Boogiepop Overdrive: The King of Distortion

ブギーポップ [Boogiepop] (Publication order) #5

by Kōhei Kadono, Kōji Ogata (Illustrator)

I Am The King of Distortion

An accident at the Moon Temple traps visitors inside the strange building, where a mysterious creature called the King of Distortion begins to whisper to them. Boogiepop comes to the rescue, but this might be a fight even he can’t win. What happens when two entities that only exist in the minds of men square off against each other?

Genres: Light Novel

233 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 10, 1999

About the author

Kōhei Kadono (上遠野浩平 or Kouhei Kadono) is a Japanese author, best known for the Boogiepop series, which has also been adapted as a live action movie, manga and anime.

Reviews

[hotsake (André Troesch)]

3.25/5

The Boogiepop novels are entertaining, but they are missing the atmosphere that the anime had that elevated the stories. I know that the books came first, but I watched the anime years before starting the novels.

[Burden]

This fifth book in the Boogiepop franchise is definitely the most ambitious to date. I really feel like if everything had come together it could have been Kadono's magnum opus and taken the series to a whole new level, but instead it faltered every so slightly and takes its place as the fourth best Boogiepop book to date. That's not to say that this book isn't good, because it is, it's just that isn't as good as the opening trilogy of the series.


The strongest defining attribute of the Boogiepop novels, in my opinion, is the interlocking stories from multiple perspectives. It really makes it stand out from the crowd. But in this book it is actually to the story's detriment. Perspectives change far too frequently in this volume and make the beginning of the story very jarring. It also seems to allow for slightly less character development than needed. Although, I do feel like this issue was fixed by the end of the story, but by then it was too late to turn this into a classic.


My biggest complaint of the last novel (Boogiepop Overdrive: Pandora) was that it didn't really feel like a Boogiepop novel and thankfully that issue has now been resolved. This outing really does feel like a full-fledged member of the Boogie-Verse (sorry). Sure there are new characters, but lots of the franchise's main players return in prominent parts. Also, Boogiepop His/Her self does actually interact with the cast this time round which makes a real difference.


All in all, this is not a classic, just another solid Boogiepop story. But in my eyes that's all I really need to be happy. By now you know if you like the series or not, so I think in many respects that one statement tells you all you need to know.

[Kim]

On par with the first book in it's styling and incredible pick of perspectives. Really just feels like a direct growth of everything the first book put down, a strong extension of themes and it feels like kadono recaptured the vibes he'd been building back up towards with the other novels in the series, hopefully for good.

[Zoe]

6.5/10

It was fine

[reivant]

4.5/5

[CJ]

9.5