Boogiepop Phantom
a review by R2R
a review by R2R
Sometime ago, I just left everything I read or learnt about the series & everything related, and watched the first episode of 2019 Boogiepop and Others.
My initial impression about the series was formed when Boogiepop stated the following in the first episode;
*"None of you have realized yet but this school.... No.... This world is in danger.
And that's why I'm here"*
After hearing this my impression was,
"Ah.. Great. I can already see where this is going" and stopped watching after that, keeping in my On-hold section. But when I continued it, I realized it wasn't the way I thought it would, thankfully. It turned to be a good psychological mystery with a some philosophical depth. After that, I watched the 2000s version which is very different from 2019s version as it's more of a psychological horror with some artistic scenes and moments. Both of them, turned out to be something that genuinely made me.... think.
The 2000s Boogiepop Phantom is about change in perception as we grow. This was shown in a very dark & eerie way possible with the purposeful use of dark screen effects, spooky OST and the way it explores it's themes with different characters while loosely connecting each individual story.
The 2019s Boogiepop & Others is about a few highschoolers trying to figure out the sudden and mysterious murders/missing cases in their locality, about some drug, a man eating monster and many more. The series conveys it's themes and philosophy while constantly giving an intriguing mystery that at first looks jumbled but gradually comes together piece by piece. With some good music, well animated action sequences and an overall intriguing mystery makes this a very enjoyable ride.
While both series bare the same name "Boogiepop", both are very different in their approach, and have their own pros and cons.Anime, generally can't achieve Horror in the sense, it's hard to make people scare from just a bunch of pixels. Many Anime use gore as means to invoke horror but it just end up being laughable or straight up stupid. Phantom, however uses it's psychological aspect and delivers a sense of horror. It didn't really make me jump off and scream in terror, but it left me at an uncomfortable & eerie spot.
Phantom follows an episodic storytelling while loosely connecting each story with some characters making appearances in every or most of the episodes. Each episode is different and explores different situations & themes with different characters which results in this deep study in themes like obsession, memories, past, regrets and few others of sort. My favorite episode is "Episode 10" where it dwells into the effects of becoming an adult and it's an amazing experience viewing how it got unfolded in the end.
I really didn't expected to like the visuals as much as I did. It kinda reminded me of Serial Experiments Lain, a show I really didn't enjoyed, but it turned out to be compelling to watch.
ConsPhantom is a psychological horror Anime, but it tries to build a mystery behind the scenes while dwelling on characters. But this mystery never really got payed off. It leaves more questions than answers and just makes it more confusing. Speaking of confusing, another demerit is;
This is tied to the Mystery point. It builds mystery with interconnecting seemingly unrelated events by characters, but due to the art style choice, all the characters kinda look the same and can't really follow the whole thing if you can't remember them which makes it hard to follow the plot.
Each Arc starts with an episode that has unordered events jumbled in between which doesn't make sense at first, but will unfold slowly and gives the main picture as it progresses. This makes it a very intriguing & interesting to watch.
The series has some great dialogue and the delivery is pretty good. Some of my favorite dialogue comes from the second arc, the VS Imaginary arc. The series has this subtle philosophy tied to the dialogue for each character and it's very interesting at how these philosophical tones often clash with each other.
The show is very aesthetic in it's mystery aspect. It really makes an interesting and mysterious world filled with unnatural phenomenons and unnatural events, with fluid animation and amazing OSTs.
ConsWhile characters have their philosophy or psychological aspects, they never really comes of as "Good" characters due to lack of personality. They feel bland, static and sometimes a little generic. Even the biggest highlight, Boogiepop himself, looks more like a cool & cocky character who can solve anything at the end, rather than a entity who's existence should be mysterious and hard to understand.
It's a demerit not in the sense, it's bad but in the sense it isn't doing a good job. Often times, the Gore is used to spark a shock factor, the same problem that many "Horror" Anime try to achieve but fail.
Both are a 9/10 series for me. But I liked the mystery aspect of Boogiepop and Others more than the psychological aspect of Boogiepop Phantom.
The main reason I haven't watched this much sonner, is because I was a little unsure of what comes first.
But based on my experience, my recommendation is;
"Why (I think) you should start with Boogiepop & Others?"
The 2019 Boogiepop contains 4 arcs.
The 2000s Anime takes place in between the first two arcs, that is "Manticore" & "VS Imaginator" arcs. 2000 Boogiepop is an original story made by MADHOUSE and doesn't really add anything new to the story (i.e., the characters in Boogiepop Phantom, except the Mains won't make any other appearances in 2019 Boogiepop & Others), and just exists in the Boogiepop Universe. 2019 Boogiepop is the main story, 2000 Boogiepop is an original story. Storywise you don't miss anything if you aren't interested in something old but it is an excellent psychological horror that I highly recommend. So, Binge 2019s adaptation and then watch 2000s Boogiepop Phantom.
"Why I recommend not starting with Boogiepop Phantom 2000?"
This is just my opinion based on my experience btw.
I think we all have this one moment where a show, a movie or just a short Video you saw on YouTube leaves you in this state of thought, where you just do your daily cores as usual but your mind still revolves around that one experience or memory you had while watching it. This series is one of those for me. I often see people claiming that a certain Anime changed their life, changes their perspective and something along the lines. There might be some people don't really mean everything they say, but whenever I see/read something like that, it just leaves me wondering, "Do I find something like that too?". The Answer is... Still a "NO". Yes, this series made me loose in thought and the closest thing so far, I still think it didn't really changed me that much. Maybe I'm just looking into this too deep or just giving too much value to the word "Change" when mentioned by others, but it sure made me think and that's a great thing I'll remember. Something I don't really understand completely yet it made me think. Whatever reason there is behind, maybe it's just a small intrigue, or maybe it's something I haven't realized yet, but it did made me question a few things about my thoughts, opinions and probably, myself.
And so this ends.
Hope this might helped you a little.
Have a nice day!
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