Boogiepop wa Warawanai

I just finished watching Boogiepop Phantom and honestly I have no idea what I have just watched. And it is not because the plot is too complex or because there are too many different points of view of various supporting characters who are all troubled or because of constant change of time and location. It’s because some parts of the storyline are missing. Some people say Boogiepop Phantom is like a puzzle. You only need to watch carefully and put all pieces together so you can understand the story. That is not true. The biggest problem here is there is lots of missing piece so ... it’s practically impossible to understand the whole story unless you're psychic or unless you read a good synopsis like I did. One more problem apart from partially presented storyline is character design. I had trouble telling them apart (also I still have no clue who the other Boogiepop is).

This anime has so much potential. We have dark atmosphere, strange occurrences, supernatural creatures, mysterious murders and above all a sneak peek into the minds of troubled individuals and discovery of what breaks them down (both real and imaginary things). The plot is also easy to understand and quite interesting (if you read a good synopsis). Not to mention the beauty of sound effects. But as I already said the anime is poorly done so all of this goes down the drain.

The outro slaps!
The Anime doesnt.
BUT THE THE OUTRO, DAMN!



Its just an incoherent jumble of characters and Drama. Very boring, a chore to sit through and doesnt evoke any strong emotions beside that. (Exept for the outro.)

Typical case of same face syndrome.
Half the plotlines dont get resolved at all.
... Not scary.
Ive said everything but it wont let me post with such a short review.
So here are the ending lyrics:

kono seki no rojiura wo magatta kage ga
sasotte 'ru yonde iru himitsu no KURABU

genshoku no SHOO UINDOU kaseki ga warau
zetsumetsu no nazo wo toku otoko to onna

roku sen go hyaku man nen no kanata inochi wa nani wo mita 'n da

aijou ga kono koro chotto SUNE te iru
mama naranai KISS datte
dakarete yurete kanjinai
tanjun na KOTO nano ni yarikirenai yoru

kono hoshi no hashikko de miageru taiyou
shizumanai owareranai rakujitsu no yume

chisou ni wa nemutte iru rekishi no emaki
zukan ni mo nottenai fushigi na FORUMU

mirai seiki ga chikadzuite iru futari wa doko e yukun da

saibou ga kanarazu kitto oboete 'ru
tokimeki no MEKANIZUMU
futari no kyori wo chidjimetai
matsu dake no teitaraku tobikoetai yoru

mirai seiki ga chikadzuite iru futari wa doko e yukun da

aijou ga kono koro chotto SUNE te iru
mama naranai KISS datte
dakarete yurete kanjinai
tanjun na KOTO nano ni yarikirenai yoru

saibou ga kanarazu kitto oboete 'ru
tokimeki no MEKANIZUMU
futari no kyori wo chidjimetai
matsu dake no teitaraku tobikoetai yoru

While watching Boogiepop Phantom a question kept popping up in my very confused (but pretty) noggin: “am I missing something?” Turns out that I was indeed missing something. Boogiepop Phantom bridges the gap between two light novels that haven’t been adapted into anime and also happen to be prohibitively expensive in my secluded homeland, the great white north. In a way it’s like jumping into a series during the second season without having watched the first. Unfortunately this doesn’t exactly make for great TV.

The situation isn’t helped by the non-linear structure the show adopts or the lack of distinctive characters. Everyone sort of has the ... same face which was a problem for me, as I couldn’t tell if I had seen certain characters in another episode or not. What I assume were big plot reveals were ruined because I didn’t know which character from 3 episodes prior was having their story concluded. Usually I’m fairly astute with this type of thing, but I’ll admit this might have occurred because I wasn’t invested enough in the series. But first time viewers can expect some (deliberate?) confusion.

In a way I respect how intentionally opaque Boogiepop is, the way it requires you to dig deeper into supplementary material to understand it. I just think it could have been executed better. It didn’t leave me wanting to hunt down the novels or read fan theories online the way other shows of this nature did. A lot of the time it just bored me.

