Any Boogiepop fans here?

[Kaiju no Kami]

Just wondering if there are any Boogiepop fans here? I just got Rightstuf's BD of Phantom and it is amazing. I have watched this series many times over the years but it has never looked this clear or sounded this good. I love it.

I also wish Funimation were get their thumbs out of their butts and release "And Others" already.

[themp3000]

And Others is coming out in January...

[Gorgon]

"Phantom" is a great show imho and yes, 2 months after buying the dvd I bought the Blu.
I also have "Others" on pre-order.

[Kaiju no Kami]

Originally Posted by themp3000

And Others is coming out in January...

It finally got announced? YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kaiju no Kami]

Wow, I just got the Blu-Ray and I am sooooooooooo happy Funimation spared no expense on it with 3 minutes of bonus features, no episode listing at all, and stating on the back that it includes a "Special 4 parter," even though it was just 4 episodes that aired back to back.

[blackadder213]

I love this show and have watched it a couple times. I still have the DVDs but I hope to upgrade to BD.

[Kaiju no Kami]

Originally Posted by blackadder213

I love this show and have watched it a couple times. I still have the DVDs but I hope to upgrade to BD.

I'm assuming you mean Boogiepop Phantom, right? Since Boogiepop and Others is only on BD.

Nevertheless, oh god I love Phantom. The BD is absolutely amazing.

[Girls With Guns]

I've actually only seen Others so far, and loved it - I've had the DVD thinpak set of the original series for years, but never got around to watching that yet - now I have them both on Blu-ray, so I'll have to sit down and watch the two series back to back. I wanted to watch Phantom on Blu back in October with the next door neighbors as a Halloween viewing, but we ended up watching another series instead.

So what is the relation between the two series - is Others a sequel, a remake, or a reimagining?

[Zhou]

Boogiepop and Others is a straight adaptation of novels 1-3 and 5-6, while Boogiepop Phantom is an anime-original series set some indeterminate time after the first novel. I haven't rewatched Phantom in a long time, but I think you can watch it as a sequel to Others.

[Kaiju no Kami]

Originally Posted by Girls With Guns

I've actually only seen Others so far, and loved it - I've had the DVD thinpak set of the original series for years, but never got around to watching that yet - now I have them both on Blu-ray, so I'll have to sit down and watch the two series back to back. I wanted to watch Phantom on Blu back in October with the next door neighbors as a Halloween viewing, but we ended up watching another series instead.

So what is the relation between the two series - is Others a sequel, a remake, or a reimagining?

Yes and no, and both.

One of the things I love about Boogiepop is that none of the stories are told in chronological order. For one thing, you need to know that Boogiepop and Others is actually the name of the first novel, which is the first three episodes of the "And Others" series.

The novels covered are:

1. Boogiepop and Others (Eps 1-3)
2 & 3. Boogiepop Returns Vs Imaginator Parts 1 and 2 (Eps 4-9)
5. Boogiepop Overdrive (Eps 14-18)
6. Boogiepop at Dawn (Eps 10-13)

The main story of Boogiepop Phantom takes place after Boogiepop and Others, but characters from Imaginator do show up or get mentioned (such as one character named Spooky D).

However, like I said, a lot of the stories overlap or take place at the same time. For example, Episode 3 of Phantom has a scene where the main girl of the story is walking down the street and there is a kid surrounded by cops in the background. Episode 4 is on that dude you see in the background and during the scene when he swarmed by cops the girl from Ep 3 is in the background.

Boogiepop at Dawn is also mostly a prequel tale, so things that are talked about in both And Others and in Phantom are shown in At Dawn.

Now with that said, I do think Phantom is the better series as it's animated to look distorted, makes a great use of grain and blur motion, and has a creepy soundtrack while And Others is pretty much clean, but also cheap looking. Maybe they fixed it for the BD, but there were a lot of scenes where characters did not have their eyes drawn and some of the battle scenes were early DB Super levels of lazy.

[Girls With Guns]

Ok, good to know, although I won't be able to relate the anime to the novels at all because I don't read any manga or novels that anime is based on. I'm purely an anime viewer, and only in Japanese language, so the only thing I read are the subtitles, lol...

I also have zero interest in bonus features or on-disc extras, and never watch a single one, so even if the Blu-ray release is featureless, it's nothing I would ever realize.

Now I'm really looking forward to seeing Phantom...

[Kaiju no Kami]

The great thing about both series is they are excellent in either language, so no matter which one you do, you are in for a treat. Though, I do feel the 5.1 track for the dub of PHantom really enhances the atmosphere.

