Yoshikazu Takeuchi

THE ORIGINAL NOVEL THAT INSPIRED THE CULT CLASSIC FILM BY SATOSHI KON Kirigoe Mima is in the third year of her career as a pure and innocent pop idol. Feeling like something big needs to change, she plans to give her image a major update. When the new Mima is revealed–complete with a sexy outfit and a risqué photo book–one of her most obsessive fans refuses to accept her transformation. To restore Mima to the innocent girl of her debut, he puts a terrifying plan to action that throws her life into chaos and mortal peril.

Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis

** spoiler alert **
           Like many other people, I only became aware of this book after watching Satoshi Kon’s movie adaption. I really wasn’t sure what to expect at first. After reading the first chapter about the little girl, I was a little confused as I didn’t remember seeing anything like that in the movie, and for a moment I thought it might be completely different. (In the end, it really sort of was.)

As I continued to read, I thought I knew where the book was going, I thought it would be more similar to the movie than the beginning, but then it took a turn in a very different direction. 

Personally, I found the gory and downright vile descriptions of violence as well as all the sexual content that was not as plainly obvious in the movie very entertaining, and I enjoyed how detailed the writing was in those scenes as it made everything much easier to imagine. 

Although the novel was much different than the movie, I enjoyed both of them in their own way as they seem to be telling the stories from different viewpoints. The main thing I missed a little in this novel after having seen the movie is the whole ‘blurring the lines between reality and imagination’ aspect that the movie is so popular and well known for. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this read and I’ll definitely be giving the second part a chance as well.

Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis

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