Just seen this on All Hallows' Eve. It's a bit old, but gold! I definitely have to rewatch this, because you just got to pay attention to 'know' what is happening and follow the story. I think you'd better understand/follow the story and that it will make more sense when you watch it a second time. The whole movie experience was pretty much like every time you think you got it all figured out, you learn something…

Perfect Blue perfectly blends psychologically disturbed fantasy with grounded reality. Mima Kirigoe. A pop-idol. An actress. An X-rated model. Public image and its personifying echoes circulate around the world, adhering to the desires of endearing fans alike. But when their inspirational idol haphazardly shifts career, from pop sensation to dramatic actress, the psychosis of the modern consumer society ultimately…

I caught this in High School and it instantly took me as an eerie Alfred Hitchcock show that did an outstanding job of feeding on pure paranoia. It was unsettling, it was scary, and at the time it seemed as realistic as it could be for an anime movie. As I rode through it, I started doubting what was real and what wasn't and that is a hallmark of a great movie, that ability to keep the viewer on their toes.

The young "Mima" has a successful, if limited, career singing with a girl band, but she is restless. Her manager insists he can get her an acting job on a popular soap - and that's the way to fame and fortune. Like so many other impressionable young folks, she tries to follow her dream - but is really only following his, and is soon being photographed (intimately), denigrated and her grasp on reality is soon…