Novel: Perfect Blue - Awaken From A Dream

Content Warning: Violence, female masturbation, obsession, torture, gore, misogyny, gender bending fetish, and creepy idol fans

Oh boy, here we go. This book is actually a collection of short stories that are disconnected not only from the original work but from each other as well. The only common thread connected them is that they all feature pop idols and creepy fans. Let’s get started

Wake Me From This Dream:

The first story is the shortest and the weirdest. We’re introduced to Toshihiko, a lazy man and idol fan. We just follow him around in his crappy apartment and learn little bits about him. And then things get weird when he sudden transforms into his idol, Asaka Ai. He starts out shocked and then, well, he “explores” this new body, shall we say? However, he’s being stalked by someone. That someone turns out to be his original body. And they’ve come to kill him. Or her? It’s a real weird one, as it’s Ai’s body but Toshihiko’s mind and apartment. Like I said, it’s a weird one.

Cry Your Tears:

This one starts one with yet another unnamed creepy fan who is obsessed with Kawasaki Yuma, an idol that is just starting out her career. She’s a relatively normal girl, who gets bonus points from me for being introduced wearing a Milky Momo vs Godzilla t-shirt. She’s done a single or two and TV performances but gets a job doing commercials for an appliance company that forces her to dress up like a younger girl. Yeah, I know. She also has a boyfriend who’s an up and coming actor but it keeps them apart sometimes. Once again, everyone ignores the creepy letters and things and they really shouldn’t. Because our creepy stalker this time is all about Yuma and carries around a box cutter. He stalks her and even turns up at a meet and greet for her fans. Yuma picks up on his weirdness but no one else cares.

Before too long, Yuma is spotted by a photographer with her boyfriend and it hits the newsstands. I really love how Yuma stands up for herself and her boyfriend when the news hits her office. She’s one of the best idols we’ve seen so far and we’re not even to her best part. After getting home and feeling that something is wrong, she calls her boyfriend and asks him to come over. When there’s a knock and she opens it, it isn’t him, it’s the stalker. He binds her with tape and then starts to assault her. In many ways but doesn’t penetrate. Thank goodness. To stop her from trying to escape, he cuts the bottoms of her feet. Yeah. This stuff is bad. And just when you think she might be saved, when her boyfriend finally turns up, the stalker slits his throat. This gets worse as the stalker gets ready to assault her again but she turns the tables and fights back. It actually works out as she’s able to stab him a few times and even cuts his Achilles tendon. She tries to escape, making it slowly out of her apartment and starts trying to go down the stairs, in a slow speed chase. He wins and drags her back into the apartment. He tricks him and says she’ll sing for him. What song? Why her number one hit, Lariat Of Love. I’m betting you can figure out what she does when he gives her the microphone with a cable attached…

Even When I Embrace You:

Our final story is about Yukiko and her stalker. This one is different as she has a female manager and her stalker wears a bunny mascot suit. One that has been partially burned. And he is just as dangerous as the others.

Yukiko first sees him in an empty display of her that’s been set up for her next big performance in a mall, caressing her wax statue the venue has commissioned. It freaks her the fuck out, like most of us would. This guy must have super powers as he keeps managing to disappear several times in the story. Yukiko knows this creep is after her but no one else seems to believe her, even her manager.

The rabbit appears several more times, stalking her at her events and when traveling home. He finally lets himself be seen during her appearance at a TV studio but vanishes yet again. Her manager mobilizes her fan club to walk patrols around her home. And one of them is killed by the rabbit, showing just dangerous he is. Of course, he is smart enough to vanish with the body, so no one knows exactly what happens. It does make them increase security and get police protection at her next event, the one with the display in the mall.

Just as she’s getting ready to preform, two things happen: Someone starts a rumor that Yukiko is going to be on the roof and the officer watching the freight elevator lets the rabbit walk past him because no one told him to look out for him specifically. With all this going on, Yukiko is on her own and has to flee from the rabbit. They end up on the roof and, with equal measures of intelligence, luck, and skill, Yukiko is able to get away from the rabbit. Of course, since this is pretty much a slasher movie, the rabbit’s body vanishes at the end.

