untitled

Boogiepop Phantom

Genre: Horror/Drama

Date Submitted:July 25, 2003

Review By:Tama-chan

Plot Summary: A month ago, a column of light shot up into space and an aurora appeared in the sky like a distorted rainbow. Five years ago, a rash of serial killings struck the city but ceased as suddenly as they begun. Today, students vanish mysteriously without a trace... Boogiepop Phantom is a complex series that is hard to explain because the story is very broad, and it switches focus from episode to episode. Everything is connected, however, in more ways than the viewer will realize at first. It all goes back to that column of light a month ago... But what exactly caused it? What effects does it have on people? What is the connection between the light and the killings? The series will answer that, in time...

What to Expect: Lots and lots of characters, chronological confusion, general confusion... and a character named Spooky Electric.

Main Characters: Every episode has a different main character, some of which are never seen again after one episode... Some of which will have appeared beforehand as a tiny background part. The strange thing about this series is that there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of personal appearances by the title character. Boogiepop is an Urban Legend among Japanese high school students, a supposed 'Angel of Death.' Some say that she is the one causing the recent rash of disappearances, but some doubt her very existance.

Final Grading: -Quality of Artwork is good. Some of the character designs can look rather similar because they are all fairly realistic (by and large, no wierd haircolors or styles, etc), and this can cause a little confusion with such a large cast. The colors in this series, save for one exception, are rather mute and dull, but I won't take off because it seems it was done on purpose.

-Music is strange. It's a mix of many styles, such as techno and classical. At times it sounds like the soundtrack is going more than a little funny with lots of distortion, but it strangely fits. The opening song is very much a jazz-style song as well... It all fits the series, but I don't know if I'd recommend it by itself.

-Story is excellent. A viewer that wants to get the most out of this series will probably have to watch it more than once, because there are many little details that are easily missed but rather important. Even taken just by themselves, the episodes run the range of being genuinely frightening, tragic, or strangely touching. This is not by any means an easy or happy series, but everything has a lot of meaning, and there are a lot of mysteries that will keep a viewer watching to see what happens next. Things can be a little confusing, because the episodes are not in chronological order (episode four happens mostly about five years before episode one, for example), but it is worth sticking it out.

-Character Development is excellent, if only for the fact that the individual episodes are really good at portraying different personalities. There are a lot of characters with problems in this series, and the viewer usually gets one of them as an episode's main character... But by the end of the episode, the viewer can usually tell why the character is messed up in the first place. There are some background characters that don't get fully developed, but the ones that are make up for it.

-Overall: Boogiepop Phantom is an excellent series, provided that the viewer is willing to pay close attention and can deal with some graphic bloodshed and violence, as well as some depressing plot themes. This is not a show for someone out to find light entertainment, but I'll still give it 10/10.