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 I'd like to say that this book will teach you about idol culture but it's all 30 years out of date, so it's very much different these days.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.