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Following the theatrical screening in September 2023 , the 4K remaster edition of the late Satoshi Kon's 1997 anime film Perfect Blue will get its ultra HD Blu-ray release in Japan on February 28, 2025. The official X (formerly Twitter) for Kon's Stone , a company that manages the anime and manga works of Kon, announced the news today. As the first feature film work by Kon, the anime film adaptation of Yoshikazu Takeuchi's Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis psychological thriller novel released in Japan on February 28, 1998. The original character design was by acclaimed manga artist and illustrator Hisashi Eguchi ( Stop!! Hibari-kun! ). As well as his following works, including Millennium Actress (2002), Tokyo Godfathers (2003), Paranoia Agent (2004) and Paprika (2006), Madhouse worked on anime production. After its release, the film was well received at film festivals around the world, winning awards at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada and the Porto International Film Festival in Portugal.

Anime explores horror with psychological depth, blurring reality and delusions for an unsettling experience. Perfect Blue delves into the dark side of celebrity culture, highlighting the dangers and psychological toll of fame. Despite lacking supernatural elements, Perfect Blue's real-world horror hits close to home, making it a cautionary tale.

Anime, like any other medium, is often used to explore various concepts, topics and genres. This includes horror, which is handled in various ways in anime films and TV shows. While some of these gruesome and fantastical works similar to slasher movies, others are much more introspective and psychological. This allows their narratives to blur the lines between delusions and reality, with some also doing the same for their particular genre.

One great example of this is Perfect Blue, which isn't the first thing that some might envision when it comes to horror movies. Directed by Satoshi Kon, it deals...

The late Satoshi Kon was amongst the most prominent Japanese animators, with his works transcending the world of anime and manga, thus creating a modern division of the genre, which chiefly addressed a more mature audience. However, he did not accomplish that via sex and violence, but through the profundity of his themes and a complex style of presentation. The former becomes evident in his nightmarish worlds of terror that are based on concepts like fixation, publicity and the perspective of reality and personal identity, while the latter is clear through the mixture of fantasy and reality in the surrealistic environments of his movies. Additionally, he was equally elaborative as a designer and animator; hence, his works amount to masterpieces, both visually and in content.

Satoshi Kon was born on October 12, 1963 in Kushiro, Hokkaido. Early on, he became a fan of anime and manga, chiefly “Mobile Suit Gundam” and “Space Battleship Yamato...

Genre filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Pan’s Labyrinth, Crimson Peak) made headlines last week when he announced via THR that he plans to soon focus exclusively on animated films.

“Animation to me is the purest form of art, and it’s been kidnapped by a bunch of hoodlums. We have to rescue it. [And] I think that we can Trojan-horse a lot of good shit into the animation world,” del Toro candidly told the outlet. He’s not wrong; a rich world of stunning animation exists beyond films targeting young audiences. That includes horror, of course.

This week’s streaming picks highlight the storytelling that animation can achieve and the various techniques and styles employed to capture them. These five animated horror movies vary in tone and style, from stop-motion to 2D traditional and beyond, finding haunting beauty in grim realities.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

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Horror movies that feature an intense and probing study of its characters’ minds can often be the most terrifying. An external dilemma is scary all on its own, but learning what makes dangerous people tick is something else entirely. The protagonist of Screambox‘s latest release, The Anchor, has her own encounter with an unpredictable person when she receives a disturbing phone call at work. TV newscaster Se-ra (Chun Woo-hee) gets a “tip” from a mother claiming a man has broken into her house. She insists the intruder will kill her after having murdered her daughter. Se-ra, believing this is a sick prank, then doesn’t help the caller. Later, she realizes the grave mistake she’s made.

Jung Ji-yeon‘s first movie isn’t as straightforward as the plot makes it sound. In fact, The Anchor is a twisty thriller full of genuine jolts and pleasant surprises. It’s also confidently made,...

