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Perfect Blue Blu-ray Review

“Perfect Blue” is a classic anime film.

In “Perfect Blue,” the story revolves around a young pop singer named Mima who decides to quit her band Cham! and become an actress and model to start a new phase of her career. Unfortunately, the transition does not go well. Not only is the acting work that she lands not what she hoped for, but she soon discovers that a crazed Cham! fan has started a website in which he poses as her. Things only worsen from there. Mima begins to wonder if she is suffering a mental breakdown as she can’t differentiate between reality and fiction and she also starts to wonder if a different personality has begun to manifest itself. Worse still, people in Mima’s inner circle are starting to be killed. What exactly is going on in Mima’s life? All is revealed in the end.

Director Satoshi Kon’s “Perfect Blue” is often cited as an anime film masterpiece and it’s not hard to see why. It’s a very challenging adult anime film that shows you what the medium is truly capable of. In the case of this movie, you get a prophetic psychological thriller that delves into sanity, stalkers, the internet age (just as the internet was actually starting), the line between fact and fiction, personas, and paranoia. It’s a complex thriller that could have easily been sunk by devolving into a cliched “what is real and what isn’t” storyline. Instead, it forges its own path by boldly tackling numerous subject matters within its own character centric tale.

The only real downside here is that it would have been beneficial for Sadayuki Murai’s script to have a bit more characterization. The characters of Rumi and Me-Mania in particular could have been much more fleshed out. Granted, it’s not their story, but more scenes with them would have added more depth overall.

Video/Audio:

Presentation: 1.85:1 1080p. How does it look? A nice upgrade from DVD. The frame is a little jumpy at times, but the picture quality is certainly sharper.

Audio Track: Japanese 5.1 DTS-HD MA and Mono and English Dolby Digital 5.1. How do they sound? The English dub is passable, but the original language Japanese track is clearly the option to go with here.

Extras:
* English credits
* 2 US trailers, a US//UK trailer, a UK re-release trailer, and a Japanese trailer for “Perfect Blue.”
* “Recording Session”- Behind-the-scenes footage of the Japanese music recording session of the “Angel of Your Heart” song along with audio only of the English version of the tune.
* Interviews with Ruby Marlowe (English voice actress of Mima), Wendee Lee (English voice actress of Rumi), Bob Marx (English voice actor of Mr. Me-Mania), Junko Iwao (Japanese voice actress of Mima) and Satoshi Kon (director).
* A Satoshi Kon lecture
* Original standard definition version of “Perfect Blue.”

March 8, 2019 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Blu-Ray review | Anime Film, Perfect Blue Blu-ray Review, Satoshi Kon