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Mar 10, 2022
"Yuki: Snow Fairy" is a movie I stumbled on by accident. I liked the poster, so I watched it.
The story is simple: a 13-year-old snow maiden gets sent down from heaven by her grandparents to go help a village with its problems, namely bandits, war, and everything else that comes with being peasants in feudal Japan. She has one year to fix this mess or else she'll turn into "a dark wind without form who spends all eternity wailing". What unfolds after she goes to earth is very much like a fairytale, and is a "good vs. evil story" with a big climax.
I was continuously
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in awe of the art. It has that classic 80's style, but is very high-quality and consistent. Horses are notoriously hard to animate, and "Yuki" does it very well. Since Yuki's snow white steed Fubuki is a prominent part of the action, that's very important. "Yuki" looks like it cost a fortune to make.
The sound could be better, mainly the soundtrack. I would have played more dramatic music during some scenes to amp up the tension. The final few battles had a good score behind them, and there are one or two nice inset songs about Yuki.
As for characters, Yuki herself is nearly static, but she takes action near the end. She's mainly a source of inspiration for the beggars and villagers she befriends. They're likable characters, and it doesn't take long to start rooting for them.
I enjoyed the movie, but it took a while to get through. It didn't hold my attention that well, so I watched it in parts over several days.
Overall, I give "Yuki: Snow Fairy" a 7/10, well worth watching if you want to see some classic animation where good guys fight bad guys with a really nice climax.
There's some bloody violence (people get stabbed, a few even die) but it's meant for a family audience.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jun 7, 2020
Since I watched and reviewed that trashy voyeuristic classic Sleeping With Hinako, I saw there was an anime about bishonen guys sleeping next to you so I watched it in the name of gender equality! Nah, I just wanted to see how garbage it was. Spoiler: it was pretty garbage.
This isn't really my cup of tea, so I wanted to watch it to see if it was ridiculous enough to make fun of, and it did get funny at times.
I hate the OP. First, it's too long and takes up 1 minute of the 4 minute episodes. Second, it's TOO LOUD. I actually fell asleep
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at the beginning of an episode and that stupid OP startled me awake.
There is no story. You just watch various guys talk for 3 minutes. There are a wide range of guys of varying degrees of creepiness, and I honestly thought some of them would molest me. And though there's an episode starring a "hot five year-old boy," he's just like some kid you'd babysit and he talks about Power Rangers before you two take a nap on your back deck in the summer. Nothing inappropriate happens. I thought the episode was kind of cute, to be honest. Plus, I knew the five year-old wasn't going to kidnap or rape me. The food stall owner was kind of cool too, but in a "talking to your cool uncle" way versus an "uncle who watches over me as I sleep" way. He literally declared himself the "king of kings of creepy guys!" so I guess that's fair warning.
The "animation" is guys talking over a lot of still images. Every now and then their mouths were animated, and it usually looked weird.
The sound is great if you like guys talking in Japanese with NO background music or sound effects whatsoever. It was creepy when they showed a guy tap on a window with no sound. And how hard would it have been to add a sound effect to the wind chime? And that leads into the best part...
Episode 3 is a masterclass in comedy. It stars Violin Guy, a cocky bastard who's a super creepy bargain-bin ripoff of Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club. He wants to lull you to sleep with masterful violin-playing. But he forgot one important thing: this anime has NO SOUND apart from the guys' voices! He pretends to play the violin—here's where you pause it, put on the terrible recorder meme version of "My Heart Will Go On"—and then hits on you some more since you were sooooo impressed. Suddenly, a spider attacks! It's the funniest thing ever and I laughed for like 5 straight minutes.
Makura no Danshi is an utter failure. Even if you don't think the guys watching you sleep are potential rapists, and even if you like listening to their voices, and you can stay awake long enough to look at the still frames and minimal animation on these subjectively attractive men or seriously underage boys, that DAMN OP will wake you up if you doze off.
Put on some ASMR or find a video compilation of one of those otome games or something instead. But do watch episode 3 because it's seriously hilarious. Or watch the whole thing with your friends and trash it MST3K-style, because that's all Makura no Danshi is really good for.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Jun 6, 2020
"When you stare long into the happy sugar abyss, the happy sugar abyss stares back into you." — weeb Nietzsche, probably
Happy Sugar Life will almost certainly make you uncomfortable in one way or another. It has a little something to trigger everyone!
I spent the first half of the show taking it mostly seriously, and the rest of the show watching with sick fascination at its trashy B-movie theatrics.
