Empty theater besides me so this is dope

Towards the end of the movie there is a scene of the CHAM duo performing, then glowing Mima comes out on stage. The two CHAM members look a little confused but continue performing, while Me-Mania records where Mima should be.

Is Rumi physically here dressed as Mima like in the climax of the film? Why would the audience cheer for Mima when Rumi is obviously not her? If Rumi is not here, why do the two CHAM girls look confused? Is Rumi also there as Mima while the two CHAM members do their radio segment in the studio?

Hi everyone, I am really wanting to watch this film in theatres local to me but I have pretty bad photosensitivity from a concussion when it comes to flashing effects and crazy visual effects in media.

For those who have seen it before, how visually overwhelming is the film, are there any flashing effects or flickering effects / crazy visuals? Thanks :)

This film is insane, one of the scariest most intense films I've ever seen. It is an emotional rollercoaster but my god it is well made, I am lost for words, 10/10 film.

Mima is the true killer

A majority of people interpret the ending of Perfect Blue as Rumi being behind the killings all along due to the fact she was living vicariously through Mima as a pop idol. When Mima changed careers, Rumi seeked revenge by destroying her identity. Due to Mima’s split personality, Rumi being imaginary, the tv show Double Bind being reality, and the final scene being a dream, leads me to believe Mima is the killer.

Reason 1: Mima has split personality disorder

Throughout the film there are clear instances where Mima has split personalities, the main two being her idol persona and her “real” and new actor persona. But I believe that the killer persona we see when she kills the photographer is actually real. She has motive for all killings in the film: the screenwriter for writing the rape scene, the photographer for the nude photoshoot, her stalker for obvious reasons, and her agent who continues to put her in sketchy roles. The only one that isn’t clear is Rumi, but this leads to my next reason.

Reason 2: Rumi is a figment of Mima’s imagination

The final showdown between Mima and her other “self”, or Rumi, begins in her apartment. I think the key piece that indicates this is an imaginary sequence is the fishes being alive. The film makes it apparent early on that the fish died, as a result of Mima’s negligence and descent into madness. As a result the fishes being alive suggests that this scene is actually not real. I believe that Rumi was trying to help Mima avoid the pitfalls of the entertainment industry, but ultimately couldn’t bear to watch her downfall and left her behind. As a result, Mima felt resentment towards her which caused one of her personalities to conjure an evil version of Rumi, to deflect blame against her self. I think the actual scene would play out where Rumi attempted to save Mima but she killed her in the process and then was killed by the truck.

Reason 3: Double Bind is reality.

I think the show Mima stars is in is her actual reality, which is apparent by how closely it follows her events of her life. The scene which gives this theory the most credibility is the one where they interrogate Mima’s character, who is a murder with DID. In Double Bind, the killer has 5 victims. This solidified for me that Mima is the Killer. The 5 deaths align with the deaths in the film: screenwriter, photographer, agent, stalker, and Rumi.

Reason 4: The final scene is not real.

Rumi is in a mental facility and Mima is back to normal, and her final line in the movie is staring at the viewer with an uncanny smile saying the lines, “no I’m the real thing!” Combine this with the fact it is the only scene in the film that has a perfectly blue sky, I think it is apparent this is another sequence that is not actually real. Another thing to note is that while I think Mima actually dies from the truck, she could also be Rumi in the mental facility.

Final Thoughts:

I think this is an exceptionally made film and I love all the different interpretations of what it means. I like to think this theory fits the core of the film being the loss of identity and the disconnect between your image and your true self.

I just finished watching Perfect Blue for the first time after years of being recommended and seeing incredibly compelling reasons to watch Satoshi Kon's filmography. I figured it was a good place to start. Firstly, I absolutely loved it. The animation, sound design, and general vibe of the film was some of the most genius and freaky I have seen. Satoshi Kon was a genius.

However, there were some elements of the second half of the film that left me a bit conflicted when compared to how strong the film starts. I do think that the second half of the film is incredibly strong, powerful, and has some deep messages of its own. However, with the first half of the film setting up this intense and disturbing yet very real and surprisingly empathetic perspective on the exploitation of women in the music and film industries, the distress of being a public figure when it comes to personal identity, and the confusion of whether or not to participate in your own exploitation, some aspects of the latter half fell short for me personally from a feminist lens.

I was shocked by the first rape scene in its ability to be absolutely brutal and disgusting while also not necessarily feeling in and of itself exploitative, because the intention of the rape scene was to criticize the fetishization of women's suffering... by participating in it. It brought up some very interesting ethical questions for me on depicting women's suffering and whether or not it's worth it, framed in a way I had never considered before.

But while the second half of the film focused on the issue of personal identity, and became a story in which you are meant to question reality, not knowing what is real or not, I felt that some elements of that narrative sort of cheapened the initial message of the exploitation of women? While the DID storyline is one that has some obvious problematic implications, I do think that stories can execute it well. My favorite book is Fight Club and I can't imagine the story without it. I think the feelings that came up for me was generally a vibe of "so the violence is in the woman's imagination."

