Introduction:
We are all afraid of
something. Usually it connected to the unknown or death (the greatest unknown).
But in high school you can end up with a whole host of additional fears. Will
my peers turn against me? Are my grades ever going to be good enough? Will he
ever notice me? Will she laugh in my face when I ask her out? Will the angel of
death come for me in a dark, dank alleyway because I’ve been talking to
something that may be a ghost but is more likely a creature spawned from hell?
You know typical teenage stuff.
Summary:
In an unnamed Japanese city
(not Tokyo because it appears as a destination later in the show) the high
school aged teens are becoming prey to something dark. Some of them disappear
without a trace. Others are found dead, sometimes by their own hand or other
times brutally ripped apart. Rumors start spreading about an angel of death
named Boogiepop (Debora Rabbai) that will take you away from the horrors of
this world. Others say that Boogiepop is the killer and an unstoppable creature
to boot.
Nagi Kirima (Rachael Lillis)
isn’t sure what to think but dammit, she’s going to find out. So attempts to
track down Boogiepop, discovering that magnetic waves are distorted whenever
the spirit appears. In addition plants seem to accelerate growth and metal
rusts quickly whenever Boogiepop appears. Can these phenomena hint at the true
nature of this beast? Meanwhile student’s lives intersect, collide and end one
by one. Nagi learns that the past may have come back to haunt the city. On top
of all that, Boogiepop isn’t the only supernatural presence roaming this
metropolis. There are others out there, including a thing calling itself Boogiepop Phantom. On her own, does
Nagi have any hope of solving this puzzle, retaining her sanity and surviving
the next night?
Good Points:
- An amazing exercise in
fractured non-linear storytelling
- Oozing with dark atmosphere
and dread
- Some very strong
performances by the English voice cast
Bad Points:
- There are no main characters
or obvious story threads
- Revolves around the lives of
high school kids, adults are few and far between
- Relentlessly bleak and dower
at times
Overall:
The non-linear storytelling
will either be a puzzle you want to solve, or a headache you end up avoiding.
Where the series really works is in creating it’s oppressive mood of dread.
It’s style works wonderfully with its themes and the English voice cast does an
excellent job with so many characters and scripts to work with. While I’m not
fond of “teenagers only” it does end up working in the long run. I think this
is one of those series that will just click perfectly for some viewers and
leave others very cold. It is one of my favorites and highly recommended if you
want a take a ride on a dark fractured rollercoaster.
Scores
(out of 5)
Visuals: 5
Sound: 5
Acting: 4
Script: 4
Music: 4
Direction: 5
Entertainment: 5
Total: 5
In Depth Review
 |
Lost in a hall of mirrors, Nagi isn't sure if the reflection
is harmless, or a deadly phantom she is hunting. |
The world of Boogiepop Phantom is a dark and
dangerous place filled with mysteries that turn into nightmares. It
takes the insecurities all teenagers have and twists them into horrors. It
takes pure ideals and hopes and tears them into bloody shreds. Memories,
even good ones, can poison. Characters who actively fight and try to find some
good often appear to be running circles and heading toward something that can’t
be stopped – the dark angel Boogiepop. It is a bleak world with darkness
literally in every corner. The final episode does offer some light, but the whistle in the air hints that the
haunted aren’t quite at rest yet.
And I love this show for all
those reasons and more. It takes a bold step in not presenting us with your
typical happy anime teens running around getting in and out of trouble. There’s
no hyper color hair, spazzy best friends or even super cool heroes to shake
things up (although Nagi is pretty cool looking in her motorcycle leathers).
Instead all the character designs are realistic, with natural colors for hair
and hairstyles that you’d see at a high school in the year 2000. While
supernatural powers exist in this world, they are rarely helpful. Most of them
do harm to those who use them. Even kids who try to help others with their
powers end up hurting others and realizing how much pain they are causing.