The story... eh... some unhinged 16-year-old girl doesn't know what love is until she finds an abandoned 8-year-old girl and falls for her. She then keeps her locked in her apartment. The little girl is fine with this.
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While I don't think it ever got sexual, the way they said wedding vows to each other every night was hella creepy and I was getting grooming vibes. They want this Happy Sugar Life to continue forever, but the world with its pesky laws keeps getting in the way of their love. As expected, the story doesn't end well.
The characters were what made me quit taking it seriously. They're off the chain! I mean, there were two or three (probably) sane characters in the whole cast. Our MC was a sociopathic lesbian (borderline?) pedophile who had a little girl locked in her apartment. Also she murders several people. And she LOVES having inner monologues. Her female boss? Rapist. Same-aged coworkers? A pedo and a lesbian stalker. Teacher? Masochist who LOVES when female students step on his crotch. And her aunt? Don't get me started on that piece of work. Add in the little girl's family and I started wondering if the government was slipping something into the water of this neighborhood as an experiment. It felt like each episode added a new sicko. No one has ANY chill in this show. I enjoyed the aunt character the most, because she was just so out there. I couldn't take my eyes off of her whenever she was onscreen. Oh, there was one sane girl in it, MC's friend.
Some of the things the characters did were so over-the-top and unrealistic that I felt like I was watching Severing Crime Edge again, except no one had the "possessed by a haunted murder weapon" excuse. There are a few priceless dialogues in HSL that make you wonder, "who the hell wrote this and how much did they get paid?"
The art was okay. It had a bright color palette with lots of pinks and blues, and that moe style where characters are cute to contrast with the fact that most of them should be in an insane asylum or prison. The animation wasn't that fluid. The best part of the animation was whenever someone shifted into crazy eyes mode: it was chilling, no matter how many times I saw it. And one fantastic murder scene. Now the show got one thing right: atmosphere. Even when it looks sweet and happy, you still feel like something is wrong. A large factor in this are the scribble effects that obscure certain characters' faces, and the static-y screens when a character starts losing their cool.
Speaking of atmosphere, when a character starts blanking out and the urge to murder / freak out rises, the voices distort. These sound effects (and a memorable scene where one character only speaks in an ultra-distorted sound wave) took the show up a notch. Then the laughable, overly-dramatic organ music that played during some "serious" scenes took it down a notch so the show broke even. The OP was very fitting, and the ED wasn't bad either.
Back to the story: everything gets resolved in the most dramatic way possible, with a final scene that was either great or a cop-out. I still can't decide.
If I saw this when I was 10 years younger, I would've thought it was deep as hell. Now I know that it had some hints at depth (MC's backstory), but it's really just violent and sick.
I enjoyed it for shock value if nothing else, and there's plenty of shock value. Happy Sugar Life is not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach. I don't really recommend it, unless you want to see some twisted stuff that gets unintentionally hilarious at times.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 10, 2020
Having just seen both animes and acquired a taste for Boogiepop, I decided to read this spinoff / side story while waiting for my Boogiepop novels to arrive in the mail.
I didn't like it. If I used one word to describe Boogiepop Dual it would be "dull."
The story is about Boogiepop, but instead of sharing a body with Touka Miyashita as in the rest of the series, he's inhabiting the body of a boy called Takaya Akizuki. He also popped up in someone else in the past, but that's a spoiler. I didn't exactly understand the antagonist's power, and I didn't feel like re-reading it
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to figure it out. Something to do with exploiting cracks in his victim's hearts, making them feel like a loser so they lash out violently. Everything turned out okay in the end, I guess.
The art has the same problem the animes had: same-face. During the climax I was trying to keep people straight by clues like "long haired girl" and "short haired girl." A few shots of Boogiepop in action were pretty cool: after all, he has that sweet cape. The rest of it was nothing to write home about. Backgrounds were standard: school roof, hospital, school nurse's office, someone's apartment. The story didn't call for anything else.
Characters were okay. Female sensei was a bit interesting. I don't remember what the antagonist's deal was and I read it last night. Boogiepop doesn't use his wires to grab things / decapitate people / tie things up, instead he shoots a bubble from his finger which makes people forget things. I think that's what it was. There are several student-teacher relationships, some sexual and one that's not sexual but a little unsettling.
It was only 2 volumes long, and I was interested enough to read the whole thing, but I'll probably forget I read it at all within a week.
