Stanteau! Reviews Boogiepop Phantom!

[stanteau]

Boogiepop Phantom

A scream in the night, and in that instant the world changed ... or at least, it appeared to. There have always been forces in the world and voices in the night: some friendly and other malevolent. Invisible until summoned; they slide through dimensions as people walk through doorways. They wait, and watch the doings of Man closely ... each for their own reasons. Sometimes, they appear ... and when they do, the world changes.

Everyone knows about Boogiepop: meet her one dark night and you are taken. People tell each other the stories and laugh: no one believes that she exists in this day and age. Still, there are some strange things that appear to be going on just below the surface. Darkness takes many forms, though. Evil and good intermingle. The glass shatters. Time stands still. There is something in the darkness. You aren't alone. Are you safe?

Five years ago, there was a string of grisly murders that shook the city to its core ... and in the present, psychic echoes reverberate.


Boogiepop Phantom has long been hyped to me. Everyone around he recommended it saying if I liked Lain, I would love this. I finally got around to grabbing this thing and I am utterly stunned.

The animation is just amazing. The character designs are from Takashi Watanabe and it shows in full glory. Everyone has that realistic feel to them. The backgrounds are very detailed, almost to an absurd degree. There are tons of little subtle things to the animation like in Lain. In some instances the characters will give off a slight glow, which is subtle, but it really adds something. The only complaint I can make is that at times they use some still frames but what anime doesn’t. The music is just awesome. It’s all Chemical Brothers/Aephex Twin style techno. It doesn’t always match what’s going on, but that’s not to say it doesn’t work.

The plot… well, there is one but in a Lain way, that is, there isn’t. It’s more or less a group of characters intertwined by something, much in the same way of Pulp Fiction but to a much higher depth. Sadayuki Murai, who also did Cowboy Bebop and Perfect Blue wrote the script, so you can imagine the quality of the script already. It’s very VERY deep just really original and strange.

The pace is really strange. As I mentioned it’s just a collection of stories, but its done in a weird way. They use flashbacks to tell the story of the person and why you should care about the events happening but… in a very new way for anime. Every single scene is presented with an X-Files style heading telling you where and when this scene is taking place. Its so engrossing and addicting and so ******* original.

The characters are the backbone of the series. Only a few make repeat appearances, most are limited to one episode leaving little room for character development but that never seems to be a problem. The little time they are given and the way it is told is enough to make us care for these characters enough to get into the episode.

The thing that sets Boogiepop apart from most, well, pretty much all, animes in recent years is its subject matter. It deals HEAVILY with death, sex, suicide, drug use, murder, and it’s imagery is often quite disturbing and vulgar ranging from a kitten being blown up to numerous shots of people vomiting. That’s not the sole reason to watch the series, but it’s a nice refresher to find an anime to deal with this stuff maturely.

And that’s the real reason Boogiepop is so damn great, it’s mature and serious. You will not find a single ******* funny thing about this title. It’s a disturbing and serious title. It’s very realistic in most respects (not in some but its anime, what did you expect?) it’s a downright creepy as hell anime that borderlines on perfection. Any complaint I could possibly have would be a petty annoyance and I don’t want to take ANYTHING away from this.

So is it better than Lain? In my humble opinion, yes. It has now topped my charts and is my personal favorite anime of all time.

A++

[Weatherman]

We're watching this right noe in club here at College Park. It is definately a show that gets you thinking. You can never really be sure of what you're seeing or exactly where in the continuity a particular episode is taking place. Word to the wise, only watch if you're really for a really intense, and kida trippy, expierence. it's not a show to be watched lightly.

[Ben]

Fixed the bold/italic tags in stanteau's post.

Haven't seen this yet, but we're supposedly cycling it in next quarter, so we'll see.

[Mynd Hed]

I've seen the first two Boogiepop DVDs. I found it to be overall a decent series with a few standout episodes that are A++ material.

The problem I had is that very few characters make repeat appearances and there's no main protagonist (like Lain in Serial Experiments: Lain) that you can follow, so most of the characters (especially the school-aged girls) kind of blur together, which gets confusing. That, coupled with the way the narrative jumps around from past to present and back again, makes the series very hard to follow.

That's my only complaint, though; the animation is top-notch, the writing is intelligent, the mood is dark, even the English voice actors are pretty good. All in all, if you like Lain and want to see something similar in tone but, if anything, even darker and trippier, you'll probably like Boogiepop.

Overall Grade: B-

[MachSabre]

I've seen the entire series. I thought for what it was, it was well done, but it's not exactly my cup of tea. That plus the trick affects they played with the sound I didn't find mood enhancing as much as I found it annoying. But overall, I thought it wasn't a bad waste of time.

Pretty much what the others had said. You like Lain, you'll like this. However it may not be for all types.

[stanteau]

There is a main protagonist in the last 3 or 4 peisodes too.

[Aragami_Frog]

I've only seen the first DVD of BoogiePop Phantom and it's so Yoshitoshi ABe and that's why I like it. I like dark series that are more story driven then your typical "lets show as much blood and body parts as we can" animes and movies.