriller and critique of Japan's pop culture system that follows Repulsion into grown-up themes of self and persona. It notes that the denouement is unsurprising but praises its best moments as both culturally insightful and thrilling.

The critic calls it an impressive breakthrough study of psychological decline and the transience of fame, with atmospheric visuals that mirror the protagonist's paranoia. It singles out the ambitious visuals and drawing for praise but complains that later dream sequences muddle the unconvincing ending.

Satoshi Kon’s 1997 exploitation movie about an ex-pop star and her stalker still packs a punch, but certain scenes are extra uncomfortable in the Weinstein era. The action is wrapped up with a slightly ridiculous reveal, which doesn’t quite make sense on its own terms, but Perfect Blue has its own kind of cult pungency.

The critic describes the film as a peculiar example of Japanese animation with a plot about a pop idol leaving her group for acting, leading to stalking, murders, and identity confusion. She notes flashes of narrative skill but criticizes the banal dialogue and concludes it eventually becomes an interesting play on levels and perceptions of reality.

The critic calls it a psychological thriller that forsakes typical anime fantasy for a straight suspense plot, intriguing without quite hitting the bull's-eye. It improves in the second half as a pulp Pirandello-style exploration of reality versus illusion but disappoints with middling tension and underdeveloped elements.

Kon twists thriller tropes to the point of surreality while subverting them, presenting exploitative scenes as such rather than sensational. The film excels through animation's unique ability to blur reality and imagination in ways live-action cannot match.

The critic calls it a hard-hitting psychological thriller that questions self and celebrity, with a disorienting, splintering visual style far from kawaii anime norms. They single out its powerful reflections, distorting angles, and invasive close-ups that make Mima's identity crisis haunting and timely in a social-media era.