If you're starving for Boogiepop and want something quick to read, you might like it. Otherwise, don't bother.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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May 4, 2020
So in my retarded quest to watch the most retarded animes ever made, I found Sleeping With Hinako. Apparently, she was in a workout video and then one where you can watch her bathe, so this is the logical next step. Japan, you absolute mad lad.
Disclaimer: I am not a lonely young man who desires the attention of a moe girl character, so I am not the intended audience. I'm a grown-ass woman who is on a quest to watch retarded anime.
Back to the show. The fourth wall no longer exists. You are with Hinako now. What next?
Hinako tries to show us how to sleep,
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but she's actually pretty bad at it. Watch her have wacky misadventures such as: rolling over, blinking too much, holding your imaginary hand, falling off her bed twice, singing you a lullaby, rolling over and hugging a pillow, getting a midnight snack, brushing her teeth, having dreams about how she likes you, and even giving you a kiss. Despite that, the anime is boring af, unless you like staring at a sleeping girl's butt (covered by panties, calm down). I was uncomfortable, both as I thought about the intended audience, and generally feeling creepy for staring down this sleeping girl's shirt.
Boobs McKenzie---I mean, Hinako is a fascinating character who consists of boobs and a cutesy voice. Mostly boobs. The boobs always look like they're going to fall out of her tank top because one strap falls off her shoulder every 30 seconds, but they never escape. When Boobs was awake, I wished she'd go back to sleep so I wouldn't have to listen to her stupid, baby-sounding voice. Another thing: Hinako seems like your average vapid moe character, but is she really? Why is she so chill with having a boy crouched next to her bed, watching her sleep? (You don't sleep next to her till it's almost over, and there's no chair, so where were you?) Is she getting paid? Is this a reality show? The way she asks questions to you is reminiscent of a kid's show, so is this Dora the Explorer but for perverts?
Personally, I could see this edited into a Paranormal Activity-like short film, starring you, the viewer, as the demonic force watching her sleep. She does mistake you for a ghost at one point. Add in a few jumpscares and you've got Paranormal Activity: Electric Weeaboo.
Despite this anime embodying the reason people hate otaku, there was something comfy about watching Hinako sleep peacefully, like when you put on a looping video in the background while you study. It's like watching a cat sleep, except your cat probably doesn't have big jugs like Boobs McKenzie here. Then the camera switches to a close-up of her little white panties and I start feeling uncomfortable again.
There was a bit of excitement: around 19 minutes in, she stopped moving and got so quiet I couldn't hear her breathing. No panty shots either. What happened to Hinako? Is she okay? Turns out I'd accidentally paused the video for a few minutes. Phew, false alarm.
Why does Sleeping With Hinako exist, you may ask? In your heart, you know why. Moe money, moe problems. I think it accomplished its purpose, so I give it credit for that.
If you're into it, whatever. Who am I to tell you not to watch an animated girl sleep in her underwear for 45 minutes? It's your life! Plus you'll probably fall asleep yourself since it's so freaking boring.
Tune in next time for Eating Breakfast With Hinako, and Riding The Train With Hinako.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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May 3, 2020
Did you ever want to combine Gurren Lagann with Fire Force and TOTAL SENSORY OVERLOAD and put it on a big screen for nearly 2 hours? Well Promare is your dream come true!
As for me, I didn't like it.
The story is super predictable. I took notes as I watched it: "I bet that guy is evil." He was. "I bet that guy has [SPOILER REDACTED SECRET]." He did. And of course, aliens. Always aliens. The story is just really thin, and some of it is revealed by a long awkward exposition conversation after the first action sequence. The heroes are sitting around eating pizza and
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they casually speak paragraphs about how the city was founded and science and blah blah. It was unrealistic to say the least.
The art is fantastic. In addition to the Trigger style, there were a lot of sweeping city shots and big mecha battles. There was CGI, but it was actually good and blended in well with the 2D animation. The quality doesn't drop in parts either: it's great the whole time. There is so much flashing and exploding and rapidly changing bright color that you shouldn't watch it if you're epileptic. You'll start breakdancing.
The sound was also good. Lots of explosions mainly. And yelling. A few cool inset songs to amp up badass fights.
