2018 marks the 20-year anniversary of the groundbreaking Japanese animated movie “Perfect Blue.”

Legendary director Satoshi Kon’s debut movie, “Perfect Blue,” is a psychological thriller about Mimi Kirigoe, a Japanese pop idol, who abandons her fame to become an actress. 

As a stalker pursues her and the stress of a new career builds, she begins to lose grip on reality as she sees a fictional online “avatar” of herself torment her.

“Perfect Blue” is a prime example of an animated film that can truly grab and keep hold of the viewers’ senses. The subtle uses of lighting, music and environmental changes give this movie extreme “rewatchability” as it is impossible to catch every minor change, hint of foreshadowing and example of symbolism that appear the first time.

Nicholas Lang, the president of the Anime Club at Iowa State, discussed how the psychology of the film has evolved and become more relevant to today through the relevance of technology.

“The whole idea of the difference between who you are as a person and then who you are portrayed as didn’t really hit me when I was younger,” Lang said. “But nowadays, with the proliferation of the internet and social media, everyone has that side of them that they put out to the public.”

The media today holds a very prominent place in one’s life. “Perfect Blue” was ahead of its time in being able to showcase how social media can turn into a matter of ill-intentions directed at one another.

Lang went on to relate “Perfect Blue” to today’s western media through its impact on animation and story-telling. He said how popular modern movies such as “Black Swan” and “Inception” took influence from “Perfect Blue.”

“The director for “Inception” bought the rights to ‘Perfect Blue’ to create a live-action, western, version of it,” Lang said. “Both ‘Black Swan’ and ‘Inception’ blend reality and fantasy.”

The way “Perfect Blue” uses muted techniques to create atmosphere changes to cause the audience to question whether what they are seeing is reality or a false creation in the mind of Mimi is something no other movie has been able to capture since its original release in 1998.

Even at 20 years old “Perfect Blue” is still relevant to life in 2018. If you want to see a film that will impress, then this movie will exceed expectations and leave you pondering it for days to come.