And that’s all of the stories. I don’t think I liked this one as much as I liked the last book. The first story wasn’t engaging to me and felt like fetish fuel. The next two were pretty good but were either too gory or relied on old horror tropes that I dislike. The author just makes these obsessive fans but rarely gives them names or personalities of note. They exist to stalk and hurt the idols. On the flip side, I actually do like the idols and their personalities. They good people and don’t deserve what’s happening to them. Which I think is the point of all this. However, if it were me, I would never ever get involved in this world because of these freaks and weirdos. I am by no means perfect, and I do follow and interact with a few idols online, but I try to be polite and not weird. Just, normal I guess. But I hesitate to talk with them because I see how creepy their fans get. And I don’t want to be seen the same way.

Rating: 2 out of 5
Suggestion: Read it if you like thrillers or really liked the first book, as it’s just more of the same.

Anime: Perfect Blue

Content Warning: Violence, blood, nudity, graphic murder, sexual assault, and mind-bending images

Last time, I talked about the novel of the same name. Today, we talk about the better known film of Perfect Blue. And before I go any further, I have to make it absolutely clear that this film (and thus this review) are going to be very graphic and hard to read. It’s a-ok if you want skip it, I will totally understand.

The movie opens with some kind of event taking place with a Sentai group doing a live performance (think Power Rangers) and a large crowd of mostly young men who don’t even react to this show. From here, we cut between the performance and Mima’s evening afterwards. We see Mima as part of an idol trio called CHAM but this her last day with them, as she wants to focus of acting and advancing her career. We’ve given a little introduction to idol culture here as things are starting, listening to the fans talking about the group and how they’ve already heard that she’s quitting. We meet Rumi (Mima’s assistant?), Todokoro (Mima’s manager), and the guy who will be known as Mr. Me-Mania. Take a wild guess what he looks like… As Mima’s evening continues, she talks with her mom and then gets a “heavy breathing” phone call. After that, there’s a fax that’s covered in the word “traitor.”

As we continue, Mima gets a small part on a show called Double Bind, playing the part of a victim’s sister, with the single line of “Excuse me, who are you?” This line is something you should hang on to as we start the trip that is the rest of the this movie. It’s only a bit part but we see her manager pushing the producer and writer to expand her part, as she’s no longer an idol and that won’t cause issues. After discussion, Todokoro opens a fan letter for Mima that was sent to the studio and it explodes. Not too much but enough to make the manager’s hand bleed. As we can see, things are going to be very different than the novel. However, there are little nods to it that start here. The first is the name of the actress in the series playing the psychologist is named Eri (who was Mima’s rival idol in the novel) and the plot of the show is clearly taken from the original novel.

After this point, I will warn you that things are going to get bad and terrible, so hold on to your butts. I’m also going to skim over this as you really need to watch it.

After seeing mention of “Mima’s Room” in a fan letter, she has Rumi help her buy a computer and visits the site. On the site, Mima discovers that someone is posting things about her life, soon discovering that they’re things that only she would know. Unless, you pay very close attention to one line from a character, in which case you might be able to put everything together right away. Exactly one person I know was able to do this.

Mima gets called back to the show, as they want her to be raped. I mean, have her character raped. I did try to warn you. Mima acts like she’s fine with it, but this scene is very graphic and very intense and I do not know how anyone would be able to act this out. And this is where Mima starts to fall apart. She said she was okay with it but she really wasn’t. When she starts to see another version of herself, this one still in the CHAM outfit, she says that she didn’t want to but she does want to be an actress. The other Mima says she’s lying, Mima has only wanted to sing and be an idol. Scenes start to repeat, as Mima starts to fall apart, unable to tell the show Double Bind and her reality apart. And then there’s the murders. The writer, who had Mima’s character get raped, is brutally murdered. When Mima does a photo shoot, it gets very erotic and explicit. Like, we see EVERYTHING. And then the photographer is killed. Mima visits the Mima’s Room blog and sees that the author went shopping and Mima says “I guess I went shopping today.” She is totally falling apart. And she’s not the only one. Mr. Me-Mania has also popped up here and there and we see him speaking but hear Mima’s voice. At another point, he reads an email from “Mima” and all of his posters and pictures of Mima are talking to him. Yeah. This is all kinds of freak-deaky.