Exploring the tenuous relationship between idol and fan, Yoshikazu Takeuchi’s “Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis” follows the idol known as Mima as she begins to shed the image of innocence, in a bid to further her career. Existing in opposition to Mima’s desire to transcend her past is a nameless fan whose dangerous obsession leads to anger as he perceives the change as the work of outside sources. The man’s decline and drive to protect his ‘muse’ leads him down a path of murder, as he decides he must purify himself and others to match that sainthood he projects on the singer. As Mima’s career begins to take off because of her choices, the odd letters from the fanatic cause a scare but don’t prepare her for the violent clash with her biggest fan.

It is unlikely that many readers will be approaching...

The year 1997 was a milestone in Kon’s career for two reasons: the release of this particular movie in cinemas, and the initiation of his collaboration with Madhouse Inc., who sheltered his genius until his last birth.

“Perfect Blue” was initially meant to be a live action TV series; however, after the Kobe earthquake in 1995, the production studio suffered extensive damages resulting in budget cuts, up to a point that solely allowed the shooting of an Ova. Nevertheless, even though the shootings were roughly half-completed, Madhouse decided to distribute it as a feature film.

Originally, the script was to be based upon the homonymous book by Yoshikazu Takeuchi; however, after close inspection by Kon and Sadayuki Murai, the co-writer of the script, they asked and eventually received permission to alter the story.

Mima Kirigoe, a member of the largely popular J-pop band Cham, announces during a concert...

Perfect Blue

Written by Sadayuki Murai and Yoshikazu Takeuchi

Directed by Satoshi Kon

Japan, 1997

Teen-sensations-turned-adult-starlets crop up even more often these days, thanks in large part to teen-content-machines Disney and Nickelodeon. As a result, identity crisis has seemingly crept into these hard-working young women’s contracts as they’re forced to switch between singing and acting or Christian-audience innocence and sex appeal. There exists a third job for them: herding the public eye to become accepting of the new adult careers they’ve trailblazed for themselves. Though equally applied to today’s Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, or Lindsay Lohan, Perfect Blue investigated the horrors of this celebrity identity crisis, both personal and public, through a lens as chilling as Hitchcock’s, though as free as animation can allow.

Mima Kirigoe plays her last show as a part of pop group Cham! to an insultingly small audience, announcing her leave to...

One of Japan's best animated thrillers is returning to DVD in November, courtesy of Anime Limited. Perfect Blue is a stunning movie that deserves a place in everybody's collection. We love it here at 24Fps and we're pretty sure you're going to love it too. You'll soon forget you're watching anime, such is the power of this striking feature, a terrifying thrill ride often compared to the works of Hitchcock and Lynch. Perfect Blue represents a major departure from traditional anime subject matter, analysing the pop icon phenomenon, fame and its psychological impact on the performer. Director Satoshi Kon and advisor Katsuhiro Otomo bring Yoshikazu Takeuchi's thrilling suspense - novel to the screen, and you can grab your copy on November 18th, 2013. Synopsis: Mima was a pop idol, worshipped by the masses, until fashion dictated otherwise. In order to salvage her career, she is advised to drop music and pursue acting.

Directed by: Satoshi Kon

Written by: Sadayuki Murai, Yoshikazu Takeuchi

Cast: Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto, Shinpachi Tsuji, Masaaki Ôkura, Yôsuke Akimoto, Yoku Shioya, Hideyuki Hori, Emi Shinohara, Masashi Ebara, Kiyoyuki Yanada, Tôru Furusawa, Shiho Niiyama, Emiko Furukawa

Diving headfirst into Kon Month, I’ll be starting off with Satoshi Kon’s very own directorial debut, Perfect Blue. An adaptation loosely based off a book of the same name written by Yoshikazu Takeuchi, Perfect Blue originally hit theaters in 1997 and was greatly received by many around the world, not just anime fans.

To this day, Perfect Blue has strong holding in the anime industry. Many people consider this movie to be Kon’s magnum opus among his many great films. I personally had not seen it and was skeptical of their opinions; even as I began watching the film I was skeptical of its greatness. However, by the end my opinion was greatly changed,...