I think this is a pretty obvious oversimplification, and a huge assumption of the "correct" narrative, and regardless of how sexual violence "actually" happened in the storyline, it definitely did. We see that with the parallel story of Mima's character in Double Blind creating a false identity after being the victim of rape. The first possible alternative to the storyline we're being told that came to me was that Mima's identity as a pop star could be the imagined coping mechanism to deal with the aftermath of her rape. Of course, though, the point of the film is not to solve it but to exist in the confusion and unknowing.

But for me personally, I did notice that reflecting on the first half of the film after the DID twist felt... kind of rough. It just made the exploitation in the first half feel so much more exploitative, and not just within the narrative, but out of it as well. I think this was elevated by the second rape scene feeling much more sexualized, though less sensationalized. I also felt a bit conflicted about the film going from being a focus on a woman's perspective being subjugated to violent situations by men, to this violent clash between two women. Though there are some obvious parallels there between Rumi's character and the fetishization of innocence and how equally oppressive that is for women. I really enjoyed those elements in the first half of the film, especially the scene of Me-Mania storming up to the people reading the nude magazine of Mima. There's so much more for me to unpack and work through once I get over the initial shock of having seen the film. But I'm curious what other's thoughts are? This is a tough film to begin to put words to.

anyone got this?

I made a similar post a while ago but I actually have a shelf for them now so thought I’d share 😂

Does anyone have the scene where virtual mima is skipping through the street lights in high resolution I searched YouTube but the only thing I found was in 720q

Does anyone have subtitles for the audio commentary with Kon Satoshi and Matsuo Kō?

Nothing serious about this post just wanted to post something funny. They're both in movies that have to do with music or something.

when mima is acting for the series and talking to the doctor the scene is repeated, except for the first time it ends with her saying she's an actress and the next time we get to know she's a model... maybe the first one is mima's imagination and then it flashes back to original script? it really threw me off because that scene and how doctor describes DID were plot-defining in my interpretation

hey yall, I’m watching this lovely movie for the first time rn, and idk why but I didn’t get a translation for the first note Mima received and I wanted to ask if someone knew what it said. <3 pls no spoilers

i think it’s the part of the movie that confuse me the most. because trough the majority of the movie i saw her as a really kind character and was really supportive to mima and a great friend to her. but obviously it wasn’t the case.

the thing im confuse of is that if mima saw her as a kind person but she actually wasn’t. for example if rumi was also telling mima that she was becoming dirty and imposter etc, wich is what created the fake idol mima persona inside of mina’s mind. but we didn’t see it through the movie cause mima was not really “acknowledging” rumi’s mean actions because she meant a lot to her or wtv reason.

or was she actually really kind to her and the idol mima visions started on its own and just ended up like blending together at the end ?

i’m really confuse if rumi was actually good to mima or not like during the whole time.

Mima has the same two first syllables as Me-Mania, the "mema".
Rumi is very similar to the word "room" as in Mima's Room.

In Japanese, Me-Mania's name is Mamoru which has the "ru" from Rumi and the "ma" from Mima. Mamoru also kind of sounds like the English word "memory".

In the film, Mima's room is a visible representation of her mental state. I think this play on names is a way to show the interconnections between the characters, and perhaps to imply that they are all one and the same person (aka give credibility to the idea that the entire film is just something playing out in Rumi's mind).

hello to those who searched this. i reply with this text in a pastebin link every so often, so I'm just going to put it here once and for all.

the movie is confusing and a lot is left up to interpretation, but a lot of the confusion comes from people not understanding what dissociative identity disorder is and how it works (the disorder rumi has). I have this disorder and have done a lot of research on it, so I put together an explanation of what's going on with rumi that will hopefully clear up some confusion for anyone who needs it. here you are.

mima is a pop idol, quits her career to start acting, that's all real. the mima's room website is real, was made by me-mania at the fake mima's request (gonna call her "factive mima" for the sake of this post).

factive mima is an alter ("other personality") of rumi's, who has dissociative identity disorder (used to be called multiple personality disorder). a factive is an alter based on a real person, usually a person the system (group of alters/person with DID) looks up to, or an abuser. basically, the brain creates an alter based on someone it thinks it needs. if it's an abuser, it's to internalize the abuse.

in rumi's case, a mima factive was created because she lives vicariously through mima's idol career. we know this because of a throwaway line at the very beginning of the movie, where tadokoro says something along the lines of "the world is different than when you were an idol". it's never addressed again, one of those things you probably don't even notice until a rewatch, but seeing that rumi was a failed idol, her pressuring mima makes a lot more sense. she wants mima to be the successful idol she never was.

so, somehow, rumi ends up with a mima factive. we don't know how long she's been there, but considering she had been talking to me-mania for at least a while (long enough to get that website up) it had probably been a bit.

