Impressions of Cold Sleep documentary (lots of spoilers within)
(My Japanese isn't 100% so definitely a few parts I would have missed/not entirely understood.)
The film opens with Perfume, after their dress rehearsal for the Nebula Romance done show, asking their staff to please gather around and read an important announcement - the cold sleep announcement that would be published the following day.
Then we go back in time a bit to the planning stages of the dome tour, and what leads up to that announcement.
There is no narration, just footage of rehearsals and meetings leading up to the dome performance, plus talking head interviews with Perfume and Mikiko.
They talk about their history from high school through to now, but not a lot of detail and most Perfume fans would know the lore anyway.
So I was hoping for some interviews with Nakata and Daito Manabe, but they weren't included (I assume Nakata would have immediately declined, haha). Manabe appears briefly at a staff party though.
Something that really surprised me was how the staff were notified on such short notice. I had assumed this was a decision years in the making, given how many people are involved with Perfume. And a~chan brings up that she feels bad about wanting to take a break because it would affect so many people's jobs. But the filmed discussions with Mikiko (who comes across very much like a second Mum to Perfume), make it seem like it was something they had been thinking about seriously only in 2025.
The film goes up to their final 紅白 performance, and shows the clock at midnight on Dec 31st - the start of their cold sleep.
At the end we see some of their 2026 activities, like Kashyuka's haircut, Nocchi getting laser eye surgery, and a~chan doing a photoshoot in her wedding dress (she had Perfume Staff help her with everything, their costume designer did the dress, hair and makeup team also involved).
Lastly, some cute observations:
Pepe and Popo are featured throughout, and are very cute. Also in the end credits, Perfume's family are credited for footage used and it's like "Yuka-mama" "Nocchi-baachan" haha.