Boogiepop Phantom (2000)

 Boogiepop Phantom (2000)

Anime is an interesting artform, it seems like many people have these preconceived ideas of what an anime is, which is disappointing, because anime is a very diverse artform.  Just like Western animation is diverse, from light children's faire, the absolute rubbish that Disney puts out, and more adult animated films and series, Eastern animation is the same way.   So if you think of anime and you think of the stereotype of perverted boys, fanservice, and bright colours, then you will be in for a surprise when you watch a series like Boogiepop Phantom.  This is not a light series at all, the series has a subdued colour palette using a sepia tone, rather than the commonly used bright colours used in anime.  The characters also have a more realistic look to the.  Boogiepop Phantom is a dark series that deals with issues of mental illness, regret, inner turmoil, and death.  The series also does not employ typical plot and storytelling elements, and is not presented in a linear fashion.  Each episode concerns different characters, whose paths cross, and help to progress the overarching story, and this can be hard for some viewers to follow or get into.  Some critics haves sited that if viewers are not familiar with the Boogiepop light novels, that after watching the series they will be left with unanswered questions.  Which is fair, but I think that if you can follow the story most things make sense, and there is a live-action prequel too, that helps to suss out elements that might not make sense.  I found the hardest was actually keeping all of the characters straight, and not being sure why I should care about the various characters at all.

Boogiepop Phantom was directed by Takashi Watanabe with Kenji Yasuda as the assistant director.  The series was written by Sadayuki Murai, based on the Boogiepop light novels by Kouhei Kadono.  The series is not based on specific volumes of the Boogiepop novels, but follows the first volume (Boogiepop And Others), and makes references to the sixth volume (Boogiepop At Dawn) which acts as a prequel novel in the series.   Boogiepop And Others, would be made into a live action film, which was supposed to be released to generate interest in the series, but was held up in production, and wasn't released until after the series was almost done airing.  Boogiepop Phantom was created by Madhouse Studios with cooperation from Triangle Staff, and it originally aired on TV Tokyo.  The English language version was released by The Right Stuff International with ADV Films doing the distribution.   Anime Network purchased the rights to broadcast the series in North America, and later Funimation Channel acquired the broadcasting rights.  Boogiepop Phantom was met with critical praise, and was a successful anime series.  The series was praised for its characters, artistic storytelling methods, use of art and colour, and music.   

For the cast of the series, I am going to focus on the English language voice cast, as that is how I watched the film, many of the voice actors voiced several characters throughout the series, so I will list their name and all of the characters that they voiced. Debora Rabbai voiced Boogiepop, Sayoko Oikawa, and Touka Miyashita.  Rachael Lillis voiced Nagi Kirima and Manaka Kisaragi.  Simone Grant voiced Boogiepop Phantom.  Megan Hollingshead voiced Akane Kojima, Misuzu Arito, Miyo Kisaragi, and Rika.  Roxanne Black voiced Arisa Nishi and Rie Sato.  Carol Jacobanis voiced Kanwe Oikawa and Makiko Kisugi.  Kristin Nelson voiced Kyoko Kishita and Toka's mother.  Crispin Freeman voiced Manticore and Masami Saotome. Traci Shannon voiced Mayumi Kisaragi.  J David Brimmer voiced Officer Morita, and Bill Rogers voiced Officer Yamamoto.  Jessica Calvello voiced Moto Tonomura and Poom Poom.  Mandi Bonhomme voiced Rai Takai, Liam O'Brien as Yoji Suganuma, Kelli Shayne Butler as Yoko Sasaoka, Buddy Woodward as Yoshiki Tabata, and Lisa Ortiz as Saki Yoshizawa.  As you can see there are a lot of characters to keep straight in this series, and with it going from each episode to being mostly about new characters, with overlapping events and scenes, it gets even more complex.  The voice actors themselves were great.  The voice acting fit the tone of the series, and helped the characters to feel real and believable.  

Boogiepop Phantom is a dark fantasy, horror, and psychological thriller anime, with multiple characters and plots that are unrelated, but have overlapping scenes and events that by the end of the series all tie together and are wrapped up.  It is hard to simply describe what it is about, because there is so much going on, but it centers around Boogiepop who is a Shinigami (referred to in the series as the Angel Of Death) who is hunting the Manticore.  There are many other plots happening too, but they all tie back to Boogiepop and the light of Echo, which appeared five years previously, and the timeline is constantly jumping back and forth between the present and back to the events of five years ago, and various periods in between, however there is still a progression to the conclusion moving the story to its climax.   I really highly suggest checking out this series, it is really well done, it looks great, it has great writing, and the music is amazing.  It is hard to give a summary of the plot because there isn't just one, but even if you are not a fan of anime, I highly believe that you should check this series out.   I am not sure how easy it is to find a copy of this series, I just came across it randomly at Bull Moose in South Portland ME and thought it looked interesting and picked it up, but if you ever do come across a copy of the complete series, I highly recommend adding it to your collection.