History Headscratchers / PerfectBlue

* While I know the movie's relationship with what ''actually'' happens in-universe is... tenuous... at best, how much of the fight and chase scene between Rumi and Mima at the end was real? Was ''any'' of it even real? I ran across a [=YouTube=] commenter who tallied up Rumi's injuries and concluded that she would not have survived them to end up in the mental hospital, and that's not even going into Mima losing blood from the stab wound. Plus, I found it highly suspicious that the streets (except for a few brief shots of the main road) looked like it was a ghost town. It's beneficial for real-Mima that she challenges/fights back against Idol-Mima/Rumi. Therefore, it's likely her delusion blocked out any would-be rescuers ''until'' she has "defeated" Idol-Mima/Rumi. She still screams for help, because that's what people do when they're running/fighting for their life. For all we know, in-universe the two characters could have just chased each other from Rumi's flat out into the street where Rumi nearly gets hit by the truck, full stop, no stabbings involved.

** I don't think it's actually Rumi speaking at the end. I think it's just Mima speaking in her "real" voice and accent, the one she used while talking to her mother on the phone earlier.

** Just one more twist to MindScrew you further, and one that doesn't really rule out any of the possibilities discussed above. Also worth noting: Mima's solo song near the ''beginning'' of the movie is apparently Rumi's voice too. Possibly a bit of {{Foreshadowing}}? My take on this is that Rumi ''is'' actually in the mental hospital and that really ''is'' Mima in the car, but that they ''have'' exchanged personalities somewhat. Just as Rumi outgrew her career as a pop-idol and took up working for a talent agency, so too has Mima outgrown her career as a pop-idol to take up acting. The differences between their voices are pretty slight anyway; Mima's voice is typically a bit squeakier as part of her "innocent little girl" persona, but gets to sounding a lot more like Rumi's lower voice as she gets more cynical and jaded (as happened to Rumi herself). Of course, if any of the above theories about Mima being psychotic and/or murderous are right, Mima's "Rumi" voice at the end may also qualify as a case of EvilSoundsDeep.

** Just one more twist to MindScrew you further, and one that doesn't really rule out any of the possibilities discussed above. Also worth noting: Mima's solo song near the ''beginning'' of the movie is apparently Rumi's voice too. Possibly a bit of {{Foreshadowing}}? My take on this is that Rumi ''is'' actually in the mental hospital and that really ''is'' Mima in the car, but that they ''have'' exchanged personalities somewhat. Just as Rumi outgrew her career as a pop-idol and took up working for a talent agency, so too has Mima outgrown her career as a pop-idol to take up acting. The differences between their voices are pretty slight anyway; Mima's voice is typically a bit squeakier as part of her "innocent little girl" persona, but gets to sounding a lot more like Rumi's lower voice as she gets more cynical and jaded (as happened to Rumi herself). Of course, if any of the above theories about Mima being psychotic and/or murderous are right, Mima's "Rumi" voice at the end may also qualify as a case of EvilSoundsDeep.
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** Pay close attention when "idol Mima" finishes taunting "actress Mima", opens the door behind her and joins CHAM onstage. We see the faces of the audience around Me-Mania look surprised for a moment, then they all begin cheering even louder than before, which would suggest that ''some''one certainly did step out onto the stage. It's not clear whether they actually believed that this person was Mima. Maybe the sight of a very different singer ''pretending'' to be Mima was funny enough that they all started cheering, or maybe the power of suggestion was enough to make them see what they wanted to see. The most telling reactions are from Yukiko and Rei; after "Mima" takes the stage with them, they look confused and uncomfortable, and they continue to stare after "Mima" as she leaps off the stage into the audience. This would suggest that Rumi did, in fact, appear onstage as "Mima" during that scene.

** That was probably Me-Mania's delusion of Mima jumping on stage, and the rest of the audience cheering with him.
*** Or he just imagined everyone else cheering in reaction to his delusion.
** Or [[WildMassGuessing anyone who prefers pop-idol Mima]] [[NightmareFuel sees the delusion, too...]]

*** the only reason i agree with this is because of the shopping bag and clothing themselves- Mima says before " so i was in harajuka today"- and there's a picture of her holding a shopping bag on the mima's room blog- the exact same one that's in her closet filled with the bloody clothing. If the mima-killing photographer scene was a dream- was it just a coincidence that the bloody clothing are the same as the uniform she wore in the dream? or were they the same because she subconciously remembered buying them- that those were the clothing she bought to dress up as the pizza delivery person? Rumi couldn't have planted this one- since how could she know Mima would dream it- the exact same uniform of murder? the photographer is also the only one mima ( in any incarnation) we've seen killing in detail. we don't see how the screen writer, the crazy fan or the other manager are stabbed to death-we just see the results, and infer that Rumi was responsible for them one way or another. Even when Mima asks the crazy fan- "you killed them?"- me-mania might have responded because he killed the screen writer and the obnoxious guys at the concert-(remeber there was that newspaper clipping of the guy in intensive care unit in the elevator that mima saw) instead of the photographer. I can't accept that the shopping bag and clothing were just imagined by mima- since Mima never actually touches her delusions: and she picked up that shopping bag- and shoved it back into the closet- like evidence she had to hide. The only time she did interact physically with her delusions was when she was fighting Rumi dressed as pop idol-mima.

** Remember how Rumi was driven to tears when she witnessed the rape scene? Everything before that point she was wildly opposed to the idea of Mima acting and being in sleazy scenes. After that however she is no longer opposed to the acting career or even the nude photo shoot. She even seems rather supportive of it. So I think the fact that she seemed so calm and normal after that point is because witnessing the graphic rape scene broke her mind.

** Just one more twist to MindScrew you further, and one that doesn't really rule out any of the possibilities discussed above. Also worth noting: Mima's solo song near the ''beginning'' of the movie is apparently Rumi's voice too. Possibly a bit of {{Foreshadowing}}? My take on this is that Rumi ''is'' actually in the mental hospital and that really ''is'' Mima in the car, but that they ''have'' exchanged personalities somewhat. Just as Rumi outgrew her career as a pop-idol and took up working for a talent agency, so too has Mima outgrown her career as a pop-idol to take up acting. The differences between their voices are pretty slight anyway; Mima's voice is typically a bit squeakier as part of her "innocent little girl" persona, but gets to sounding a lot more like Rumi's lower voice as she gets more cynical and jaded (as happened to Rumi herself). Of course, if any of the above theories about Mima being psychotic and/or murderous are right, Mima's voice at the end may also qualify as a case of EvilSoundsDeep.

** Any explanation of the bag of bloody clothes needs to account for the fact that, immediately afterward, we learn that Mima's apartment door is chained on the inside, and she's the only one in there.

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*** ''Perfect Blue'' is all about deconstructing the concept of purity, specifically ContractualPurity. While Mima herself wasn't raped in the scene (you can clearly see that the actor playing the rapist still has his underwear on while simulating sex with her), it can still be seen as a ''metaphorical'' violation-- by performing this scene, Mima's image as a "pure" and "virginal" pop idol has been "tarnished", as her hallucination tells her. This might be the reason why she's so completely traumatized by a scene which would leave most actors feeling dirty and used.