Customer Reviews

Boogiepop And Others

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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Five years ago, a serial killer mysteriously committed suicide just as he was getting into his prime. About that time, an urban legend started about "Boogiepop", a sinister/romantic boogeyman who would whisk beautiful girls away to the land of the dead at the very instant they'd reached the pinnacle of their beauty. Now, a shape-changing monster called the Manticore is eating girls from the local high school, and Boogiepop is beginning to appear in the flesh.

Each chapter of the novel focusses on a single student at the high school, presenting events from his/her point of view. It jumps backwards and forwards in time a little bit, and some scenes are retold from different points of view. Thankfully, the first few pages of the book are taken up by full-color manga-style illustrations of each of the main characters, with a one-sentence quote for each, so that the reader has a visual reference to keep everyone seperate (which can be tricky when all the names are in Japanese, and thus all equally foreign).

Now that I've read this, I have to re-watch the anime mini-series, because it'll make a LOT more sense having read the book. (the book is a direct prequel to the anime "Boogiepop Phantom", which I often describe to people as "Like Lain, but without the suck".) This book's original title translates to "Boogiepop Doesn't Smile", but the translators renamed it to differentiate it from the manga adaptation of "Boogiepop Doesn't Smile" that's coming out soon.

I highly recommend it; it's a nice quick read, and contrary to its Japanese origin it actually makes SENSE, and there are none of the gaping plot holes, loose ends, ambiguous endings, or unexplained crucial elements that normally plague Japanese stories.

This was what got me hooked on the Boogiepop series. It's plot is really interesting and full of suspense.

I was initially skeptical about this book when a friend pushed me to read it. I do not get into this anime stuff. From my relatively limited experience with Japanese animation and its fans, many (though not all) tend to be silly or pretty mystical. Thankfully, this book is nothing like that! While it seems to be marketed as a sort of horror light novel for anime fans, I found the story and main characters to fit into a more heroic or rational narrative that would more likely strike home with people like me than with an average 'otaku.'

It is a tight story full of allegory, consciously motivated characters, and great heroism in spite of how horrible the world is around the protagonists. Certainly, the writing is simple and the book is short, but that just makes it a quick, satisfying read. It is very mysterious and cerebral for such a short novel, so it demands multiple readings to fully grasp all the mysteries and themes woven throughout.

I understand that only four of the novels in this series were ever translated. That is a real shame, as the book left me wanting much more Nagi Kirima, Kazuko Suema, and Boogiepop. Perhaps if GoManga would market this more outside of anime fandom, where I would think more people would be interested in what it has to say, it could have as much of a success here in the States as it does in Japan.

Boogiepop and Others is the first novel of the Boogiepop series. The story utilizes a variety of different narrators and perspectives to explain events and motives. As a result, you have a large cast of characters, some well developed while others seem to be cut a bit shallow.

Perhaps the key achievement with Boogiepop and Others is the inclusion of these characters into one huge non-linear plot. Because of the large number of perspectives used in the book, the plot jumps from one timeframe to another, showing different aspects of events in a different light. As a result, the plot itself becomes somewhat confusing, but when it all comes together, it does seem fairly impressive. The character interactions are well-done, although sometimes its hard to pin a name to a face, owing to the inconsistency of each character's uniqueness.

As for the storyline itself, it mixes together mystery with sci-fi elements, throwing some plot twists that are a little hard to stomach, but are necessary to develop the plot. Being the first novel in the series, the reader can spare the benefit of the doubt and just enjoy what the author tries to do here (which is basically setting up the entire Boogiepop persona).

Overall, Boogiepop and Others provides a nice intro for people new (or seasoned) to the Boogiepop world. A plot that keeps you guessing (to a point) and a moderately diverse array of characters gives the book a good bit of substance.