The climax of the film comes in two halves. Mr. Me-Mania has been told by the “real Mima” to kill the “imposer.” And this is where I really like Mima, as after all of this, when Mr. Me-Mania comes after her, she fights. She fights hard. She does try to run but fights when she has to. The fight ends with Mr. Me-Mania attempting to rape her on the same set as the scene of her character getting raped, but Mima is able to grab a hammer and hits him in the head. He screams, walks a bit, and falls over. Stumbling around, wearing nothing but the tattered rags of her outfit, she finds Rumi. Rumi takes her to “Mima’s Room.” Yeah. It gets worse. Rumi has gone totally nuts and thinks that SHE’S the real Mima and tries to kill Mima. And Mima, once again, fights back. She’s Mima and she doesn’t want to die. This fight is so fantastic and well done, you’ve probably seen parts of it around the internet. How does it end? I am not telling you. Watch it your own damn self. You really need to.

This movie is one of the best I’ve ever seen. When I was younger, anime was for giant robots, martial arts, and magical girls. This is one of the first ones we got in the US that wasn’t something like that. This was a psychological thriller that could go much further because of the medium used. We could have Mima’s other half jumping from streetlight to streetlight because it was animation. When I talk about this being a masterpiece, it’s not just the plot or the visuals, it’s the whole package. The music, the direction, and the voice work in the Japanese version are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Period. Full stop. And that is why I want you to watch it. Because this is art. It’s also something you can show people who don’t like giant robots or magical girls or stuff like that and show them why we like anime.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: Watch it, if you can, it's a solid film. Buy if you can and then watch it again. It really does get better with repeated viewings.

Novel: Perfect Blue - Complete Metamorphosis

Content Warning: Violence towards women, child abduction and murder (implied), regular murder, sexual assault, dismemberment, psycho killer stuff, and frightful things

Perfect Blue: Complete Metamorphosis as a novella (or “light novel” as kids call it today) that inspired the animated film “Perfect Blue.” But it is it's own beast.

The novel opens with The Stalker (or the Darling Rose) kidnapping a young girl, letting you know that we are In For Some Shit. While they don't show him killing her, we know it happens at some point later.

After that, we're introduced to Kirigoe Mima, a moderately successful idol, as she gets out of the shower to hear her phone ringing. She answers and hears heavy breathing. The caller speaks, apparently for the first time. It's The Stalker, telling Mima he wants to “save her” and stop her from going down her current path. This little interaction is core of the story that is about to unfold...

From here on, we're somewhat rapidly introduced to the people in Mima's life. Her assistant, Rumi, who is a woman who failed to make it as an idol. Tadokoro, her manager, and later, Eri, Mima's “sworn enemy.” I'd like to say that this book will teach you about idol culture but it's all 30 years out of date, so it's very much different these days. Okay, there's enough here that still happens but don't take everything as gospel.

What's going on with Mima, and inspiring her Stalker to save her, is that she's starting to change her image as an idol. Three years ago, Mima premiered as a normal, wholesome idol, keeping her sex appeal to a minimum and keeping her image clean. One thing that hasn't really changed (according to my limited research) in idol culture is that they have to keep a cleaner image. No drinking. No smoking. No dating. And no sexy stuff. Mostly. Now, Mima is getting older and she needs to change her image. This is something she wants to do, I'd like to point out. Her fans seem to be against it but her agent and the company behind him seem to be for it.

While Mima is preparing for her new single, her Stalker is getting bolder and bolder. He has handed a note to Rumi while her and Mima were at a TV station, followed them to figure out where Mima lives, and then it gets worse. After killing and kidnapping the young girl at the beginning of the book, he's kept a piece of her skin. He then cuts off a piece of his own skin and puts her skin where his was. This scene shows us that The Stalker is obsessed with “purity” which is why he is so focused on Mima not changing.

Speaking of Mima, she does a racy photo shoot for a photo book timed to release with her new single “Sexy Valley” as part of changing her image. This gets Eri all kinds of ticked and she has sex with a fifth-rate tabloid reporter to get him to get some dirt about Mima, telling him that Mima had a relationship with some rocker.

As we get closer to the end, we find out that Eri is having a relationship with the rocker, and he and Mima dated a few years ago, but she broke it off. As Eri is leaving from her tryst with the rocker, The Stalker shows up and kidnaps Eri. Meanwhile, Mima is debuting her new style on TV, wearing some sexy clothes.

