Yoshikazu Takeuchi

For the first time in English, never-before-published stories from the Perfect Blue universe! Delve deeper into the dark underbelly of super-stardom, where fame comes at a steep price. In this sequel anthology to the hit psychological thriller, Perfect Blue, creepy fans thrust their idols into struggles of life and death. Gruesome body switches, bloody fan letters, and a stalker in a terrifying rabbit costume–it’s a life of fame and misfortune that lies in wait for these hapless pop stars.

Perfect Blue: Awaken from a Dream

This follow up work to Complete Metamorphosis consisted of three different short stories, all following the central theme of idol and stalker, which Takeuchi is known for. After reading Complete Metamorphosis and then Awaken from a Dream, this started to feel a bit repetitive, although all of these stories were entertaining nevertheless. 

I especially enjoyed the first story, Wake me from this Dream, as it resembled the blurred line between reality and absurdity that we know from the Perfect Blue movie the most. Generally I have to say that Takeuchi has an incredible talent in writing these creepy stalkers, he puts a lot of detail into the description of both their revolting appearances, sounds and smells, as well as their terrifying behavior, which makes it much easier to picture them and really makes you empathize with the main character. Overall these stories were entertaining.

'" Delve deeper into the dark underbelly of super-stardom, where fame comes at a steep price. In this sequel anthology to the hit psychological thriller, Perfect Blue, creepy fans thrust their idols into struggles of life and death. Gruesome body switches, bloody fan letters, and a stalker in a terrifying rabbit costume--it''s a life of fame and misfortune that lies in wait for these hapless pop stars. "'

Perfect Blue: Awaken from a Dream

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