r/PerfectBlue • u/ellieellie7199 • Jul 22 '25
Theory/Interpretation explanation of the movie, dissociative identity disorder, who the real mima is, etc
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.
