Perfect Blue was the directorial debut of Kon Satoshi. Yoshikazu Takeuchi wrote the novel of the same name and allowed the director to make any changes. As long as he keeps three elements. It is about an underground Idol. A fan turned stalker. And it is a horror movie. Kon Satoshi built the elements that will become his own brand as a director. Blurring the line between reality and illusions. And the characters falling from one scene into another. While descending through a downward spiral.
Kon Satoshi: Before and After Magnetic Rose
Kon Satoshi was in charge of the script of Magnetic Rose. A short anime after the original manga of Otomo Katsuhiro. Part of the three shorts anime production Memories, Otomo produced the adaption of three of his own manga. Kon Satoshi was a long-time collaborator of the legendary creator of Akira. He has been a drawing assistant since the mid 80’s and worked with Otomo in the adaptation of Roujin Z, 1991 as a background designer.
Kon Satoshi started working on the script in 1992. It was an all star production. Magnetic Rose was directed by Morimoto Koji. And produced by Morimoto’s own anime house, Studio 4°C. With music from the Puccinni’s Madame Butterfly and Tosca, Kanno Yoko wrote the original score. Even Seiyu Yamadera Koichi shared the first production of a long- time collaboration with Kon. He will act in Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers and Paprika. Magnetic Rose is a vision of what Kon Satoshi will become as a director. With a close scene in when illusion and reality are mixed. Making the characters lose their own perception. And drove the audience to feel the same confusion as the protagonist. Making illusion looks like a possible path to follow in the real world.
Memories was released in 1995. Critics and audiences alike acclaimed Magnetic Rose as the best out of the three stories. Up in its own league. The other two being Cannon Fodder and Stink Bomb. The latter is animated by power house Madhouse. And produced by Maruyama Masao.
Perfect Blue: Instant Anime Classic
Perfect Blue plans to be adapted into an action live movie crushed in the mid 90’s. The 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake damaged the film studios in Hyogo Prefecture. And the production house decided to go Anime. Madhouse took the project. And co-founder and producer Maruyam Masao asked Kon Satoshi to direct the movie.
The first plot of Perfect Blue was a horror-like slasher movie. Focussed on the Idol stalked by her perverted fan. Being a common genre in one the movie usually depicts the raw nature of the stalker, Kon decided to show the emotional breakdown of the Idol. In a way that she cannot discern between reality and fiction.
Perfect Blue puts the light on the protagonist, voiced by talented Iwao Junko. Showing how she starts to believe the fiction world is the true one. And there is no reason to believe in reality any more. She ends up taking the illusion as her true self. The director makes us come to the same conclusion. Even knowing that this cannot be the truth. No hint thrown at us to deny it. That is the moment in which we, as watchers, can feel and understand the emotions that drive the protagonist out of her mind.
Perfect Blue premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, 1997. Voted by the audience as Best Foreign Movie. Setting a second screening at the festival. With a Japanese release in February, 1998. Kon Satoshi approached Perfect Blue’s production company Rex Entertainment to produce his next movie. Paprika. But Rex went bankrupt and Paprika had to wait almost ten years to escape the mind of the legendary anime director.