[EVA] [Review-OT]Perfect Blue

[Brendan Jamieson]

Just got back from the 7:45pm screening of Perfect Blue at Piper's
Alley theater in Chicago. Here's my thoughts...

Mima: Ooooooooh, I'm so nervous! *giggle*

Me: Ohhh my God... it's Sailor Moon! *groan*
(no, it's not really SM, but it sure sounded like her)

That was my initial reaction to the dubbing of Perfect Blue, which is
otherwise a thought provoking (and confusing) piece of animation. The
odd thing is that Mima, the main character, has the worse quality
voice while the supporting characters have indifferent/good VAs. The
supporting actors are important and so are their voices, but the main
character's should have been better than them. It wasn't. Manga
Entertainment had a very fine record where quality animation = quality
dub. Perfect Blue's english rendition fell well below my expectations
of a Manga dub (yet somehow stayed above my expectations of an ADV
one).

As far as the anime/plot itself is concerned... Fundamentally, I liked
it. I have to wait to see it again (subtitled this time) before I make
any definitive comments, but I can say that some parts are rather
confusing and I am not quite sure what to make of them. Two of the
murders, for example, are very vague and there's a nasty rape scene
towards the end that I am still not sure of [if it actually happened].
Like I said, I think repeat viewings are necessary for this one :P The
twist at the end was cool, though.

Also, the animation quality seemed a little dated... when was Perfect
Blue produced?

All in all, if I could get by Mima's voice (and the "bad-guy"s) I
would give Perfect Blue 3/5 if not 3.5. However, in this english
version, it's 2/5. Sorry Manga... redeem yourselves with EoE ¬_¬

---

To tie this back to Evangelion and the "Oh-So-Controversial EoE in
Theaters Thread", Perfect Blue was shown today (the 17th) only, at
5:15, 7:45, and 10:15. That's 3 screenings total for the film. There
were roughly one dozen people at this showing, and while there may be
a few extra at the 10:15 one, I find it hard to believe there would
have been more at the 5:15 one. 

The End of Evangelion can easily receive a similar arrangement. Keep
thy faith.

-brendan
"Wait... was that *gasp* pubic hair?"