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EP. REVIEW: Boogiepop and Others

Is now a good time to revisit Boogiepop Phantom? I saw it so long ago, and remember it being a bit hard to follow at the time. A bit better after reading the first novel and watching the movie. But now the recent anime has covered all the stuff that comes before it, it might make a more complete watch. I remember Spooky Electric being in it, so vaguely, and looking at the cast list, Makiko Kisugi was in it too.

To answer my own question, yes. Just watched the first couple of episodes and the second episode has so much reference to Boogiepop at Dawn, it must be such a disadvantage not to have read/seen it. I can't remember if it gets explained later on in anyway, but feels so much clearer having this current series fresh in your head.

It's interesting how tonely different it is, though. It does a good job of taking the multiple view point narrative of it's parent series. However they really do double down on attempting horror, when it the main series is nothing like it.

She's likely the girl he mentions as his date and seems to dismiss as probably being dead. His lack of concern, like the life of this girl he claimed to be in a relationship with doesn't matter to him, is obviously concerning, making me wonder what's going on with him. The death of the first person you have feelings for is the sort of thing that can deeply traumatize a young person. But Shirou acts like it's just a funny story from his past.

Ep 14 review wrote:

She's likely the girl he mentions as his date and seems to dismiss as probably being dead. His lack of concern, like the life of this girl he claimed to be in a relationship with doesn't matter to him, is obviously concerning, making me wonder what's going on with him. The death of the first person you have feelings for is the sort of thing that can deeply traumatize a young person. But Shirou acts like it's just a funny story from his past.

I had a very different impression of his scene. My impression was of someone who suffered loss and overcame the initial trauma, but is still affected by it at his core; I did not view anything as him being cavalier or joking about it.

I guess it's just a case of animation leaving things too difficult to read for two people to have near opposite reactions to the same scene. (I have no idea if the books makes things clearer in either direction)

It did turn out to be a legitimately great series after all, I just don't if stealing away One-Punch Man's director was worth the trade off yet.

I also found it hard to keep track of all the characters, but maybe I'm just dense. Kirima Nagi stands out because she has a distinctive character model, but some of the other girls' character models were not so easy to distinguish, especially if you're watching on a weekly basis.