It does have some good qualities though. Some of the visuals are quite nice; in one scene Boogiepop opens his/her cape and it appears as if a gate to the cosmos is contained within it which I thought was really neat. I liked the memory butterflies and some of the monster designs as well. The animation…fluctuates. The OST and sound design are phenomenal.

Overall I didn’t really enjoy Boogiepop Phantom which is a shame as I had pretty high expectations and liked the first few episodes a lot. It became pretty apparent about halfway through that the series was more interested in being pseudo-deep than being actual scary which disappointed me. It just doesn't stand on it's own as a satisfying story. I would only recommend it to fans of the novels or soundtrack aficionados.

This was one of first anime to appear at the turn of the century. With a strange title, Boogiepop Phantom, and riding a hot up and coming director by the name of Takashi Watanabe (Slayers), Studio Madhouse went with the theme of the 90’s in a vastly changing scene of dark and experimental sci-fi anime. This one is no exception and possibly one of the darkest anime of its time. It has a puzzle-box type of show where the viewer must piece events together chronologically in order to make sense of things, all while watching the various characters break down mentally in this town stricken ... by mysterious events.

In this town where grotesque murders are taking place, rumours spread of a mysterious entity known simply as Boogiepop. If you see Boogiepop, count your blessing and kiss yourself goodbye. Throughout each episode, events from one episode gives glimpses or explanation to another. This gives the viewer great ‘ah-ha’ moments, but also the realization of ‘what is even happening?’ Even main characters from one episode may make a brief appearance in another further either answering some questions or making new ones. This theme of Boogiepop Phantom really keeps the viewer paying close attention to each episode. It is all about putting together the big picture.

That being said, the pieces thrown together may be a bit unsatisfying yet brilliant at the same time in a strange way. It really takes a look at what the worst humanity has to offer ranging from gaining vast power leads to changing one’s psyche to the pain of going through death during childhood.

Director Takashi Watanabe had full control over this anime unlike in Slayers or the mess of shows he went on to do. The use of greys and dark greens in the colour pallets speaks volumes of the setting. Music and tones were set in a way to make the environment uncomfortable, but overlapping dialogue with poor character designs lead to too much repetition. Perhaps there was just too much taken or influenced from Serial Experiments Lain in this one.

The problem is, Boogiepop Phantom is so narrow minded with its psychology theme and unoriginal from the series before it (Evangelion and Lain) that it lacks any impact at all. The questionable writing and too many missing pieces in the puzzle leads to more questions than answers without consulting a psychology guide and summary. If Serial Experiments Lain or Evangelion hits the right notes, then Boogiepop Phantom is a series definitely worth checking out.

A lot of anime get away with obtuse plot direction by being entertaining or having interesting characters or just something to keep you watching but Boogiepop is not that, the plot feels like it's trying not to make sense, like it's trying to give you the least amount of information possible and that you should form the gaps, i feel like i have to read multiple novels to understand what is going on and honestly i am not interested in doing that.

It's somewhat interesting to have watched(some of) Boogiepop after watching Lain because in comparaison Lain has a relatively simple plot with clear characters but ... told in a way that enhances the message of the anime once you delve deeper into it, which is quite the opposite of this one where more and more questions seem to arise the deeper you go.

one of the most frustrating things with this anime is that every episode introduces new characters but much of the characters in the anime look very similar which adds to the confusion.

Overall this might have just not been for me at all as clearly a lot of people seem to like this anime very much but i couldn't get over my frustration and am unwilling to read the novel to understand what happens since i was not hooked by either the art, the story, or the characters, the story is clearly deep as it often talks about very deep topics but i found that since other animes could do the very same thing while also having a clear and engaging plot this was not worth watching.

Keep in mind that i have only watched 5 episodes before dropping it so this review is really just my opinion.