Boogiepop Phantom #2

85 minutes
English/Japanese
English Subtitles
10/30/2001

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With the advent of a few weeks of work that might turn into something more, I find myself with very little time to do any constructive writing when I drag myself home. And by 'very little time' I mean 'if I don't have six hours a day of sitting on my ass staring at the ceiling then I don't want to do any work'. It's a difficult situation, but over the past two days I've somehow managed to watch up some more Boogiepop Phantom and here I am to write about it.

I'm not a particularly good liar so let's not stand on false pretenses, we all knew Boogiepop had me in its dirty clutches from the first episode. I mean, I was sold. I am what some people might colloquially call this show's "bitch". It wasn't really imperative for them to include what might as well be an exact replicate of Priss, but I'm glad they did! The only thing that can improve supernatural drama is hot-ass punk biker bitches that really have no place in the aforementioned genre. I'm sure she'll eventually come out as a high school secret agent out to stop evil mutant people, but for now she just makes it her business to look sexy in PVC costumes. I think we could ask for a lot worse!

While, as indicated right, slutty Japanese rave girls are not absent from these three episodes, Boogiepop conspicuously does not make an appearance. Not that I'm complaining! The only problem is that she's replaced by a five year old with a serious growth spurt and Peter Pan. Not like, the literal faerie, but someone who does an admirable job of dressing up in a similar fashion.

These are really the only two concerns in what is otherwise another excellent series of episodes. The stories here involve some deliciously decadent degradation. I am, of course, mostly referring to the poor young man who becomes so addicted to drugs and under aged female flesh that he has nowhere left to go. I find it absolutely intoxicating that an anime has a pervert in it that they don't glorify as a super hero. I mean, just thinking about it gets me a little flushed. Call me crazy, but lusting after twelve year old girls is generally considered a bit... outré. It's about the most legitimate depiction of such a thing as we're ever gonna get.

Like the story of our demented pedophile, there's no shortage of strange, horrific action in the subsequent two episodes. There's weirdo pregnant ladies and creepy little girls depressed over how loose their moms are. Most exciting to me is the cop out there that might not be a cop at all. In actuality he's an evil snake monster.
Oops, did I spoil it for you? Well that's okay. I didn't spoil the part about how he reveals every night the secret plan of a dastardly organization to conceal the existence of so-called composite humans, who seem to be the mutations that we've been going on and on about for the past six episodes. I say "every night" because, in addition to being able to swivel his neck around, our cop-monster-serial killer has the apparent super power of being able to erase memories. I don't see how reciting the same story every night would provide any sense of excitement. I would use my power to steal brownies and make people forget I stole them.

Well. I guess I just spoiled the rest of the stuff about the cop too. And now I'm thinking about brownies. That's a combination I don't particularly care for.
But only because I have no brownies. The whole snake monster-cop thing is super exciting and super awesome, especially at the end of the episode when his partner asks, for the tenth time, if they've had this conversation before. Given what we've now learned, this much used phrase now holds some extra credo. Just as that extra special realization hits us, so does the loud and in your face ending theme. It's directing so perfect that it could only come from the hands of a genius, or possibly super-genius. Takashi Watanabe, who has also directed ridiculously awesome crap like the Casshan OVA and New Fist of the Northstar, and just plain crap like Lost Universe and hentai like Ogenki Clinic Adventures. How this synthesis works I could never imagine (I think it has something to do with Nagi Kirima), but Boogiepop is no less of a hit because there's a cartoon doctor and wife out there boning their patients with stethoscopes.