The characters were okay, at least the ones they didn't totally ignore. Galo the hot-headed yelling firefighter guy did exactly what I said, and was kind of fun to watch. Lio the cool-headed guy who looks kind of like a woman and can burn things because he is a fire person (Burnish) had a little more to him: he was moderately peaceful (for a terrorist) but could be pushed too far and nearly was. Epic team-up time? Epic team-up time. The rest of the firefighter squad? Forgotten. I mean, there's a scene where Lio and Galo and a female squad member are in an underground lab talking to some scientist about the whole conspiracy / coverup and they all just ignore her like she's not there. Seriously, the scientist goes "I'm so glad you two came along to (do thing)" and I'm like, "Girl Whose Name I Forgot is right there, man! Three feet from your face!" She later went and relayed the information to someone, but at least acknowledge her existence, like damn. Well, I guess she was in a minor subplot which was so obvious that it carried no emotional weight. The bad guy... was the bad guy. He was a bad guy. That's all I can really say about him.
The movie was self-aware, I'll give it that. If it hadn't been, I would've knocked a point off of my rating.
I never felt excited while watching it. Maybe I'm just dead inside, I dunno.
My recommendation: watch through the first 20 minutes or so, and if you don't like it, you won't like the rest of the movie. It has no chill.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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May 1, 2020
First of all, Boogiepop Phantom will be confusing as hell if you don't know the storyline of the first novel (and the sixth novel, Boogiepop at Dawn, which is a prequel to the first novel). The easiest way to avoid such confusion is to watch the anime "Boogiepop and Others" (2019) first, since it adapts both those novels. I'm serious, watch that first.
Note: I have not seen Serial Experiments Lain, so I can't make any comparisons to that like many other reviewers have.
Boogiepop Phantom is an original story set right after the first novel, and I mean RIGHT after, because the mysterious pillar of light
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that starts the events of this series is the climax of the first novel.
Here's the plot: A pillar of light in the sky involving aliens makes electromagnetic waves that give a bunch of people freaky psychological X-men powers. All the people are mentally ill or traumatized, so they use their powers in ways that usually hurt other people, even if they don't mean to. There's a secret organization trying to stop this "evolution" but they frequently end up making more trouble than they prevent. The X-men problem solves itself. Later, there's a serial killer and Boogiepop catches them. The end.
Was that a spoiler? Not really, since the whole show is atmosphere. It's pretty episodic, but the stories have a few threads holding them together, with recurring characters here and there. The plot of a typical episode: "Here's a person being weird / freaking out / trying to kill himself. Through flashbacks, sound effects, voice overs, and references to the novels I assume you read, I will show you how his mind is screwed up, how he got an X-men power, and what he did with it." How interesting the separate stories are depends on how much you relate to the characters in them.
Most of the time, the art doesn't look good. The characters have severe same-face syndrome. Maybe it aged badly or something, but nothing about it sticks in my memory. It's all in a fuzzy sepia-tone, which reflects the messed-up minds of the characters. It's like when I forget to take my meds and end up wandering around then looking at my hand and thinking about how weird a hand looks and I just keep going down a rabbit hole of strange realizations. So congratulations, Boogiepop Phantom: you've successfully captured the perfect atmosphere for stories about mentally ill people losing it. It also had good sound effects, and the OP and ED were fine but definitely dated.
As for the actual characters, only one or two made a lasting impression on me, the butterfly girl and Boogiepop Phantom. If it weren't for the 2019 Boogiepop anime and the Wikipedia page, I wouldn't be able to keep ANYONE else straight.
Another thing: this show scared me. Boogiepop—or something that looks like it—is out there lurking in the dark hunting all these people who are doing drugs, stealing souls, or getting eaten by a serial killer... that's creepy as hell. I even dropped it for a while. It might not scare you, but there are some gruesome and gory scenes in there. There are a couple I'll remember in the middle of the night.
All in all, Boogiepop Phantom is a mess surrounding a surprisingly simple plot, and it mostly makes sense in the end. If you liked the 2019 series but wished it was creepier, definitely watch this. If you like the "Dementia" genre of anime, definitely try this show out. If you're into psychological anime, you might like it. If you want to see an anime time capsule from the year 2000 and are okay with confusion, here's your show. Otherwise, you can safely skip Boogiepop Phantom.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Apr 26, 2020
Someone told me Angel's Drop was terrible, and that they try to convince their unsuspecting friends to watch it so they can suffer too. Since I'm a curious little moron, I thought "it's only 5 minutes long, let's go!" I watched it and my mind feels violated.
Since it's so short, I can't tell you much about it that wouldn't spoil it. There's not much to spoil. It's like if I showed you a piece of candy. You wouldn't know what the candy tasted like or what would happen until you eat the candy and experience it, for good or ill.
Also, I'm afraid to describe what
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I've seen. I'd rather describe the first episode of Goblin Slayer in excruciating detail.
