Boogiepop Phantom

Aion

Time-Traveller
After receiving the full series from Secondspin the other day I started watching it. 6 episodes into it, I'm still not sure what I think about it or if I even think it's good.

I'm finding it the most difficult series to follow and understand I've watched - It beats When They Cry with ease in that department. What makes it hard to follow is how each episode focuses on a different main character and different supporting characters, which means I need to try to memorize the difficult to remember Japanese names, understand the new main character and also keep a picture of the main plot in my mind - Not at all easy when I happen to have a awful memory.

So far, from the tiny amount of main plot information I've managed to absorb into my mind (thanks to episode 5), a secret organization exists that wants to keep the world as it is by killing individuals who show signs of evolution (I have no idea what signs but there we go) and this organization uses man-made humans to kill them.
One of the man-made humans that was created went a bit insane and decided to do its own thing, escaping from one of the organizations labs and killing everyone there before disappearing. This...thing has been busy devouring people for lulz and dealing drugs to create slaves for reasons I know not. The organization have sent a man-made human after the rogue one, the hunter disguising itself as a police officer after killing one and taking his form.

What I don't understand is what Boogiepop (why not just call him/her/it death!?) is supposed to be doing during this mess, why a hot shrink seems to be a baddy (who Negi/Nigi killed in EP6 in a 5 sec scene), why a high school student is hunting for man-made humans with a compass, why there's a girl who uses butterflies that make people relive the past (I'm guessing she's the daughter of the woman who was injected with the drug) and pretty much most of everything else.

So, anyway... Did anyone else find this series slightly hard to follow due to how it's structured? With the events occurring out off order on top of everything else, it's almost as if the animation studio/manga author/whoever didn't want people to understand!
 
You also fogot to mention that there were two boogiepop's, the real one and the 'phantom'. , but yeah it was a very un-intuitive show. I kinda got the point of the show and plot, but thought it did sort of fail especially as I came down with a bad case of Battle Royale Syndrome. SInce most characters had only one episode before they died, disappeared or generally evaporated from the plot found myself reluctant to get emotionally attached to them.
 
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hopeful_monster said:
You also fogot to mention that there were two boogiepop's, the real one and the 'phantom'. , but yeah it was a very un-intuitive show. I kinda got the point of the show and plot, but thought it did sort of fail especially as I came down with a bad case of Battle Royale Syndrome. SInce most characters had only one episode before they died, disappeared or generally evaporated from the plot found myself reluctant to get emotionally attached to them.

Ah, yes, that occurred in episode 2, when Boogiepop was chasing the guy who liked groping women to remove bugs and Nigi Kirima (sp?) appeared, saying it wasn't the real Boogiepop and calling it a 'Manticore'. You'll have to forgive me for forgetting that. :)

Now that I think back to episode 2, there was a cop who kept looking in a suspicious manner at the breast groper/bug eater. Was that the same cop who happens to be one of those man-made humans?

/headache

I'm going to re-watch 1-6 a bit later to see if I can get a better understanding of exactly what happened during those episodes. Up to this point, I've only been watching it because I like realistic depictions of life; depressing goings on...almost as much as I dislike school harem type shows.
 
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I didn't understand the plot at all. However I do know that BPP gets first place for best use of the overture to Wanger's Die Meistersinger in a TV show. Coming ahead of Rahxephon, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Tiny Toon Adventures
 
I actually had a chance at the books first, which gave me some insight into the world of boogiepop and made the show a lot more enjoyable.

The first time watching it felt almost frustrating to follow the plot and the fact the characters were constantly changing is tiring, unlike paranoia agent, where at least a few core characters persist regardless of the main character for the particular episode to keep changing.

A replay is very enlightening though.
 
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