11/08/2025
Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well. Today I reached LEVEL 2! I’m very pleased. 
I’ve been scrolling through a lot of Japanese media lately and its been nice to be able to pick out sentence structures and tiny little words that I couldn’t even a week ago.
I know eventually, progress will slow and it won’t be as immediately satisfying, and I shouldn’t be using these little dopamine hits as a main motivator. But it feels good! So I’m going to be proud of myself.
The day I started I set my lesson limit to 50 in an attempt to get more lessons. I didn’t think much of it afterwards but then I completed level one I got jump scared by 48 LESSONS. I just about died. This limit will be lowered. Immediately.
But now it’s time for the first movie review!! BTW I will mostly just be talking through my thoughts, not so much what happened in the movie. But there might be spoilers, so be warned.
MOVIE CORNER!
Perfect Blue Released 1997 by Satoshi Kon
My Rating: 8/10
Perfect Blue follows Mima Kirigoe, a former pop idol and upcoming actor as she struggles to adjust to her more adult public image and how that affects her identity. Meanwhile, she is being stalked and pursued by a fan that eerily mirrors her internal dialogue on a website known as “Mima’s Room”.
This movie was visually stunning and gut wrenching to watch. The entire time I just felt so scared and upset for her that my body hurt for an hour after watching it. Every shot was perfectly thought out and gave a very uneasy feeling. I love this movie, but I will never watch it again.
I took away two things from Perfect Blue, one was a critique of the parasocial relationships between celebrities and audiences. The other, was the dehumanization of celebrities from industry professionals by treating them like an asset to be used rather than a human with aspirations.
The movie pushes Mima back and forth between these, and the result is that she completely looses ownership of herself/her identity. It’s tragic.
A persons sense of self is the foundation of their world, and Mima’s was laid on the foundation of her being a pop idol. Loved by all and with the “Perfect” or “Pure” appearance. When she was pulled into being an actor, I don’t think she ever had an idea how quickly that image would get away from her.
This movie did a really good job at showing what happens when a person loses themselves. The loss of time, questioning if it was really you who did those things, shutting down when pushed too far. It all feels real and for the most part it was treated as seriously as it should have been.
There are a few problems I had though, my main one being Rumi. She was an important part of the cast because she was the only women on Mima’s staff and one of her most consistent supporters. Constantly arguing for letting Mima do what she wanted to do and to protect her from being objectified. Checking in to make sure she was okay, and getting genuinely upset when she saw Mima film that scene (you know the one). It felt important, and it added to the tragedy of it all. When it got to the end and it just threw all of that away and made her someone using Mima as well it felt bad and wrong.
You could argue that her break was out of a desire to protect Mima that went too far, and she adopted that personality to turn away from reality. But still, it felt wrong and forced.
The other is that some of the shots felt very exploitative and they didn’t need to be like that. It made me feel like one of the people creeping on Mima! Like what the heck. I’m not talking about the first explicit scene she filmed (i think that scene was a lot, but it was supposed to feel exploitative and uncomfortable), I’m talking mostly the smaller shots like when she lays on the bed and you can see her underwear or how constantly her clothes were being ripped off of her. Those didn’t feel like they added anything.
Small complaints over all. Perfect Blue, is close to a masterpiece and I think a lot of people could benefit in today’s world from seeing the consequences of a parasoical relationship gone too far. There is a lot I didn’t say but, man it’s hard to get things out of my head sounding right. Thanks for reading and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
GOALS
- Do my reviews
- Practice speaking
- Draw for 3 hours today
- Vocab Cards
Have a good day!
El Psy Kongroo.
)
ちょうだい早く
