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Perfect Blue. Wow. Just... wow. I enjoyed that. I didn't expect that I'd like anime set in the 'real world'. Shows how much I know. I guess it helps that it's based loosely on a novel. (note to self: buy the book!)

So two days after I buy it I finally sit down to watch it. And it was good. It gets momentarily confusing around the middle, but I think that's intended, window into the character's mind and all that.

You may wonder what it's about. Well here's a run-down.

Mima Kirigoe is a pop idol who leaves her pop trio CHAM! (their song, Ai no Tenshi is on the Internet somewhere; check your P2Ps, it's worth listening to) to become an actress. She lands a small role in a drama series. Some of her fans resent her retirement from music, especially the mysterious stalker who calls himself Me-Mania.

Mima discovers a website containing a diary which describes her day-to-day life in frightening detail, while in her professional life she gets a larger part in the drama series, starting with a rape scene. This traumatizes her so much that she begins to have difficulty discerning fantasy and reality, and she is haunted by a mysterious figure resembling herself in her old pop idol persona. At the same time, several people involved in the drama production turn up dead.

Did Mima kill them? Is the apparition real? Who is the author of Mima's Room? What is Me-Mania's true role in the events? Watch, and you'll find out!

Perfect Blue is an oldie from 1997, and the animation has aged noticably. But it's still a great story, cunningly constructed, and the character design is good and realistic. There are some SERIOUSLY ugly people here (not to be cruel, but Me-Mania could play the Phantom Of The Opera and need a mask to cover BOTH sides of his face).

This film belongs on the shelves of those who love psychological thrillers, not just anime fans. And compared to most recent anime DVD releases, it's relatively cheap (though only by a few pounds). Perfect Blue is one of those anime features that are considered 'classics'. Put it in your collection along with Akira, Ninja Scroll and Ghost in the Shell.