History Anime / PerfectBlue

* ParasolOfPain: Umbellas ''are not meant to be used that way [[spoiler:Rumi.]]''

* Parasol of Pain: Umbellas ''are not meant to be used that way [[spoiler:Rumi.]]''

The film debut of director SatoshiKon, who would go on to produce other work investigating the boundary between the real and the imaginary such as ''{{Paprika}}'', ''ParanoiaAgent'' and ''MillenniumActress''.

* TallDarkAndBishoujo: Mima, despite having short hair.

Is it a StalkerWithACrush? Does Mima have a SplitPersonality? [[ItGotWorse Or is it something far, far worse?]]

* HarassingPhoneCall: After Mima converts to acting from her pop-idol career, she receives at least one threatening message and phone call each from her stalker Me-Mania.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: When Mima's ''Double Bind'' character is manhandled and raped by a rowdy crowd, the actor playing said rapist quietly stammers out "I'm so sorry" between takes.

* PsychoSupporter: Me-Mania.

* NapoleonDelusion: Non-Napoleon example: [[spoiler:Rumi, Mima's manager, increasingly comes to believe that she is Mima.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: In the end, when visiting Rumi in the mental hospital, we see that Mima's not only a famous actress now, but also seems to be quite well-adjusted.]]

* IJustWantToBeYou: [[spoiler: Rumi is like this toward Mima by the end.]]

* SaveTheVillain: [[spoiler: Mima to Rumi at the end]]

* ShowerOfAngst: Mima is shown taking a bath in the middle of the movie after all the shit she goes through.

** And another disorder related to Schizophrenia, called ''[[http://www.health.am/psy/shared-psychotic-disorder/ Folie à deux]]''. The subjective nature of a person's image and how it may differ from that actual person, possibly even taking on a life of its own, is one of the major points of the film.

* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: SatoshiKon ''loves'' this one.

* WhiteDwarfStarlet: [[spoiler:Mima's overweight, middle-aged female manager Rumi was a former pop idol who didn't last and now thinks she's the real Mima.]]

* [[HeyItsThatVoice Hey, It's That Voice]]: In the original Japanese-language version, [[NeonGenesisEvangelion Hikari Horaki]] is [[JunkoIwao Mima]] and [[{{Pokemon}} Satoshi/Ash Ketchum]] is [[RicaMatsumoto Rumi]]. Oh, and [[{{Naruto}} Might Guy]] is the [[MasashiEbara pornographer]] that takes naked pictures of Mima.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: When Mima's ''Double Bind'' character is manhandled and raped by a rowdy crowd, the actor playing said rapist quietly stammers out "I'm so sorry" between takes.

* XMeetsY: WaltDisney meets AlfredHitchcock, according to RogerCorman.

** YourMileageMayVary on Mima, though.

[[caption-width-right:350: [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel The nightmare]] [[MindScrew begins]].]]

** Tadakoro also mentions "[[JodieFoster Jodie whatshername]]" in a later conversation about Mima's career. He was specifically referring to ''TheAccused'', in which Foster plays a rape victim.

* BarbieDollAnatomy: Averted. When Mima poses for nude photos, her pubic hair is shown and the cleft of the vagina is very briefly visible.

Is it a StalkerWithACrush? Does Mima have a SplitPersonality? [[LampshadeHanging Or is it something far]], [[ItGotWorse far worse?]]

* ActingInTheDark - What the director of Double Bind does to his actors, making the parallels between the Mima and the character she plays in the movie even creepier as both start to suspect they are the killer.
* AnimatedAdaptation - Adapted from a novel.
* AssholeVictim - Arguably one or two of them.
* AttemptedRape - [[spoiler:Near the end of the film the stalker Me-Mania attempts to rape and kill Mima but she knocks him out by slamming a hammer into the side of his head. ]]

* AxCrazy- Me-Mania, Mima at one point and [[spoiler:Rumi]].
* AnimeAnatomy- Averted. When Mima poses for nude photos, her pubic hair is shown (although there is still no sign of the actual genitalia).
** Not true. There is a very brief shot in the montage of photos where you can see the actual cleft.

* BreakTheCutie - And how.

* ChekhovsGun - [[spoiler: The mention early on that Rumi was a former idol singer herself.]]
* ContractualPurity - In-universe example, which has some ''horrible'' consequences.
* CuckooNest - One of the hallucinations indicates that Mima's DetectiveDrama character is the real person, and her "Mima" identity was fabricated as a coping mechanism to deal with being raped in a strip club (which may or may not have been part of the show she was working on). [[MindScrew At least, it was probably a hallucination]].
* {{Deconstruction}} - Of IdolSinger.