There is a natural order to this world. When the supernatural appears, it is
usually a force of horrible change that destroys and cripples. The world is
only righted when those supernatural forces are defeated.
 |
The supernatural forces gave her a big old shove,
but at least she went with a smile on her face. |
Even the natural world is
dangerous. Several of the protagonists in the episodes have serious emotional
or mental problems. We see several characters that become obsessed with
something only to end up destroying themselves and others. Insecurities lead to
drastic actions. Some of the characters just can’t process what is happening to
them and break in front of you. You get the feeling that some of these kids
just needed a little push to go over the edge, and usually the series gives
them a big old shove instead.
So Boogiepop Phantom is all darkness and despair, so why the hell
would you want to watch that.
Because it is also a mystery, and the mystery is, why is this happening?
The very first episode hints at a reason, a brilliant beam of light that shoots
into the air and causes a kind of shockwave over the city. All the power goes
out and then is restored. From that moment on, supernatural things start
happening, kids end up dead or vanish, and Nagi Kirima is hunting for phantoms.
But the structure of the story is where the genius is. Each episode is its own
story, with it’s own protagonist and it’s own beginning middle and end. For the
most part the main character of the episode is never a main player in the big
story. Instead you are viewing the story of a supporting cast member as the
huge events go on around them. In a way this is a horror version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,
but with 12 episodes and nightmare creatures.
 |
Little tip, you see this woman, you run and hope
she isn't floating behind you. |
But each story ends up
intersecting another. Sometimes it only does it in a brief moment. For example
in episode four, two girls walk by a crazy man the police are trying to
restrain. They pause in their conversation to watch for a moment, and then move
on, to keep talking about the recent killings. In the next episode we follow
the crazed young man, building his story until he is being hauled out of his
home by police officers. And guess what, one of those police officers ends up
appearing in several stories. He has a direct connection to the overall story
of what happened the night the light shot into the sky. But you never follow
him directly, only watch as he appears time and again giving you a new piece of
information by his actions or inactions.
 |
| Nagi plays detective but finds only more questions. |
Each episode gives you a
mini-horror story, and then gives you something about the larger story at hand.
You begin to see some characters over and over again. Sometimes you see the
same scenes but from different points of view. One of the returning characters
is Nagi Kirima. You hear kids talk about her for the first couple episodes.
Then you see her hunting, but you don’t know that is her yet. Later on that
same scene plays again from a different point of view and you realize – hey I
saw that in episode two.
For me, this is the real
draw of Boogiepop Phantom. I love
how all the pieces fall into place. How there are hints of other stories going
on, but we never know all the details. I love how some characters appear to be
helpful and kind in one episode, but when we meet them later we see them as
horrible fiends that are causing pain wherever they go. I’m sure a huge amount
of planning and scripting and rewriting went into making this whole thing work
so well. It isn’t perfect. There are a few questions that are never answered,
but I actually think that works to the advantage. We never do know all the
answers to anything, but we have enough to understand how all the darkness can
finally be battled. I find it amazing every time I watch the series how so many
puzzles can be developed over the entire series and even as the last moment of
the last episode plays out we are still putting things into place. It really is
an amazing work of non-linear storytelling.
 |
The darkness literally engulfs one of the helpless
victims. |
Key to all this is the
atmosphere and mood of the series. Boogiepop
Phantom is a visually dark series. It dwells in shadows and night. The
primary colors are black, grey, dark brown and the deep crimson of blood. You
rarely see any blue or green in the series, and when you do it is a visual
shock. It is very much an autumn kind of feel visually. It is also a very soft
looking show. The whole image seems lacks any sharp details. Things look foggy
at times, or as if we are looking through some fog or mist. It is all by design
of course. It fits the themes of perception that permeates the show. None of
the characters ever see the whole picture. Many times what they believe is not
even close to what the viewers know to be true. And even we are not seeing the
actual image; everything is separated from us by that layer of softness.
Finally there are the dark corners of the screen. Nearly every shot in the
series literally has dark corners, shadows that seem to bleed into the visuals.
