Reviews

I'll start with, this show is one to taste. While it is constructed immaculately, the themes and presentation will not suit everyone. If you dislike series which don't end with giving you a clear message or ending point, this is assuredly a show you'll want to pass on. Conversely, if you want a show to challenge you, and demand of you to put its pieces together to form the greater whole, Boogiepop Phantom is one of the best. Similarly, be prepared for a very dark, emotional look into people and life. Suicide is an extremely common theme, and a large percent of the characters you follow do not survive, if you show to cheer you up at every chance, or one you expect to follow a character through their dark times until they triumph, best look for Mizaki.

Centered around a theme of regret and memory, it is constructed uniquely, with each episode following a different character, as their actions interconnect, all centered around the same mystery. While many episodes overlap in their frame of time, there is an overall story that develops which comes to a conclusion at the end, in its own way. There are few clear cut villains (about two, neither of which last the entire series), and it is more about the opposing ideals. While there is a lot of clashing personalities, there is little 'action'. Opposed to anime norm, fights are over quick generally done in a single stroke, and not the focus of any scene, and most conflicts are resolved mostly with a discussion, followed by a single element to remove one side so the show can continue with whatever message that episode delivers.

While the show is about these messages, it includes mystery, starting with a series of murders, finding who, why and what the murderer is through the lenses of the different characters throughout different phases of the 5ish year span most of the stories are told. The occasional 'action' scene, often chases and suspenseful moments of hiding and tense conversation.

The show's strongest point is its style. It has almost no waste, using every line of dialog and shot to add to its story or inform the viewer of a character or concept, from including construction in many backgrounds to reinforce its message of the need for change, to the sepia rich colors used in most episodes to remind you of the past. The music reinforces this in the absolute best way it can, using piercing notes, off key music, and chaotic static noises to reinforce character confusion, uncertainty and insanity, to finally Boogiepops iconic whistle in its clarion tune piercing through all of it.

It is not without flaws, due to its dedication to realistic characters, it is at times hard to tell them apart, and telling them apart is at times vital. This is made harder with its heavy sepia tone, at times so dark its hard to see, while a few strange English translation choices obscures some parts, though not too bad (and the acting is on target, though feels flat, it is by design given the low key tone of the show, it can make it disengaging, particularly those who are on the fence with the style).

After sitting down to watch this after hearing relatively positive, I was quickly disillusioned with a friends advice. It begins in a trite amnesia plot, and while this can be used to kick start a mystery, it instead uses it as an excuse to re-use the same 'remember this one memory' footage an average of 1.5 times per episode. It relies heavily on tropes in order to force the plot forward, paring the killer with no memory of herself (Kirika), who for little reason, is a 15 year old, with an older french woman (Mireille) who has motive to kill her but instead randomly decides that partnering as an assassin (when she already is a well employed killer on her own) who she knows nothing about and suspects was involved in killing her family, is the better idea.

Character choices devolve as the french assassin demonstrates her utter in ability to be an assassin, compensated only that the guards of her targets are some how even worse by standing in the line of fire and being all around terrible shots (in the first episode alone, two ambushed her, firing four rounds each from a distance of under 50 Feet when she was stationary and distracted, and miss, and remain unmoving while she turns and returns fire). She blunders into traps without escape plans, and spends a huge amount of time talking with her partner about non-vital elements while actively trapped in a building with 20+ trained soldiers with SMG's attempting to kill her for about 5 minutes allowing them to locate and surround their spot in the building.

The first six episodes are almost all about random hits and fail to advance the central plot, and also mange to avoid developing either character or talking about them at all, and instead spend their almost entire run time on a fight which has no value to the plot and no stakes beyond the characters Lives (which is a false stake, because of course they don't kill a hero in the first 5 episodes), and develop bad guys who die at that episode, including one it seems to try and make you feel bad for, even after hitting his 15 year old daughter, reprimanding her for coming to visit him during a business trip AND forgetting it's her birthday.

It starts to move around episode 7 with a dumb plot about a group which trains new assassins for reasons. The dialog is poor, the action ranges from actively dull, with a few occasional cool bits, undercut by dumb moments (Kirika's combat is very often dynamic, interesting and cleaver, while her 'mentor' Mireille is so awful at her job, and wonders why these people keep trying to kill the assassin known as Noir (i.e her), without changing her name, investigating her clients or moving to a different region, or shift to safer tactics like sniping, like a highly paid, 'best in the world' assassin could easily do). That's about when I jumped ship and abandoned the anime forever.

It's a show I'd feel is only valid for insomnia watching or background noise, perhaps it if was on TV and nothing else, it might be worth sitting through. I'd never recommend a buy, and wouldn't bill it over most shows for the plot, the characters, nor the action.