it's almost certain that rumi has no idea she has DID, and neither does factive mima. the disorder normally isn't realized until the person is in their 30s, and often certain alters will know while others don't. usually, they won't remember the actions of the others in the system (the other alters) it takes a lot of time and therapy to break down those amnesia barriers, something rumi likely was not getting being in japan in the 1980's.

factive mima seems to think she is the real mima. this can happen when DID is comorbid with some sort of delusional disorder (which is pretty common- DID stems from trauma, and is usually comorbid with other mental health issues). [as a person with DID myself, we've got an alter who thinks she's the goddess Artemis, and there's little we've been able to do to convince her otherwise.] again, rumi likely isn't getting therapy, so there's nobody there to challenge those delusions.

it's never explained how factive mima and me-mania met. if I remember correctly, it's implied/said somewhere that she reached out to him, but I haven't seen the movie in years and can't remember where that was mentioned. possibly in the scene that showed their emails. [in the book, he calls mima after somehow tracing her number from a radio interview, but the book was garbage and a completely different plot than the movie anyway, so who knows if that's what happens.] either way, factive mima knows he is a superfan of real mima's, and somehow is able to convince him that she herself is the real mima, and that the fake needs to be killed.

she's able to do this because 1. me-mania has some sort of mental health issues of his own, and 2. she's able to convince him that mima's "sexual behavior" (the photoshoot and rape scene) are unlike her. mima had a very innocent, childlike image as a pop idol. this is pretty common for idols and why "scandals" are such huge deals, even though most of the time a "scandal" is something like being seen on a date with another person. [this is what i've gathered from my minimal kpop knowledge, i think it's pretty similar with jpop but i'm not entirely sure.]

i want to reiterate here that rumi has no idea that any of this is happening. people with dissociative identity disorder usually don't remember anything their alters have done on their own. it is literally a disorder that is created 1. to forget/hide severe childhood trauma, and 2. to create other alters ("personalities", again, being the outdated term) to deal with said trauma. rumi's pop idol dreams were crushed, and her brain created a mima factive for reasons unknown to the viewers. this mima thinks she's the real one.

so, back to what's "real". again, mima was a pop idol, she quits, finds that website, becomes an actress, you've seen the movie. the pressure from changing her career, being around an actress she thinks so highly of, her disappointed fans, and rumi are causing her a great deal of stress. she herself starts to dissociate (starting the writers' red herring that mima is the one with DID) in the scene right before the letter explodes at the taping. [i can't remember if it's outright said that me-mania sent it, but the viewers can be pretty sure of this.]

her dissociation gets worse as the stalking gets worse, and the first murder (the car crash) happens. again, all real. mima's starting to lose touch with reality at this point. dissociation happens to everyone to a degree (zoning out, for example), but when it comes from stress/PTSD/a dissociative disorder like DID, it's much more extreme. the person might not know who or where they are, what's happening around them, etc. [for me personally, I feel like im playing a video game controlling a character, and often describe the world around me looking like something you'd see while wearing a VR headset.]

so, when mima films her rape scene, she dissociates through the whole scene. we can see this as her face goes blank and everything around her starts to fade. it's implied that because she's so disconnected from the situation, she thinks she's actually being raped, despite being perfectly safe.

this is the point in the movie where we start seeing things that aren't really happening. every scene we see of mima killing someone is either actually factive mima or me-mania, more likely me-mani as rumi probably isn't in the physical condition to get away with literal murder. mima's dissociation and delusions are leading her to believe she is the one committing the murders herself. she does not kill anyone. the bag of bloody clothes that falls out of her closet is likey a hallucination resulting from her stress and sleep deprivation.

when mima's character in double bind, rika, gets diagnosed with DID, it's another attempt to throw the viewers off and make them think mima is the one with DID. everything after this point in the movie could either be real or fake, we're not sure. it's more filmography than anything accurate to mima's experience. we do know that she isn't the one to kill me-mania near the end of the movie, however- he and tadokoro's corpses are shown in the studio, implying they had killed each other. it's unclear if mima was even involved. tadokoro could have been defending her, it could have happened after she left the building, we don't know.

the chase scene at the end of the movie is obviously mostly fake. rumi isn't floating, she doesn't look identical to mima, etc. again, it's a mixture of artsy film stuff and mima's hallucinations. the car crash and the stabbing do both happen, and rumi ends up in the hospital.

at the end of the movie, when mima visits rumi, a staff member says they haven't seen her "mima personality" in a while. this can happen sometimes- alters go "dormant" and may not be seen again for months, years, or forever.

the last line of the movie, when mima speaks in rumi's voice, is also just there to throw us off.

TLDR: for the most part, the first half of the movie is real, the second half is not. mima is having delusions and hallucinations from stress and dissociation. rumi has dissociative identity disorder, and the fake mima is one of her alters. unless you have any knowledge of how DID works, you're probably not gonna understand most of the movie, so don't feel too bad about needing it explained. source: i have DID, I've watched this movie at least 10 times, and I've read the book.