Perfect Blue: The great underrated anime

Ramadahl said:
Warmaster said:
Still, I hold that Kon's best when he has more than c. 90 minutes to tell a story, which is why Paranoia Agent is still my fave work of his.
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Interesting, I would've said that I felt Paranoia Agent was too much time for him, and would have been more effective if it had been forced into fewer episodes. Millenium Actress is my favourite work of his :D .

Oh, and sticking on topic - Perfect Blue is great. Watch it :wink: .
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I agree. I don't think the themes he tends to explore are really interesting enough to fill a 13 episode series. PA felt a little forced to me.
 
I've seen the other works of Satoshi Kon but must admit I've never seen Perfect Blue. Stupid really as I've had it to watch for about a year now. I either forget or in the mood for something else.

Sounds like I should get my finger out and get i watched ^^
 
Ramadahl said:
Warmaster said:
Still, I hold that Kon's best when he has more than c. 90 minutes to tell a story, which is why Paranoia Agent is still my fave work of his.
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Interesting, I would've said that I felt Paranoia Agent was too much time for him, and would have been more effective if it had been forced into fewer episodes. Millenium Actress is my favourite work of his :D .

Oh, and sticking on topic - Perfect Blue is great. Watch it :wink: .
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I suppose you could say that. In some ways I have an odd mentality for length - for me more length = much more in depth plotting 90% of the time. For example, the 3 episode RoD OVA was far too short for me, where as most of the Ghibli work, being around two hours or more, is much better. There are a few exceptions (Tales from Earthsea was overlong) but generally it holds for me.

Paranoia agent I felt worked due to its inherently fractured and multilayered nature, rather in the way that Serial Experiements Lain worked. True Paranoia agent isn't consistent in tone (Happy Family Planning stands almost completely apart) but I still think the long exploration works very well with only a handful of wobbly moments.

Still this is not taking from any of Kon's work. Millennium Actress is a beautfully crafted film, Tokyo Godfathers is an extremely heartwarming and enjoyable slice of life in unusual circumstances while Perfect Blue really works as a thriller. (Still need to see Paprika though) so all are muchly good stuff all round (I just like Paranoia Agent more than the rest, but only by degrees.)
 
I think Perfect Blue is a prime example of a thriller/horror anime done right.

For one, the stalker himself is one of the most visually creepy, and generally disgusting horror villains there is.

Every time my friends and I saw him, we got all freaked out because he just looks the part. Add into that all the twists and turns, and you've got an excellent formula. The film doesn't necessarily excel because it's got the best storyline in the world, it excels because it steps away from what is generic and investigates it in a totally different manner. So many films in the same genre stick with the generic "Oh no, someones killing people, lets run around and do this!" but Perfect Blue is excellent because Mima is so insecure and distraught through what's going on. She doesn't just run around screaming from her killer, she's mentally tortured and that's what makes it so unique.

I've not seen Paranoia Agent yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing it when I can. If it's anything as good as Perfect Blue, I know I'll be very pleased.
 
Good? Yes. Underrated? No. I know people who aren't anime fans who have seen this, and being one of a few quality releases from the dark ages of the UK anime scene, it has been seen by many people who are anime fans. Just probably starting to seem a little less prevalent because of its age and a lack of interest in discussing something that has been positively appraised for so long.

After all, this is Satoshi Kon we're talking about. In terms of Anime movies, he's the next stop director after Miyazaki.
 
kupoartist said:
Underrated? No.
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Underrated with people new to the anime scene? I think it is. As anime in the UK is picking up again this movie seems to have been shelved along the way to some extent and been thrown under the same bad label with a lot of the lesser movies that were released by Manga in the 90's. The fact that it has violence and nudity depicted in the film has made some people just gaining interest in the medium turn away from it. I know there are several people on here that have and this is just a small forum.
 
Ark said:
Who here thinks Satoshi Kon has a positive view of Otaku?
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Heh. Otaku in a more western sense, as in people who watch a lot of anime? I don't think he has a bad opinion of them. Otaku in a more Japanese sense, who become obsessed/focused on a single thing? I think his works fairly obviously caution against that sort of behavior.
 
I think this is a great film.I had it on video when it first came out and the dub is ok but watching it on dvd in japanese makes it even better.
The songs are very well done in the original and also the voice acting is brillant.
I really enjoy this film because it can be watched again and again and you can still notice things you missed.
:wink:
 
I actually didn't fancy Perfect Blue either, the trailer that Manga show for it is awful, doesn't do the film any justice at all and put me off, but the fact that its cel animation which I love (as per the thread I started), I decided to give it a look and read the sypnosis, thought it sounded interesting.

I only watched it for the 1st time on Friday with our lass :D LOVED IT!!!

Oh and we both like Paranoia Agent too.
 
kupoartist said:
Dan said:
the trailer that Manga show for it is awful.
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I've yet to see a good Manga trailer for anything...
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I always thought they were pretty good. Companies like ADV and Funimation go for really cheesy ads, but Manga seem to let the trailer do the talking instead of an announcer/narrator.
 
Companies like ADV and Funimation go for really cheesy ads, but Manga seem to let the trailer do the talking instead of an announcer/narrator.
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And for me, that's what ruined the 5 cm/s trailer found on vol. 3 (or 4?) of Air. They also seem to get people who can't even pronounce the titles correctly.
 
Sy said:
kupoartist said:
Dan said:
the trailer that Manga show for it is awful.
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I've yet to see a good Manga trailer for anything...
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dadadadadadadadadadada CALL ME JACK doooooooondadadadadadada CALL ME VIOLENCE JACK! :p
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Genius! :lol:

I really liked that whole set of trailers as they were mega-hyper and epilepsy inducing to the point of mis-representing the titles entirely.

I prefer them to some of the condescending ADV trailers which sound like an episode of Barney - 'hey kids, do you wanna know what you're next favourite anime's gonna be?'... ick. :x
 
Ushio said:
Sy said:
kupoartist said:
Dan said:
the trailer that Manga show for it is awful.
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I've yet to see a good Manga trailer for anything...
Click to expand...
dadadadadadadadadadada CALL ME JACK doooooooondadadadadadada CALL ME VIOLENCE JACK! :p
Click to expand...
Genius! :lol:

I really liked that whole set of trailers as they were mega-hyper and epilepsy inducing to the point of mis-representing the titles entirely.

I prefer them to some of the condescending ADV trailers which sound like an episode of Barney - 'hey kids, do you wanna know what you're next favourite anime's gonna be?'... ick. :x
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Yeah I think the better trailers are the ones that don't have the narration over the top, cause some of them just sound corny and irritating

Though with the Perfect blue film, I must say it definitely made that quote on the cover on the VHS. Had this wired and bairsere sense to the likings of Hitchcock's films, don't know about the disney part.

lol, could you image a trailer for that by disney showing in a cinema, full of 5-8 year olds, and it shows the clip with the women with the chisel!
 
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