* DetectiveDrama - Mima's first post-singer role is as a rape victim in one of these.
* DevilInPlainSight - Me-Mania.
* DreamWithinADream - Used multiple times (as well as showing us conversations or scenes that seem like they're really happening, only for a director to yell "cut!" — the main character was just filming a scene in the television show she's in) to ramp up the suspense and paranoia that the main character feels.
* DullEyesOfUnhappiness - As Mima loses grip on reality, she does this more and more often.
* DyingDream - Sometime after a near-death encounter with a truck, Mima speculates that this trope is in play as she doubts that she's really alive.
* EarnYourHappyEnding - [[spoiler: In the end, when visiting Rumi in the mental hospital, we see that Mima's not only a famous actress now, but also seems to be quite well-adjusted.]]
* ExtremeDoormat - Mima, at least for a good chunk of the movie.
* EyeScream - A man gets stabbed in the eye by a supposed pizza delivery guy. Another man is murdered, and later on his body is shown with the eye sockets all bloody and the eyes missing. [[spoiler: Me-Mania gets hit in the eye with a hammer.]] There's basically a sample of this in every murder.
* FanDisservice - A good amount. There's the rape scenes, the scenes where Mima is getting photographed naked, [[spoiler:Rumi in the CHAM get-up]], etc.
* FootFocus - The film is littered throughout with numerous closeups of Mima's bare feet, particularly during chase scenes.
* FreakOut - Mima, coming home at the end of a particular traumatic day after filming a rape scene, finds her beloved pet fish dead, and loses control for a moment, trashing her apartment. She ([[spoiler:as well as Rumi]]) has numerous moments where she freaks out throughout the rest of the movie.
* AGlassInTheHand - Mima does this with a teacup at one point.
* GoMadFromTheRevelation - [[spoiler: Rumi in the ending, is seen permanently delusional and institutionalized at a mental hospital.]]
* {{Gonk}} - Arguably a few characters due to the art style, but most definitely Me-Mania.
* GroinAttack - One of the murder victims is repeatedly stabbed in the crotch with a screwdriver.
* HarassingPhoneCall - After Mima converts to acting from her pop-idol career, she receives at least one threatening message and phone call each from her stalker Me-Mania.

* IdolSinger - Mima, Yukiko and Rei, making up the idol group CHAM.
* IJustWantToBeYou - [[spoiler: Rumi is like this toward Mima by the end.]]
* ImprovisedWeapon - An umbrella, in this case.
* InternetMimic - [[spoiler:Rumi posing as Mima.]]

* LoonyFan - Me-Mania.
* MeanCharacterNiceActor - When Mima's Double Bind character is manhandled and raped by a rowdy crowd, the actor playing said rapist quietly stammers out "I'm so sorry" between takes.
* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf - [[spoiler: In the final confrontation between Mima and her alter ego, both Mima and the audience see the alter ego as the phantom IdolSinger Mima that has been haunting Mima. Only the mirror reflection shows the truth — that it's really Rumi dressed up as Mima.]]
* NapoleonDelusion - Non-Napoleon example: [[spoiler:Rumi, Mima's manager, increasingly comes to believe that she is Mima.]]
* NeverFoundTheBody - [[spoiler:Seems to be the case with Me-Mania at first, then subverted pretty hard.]]
* NightmareFace - This is pretty much Me-Mania's default expression.

* NotHimself - [[spoiler: Both Mima and Rumi.]]

* OneWomanWail - Used in the song 'Virtua Mima'.
* OperaGloves - The CHAM costumes have these.
* OrWasItADream - A repeated narrative device in the movie.
* {{Otaku}} - In this case there's an otaku for Mima.

* PublicExposure - Mima poses for a photographer who gradually convinces her to undress.
* PunnyName - "Me-Mania" is "Mimania" is "[[StalkerWithACrush Mima mania]]".

* PsychoSupporter - Me-Mania.
* SaveTheVillain - [[spoiler: Mima to Rumi at the end]]
* ShoutOut - In Mima's first acting role, two characters in the scene discuss a serial killer who removes his victims' skin because he wants to be a woman. That plot sounds [[TheSilenceOfTheLambs a little familiar]].
** Tadakoro also mentions "[[JodieFoster Jodie whatshername]]" in a later conversation about Mima's career.
*** He was specifically referring to ''TheAccused'', in which Foster plays a rape victim.
* ShowerOfAngst - Mima is shown taking a bath in the middle of the movie after all the shit she goes through.
* ShowWithinAShow - Extreme type 4 example, such that at times it's unclear whether what you're watching is happening to Mima or her character (or maybe both).
* SoftGlass - Averted: [[spoiler:Rumi]] gets a serious cut from leaning through a broken window.

* SoundtrackDissonance - How the hell can they play something as upbeat as "Season" over the end credits of a movie this horrific?

* SplitPersonality - [[spoiler: Rumi, at least.]]

* StalkerWithACrush - Me-Mania.

* TallDarkAndBishoujo - Mima, despite having short hair.
* TearsOfFear - [[spoiler: Mima during the rape scene, during her Freak Out moment after returning to her apartment, and as she's running for her life from Rumi.]]
* TechnologyMarchesOn - Mostly involving computers/the internet.
* TheManInTheMirrorTalksBack
* TheVoiceless - Me-Mania.
* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness - SatoshiKon ''loves'' this one.
* TroubledFetalPosition - Mima does this while having a bath, underwater.
* UnreliableNarrator - Mima.
* WhiteDwarfStarlet - [[spoiler:Mima's overweight, middle-aged female manager Rumi was a former pop idol who didn't last and now thinks she's the real Mima.]]
* XMeetsY - WaltDisney meets AlfredHitchcock, according to RogerCorman.

* ZettaiRyouiki - The CHAM costumes feature this as well.

* AnimeAnatomy- Averted. When Mima poses for nude photos, her pubic hair is shown (although there is still no sign of the actual genitalia).
** Not true. There is a very brief shot in the montage of photos where you can see the actual cleft.

* StalkerShrine

* StepfordSmiler: [[spoiler: Both Mima and Rumi.]]

* YouWouldMakeAGreatModel: Happens to Mima's character in ''[[ShowWithinAShow Double Bind]]''. Apparently, modelling and stripping are synonymous. [[DidNotDoTheResearch Wait]].

* EarnYourHappyEnding - [[spoiler: In the end, when visiting Rumi in the mental hospital, we see that Mima's not only a famous actress now, but also seems to be quite well-adjusted. OrIsIt?]]

* MindScrew - We could add some variation of OrIsIt to nearly every trope, no, every STATEMENT on this page, and it would be completely accurate. (Or would it?)