Perfect Blue

National Amusements | Release Date: August 20, 1999

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

67	METASCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Kevin Thomas

Adapted by Sadayuki Murai from Yoshikazu Takeuchi's novel, "Perfect Blue" creates an increasingly terrifying world and pulls you into it with the effectiveness of a Hitchcock suspense classic. [07 Oct 1999, p.F16]

Joe Williams

It would be a disservice to describe "Perfect Blue" as a well-made cartoon. It is simply one of the richest and most suspenseful films of the year. [03 Aug 2001, p.E2]

EmpireKim Newman

Strange, stylish and intelligent, this is a rare anime film that delivers on its Eastern promise. Read full review

TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)

It won't take genre fans long to unravel the mystery, but the pleasures of this film lie elsewhere. Its images of the gleaming, depersonalized Tokyo in which Mima lives out her superficially charmed but lonely life are haunting, and the characterizations are unusually strong. There's plenty for anime newcomers to enjoy, and fans won't want to miss it. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

All the elements of a modern Hitchcock-style murder mystery are brilliantly handled, while the sort of tricks usually deployed to misdirect the audience are intelligently positioned to draw us deeper into Mima's tortured psyche until fantasy blurs into deadly reality. The result is a smart, innovative and gut-wrenchingly disturbing film. Read full review

Bob Graham

Perfect Blue manages, through animation, to take the thriller, media fascination, psychological insight and pop culture and stand them all on their heads. Read full review

Jake Cole

Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue is a prescient vision of a modern world defined by media oversaturation and social media validation. Read full review

Marc Savlov

Contemporary adult themes that resonate as much as those in Perfect Blue (stalking, the cult of celebrity) have become increasingly rare in this animated genre better known for tentacled demons and cute forest sprites; it's refreshing to be reminded that not everything in anime need feature that lovable scamp Pikachu, either. Read full review

Scott Tobias

With its fluidly changeable surfaces, animation may be the ideal medium for confronting the public's growing uncertainty with reality, but Perfect Blue is a missed opportunity, too shallow and exploitative to be taken seriously. Read full review

Wesley Morris

The art direction is reliably vivid and hyperreal, but director Satoshi Kon and company can't articulate how mentally taxed Mima is without confusing us. Read full review

Sharon Pian Chan

The story line is not much more creative than your average suspense thriller, but "Perfect Blue" does break new ground as an anime film and it offers a dark examination of fame. It's what would happen if Britney Spears went to hell. [01 Oct 1999]

Lisa Alspector

This engrossing animated thriller (2000) somehow displays realist gore, nudity, and sexual violence in a tone not too far from that of a children’s adventure; its innocence stems in part from the convincing naivete of the heroine. Read full review

Dennis Harvey

Forsaking the usual anime fantasy terrain for a straight suspense plot that might easily have been executed in live-action form, director Satoshi Kon's debut pic, "Perfect Blue," is a psychological thriller that intrigues without quite hitting the bull's-eye. Read full review

The GuardianPeter Bradshaw

The action is wrapped up with a slightly ridiculous reveal, which doesn’t quite make sense on its own terms, but Perfect Blue has its own kind of cult pungency. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

The denouement isn't very surprising or enlightening, but at its best this works as both a critique of Japan's pop culture system and an effective woman-in-peril psycho-thriller. Read full review

Anita Gates

With smarter dialogue, it might have made a fascinating film. Read full review

Merle Bertrand

What starts out as a fairly conventional and effective stalker drama with a cyber-twist, soon gets too cute with its dreams within dreams set pieces and shifting realities. It’s kinda nifty at first, but Kon just keeps piling it on until you just roll your eyes, throw up your hands, and scream, “Enough!” Read full review