The plot follows a young woman, Mima, transitioning from being a popular pop idol with a largely young and excitable fanbase, to becoming an actress in the hopes of gaining a more mature image in the eyes of her fans.
A significant key factor in this film is identity, following the protagonist, Mima, as she spirals into insanity, losing her self-identity to her ego in an attempt to justify reality itself.
During this transition between careers, it becomes swiftly apparent how little people (including her fans and close team) cared for her well-being. Fans were disappointed that she was moving on from the pop idol group. Her manager was upset that she no longer wanted to pursue a career in singing since that had been the manager’s entire youth, and selfishly considered it a blow to her own pride. Producers wanted to use Mima’s name in order to gain more fame in their productions. On the whole, it was clear that she had nobody there to genuinely care about her mental health during this period of time.
The deeper psychological aspect of Perfect Blue starts to be introduced when she lands a role in a movie as an extra. Her role is to say the line ‘who are you’ to one of the main characters. In the movie, it is a fleeting, insignificant moment. However, in her life she finds herself repeating the phrase to herself over and over as she really starts to question its meaning. Slowly, she is starting to lose herself in this depressing derealisation that she cannot come to terms with.
I believe the significance of her movie character having lines like ‘who are you’ and ‘i’m seeing illusions’, further emphasises the parallels between her real self and the delusional state of mind she lives in, as well as blurring the lines between fiction and reality which therefore foreshadow the grand plot twist that is revealed toward the end of the movie.
Having almost everything taken away from her in this period of time, she ends up going into a delirious and hypnotic state of mind and escapism, not knowing which reality is real, which emotions belonged to her, and ultimately, doesn’t know what it means to be her, facing this continuous battle between the life she leads in her head, and her actual surroundings.
In conclusion, the movie covers her insanity and anxiety which occurred in the process of her switching between performing as a pop idol to becoming an actress. Not only does she suffer from a delusional state after this change, but her manager also develops some form of personality disorder as she became so obsessed with Mima’s past image that she started creating multiple personalities of Mima in order to cope with the loss of the girl she once knew, and hoped would follow in her footsteps.
The movie shows a duality between her popular identity and how she acts when she is entirely alone, facing a newfound solitude; it shows the fear of people thinking something of you that you don’t want to portray. She started losing herself in what is real and what isn’t. This movie perfectly depicts the difference in someone’s avatar that they intentionally show the world, in contrast to their real self.
