Perfect Blue (1998)
"excuse me... who are you?"
Rising pop star Mima Kirigoe quits singing to pursue a career as an actress. After she takes up a role on a popular detective show, her handlers and collaborators begin turning up murdered. Harboring feelings of guilt and haunted by visions of her former self, Mima's reality and fantasy meld into a frenzied paranoia.
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| Type | Movie |
|---|---|
| Released | 28 February 1998 |
| Genre | Animation, Thriller |
| Director | Satoshi Kon |
| Starring | Junko Iwao, Rica Matsumoto and Shinpachi Tsuji |
| Runtime | 81 min |
| Rated | R |
| Scores | Rotten Tomatoes 80% · Rotten Tomatoes (average) 7.2/10 · Metacritic 67/100 · TMDB users 8.3/10 |
| Budget | $830,442 |
Where to watch Perfect Blue
Perfect Blue is streaming on Max ($18.49 a month) in the US. If that is the only reason to subscribe, one month of Max is $18.49 at list price.
We check availability daily. Page last updated 31 October 2026. Prices are standard monthly plans and change often, so check with the service before you sign up.
Rent or buy
You can rent or buy Perfect Blue on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube and Fandango at Home.
Where to watch Perfect Blue in 14 other countries
| Country | Streaming on (price a month) |
|---|---|
| Australia | Netflix $20.99 AUD, Crunchyroll $11.99 AUD |
| Belgium | Crunchyroll €7.99 |
| Bermuda | Netflix about |
| France | Crunchyroll €6.99 |
| Gibraltar | Netflix about |
| Guernsey | Netflix |
| Ireland | Netflix €11.99, Disney+ €11.99 |
| Japan | Netflix ¥1590 JPY, Prime Video ¥600 JPY, Hulu, U-NEXT ¥2189 JPY |
| New Zealand | Netflix $17.99 NZD |
| South Korea | Netflix ₩13500, Watcha, Tving ₩10900 |
| Switzerland | Crunchyroll CHF8.90 |
| Taiwan | Netflix NT$290 |
| Turks & Caicos Islands | Netflix |
| United Kingdom | Netflix £13.99 GBP, Disney+ £11.99 GBP |
Subscription, free and ad-supported services we track; prices where Binge Boss has a price list for the country. "About" marks a price the service bills in another currency, converted at the day's rate. All countries as data.
What kind of watch this is
Satoshi Kon’s 1998 thriller runs 81 minutes, a tight duration that feels like a panic attack rather than a movie. The hook is not the murders, which happen, but the way Mima’s mind starts to edit them. Visions of her pop star self bleed into the detective role, blurring the line between performance and psychosis. It is a film about the violence of reinvention, where the audience cannot trust the protagonist’s own eyes. Kon treats the camera as a lie detector that fails. The result is less a whodunit than a how-do-you-survive-it.
What the critics said
Rotten Tomatoes gives it an 80% Tomatometer score as of October 2021. That same audience rates the film 7.2/10, a figure that suggests enjoyment without rapturous worship. Metacritic lands on a 67/100 Metascore as of December 2024, which is solid but not screaming. The numbers agree on quality, even if the temperature varies. It is a film that rewards patience, or at least punishes its absence.
How it did with audiences
Perfect Blue cost $1 million to make. It took in $1 million in the United States. That is not a profit. It is, however, a break-even. On TMDB, users rate it 8.3 out of 10. The audience did the math. They watched the nightmare, they paid the entry fee, and they walked away without losing anything but their sense of reality.
If you liked this
TMDB's recommendations for people who watched Perfect Blue.
Sources
- Perfect Blue on TMDB — synopsis, cast, ratings and recommendations
- Wikidata Q1205051 — review scores, box office and awards (CC0)
- “Perfect Blue” on Wikipedia, by its contributors (history) — reception, audience figures and legacy, summarised and adapted here under CC BY-SA 4.0
- Where to watch and prices: Binge Boss, from TMDB watch-provider data (powered by JustWatch) and our own provider list
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