It's not very often that an anime rolls along and has great characters, great music, styles and character designs to die for, as well as a great story. Boogiepop is one of the few anime these days to really think outside the box and be different. Before I get started, I'd like to note that there is a prequel of sorts to Boogiepop Phantom, the live action movie "Boogiepop and Others" (Now out on R1 DVD) takes place right before the anime. But you don't need to see it to watch the anime.

Boogiepop Phantom Review

Story:

The story to Boogiepop is magnificently written. There are characters from all walks of life, with different goals, and circumstances. Characters range from average school kids, with school kid problems like bullying, suicide, and so forth, to a girl named "Echoes" who can't talk, but rather, can only repeat things people say to her.

All these characters are linked together. For example, Character A could be classmates with Character C who's brother, Character D ran into Character E at K-Mart one day.

But what about the story itself? What IS the storyline to Boogiepop Phantom? When you watch episode 1 for the first time, you get the feeling that nothing's really happening, but Boogiepop actually has a very deep story that's projected across the 12 episodes. The anime gives you bits and pieces of information every episode, and as you see events through more character's eyes, the anime starts to piece together.

(The parts from here on in may contain spoilers)

Five years ago, there was a string of mysterious and brutal serial killings, the police were baffled. Gradually, a myth appeared that they were killed by something called "The Boogiepop", a sort of "Angel of Death". 

In the present day, a mysterious pillar of light shoots up into the sky, from the top of the school. After that mysterious event, bizarre things have been happening, especially to the students of that school. After a close encounter with the light pillar, a young student begins to be able to see giant spiders on people's chests; he finds out that the spiders are the manifestations of people’s regrets, so he starts eating the spiders to release people from their regrets.

At the same time, a mysterious drug starts circling around the city. The drug is called S Type. A young boy starts taking S-Type, and he gradually loses touch with reality and becomes obsessed with his dating sim games, and a girl working at a local restaurant. But when the power cuts off and he loses the data in his dating sim game, he goes berserk and eventually gets arrested by the police.

I don't want to give it all away, especially since the story is really hard to describe. But the story is mysterious and deep, but yet isn't very hard to understand as you start watching more of the show.

Story: 5 out of 5 Stars. You have to commit to Boogiepop Phantom and watch the entire 12 episode series to really get a full understanding of the series, but it's worth it.

Characters:

I love the characters. Especially the downright crazy ones. There's Boogiepop, the dark "Hero"  whom appears only when  the city is in danger, Manticore, who is responsible for a majority of the events going on in the city (Like the S-Type drug)

I can't really describe all the characters, but they all are charming in their own, crazy way. There's a reporter whom is possessed by the Manticore without even knowing, there's a lady that has a terrible memory problem, to the point where she can't even remember giving birth to her own daughter, there's a character that can see people's regrets manifested as spiders on their chest, there's a character who can dismantle people and wants to dismantle the "useless", there's a girl who lives to play piano, but gets rejected from the music school she wants to attend.

I could go on and on, but once again, it'd be better to see it for yourself

Characters: 5 out of 5.

Art\Character Design\Mecha Design:

I love the style to this show. It's not very often an anime has a "style", especially in the days of mono-character design. The character designs are pretty standard, but what make this show so great to watch is the washed out colors. The series looks grainy, depressing, and colorless, and I think that's magnificent. Interestingly enough, the last episode was in a "Normal" style, which gave the episode a special charm.

Art: 5 out of 5

Sound:

Boogiepop has a great OP\ED, the OP is sort of a Jazzy Rock song, and the ED is a dark \ yet bouncy J-pop song. The background music for the anime is mainly really raw industrial music. It's pretty good, and fits with the show.

Sound: 4 out of 5

Overall:

If you're willing to give Boogiepop a chance and watch the entire series, you may very well enjoy it. The first episode isn't that good when you watch it for the first time, so I think a lot of people got turned off from the show after watching the first episode and I think that's a real shame. Boogiepop is a great, dark, beautiful story, with a broad cast of different and interesting characters.

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars. I try my best not to give anime 5 out of 5 stars, but I can't really think of anything wrong with Boogiepop, all the separate aspects of the show are great, and they're great when they come together.

(This Review was written by PronsAmuro)