Analysing the Duality of Perfect Blue: Dealing with Dissociative Identity Disorder and Losing Sense of Reality
Humankind has been living a life of duality since the dawn of civilization; one that is real to themselves and one that is portrayed as a false veneer. Every day, we observe people attempting to fit in as characters in society. Even if we take our own examples, we have been conditioned since our childhood to act or present ourselves in a certain way in front of others. The habit of playing avatars or roles has been instilled into us since we took our steps on this planet. Satoshi Kon was a maestro who perfected the portrayal of duality in cinema. Whether in the chaotic ‘Paranoia Agent’ or the strange ‘Paprika,’ duality has always been an important motif in Kon’s films.
Satoshi Kon’s collection of works may appear disparate and indistinguishable from one another. Still, they all pose the essential question of what it’s like to exist in two states of existence. Kon has always been drawn to the complexities of the human psyche, particularly its duality, since his early days as a Mangaka.
The auteur executed the topic of duality and the sense of losing control of reality to near perfection in his 1997 debut, ‘Perfect Blue,’ which would later win the mangaka worldwide renown so much so that it heavily influenced Darren Aronofsky’s Academy Award-winning film Black Swan (2010).
Allegory Between the Film and Real Life
The film depicts the dichotomy that exists between the person and the Avatar in a terrifyingly realistic manner. With the advent of the internet and social media, where everyone is a character, the film has become even more relevant today. There appears to be a fixation with the image we project online about ourselves. The parallel between the film’s subtext and real life is unprecedented.
Today, our lives have devolved into a series of enactments, particularly in the realm of the virtual world. We spend hours grooming ourselves in order to present the best version of ourselves to the online world. We are reluctant to expose our weaknesses and shortcomings in this age of social media and influencers. As a result, our society has been dehumanised, with everyone being flawless and spotless, which is the antithesis of being humane.
Furthermore, by living this life of make-believe, we have gradually lost our sense of identity. For example, the person you’ve been talking to online for a while may not be the same person in real life. Today, rather than being ourselves, we have become projections of our fantasies, of who we believe we should be.
Art Style in Perfect Blue
Perfect Blue effectively addresses pertinent issues such as “What happens when the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur?” What happens when we lose control of our public persona? What happens when our avatars develop into their own embodiments and begin shaping our own existence?
Perfect Blue revolves around a woman named Mima Kirigoe. Mima is shown in the film transitioning from a popular pop icon to an actress. Mima is shown as a diligent worker who is making her way in her newfound industry of acting. She is portrayed to be someone who is willing to go to any length to succeed in the profession.
Perfect Blue’s opening sequence confirms Kon’s departure from the typical tonality of Mainstream Anime when deciding on the film’s art style. Perfect Blue, in contrast to other anime of the time, takes a more realistic approach in terms of narrative structure, art style, music, and overall tonality and feel. Even the film’s characters are more drawn back and approachable.
This can be implied by the character’s design. For example, except for the protagonist, who is a media personality in the film, none of the characters in the film appears overly stylized or appealing, justifying the creative decision to make her look beautiful. If you look at the other characters, you will observe that none of them appears unreal; rather, they appear to be ordinary folks like us. This choice of art style helps the film feel much more real and approachable, resulting in a stronger connection between the audience and the characters.
Character Study of Mima Kirigoe: Losing Sense of Reality
The plot of Perfect Blue centres around Mima Kirigoe, a young pop idol who used to perform for the group, ‘CHAM’. In the film’s opening scene, Mima announces her retirement from her role as a pop singer and even from the group in order to pursue a career as an actress. This decision is not well received by her devoted fans, who prefer to see their idol as a pop icon rather than an actress.
Mima, like her followers, is going through an internal struggle as she comes to grips with her new life. A small part of her does not want to follow her new life and return to the way things were. Mima’s struggle with herself reveals itself in a grotesque form when she begins to perceive an embodiment of herself in her pop idol attire wherever she goes.
This is the point in Mima’s life when she begins to lose her hold on reality and her Dissociative Identity Disorder manifests. The barriers between reality and fantasy begin to blur for Mima. Kon had designed the film in a way that would confuse us into identifying what is real and what’s not, just like how Mima was feeling.
Duality Of Mima Kirigoe
As the film progresses, we observe Mima losing her grasp on reality and her identity, implying her deteriorating mental state. We are introduced to Mima’s stalker early in the film, who persistently follows and stalks her to the point where she feels like she is being watched every second of her life.
Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue does not reduce its audience to mere observers of Mima’s travails. He wanted the film to connect with people in an honest way. This is why Mima’s troubles do not appear voyeuristic to the audience, but rather sad and melancholic. People can relate to what she’s going through, demonstrating the artist’s sheer brilliance in his work.
Mima’s duality is brilliantly encapsulated in the film. Since the opening sequence, the audience is taken back and forth between her on-stage performance as an energetic pop idol and her mundane and regular daily life. We get a glimpse into her life when she is completely alone. This level of intimacy fosters a unique relationship of familiarity between the character and the audience. And when Kon distorts this sense of reality, it just seems wrong.
Use of Environment and Colours in Perfect Blue
We see Mima in washed-out and dreary settings at the start of the film. In Mima’s life, warm colours are utilised to represent comfort. However, as the story progresses and takes a darker turn, the film’s colours are replaced by harsher and more saturated tones, to the point where they appear overwhelming and overpowering. The harsher hues are perfectly employed in Perfect Blue’s notorious ‘TV shoot’ scene.
Mima has to act out a horrible incident for a thriller TV show in this scene. The scene is responsible for cutting Mima’s ties between her former self as a pop idol and her current one as an actress. Colours are used effectively at the moment as a visual metaphor for Mima’s metamorphosis, as we literally see her in a new light.
Identity: Perception Vs Reality
Mima appears in a number of sexualized sequences as the film continues. However, these scenes are depicted from the perspective of someone else, as if we are seeing Mima through someone else’s eyes. This visual contrast between her portrayal and actuality illustrates the difference between how people perceive her and how she actually is when she is alone.
When Mima is alone, she communicates her displeasure with the way she is portrayed in her TV show. Perfect Blue covers the essential subject of what will happen when people view us in ways we do not want and perception becomes our own reality through Mima’s predicament.
Mima’s life spirals out of control in the film’s third act. Sequences start to blend together, and scenes that appear to take place, in reality, turn out to be scenes from Mima’s TV show. The cuts grow much more abrupt as the film progresses. It gets confusing to the point where even the viewers don’t know what is real and what’s not. This represents Mima’s deteriorating mental condition where she herself is unable to keep track of what’s real and what’s in her head.
This type of filmmaking puts its audience in the character’s shoes and makes them feel what the person is actually going through.
Toxic Idol Culture in Perfect Blue
Mr. Me-Mania, Mima’s obsessive stalker, poses a very real threat within the jumble of realities shown in Perfect Blue. The character has minimal screen presence and even fewer dialogues, yet his impact on Mima’s life and the audience is enormous. The figure is not only horrifying, but it also raises the possibility that such people really exist in real life.
Me-Mania, a neurotic and obsessive super-fan who idolises Mima, is introduced early in the film. Perfect Blue’s introductory sequence presents the stalker as someone who is devoted to Mima. As the shot depicts Mima through his eyes, we see him holding an image of Mima performing on stage, as if Kon wanted his audience to understand how Me-Mania perceives Mima.
The devotion to Mima manifests into an obsession where Me-Mania stops looking at her as a person in flesh and blood but as a mere avatar. As Mima shifts her career to acting, Me-Mania becomes enraged and begins acting violently and attacking those around her. Me-Mania couldn’t believe that his mental image of Mima didn’t resemble the real person at all. Kon was attempting to explore the damage that might occur when we lose track of where a person begins and an avatar finishes through the film. With the development of social media and internet culture, where most of us hide behind the masks of our avatars, this is horrifyingly pertinent and relevant today.
Psychological Viewpoint of Perfect Blue
Satoshi Kon addresses some of the most intricate psychiatric topics in the film, such as Dissociative Identity Disorder and Shared Psychotic Disorder.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is a mental disease in which a person displays characteristics of two or more distinct personalities. Individuals suffering from this mental illness go through stages of memory loss, loss of self, reliance on severity, and functional loss. An individual’s major personality is marked as ‘Main’, while their other personas are classed as ‘Alters’.
When a person’s personality goes from one to the other, this is referred to as a “switch.” A change in one’s personality is often unexpected and may appear out of nowhere.
A “Shared Psychotic Disorder” is a disorder in which one person passes on a delusional belief to another. This is frequently an otherwise healthy person expressing the viewpoints of a disordered person. Given that they frequently have very close ties to one another, they can easily share this belief.
Overall, Satoshi Kon conducted substantial research on these disorders, which are frequently misdiagnosed by society. His attention to such unorthodox obstacles, as well as overcoming common stigmas and misconceptions, distinguishes this film for people interested in psychology.
