Cry for the Devil: Grenouille ends numerous innocent lives to sate his quest for the ultimate scent, but his whole existence is portrayed as completely miserable and pointless: almost murdered as an infant by his mother, walking around humans like an alien, living in total isolation for years, and when he finally achieves his goal and could basically become a living god, he decides he doesn't want that anyway and kills himself by being Eaten Alive by a mob of peasants.
Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: The film casts Grenouille as something of an Antichrist by perverting aspects of the New Testament. After getting arrested, he is sentenced to die on a cross-shaped torture device. During his planned execution, he beguiles the crowd into seeing him as a righteous man. However, he refuses the call to rule the world when he realizes that he doesn't feel like it. When he dies, a crowd consumes his body in a perverse echo of the Eucharist.
In a strange way, the orgy scene at the end is this. Despite being an orgy, there is no perverted focus, it is entirely about the crowd's enthralled faces as they lovingly embrace and make love to each other regardless of gender, race and age, turning the entire scene into a beautiful (if bizarre) cinematic moment. Topped of by the soundtrack accompanying the scene, "The Crowd Embrace".
In the book it's mentioned how much the townspeople of Grasse banded together (after initial prejudices were found faulty) to protect one another from the murderer in their midst. From local guards being set up, to even landowner farmers bringing their migrant workers into the barns at night to keep them safe when normally they're content letting them sleep outside in the fields. In such a Crapsack World as France is described in the book, such a display of concern for each other is a nice change.
Hollywood Homely: Grenouille is a disheveled, scarred, filthy, bone-thin, and socially inept man, but he's played by the dashing Ben Whishaw. It's questionable whether this is also an example of Adaptational Attractiveness, since the character is clearly supposed to be unattractive.
Adorkable: The same girls who come out on stage in light-up dresses to BAMF electropop music and tight choreography, end up leading their audiences through dorky dances to their slower songs, and a cheery jingle about brushing one's teeth after each meal. This mentions nothing about their other on- and off-stage antics.
Fans either prefer their older sound and think their newer songs are losing their touch, while other fans adore their new sound and think it's a step-up from older songs.
PERFUME – starring Ayaka Nishiwaki as a~chan, Yuka Kashino as Kashiyuka, Ayano Omoto as Nocchi, and Yasutaka Nakata as A Talentless Hack
—A Youtuber and avowed Perfume fan from the first half of said broken base
Fans either prefer their softer songs and hate their edgier ones, or vice-versa.note In interviews, the girls have called the styles "cute Perfume" and "cool Perfume" respectively. Can (but doesn't always) overlap with fans preferring their old or new sound as many older songs are softer while many newer songs are edgier.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Quite a few of their B-sides which fans often prefer to their corresponding A-sides:
"Hurly Burly". Many like it more than "Spending All My Time" and were devastated that it did not make it to the "Level 3" album. Perhaps as a nod to this, "Hurly Burly" IS on P-Cubed and a live performance of the song was posted to Perfume's Youtube's channel to promote the compilation. It's one of the only songs in the collection that wasn't on a full album beforehand.
"Display", which many preferred to its A-side "Cling Cling".
Fandom Rivalry: With those of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu (thanks to shared writer/producer Nakata) and Babymetal (thanks to shared choreographer MIKIKO plus lead singer Suzuka also being an ASH alum). Western Perfume fans seem jealous of the attention/success the other two have gotten in their regions. Despite this, Perfume seem to be on good terms with both acts, and both Kyary and Babymetal (especially Su) are known to look up to Perfume.
Fan Nickname: a~chan is sometimes called "B-chan" by fans at times when they feel she's not being nice to Nocchi or occasionally Kashiyuka.
Before "Polyrhythm", Perfume was a quirky Shibuya-kei-inspired technopop group (to the point where equally next-level single "Electro World" only made a minor dent in the singles charts). As one NHK documentary put it, "the reason why they are now facing a crowd of 50,000 is because of this hit song." And it shows.
While their choreography has always been their highlight, fans agree the dances have become even more impressive from "Spring of Life" onwards.
The "Spending All My Time" PV has the girls holding hands, grabbing each other's shoulders, and A~chan singing Loving you, so loving you forever to Nocchi's face.
They're seen holding each other in the "I Still Love U" PV.
"Spen."note In the Level 3 remix of "Spending All My Time", this tiny bit of Nocchi's line can be heard out of nowhere in the last minute or so, and it's very likely Nakata left it in by accident. It's gone from the P-Cubed version, which is based on the Single cut.
"I will cling to your chest."note The iconic line from "Cling Cling".
Nocchi and alpacas.note In an interview, she freely admitted to wanting to go to an alpaca park and befriend them all.
The segment of Perfume fandom that hangs out on 4chan considers Nocchi to be autistic due to her unusual reactions and expressions on-camera, plus her hairstyle.
Narm: At the beginning of their career (2003: Age 14), Perfume performed a spectacular dance performance to showcase their hip-hop dancing skills. One little problem that makes them difficult to take seriously… the song they danced to was "How Many Licks?" English-speaking fans are often taken aback, and moved to uncomfortable laughter, by the spectacle.
Their early dance routines were simplistic and excessively quirky. The routine for "Polyrhythm" is infamous for showing this trope off.
Any and every arm-waving routine and chant a~chan leads an audience through is cheesy fun, especially if the whole thing culminates in an exhortation to take care of one's body/health.
Never Live It Down: A~chan once referred to a gay male fan she met as being "neither male nor female" in an interview. Though she probably meant nothing by it – she showed no signs of disgust and such misconceptions are sadly common in Japan – it quickly became a running joke in the tumblr Perfume fandom (where there are many gay fans) to portray her as a Heteronormative Crusader.
, "The Crowd Embrace"