To synopsize is to only scratch the surface and almost beside the point - the real meat of the series lies in the atmosphere. The vast majority of scenes are shot with a vignette filter and colors are desaturated to give a sepia glow to everything. Along with this unusual filming style is the fact that the story is told completely out of order. Within any given episode, scenes jump back and forth over the span of several days and months, if not years. Like the fractured, tormented nature of a nightmare, there is a chaotic confusion yet a certain emotional coherence to the events that keeps it from being a complete mish-mash of crazy. It’s more like an orbit – nothing completely connects, but there is a central hub that everything revolves around and keeps things orderly.

The fractured nature is also what keeps this mere cartoon just as scary and suspenseful as any live-action work. In prose literature and comics, horror is an effective medium because to process all those words and images, one has to engage their mind into it. This is much trickier with television due to the passivity inherent in the motion picture. Yet, by playing with the nature of time, the viewers are forced to think about the order and structure of the events. Pile that on the traumatic storylines – ranging from the standard loss of family and teenage angst to one of the creepiest drug addiction rides this side of Requiem for a Dream – and there the viewer is almost taken hostage by the emotional, if not physical, reality of the stories.

In fact, this merging of the real and utterly surreal is comparable to shows like Serial Experiments Lain and Kino’s Journey and this is no coincidence. All three shows were produced by Triangle Studio. Fans of Lain will also hear a very familiar soundscape courtesy of sound designer Yota Tsuroka, who brings a similar mix of ambient noise, distorted sounds of the supernatural and pregnant pauses shattered periodically by nerve-wracking techno beats. Likewise, Lain’s key animator, Shigeyuki Suga, provides some very realistic, clearly Yoshitoshi Abe-influenced character designs in a radical departure from the superbods associated with high school shows in anime. Even Lain veteran, Kaori Shimizu, comes back to play as the mysterious titular character. Everything is held in place by a superb scenario crafted by Sadayuki Murai, fresh off of Perfect Blue and prepping himself for the just as eerie Paranoia Agent which would be released a few years later.

However, most diamonds are not without their blemishes and Boogiepop is no exception. This show is not for everyone. It is a confusing puzzle that rarely provides straight answers and is oftentimes purposely opaque. Part of this has to do with its origins.

Based on a long-running series of novels that became a runaway hit in Japan, the anime takes place sometime after the climatic events in the first book, Boogiepop and Others. To understand much of the backstory of Phantom requires having knowledge of the book – the anime purposefully refuses to go into the events and backstories of the novel’s cast in any detail. Part of this has to do with the multi-media approach the producers planned with the series via the creation a live-action prequel to the anime that would adapt the first book.

There is a caveat to this however: the movie is quite bad. While being a relatively faithful adaptation of the novel and clarifying many details from the anime, the live-action version eschews the ultra-stylized nature of the anime for a more standard J-horror approach. This would be fine if the special effects of the film were something above a 1980s Super Sentai show. Even the soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura (Noir, .hack//SIGN) is a huge disappointment, throwing out her distinctive electronic synth-pop in favor of a generic jazz score.  Not faring much better is the English version of the novel by Seven Seas Entertainment, which is a decent read but marred from a sometimes too-literal translation.

Even with that in mind, few series really have that maddening staying power that Boogiepop has. Even better is that the series is so easy to find and Right Stuf has given it a very nice release, filled with beautiful video quality and surprisingly insightful commentaries by the voice actors. There is even 5.1 surround sound for the dub, which is solid but really, the Japanese is the way to go as many of the English actors just sound too old for their roles. The latest Thinpak Box Set, incidentally, includes the aforementioned Boogiepop and Others movie if you’re so inclined to see it.

So for those who feel that the new season of anime is just too darned colorful, take a dip into the murky world of Boogiepop.

Rating: A+