It's the most existential anime I've ever seen. Evangelion? Forget it. Ghost in The Shell? Sunday school. Cat Soup? Okay no one really knows what happened in that one. Well, Angel's Drop blows them all out of the water. When it's over, you'll question who you are, what life choices led you to this point, why someone made this, and if humanity is worth saving. Religious people became atheists after watching this, thinking God had abandoned them, while atheists turned back to God because they sought the mercy of a deity to forgive them for watching this. I recommend the Nora, the Elder God Meme Waifu from the "bad" anime Twinkle Nora Rock Me.
So -9/10 for this anime, and 10/10 for tricking people into watching it so they can understand your suffering and trauma. Average that and Angel's Drop gets 1/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Apr 26, 2020
Fire Force is an average show that could’ve been a lot better. I almost dropped it before episode 7, because boy did it have a rough start. The cast was all stock characters; there were long awkward pauses in conversations; the jokes were falling flat; and although it was often very good, the animation had quality dips such as characters having no face in faraway shots, even when they were talking.
I hate dropping things, and didn’t have anything better to watch at the moment, so I continued and am glad I did.
What attracted me to the show was the animation. It was colorful, and the
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fire effects are great, along with the scenes where the pyrokinetic characters use their powers. Shinra’s Devil’s Footprints were a standout, and the final swordfight was sick! Character designs were appealing: Shinra’s smile, Maki’s muscles and witch hat, Sister Iris’s firefighter nun outfit, Arthur's “knightly costume” and his plasma sword, Lieutenant Hinawa and his weird baseball caps, and even Tamaki (ugh) looked cool. Almost everyone else in the show has cool tattoos or scars, the pupils of many pyrokinetic characters are shaped, so everyone is easy to tell apart. All of the pyrokinetics have different powers, and they’re fantastic in action.
Story-wise, I started getting into it around episode 8, and was all the way in by episode 11, which shows the formation of Special Fire Force Company 8.
The world they live in is really interesting: people spontaneously combust at random and turn into demons (Infernals), while the church, the government, and a large corporation all have secret agendas involving these Infernals. The eight Fire Soldier companies aren’t united. Oh, and by the way: there’s an evil cult running around too. And a few other shady guys.
The characters started out stock, and stayed about the same throughout. By “stock character,” I just mean they weren’t that distinctive from almost every other shonen action show I’ve seen: the aspiring hero whose mother and brother (allegedly) died, the talented but dumb rival comrade guy, the strict, glasses-wearing second-in-command who is always writing on a clipboard, the good-natured but serious captain/mentor, the sweet church girl with a tragic past, the hardworking girl who’s actually a big softie and is conscious of her body image, etc. Stock characters aren’t necessarily bad, though, and I thought some of Fire Force’s were really cool. I liked the female fire soldier Maki a lot, and Vulcan the mechanic, Captain Obi, and Arthur, who provided some good laughs during the Vulcan’s Workshop arc. I can’t think of a lot of development, but our protagonist Shinra learns to control his powers better, so that’s something. I didn’t stand around thinking, “Man this guy is frustrating!” so I think he was good enough for a shounen action show.
I don’t pay much attention to the music and sound design in most shows, so forgive me if this section of my review is lacking. Both OPs are kickass. I liked the first one more, but the second was good too. The EDs are good as well, but I was paying more attention to the visuals. The first one shows a character’s backstory and there is an absolutely chilling shot… which was blacked out from ep 3 onwards due to the KyoAni arson attack. The second one had scenes from another person’s past, and I desperately wanted to know more, but I don’t think the manga has even covered it in the 20+ volumes released so far. The sound effects for the fire powers were cool.
And now to the most agreed-on aspect of Fire Force: the painfully unfunny and badly-placed fanservice. Tamaki—our token half-naked pyrokinetic cat girl—made me want to kill her. One of her “lucky lecher lure” scenes ruined the atmosphere in a VERY serious fight. Her other scenes outside of battle made me roll my eyes, but didn’t really bother me. She has cool powers too, which were almost completely ignored since her real power is getting groped. What a waste.
To give you an idea of how I got into Fire Force, I’ll rate the arcs:
Introduction arc, eps 1 - 4: Bad
VS. Company 5 arc, eps 5 - part of 7: Okay
VS. Company 1 arc, eps 7 - 9: Average, but with plot getting better. Features Tamaki’s worst scene.
