It’s hard to find a good way to start this review. I think the best way is to compare this series to a very badly manufactured jigsaw-puzzle. Some pieces are too big, others are too small, pairs of pieces don’t attach to each other when they’re supposed to, and vice versa. There are pieces missing everywhere, and now it’s up to you to make some sense out of it!

This, in essence, is basically Boogiepop’s best and worst point. What we’ve got here is basically a case-based series, in which we some really deep case-studies of some seemingly random people, throughout the twelve episodes of its airtime. The catch is, however, that beneath the surface of this series, there’s an incredibly complex plot going on, that pops up once in a while. Boogiepop Phantom may be a case-based series on first looks, at heart, it’s a fully fledged mystery-series.

The mystery in this series is slightly different from other mystery-series. While most series of the genre choose the easy and straightforward way of “Hey, I’m a mystery-series with an unknown plot; through the course of my episodes, I’m slowly going to reveal my secrets so that you’ll understand everything in the end”, Boogiepop goes “Hey, I’m a mystery-series with an unknown plot; through the course of my episodes, I’m going to keep dropping references that you’ll only understand in four episodes, so that you’ll need to rewatch me at least once in order to understand the vital parts of my plot”.

And that’s the beauty of this series. It’s basically chockfull of references to other episodes, it keeps hopping from one time to another one, and the amount of red herrings it throws at you could satisfy an average fish-factory for at least a week. If you want to understand this series, you’ll have to work for it, as it’s not going to present itself on an open platter so easily. As mystery is my favourite genre, I just couldn’t help but love this. In fact, I’ve only seen one series that carried its mystery even further, and that is Ergo Proxy. It’s series like this one that really show the beauty of the mystery-genre.

Unfortunately, I think that this series went a little too overboard with this. After rewatching the important parts of the series, I think I now finally have an understanding of what’s going on, but there are still plot-holes that seemed to have come from nowhere. I remember seeing at least two characters who came from nowhere, did something important, and then vanished again. Kirima also lacked a reason for her actions (at least, I think she does, it may be a plot-hole I missed).

Still, this series also shines in its cases. Rarely have I seen a series that went so deep into the minds of its characters with a relatively low amount of time spent on them, and the results are great. A few cases really stand out as memorable. If I had to describe my feelings of Boogiepop Phantom with one word, it’d have to be “fascinating”.

Ah, so the previous episode was episode 15,5, while this one is the true sixteenth episode of Bokura no. And yet again, I loved it, as it comes with yet another shocking plot twist at the end. We start the episode with the news that the fact that Zearth is piloted by children has leaked out to the public. The parents of Kanji, Takami and Jun also come together and learn that their children still aren’t saved. Kirie meanwhile decides to fight for his mother, who has gotten out of hospital and finally managed to find a job.

The awesomeness begins when the fight starts, though. Not only do they have to battle an enemy which has been highly experienced, with only two pilots left, Kirie also somehow manages to increase Zearth’s abilities tenfold, killing him or her off easily. He also had some strange ideas for his final moments. He actually knew that Yoko was the one who wasn’t part of the contract, and he told this to the others in his final moments. Because of that, he didn’t die as the centre of attention, but he died on the side-lines.

But still, I knew that Yoko was the one who remained out of the contract! Though it’s because of different reasons. I originally thought that because Takashi forced her to enlist, but I think that that was just an attempt of her to make it look like she ad suspicions from the beginning. She’s actually Koemushi’s accomplice and sister! She was the one who pointed the twelve children towards the cave, and was the one who introduced them to this mess!

I’ve also been wondering whether we see Tanaka and her partner as a pilot in this series. The fact remains that this series is starting to near its end, and there are only four children left: Jun, Takami, Kanji and Aiko. This means that there’ll be five fights left, if I recall correctly (since Kirie beat two enemies, instead of one).

The next episodes should also promise to be awesome, since Aiko is one of the most mentally unstable of all the pilots, apart from Isao. I really wonder how she’ll chose to deal with things, especially now that she knows the truth about Yoko.