It’s an oppressive look, as if the darkness is closing in on everyone on the
screen.
 |
Ok, which girl with glasses is this? Didn't she die? Is
this a flashback? |
If there is a downside to
the visuals it is the fact that this show didn’t have a large budget. So they
had to work with some limited character designs. This is a huge cast of
characters, and sometimes it can be very difficult to tell characters apart,
especially since most of them go to the same school and therefore they are all
wearing the same school uniforms. You have to rely on voice acting and small
details. There are four different girls who wear glasses in the series. You
can’t use that as an identifier, so you have to try to remember their names, or
use their hair or personalities as your way to tell them apart. Even then it
can be tough. One of them dies early on and in a later episode I thought we
were seeing a flashback, until I realized it was a different girl. I figured
out that one girl had her hair parted on one side and the other had hers parted
in the middle. But both look nearly the same. It can be a bit of task;
especially the first time you watch the show.
The sound design and music in
Boogiepop Phantom are handled very
well. For the most part the sound effects include atmospheric rumbles, winds
blowing and of course the juicier sound effects when one of the characters
meets a gruesome fate. The show also plays with volume levels, sometimes
allowing a sound to blast unnaturally loud, or have conversations fluctuate in
volume as a character shifts his or her attention to something else.
 |
Boogiepop or Boogiepop Phantom? Either way,
someone is going to die. |
The music is mostly a series
of electronic and techno tracks. These are edited in ways that create
propulsive rhythms during chase scenes, or add to the mood with minimalistic
sound design. It all works fairly well, but not all of it is pleasant (it’s not
supposed to be). There is use of white noise with electronic clicks that you
might call music, but really it just creates an anxious feeling in the listener.
And then there is the Overture by Wagner. It is taken from his work Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg. You
hear it during the “teaser segments” at the end of the show. But then you hear
Boogiepop whistling it. It becomes a theme for the entity, seeming to blow in
on the wind. There is a hauntingly distorted and warped version of the tune
used in the series, combining a full orchestra with some electronics and studio
distortions. It’s amazingly creepy and used to great effect in the series. For
opening and end credits you get a couple of songs that seem really odd choices.
The first is a 70s styled jazz piece called Evening Showers. It’s a very groovy song, but seems a bit out of place with the
show. The end theme is a rockin’ tune sung by a band called Kyoko. It’s called Mirai Seiki Maruhi Club and it ends the
show with a nice punch.
 |
Even characters that use their powers to help others
end up hurting people. |
Last but not least is the
acting. I’ve mentioned already that the English voice cast is really great.
This must have been a real challenge to dub, but everyone is on his or her game
here. Lots of familiar names from the old CPM dubs are present and some of
these folks are given multiple roles to play. Some of these parts are very challenging;
with conflicting emotions being played one minute followed by stark terror the
next. The DVDs include some commentary tracks by the voice actors and director
and nearly all of them talk about how the hardest part was finding the right
tone of voice for key lines. The Japanese track is also very good, but the show
is so complicated in story structure that reading subtitles becomes a bit of a
chore on top of keeping up with the story. So for a first viewing I definitely
recommend the English dub. Then try a revisit in Japanese.
I think this show flew under
the radar for a lot of folks when it came out. I saw a few reviews, but some
folks were frustrated by the style and storytelling. Others were writing off as
just being weird to be weird. I can understand being frustrated by it, and if
you want a simple scary story, then Boogiepop
Phantom isn’t going to work for you. Some of the individual episodes are
very creepy, but there is a lot more going on here. And that is why you can’t
write it off as just being weird to be weird. It makes definite comments on how
perceptions define reality. It dives into the power of urban legend and rumors.
It shows how memories are both a blessing and horrible curse. It deals with
obsession and how it corrupts even the most noble of endeavors. In its own
twisted way it even shows that all of us need someone to understand us and
accept us for who we are. In this case it may turn out to be a horrible
monster, and angel of death or our own damaged psyche – but it is a need we all
have. Those that find that acceptance and understanding achieve some measure of
peace.
 |
The beam of light that started it all, and yet it was the
end of another story... |
When it comes to dark and twisted anime series I have a few on my list
of favorites: Serial Experiments Lain and
Paranoia Agent are certainly on
there. But I have to say I find Boogiepop
Phantom to be the most satisfying and exciting to revisit. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it
again – it is certainly the dark jewel of my anime collection.