Now that The Stalker has Eri, he ends up raping her before cutting her face off. Yeah, you read that right. This is practice for the next phase of his plan. After the show, Rumi goes to Mima's apartment to get up a surprise, only to get kidnapped by The Stalker. He then uses Rumi to get Mima to come to a closed TV station not far from her house. And this is where shit really gets wild...

The Stalker's whole plan is to cut of his skin, then cut off Mima's skin, and become Mima but not really? I don't quite understand it completely but that might because I can't make the logical leaps he is. The climax of the book is Rumi and Mima running around the old TV station, avoiding The Stalker (who has cut off his own face), trying to stop him. Mima's manager and the photographer show up, but it's really Mima's fight. She ends up killing him in a suitably horrific way.

This is a wildly different story than the film (which I will be talking about next time). Where the film is much more about the psychological horror of the lost of identity and reality, this novel is much of a more traditional psychological thriller. And both are good in their own ways, it's just a matter of taste. Now, the novel is also more involved in idol culture, even if it is a few decades out of date, so that might be another reason to pick it up. I really do love the references to VHS tapes and Laserdiscs. That really took me back.

I do have to say that I would enjoy seeing this updated and done as a live action film, as the story could benefit from it.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Suggestion: If you like psychological thrillers, and/or Japanese idols, you will enjoy it a lot. If you liked the film, you should read this just to compare the two.

Manga: Gigant Volume 3

 Content Warning: Violence, nudity, age gap relationship, gore, and governmental stupidity

Okay, this is the middle of the series and boy am I not happy. But, let’s talk about what’s going on with our pink haired porn star protagonist, shall we?

The volume opens with Chiho starting her fight with the God of Destruction, which is where we left off last time. This fight is brutal. Chiho gets the snot beaten out of her and almost gets killed by the God’s fireballs. But, she’s actually really clever and shrinks down, only to grow back to huge size again, after jumping inside the God’s body. She just tears him apart and I was cheering.

After the battle, Rei and Chiho meet up and hug and kiss. And then she meets his parents. They don’t believe that she’s the giant until she changes size in front of them. Somehow, they get a cab and things go bad. Rei’s mother starts to interrogate her while they’re in the cab and we find out that Chiho is twenty four years old. Again, she is twenty four and Rei is, like, seventeen or something. And the mom points this out, and that’s illegal (which I’m not sure of, given Japan’s normally very liberal Age of Consent laws). So, Chiho just starts bawling in the cab sitting up front next to the driver. I fell so bad for the driver.

They get back home and Rei ends up meeting up with Chiho and having some hot sex. He stays until morning and has to head home. Not long after he leaves, the police show up and she’s arrested. Now, during this, we’re seeing news coverage of what’s been going on. The media is begging people to stop using E.T.E. and we see that the police are investigating the “pink haired giant” for possible connections to terrorists. Um, what? And after Chiho is arrested, she ends up getting charged, and convicted of Insurrection. Excuse me? I don’t… I can’t even that whole thing. She literally saved millions of people and they are going execute her. I am so mad right now just thinking about it.

Meanwhile. Rei ends up taking care of Mochi, Chiho’s cute Corgi, and coming clean to his friend about his relationship with Chiho. There’s a lot of stuff just kind of happening in the background and almost nothing of Chiho after she gets arrested. However, I did see some interesting bits involving the other Weirdo in the US. Apparently, the Americans are in love with this guy, while the Japanese seemed to be angry at Chiho and I have no idea why. During his fight with the “closely resembles but is legally distinct from” the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, he shoots bolts of light from his hands. I wonder if this is something all of the Weirdos can do or is it part of the device Chiho also has? I’m very interested to find out.

As we reach the end of the volume, two things happen: at least 853 people are abducted by UFOs after an E.T.E. vote and then not long later, dozens of giant people appear.

The first giants we’re introduced to are children who show up at Rei’s school, pull people out from the building by reaching into the windows, and killing them. Rei is saved by one of them by the police and hunters with a shotgun. As Rei and his friend travel home, they see all kinds of people who have become giants: Salarymen, Yakuza gangsters with swords, Sumo wrestlers, an old guy dressed up in a sailor dress, and more. It’s so surreal and out there. And they’re all killing people. And this brings me to another question I have, who are these people? Are they the people abducted by the UFOs? Or are they E.T.E. users who said they wished they were giants so they could take on Chiho? They’re not as large as the God of Destruction was, maybe half or a quarter of the size, but there’s a lot more of them. One key difference between these giants and Chiho is that all of them are wearing clothes, so their transformation wasn’t like hers.