Preacher Pursuit arc, eps 10 - 11 (first half): Average
Asakusa arc, eps 11 (second half) - 14: Good or Very Good
Vulcan’s Workshop arc, eps 15 - 18: Good or Very Good
Netherworld arc, eps 19 - 24: Very Good
Despite all of its flaws, I am looking forward to season 2, and / or reading the manga.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Apr 18, 2020
A good, thought-provoking series, but you may have to hang on for a while to get into it. There are a lot of episodes that retell the same events from a different character's POV, and the plot is not linear, but something you have to piece together. It's a supernatural / sci-fi / horror / mystery.
It centers around a shinigami called Boogiepop, who shares a body with a regular high school girl. Shinigami was alternately translated to “reaper” or “angel of death” in the English version I watched. She only shows up when the world is in danger.
The name “Boogiepop” is so goofy that
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I put off watching the show for a while. Some high school girl wearing a cape and a stovepipe hat and calling herself "Boogiepop" says she’s here to save the world? It was hard to take seriously at first. But I digress.
It’s really hard to give a synopsis of this show because it's divided into four arcs, each covering one story (1 or 2 volumes of the light novels), so I'll review each of them briefly, then give some thoughts on the series as a whole.
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"Boogiepop and Others" is episodes 1 - 3. This was the most rushed of the arcs, and its pacing wasn’t good either. I honestly had no idea what was going on the majority of the time. Once you watch the whole show and get the characters straight, it makes much more sense. Plus, the ending is pretty straightforward.
"VS Imaginator" is episodes 4 - 9. Boogiepop doesn’t appear in this arc much. You get to learn a lot about the mysterious Towa Organization hinted at in the first arc. There’s a lot of mind-control and memory-altering in this arc, by different parties and for different reasons. The most prominent characters here are Nagi Kirima’s younger brother Masaki Taniguchi, and Aya Orihata, a girl he meets during a confrontation with bullies on the street. Combine this with a guidance counselor who starts seeing a mysterious apparition in the vein of Boogiepop, and dangerous things start happening.
"Boogiepop at Dawn" is episodes 10 - 13. My favorite arc by far. It’s Boogiepop’s and Nagi Kirima’s origin story, and the main setting is a hospital. We learn even more of what the shady Towa Organization is up to and why. There’s assassins and a serial killer running around, and it gets wild.
“Overdrive: The King of Distortion” is episodes 14 - 18. Several characters from the first arc turn out to be important in this one. Everyone in a building falls asleep and has to come to grips with painful memories of their past. Who’s causing it and why?
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Complicated though it may seem, each arc boils down to a single philosophical question the villain / antagonist asks: "What if x didn't exist?" or something similar. Their intentions might not be bad, but the antagonist tries to implement them the wrong way. It gives the viewer a degree of sympathy for the antagonists… except the ones in the first arc.
The art was pretty good, but the supporting characters were borderline indistinguishable for me at first. All high school kids wore the same uniform, and there were even a few characters that changed bodies. Sometimes the quality dropped and there were faraway characters who had no face, and similar lack of detail. The setting is kind of gray and bland, and there isn't a lot of atmosphere, particularly in the scenes at the school. There were a few cool fight scenes, about one per arc. Boogiepop and Nagi have great character designs. I think the art improved as the show went along, so the first few episodes were underwhelming.
The OP and ED were both fantastic, probably some of my all-time favorites. Not only that, but they fit the show perfectly, both the lyrics and the animation. The songs are almost entirely in English. If you want a feel for what the series is like, watch the OP. It’s like that, except for the heavy synth music.
The voices and sound design are excellent as well. Boogiepop comes with her own theme music: Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which she is prone to whistling before she shows up. I watched it dubbed in English, and LOVE Boogiepop's voice.
The characters—as I’ve mentioned before—can be hard to tell apart, especially if you’re not good at remembering Japanese names like me. Nagi Kirima was a standout, and I’d watch a whole series about her. Boogiepop herself was interesting because she didn’t automatically jump in and save the day, instead she only interfered when necessary. Some of the supporting characters are interesting too, such as Suema, a high school girl who studies criminal psychology based on something that happened in her past.
"Boogiepop and Others" is not going to be to everyone's taste. If you like people discussing psychological concepts interspersed with some horrific crime scenes and incidents involving a secret organization interested in evolution, try it. If not, you’ll probably fall asleep because the first two episodes are mostly talking.
I’m on my second viewing now, and plan to read the light novels the show was adapted from. I still think "Boogiepop" is a goofy name.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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