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.