Speaking of Chiho, this volume ends with a giant hand smashing into Rei’s bedroom at night and someone calling his name. Rei thinks its Chiho but I’m not sure if it is or not. For one, she’s been in jail since her arrest. Also, the arm connected to this hand is wearing a sweater, which we’ve never seen her been able to do before.

When I finished this volume for the first time, I felt angry. There’s so many unanswered questions that are still there. The DVD from volume one? Hasn’t been mentioned since. This should be Chiho’s story but it feels more like Rei’s and I don’t know why. Nor do I like Rei all that much. He’s not growing or changing, I feel. And I am beyond angry about Chiho being charged and sentenced to death. She saved lives and this the thanks the Japanese government gives her? Not to mention that if they go through with it, it mean the loss of their only chance of being saved from E.T.E.’s machinations. I know that they won’t kill her, there’s clearly more to come with her, but I just can’t help but be upset. It defies all logic. Ahem. Anyway. I hope that this volume is the lowest point we reach in this series, and it’s all uphill from here, but I now have reservations about what is going to happen now. I guess we’ll find out together.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Suggestion: If you’ve been reading this series up to this point, keep going. I’m hoping it gets better.

Anime: Harlock Saga (review)

Content Warning: Epic space violence, minor violence and gunplay, implied sexual assault, Wagner's music, and one suicide.

The Harlock Saga is a six episode miniseries that's based on Der Ring des Nibelugen by Richard Wagner. You know this music. You've heard Ride of the Valkyries at least once in your life. So, this miniseries is a literal “space opera.”

Before we get too far into this, you must know that this miniseries is a sequel to the original 1978 series Space Pirate Captain Harlock. In addition, the character of Captain Harlock has appeared in other series by Leiji Matsumoto, and this miniseries contains references to these other series as well. So, you might find things a little confusing if you haven't seen the other stuff but you should be able to enjoy it as is.

The miniseries starts with the Space Patrol arriving at an asteroid colony that appears to be completely devoid of life. The ship soon encounters Emeraldas and Tochiro in a small ship. As soon as the ship docks with them, the Space Patrol finds out that the small ship is carrying a bomb capable of blowing them up. Emeraldas and Tochiro use this to get the Space Patrol to blow open the asteroid's space port and take a ship to see what happened inside the colony. There they find a holographic projection of Meeme playing an organ, as well as the swaying corpse of the leader of the colony. Meeme tells them that they must make their way to the planet Rhien, where the villain who killed everyone in the colony, is now making his way to steal the gold which is hidden on planet Rhein. Things start blowing up and Emeraldas and Tochiro are forced to steal a ship from the space port (as the Space Patrol has left without them) and make their way to planet Rhien. They speak with Meeme, discovering that they arrived too late, finding that Alberich has already stolen the gold and the planet will be destroyed. After Harlock and his ship the Arcadia arrive, Meeme gives us some more details about Alberich. He's one of the last clan Nibelheim and he seeks to use the gold to destroy Valhalla, first by forging it into a ring. Emeraldas leaves the show at this point to get back to her own ship (she also has her own miniseries titled Queen Emeraldas, if you like the look of her.)

This is when we're introduced to the young Daiba, living on Earth and is one of the best metallurgists in the universe. Daiba first speaks with Maetel (who's from Galaxy Express 999, a space fairing locomotive [no, I'm not making it up and it appears briefly]) and she tells him to NOT make a ring out of gold if a man turns up asking about it. Well, Alberich shows up afterwards and shoots out Daiba's tire. And then somehow cons Daiba into making the ring. You know, after he was told to NOT DO THIS EXACT THING! As thanks, Alberich shoots Daiba with his Luger, telling you that he's a real bad guy in so many ways, and leaves him for dead. After a few hours, Tochiro turns up, finding that Daiba was wearing a bulletproof vest, and takes the kid to Captain Harlock.

