The beautifully eerie Boogiepop Phantom is now streaming on Crunchyroll and VRV. The 12-episode anime series is an original story that takes place one month after the events of Kouhei Kadono’s light novel Boogiepop and Others.
Inuyasha may have been my introduction to anime, but Boogiepop Phantom is what made me fall in love with the format.
High school students are disappearing. Others have weird powers like the ability to erase people’s memories. The titular character, Boogiepop, is a superhero persona that is the product of dissociative identity disorder brought on by childhood trauma. There’s also a real Boogiepop with real superpowers.
Boogiepop Phantom felt impenetrable when I first watched it. Much of the story is told out of order and without context. I had no idea that it was a sequel series. Even if I did, the light novels hadn’t been translated yet.
Fortunately, these hurdles no longer exist. The first four novels were adapted into an 18-episode anime called Boogiepop and Others in 2019. Seven Seas has published the first six novels. The live-action movie based on the first book is also available from Nozomi Entertainment.
[Source: Anime News Network]