Boogiepop Phantom

Publisher
ADV
Director
Takashi Watanabe
Production
Madhouse, Project Boogiepop, TV Tokyo
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
12 episodes
Year
2000

Boogiepop Phantom: Evolution One

By John Huxley
27th Apr 04

Episode Summary

Episode 1: Portraits From Memory

Death moves within the light and within the city. Power failed and the world changed. Flux is in the air, and now - the Boogiepop Phantom moves within the night. If you meet her on a dark night, your soul dark also, then ... well, no one has ever lived to tell the tale. Within the Boogiepop Phantom lies you salvation - or your end - or perhaps, both ...

Episode 2: Light in Darkness

Jonouchi is cursed: he sees the world's evil that others are blind to. Powerless to avoid what he sees, crushed by the burden of seeing, he is pushed beyond his limits. His existence now has but a single purpose: change. He travels the city removing the pain in others, but it carries a price.... How complete can a life be if it is without pain?

Episode 3: Life can be so nice

Misuzu lives a terrible lie. That lie conveniently serves something quite malevolent. Her life changed some years ago in many ways, some subtle, others less so. By adopting an alien philosophy to her life, her world changed. In different ways, many of us serve another who holds power, but some fail to recognise this until too late....

Volume Review

The first episode of Boogiepop Phantom isn't exactly an eye-opener. You've got this huge shaft of light, a brief blackout and then it skips to this tale about a girl who loved this boy, but couldn't tell him because he was dating a friend. Future episodes will return to the shaft of light/blackout incident, but don't expect it to explained for a while yet. The story for this episode conveniently introduces several of the major players in Boogiepop Phantom. One of which is the Boogiepop Phantom herself, although the less said about her the better (for the fear of spoiling things). This episode is fairly mundane compared to the weirdness to come, although it does act as an easy introduction to the series.

Things take a turn for the odd with the second episode. Jonouchi, hit by an offshoot from the shaft of light first seen in episode one, suddenly gains the ability to see bugs eating away inside other people. As he is the only one able to see them, he takes it upon himself to be the one who removes these bugs, removing the pain with them. For some reason, Jonouchi cannot resist eating the bugs, to which he eventually becomes addicted. I enjoyed this episode more than the other two on the disc, if only because it was funny to watch him fondle a girl then eat a spider. Seriously, watching Jonouchi turn from a helpless child into someone who thinks he is helping others, only to realise that his gift is a curse...I thought it was very well done.

The third episode is a little bizarre (so, what's new?). Misuzu knew a girl who she called Panaru. Panaru loved life, loved the world as it was, warts and all. When Misuzu found her dead, murdered in a park by a serial killer (another important character), she dedicated her life to Panaru's world love philosophy. This is only half the story, and it should be pretty obvious by now that things take a turn for the worse. It seems that every character in this series begins the episode with high hopes, only to have them crushed by the end. And probably killed, too.

Three episodes might sound like a rip, and it is. Compared to some of ADV's recent releases that contain five episodes on the first DVD alone, two volumes of Boogiepop Phantom will only amount to six. Still, three episodes is roughly film length, so I guess it's not that bad. Besides, if you like the series, you won't mind either way. I found these first three episodes to be enjoyable, but not entirely gripping. The lack of any cohesive narrative throughout left me cold.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English subtitles, Japanese 2.0 and English 5.1 audio, Director's commentary 1.0, 30 second promotion, 15 second promotion, Music video, ADV Previews

Notes: The features, bar one, are particularly ordinary on this DVD. The one feature that does stand out (especially for an anime DVD) is the director's commentary. Here we have two individuals involved in the translation and adaptation of Boogiepop Phantom ramble on for an hour and half about their experiences of the production. They do ramble, some of it very useful information, some of it not. Either way it's a very welcome feature that you may well find a necessity. The image and sound quality are excellent on both accounts. I didn't have the equipment to try out the English 5.1 mix, but the dub was good enough quality itself. As with all of ADV's recent releases, the subs are present and correct. Which, if it were not taken for granted, would be the most important feature of all (I'm looking in your direction, Street Fighter II). No insert, which is a shame for those of you who like to look at something while the DVD boots up (and, hey, these things can actually be useful...just look at Noir).

-- John Huxley 27th Apr 04

Boogiepop Phantom Images