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Among the various representations of fans in film, the image of the psychologically troubled and socially awkward individual is amongst the most common. In this article,I discuss the anime Perfect Blue (Kon, 1997) as a text that directly engages with the negative portrayal of fans by depicting a deranged stalker and his obsession with a young female singer-turned-actress. Perfect Blue is an anime that is concerned with the violent fantasies that underlie both fan identifications with media products and the manufacture of these products by an exploitative entertainment industry. Central to Perfect Blue’s criticism of fandom and popular culture is its use of the thriller genre to problematize the issue of identification. Here, I use Perfect Blue’s criticism of fandom and the construction of media commodities to focus on the problem of identity as a central issue in the construction of an ideal anime text by fans.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	fans, anime, Perfect Blue, identity, audience
Research Division:	Language, Communication and Culture
Research Group:	Communication and media studies
Research Field:	Media studies
Objective Division:	Culture and Society
Objective Group:	Communication
Objective Field:	The media
UTAS Author:	Norris, C (Dr Craig Norris)
ID Code:	81434
Year Published:	2012
Deposited By:	English, Journalism and European Languages
Deposited On:	2012-12-05
Last Modified:	2017-11-20
Downloads:	45 View Download Statistics