[Girls With Guns]

OK, good to know. I am a strict subber-only when I watch anime, but I do show a lot of anime to friends, so when I do I am forced to show it to them with the dub to make it easier for them to enjoy. I myself consider dubs as a vile, abhorrent crutch for viewing anime, lol...

[Kaiju no Kami]

I'm going to disagree there as technically all anime is dubbed. It's not like the animation was made on top of the actors or even animated after the actors voiced their characters. They record it after. And with both English and Japanese tracks being recorded at the same time these days, there's really no true original track.

Personally, some series I like better in Japanese, some series I like better in English, and some I like both ways. I can do One Piece, Sailor Moon (ew dub), and Escaflowne (new dub) in either language, but then I prefer Fullmetal Alchemist, Gankutsuou, Cowboy Bebop, Hellsing, and Baccano in English. Part of it is due to the accents like in Hellsing, some of it is for the correct Fench pronounciations as in Gankutsuou, and others I just like the voices better. Then you have things like most Gundam shows, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Utena, Rayearth, Macross, Golion, Silent Mobius, and Tekkaman Blade where I just don't care for the dubs at all.

[Girls With Guns]

bah, I am so weary of hearing the counter-argument that all anime audio is dubbed, including the original Japanese, so I will clarify my statement: "I myself consider using dubs in my own language (English in my case) to view Japanese anime or any foreign-language films, as a vile, abhorrent crutch."

The sole reason dub tracks in other languages are created is to make it "easier" for me the viewer to enjoy by watching in my own language, because it just takes too much effort for me to read subtitles and view the video at the same time - so therefore I'm losing out on the experience. To me that is downright insulting, and insinuates that I'm not capable of walking and chewing gum at the same time. Sorry, I can read subtitles just fine, and way faster than I can speak them, thank you very much. But I don't hate dubs just because I have no problems reading subtitles. I have absolutely no desire to watch any foreign-language film or anime in anything other than it's originally-created language, because for me, listening to an English dub totally ruins the cultural experience, missing the feelings and inflections of that foreign language, which is the heart and soul of the show - it's the entire point of watching something created in another part of the world with different languages and cultural views. I could care less if a certain English dub sounds like Heaven on Earth - which they never do anyway. To me, just to even think about watching a foreign-language film or anime in my own English language borders on heresy; it's like spray-painting grafitti on the Mona Lisa and then claiming it now has improved viewing qualities.

So that is just my own point of view regarding dubs. I'm not arguing for or against them, or arguing with anyone, as I can and do use them regularly with my guests. I just vehemently despise them for my own personal viewing.

[Kaiju no Kami]

See, there is one thing I will argue with:

listening to an English dub totally ruins the cultural experience, missing the feelings and inflections of that foreign language,

I can get your thoughts on this when it takes place in Japan, but when it is in 1920s America (Baccano), England (Hellsing), France (Gankutsuou), or Norway (Vinland Saga), I just find it distracting to hear the characters speak Japanese without any sort of accent to represent those nations.

[Girls With Guns]

Nope, I still want to experience the original creation as intended by the director of the anime - the global location of scenes within the anime is irrelevant to me, and localization of language to that in-anime locale is still something I consider taboo. For example, I am a backer of the Nozomi Kickstarter for the Emma: A Victorian Romance anime, and the main drive of that Kickstarter is to create an Old England dialect dub to match the locale and time period of the story. I have no interest in this English dub being created for the Kickstarter, and will never use it myself; I am only participating in the campaign to get the series on Blu-ray as an upgrade to my DVD box sets. The only time I would ever use the new dub would be if I showed that series to my friends, and I don't think any of them would be interested in seeing that genre of anime at all. So I'm almost 100% sure the English dub on my Emma Blu-rays will never see the light of day in my home!

[Girls With Guns]

Lol, I really didn't intend on this thread turning into a sub-dub discussion, I've said enough on the topic now. Back to Boogiepop!

[Gorgon]

^^ I think you both have provided rational and justified reasons for why dubs or subs are preferred by you. And that's what matters, when you identify your personal preference.
I agree, let's move on (again) though...

[Kaiju no Kami]

Originally Posted by Gorgon

^^ I think you both have provided rational and justified reasons for why dubs or subs are preferred by you. And that's what matters, when you identify your personal preference.
I agree, let's move on (again) though...

That's the problem with Boogiepop not being given anywhere near the attention of other things like Fire Fighters and My Hero Academia, ADD can really kick in in a topic because at least there's something to discuss even if it isn't on topic.

I wish there was something more I could do to give this franchise attention, but that's hard to do when even the companies releasing it don't bother putting any effort into advertising it. Hell, Gridman got this spiffy deluxe edition despite being only 12 episodes while Boogiepop got nothing. The least Funimation could have done was include the first novel and some postcards or something.