Now that we have the group all together, Meeme explains a bit more about what's going on. Alberich needs the gold because it controls time and he wants to take down Wotan, god of gods. Meeme used her organ on planet Rhien, in conjunction with Freya playing an organ on Valhalla, to make it so time barely moved on Valhalla and time passed quicker in other places, like Earth. There's one cool space battle, brief as it is, and then the Arcadia is summoned to Valhalla by Wotan, who has awaken and is very unhappy about getting old all of the sudden.

While Alberich gathers his forces, and the Arcadia is being pulling through space, we spend some time (haha) on Valhalla. Wotan has commissioned a pair of giant brothers to finish a fortress that may save him. The brothers are madly in love with Freya and have been unable to work, their thoughts so consumed by her. Wotan gives them permission to “touch” her, in exchange for finishing the fortress in time. They then go on to... Well, they don't show exactly what happens to Freya, but she lets out a scream and, yeah. They mercifully fade to black. Meanwhile, Fricka (Wotan's wife, I believe) and Wotan are visited by Elda, the Prophet of Valhalla and told to NOT summon Meeme and the humans with her, or shit will get bad. Wotan, but mostly Fricka, blow her off and keep summoning the Arcadia.

When the Arcadia arrives, it gets stuck in some barren icy wasteland but they do end up enountering Freya, who explains what's been happening. Fricka is all about killing the humans outright while Wotan is just kind of like “eh, they're vermin, we'll deal with them later.”

Soon, Alberich's fleet arrives at the edge of Valhalla's defenses and we get to hear “Ride of the Valkyries” during one of the best space battles I've seen in a while. They really don't make them like they used to. However, Alberich's fleet is decimated until he uses the ring to make short work of the defense satellites. Now, the way to Valhalla is clear, with only the recently finished fortress left to defend it. Now, the reason why we can't let Alberich destroy Valhalla is because Wotan made it the center of the universe and if it's destroyed, the universe will collapse into itself, doing a reverse Big Bang, to the point where NOTHING exists. So, good job, Wotan. You fucking idiot. Wotan has brought this on himself, as he was jealous of the Nibelheim and destroyed them. He's also conquered several species, including giants, and forced them to obey him.

So, should it surprise anyone when the giant brothers refuse to destroy the Arcadia when Freya is aboard? And then take it aboard to save Freya. I will give the brothers some credit as they do realize that Freya will never love them like they love her. That doesn't stop them from loving her, however. And then they start to leave. But Captain Harlock, who has already told Wotan that he's going to return the status quo; not because he likes Wotan but to protect the universe, tells the brothers that he's going to fight no matter what. This gets them to help.

The Arcadia faces off against Alberich's ship but is easily outclassed because of the ring. Then the brothers suck both ships inside the fortress, canceling the power of the ring, but making both ships have to deal with The Dragon inside. Harlock goes inside to get the ring, shooting in the shoulder Alberich with his pistol, and not his cool fucking laser saber thing (he doesn't use it at all in this miniseries and I am very disappointed), and just goes. He does tell Alberich that he should do what he can to get away from The Dragon, which is some glowing slime stuff, but the jerk just wants to shoot at it with his Luger. And nothing of value was lost.

The big moment comes when the brothers decide to blow the fortress, which will allow the Arcadia to escape, as well as The Dragon. They fly away as the fortress blows up, followed by the Arcadia, and The Dragon slime stuff. Which will apparently bring back monsters all over the galaxy. Wotan looks out at the Arcadia as it flies away, promising that he will remember the name of Harlock.

And that's it. I didn't even give all the details, because there's a lot going on here. There's three hours of stuff, and while a lot of it is rehashed from episode to episode, there's some really deep lore to get out. Thankfully, I'd seen Galaxy Express 999, the sequel to that, and another Harlock movie (Arcadia Of My Youth, if I remember correctly), before seeing this and was somewhat familiar with the characters. However, Harlock himself doesn't really speak, much less do anything, until the last few episodes.

That said, this one has fantastic imagery, ship designs, space battles, and of course, music. It's weird, out there, but fun. I only own it as it was collateral for some other anime I loaned out and was never returned. I may try to track down the other movies and do reviews of them, assuming I can still find them.

Rating: 2 out of 5
Suggestion: Confusing if you only watch this but there's enough good looking space ships and battles to help you ignore it.

The Arcadia in flight