Perfect Blue

Mima Kirigoe decides to leave the J-pop idol group CHAM! to become a full-time actress. Many of her fans are dismayed by her change from a clean-cut image, particularly an obsessive fan, Me-Mania, who begins stalking her. Following directions from a fan letter, Mima discovers a website called "Mima's Room" comprising public diary entries written from her perspective, recording her daily life and private thoughts in great detail. She confides in her manager, former pop idol Rumi Hidaka, about the site, but Rumi advises her to ignore it.

Mima lands a minor role in the television detective drama Double Bind as Yoko Takakura; however, her agent, Tadokoro, lobbies the producers of Double Bind and succeeds in securing Mima a larger part, though her new role requires her to film a rape scene at a strip club. Despite Rumi's objections, Mima accepts the role, but filming the scene proves distressing, prompting Rumi to leave the set in tears, and Tadokoro shows regret. Mima begins to fall into a delirious state during the rape scene. When Mima returns home and learns that her fish have suddenly passed away after irregular feedings, she goes into a rage, destroying her apartment, saying she "of course" didn't want to film the scene but felt she had no choice but to secure her role as an actress. Between the ongoing stresses of filming Double Bind, her lingering regret over leaving CHAM! after learning that her former groupmates' next single without her has become a hit, and the paranoia she experiences from being stalked, Mima is distressed about her double life and begins to suffer from psychosis. She especially struggles to distinguish real life from her acting pursuits, and is repeatedly visited by an apparition of her former idol self, who claims to be "the real Mima."

A string of murders is committed, all against people who have been involved in Mima's acting career in some respect. Mima finds evidence in her closet suggesting her to be the prime suspect. Her increasing mental instability makes her doubt her own memories and innocence, as she vaguely recalls brutally murdering photographer Murano after he implored her to allow him to take naked photos of her. Mima manages to finish shooting Double Bind, the final scene of which reveals that her character killed and assumed the identity of her sister due to trauma-induced dissociative identity disorder. After the filming staff have left the studio, Me-Mania, acting on e-mailed instructions from "the real Mima" to "eliminate the impostor," corners Mima and attempts to rape and kill her, but Mima bludgeons him with a hammer and escapes. Rumi finds Mima beaten and disheveled, prompting her to take Mima to her home. Later, Me-Mania is murdered by "the real Mima" for failing to kill Mima.

Mima awakens, believing Rumi has taken her back to her apartment. She notices the fish are alive and well. Mima discovers that Rumi's bedroom is a replica of her own and realizes that Rumi is the one behind "Mima's Room," the serial murders, and the doppelgänger who manipulated Me-Mania: Displeased by Mima's retirement from the idol industry, Rumi developed an alternate personality of the "real Mima," now seeking to destroy and replace her in order to redeem her image. As Rumi pursues Mima through the city, Mima pulls Rumi's wig off resulting in Rumi unintentionally impaling herself on a glass shard during the struggle. Rumi stumbles into the street and the path of an oncoming truck; hallucinating the headlights as stage lights, she smiles and poses instead of moving out of the way, but Mima manages to save her from being run over at the last moment.

Sometime later, Mima, now established as an actress, visits Rumi in a mental institution. Rumi's doctor says Rumi still believes she is a pop idol most of the time. Mima says she has learned a lot from her experiences with Rumi. As Mima leaves the hospital, she overhears two nurses, who recognize her but conclude that she must be a look-alike, as the real Mima Kirigoe would have no reason to visit a mental institution. As Mima enters her car, she smiles at herself in the rear-view mirror before declaring, "No, I'm the real thing."