Masao Maruyama, Madhouse’s CEO, thought the Perfect Blue pitch was “no more than a reckless idea,” but decided to back the project. At this point, Katsuhiro Otomo became involved, not through his anime or manga connections but because he’d illustrated the author Takeuchi’s work. Otomo read the script and recommended that his colleague Kon should direct. This advice seems to have been the extent of Otomo’s involvement, though it got him the film credit of Project Adviser. (This was probably because Otomo was now a highly bankable name, following the world success of the anime version of Akira.)