Boogiepop And Others

ブギーポップ [Boogiepop] (Publication order) #1

by Kōhei Kadono, Kōji Ogata (Illustrator), Andrew Cunningham (Translator)

There is an urban legend that children tell about a shinigami that can release people from the pain they are suffering. This "Angel of Death" has a name--Boogiepop. And the legends are true. Boogiepop is real. When a rash of disappearances involving female students breaks out at Shinyo Academy, the police and faculty assume they just have a bunch of runaways on their hands. Yet Nagi Kirima knows better. Something mysterious and foul is afoot. Is it Boogiepop or something even more sinister...? Experience the story through several characters' eyes as you piece together the true order of disturbing events, in this unforgettable prelude to the Boogiepop Phantom anime series!

Genres: Light Novel, Horror, Manga, Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Japanese Literature

264 pages, ebook

First published February 1, 1998

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

[Burden · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never really liked reading as a child, in fact, there was a massive void in my formative years when I never read at all... but then Boogiepop came along.

Boogiepop was probably the first book I read as an adult and because of its recent re-release, I thought I would give it another go, and I must say, I love it as much as I did when I first read it 10 years ago.

Sure, Boogiepop is a little juvenile and isn't the most challenging of reads, but there is something about the way that it is written that I adore. I love the way small amounts of story are spoon fed to you and that you never get a hint of the bigger picture until the final page is turned. It is just perfect.

Normally I consider myself a sci-fi fan, and would never venture into the territory of high school fantasy horror, but on that occasion 10 years ago, I am glad I did. The boogiepop universe is a love that I will never forget and I implore everyone to give it a try, even if it doesn't sound like their sort of thing.

[hotsake (André Troesch) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a complicated relationship with this series, I’ve seen the anime and the Live Action movie and read a couple of the books and I’m still undecided on whether I like the series or not. The premise is very intriguing but I always find the stories confusing and a little underwhelming.
3.25/5

[Francesca · Rating 4 out of 5]

My only problem with this book was that having so many Japanese names was quite hard to keep track of. Besides that, it was an enjoyable read and I liked the way the chapters overlapped to slowly reveal what was going on- things that seemed innocent from the first character's POV were revealed in a later POV to be something else entirely and that was a lot of fun. I was a bit disappointed that Boogiepop themself wasn't really a prominent character but there were a couple of small teases towards future books so I'm looking forward to learning more about the world.

[Ladz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content warnings: Gaslighting, violence, blood, gore, murder, dismemberment, kidnapping

I had watched the Boogiepop Phantom anime several years ago and due to my recent foray into manga and light novels, decided to give the source material a try. It is a treat.

Told non-linearly, we follow a collection of high schoolers as some of their own disappear and others turn into either Boogiepop or their enemy the Manticore. Souls get devoured in a technological attempt to subjugate humanity, and Boogiepop needs their own set of allies to set things straight.

The craft here cleverly plays with reader’s sense of reality as the grounding of real vs. surreal becomes upended from the point of view of the character narrating that chapter. The kids are certainly not all right, and the adults are strangely absent. I’m interested in seeing if we get any of them involved. There seem to be strict rules about attendance, phone use, dating, etc. but when one of them goes missing, no one talks about it. It’s eerie in the same way groupthink is, and it just adds to the unsettling nature of this story and its telling.

I’m lucky to have already purchased the second novel, and I’m excited to dive in.

[Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love supernatural mysteries so Boogiepop was a good match for me. It's also really interesting from a historical perspective since I really have been getting into light novels lately. Boogiepop was more or less the novel that created the whole light novel genre with its opening illustrations and manga-esque story back in the late 90s.

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread while listening to the music referenced throughout

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my excitement of finding out that a new anime adaptation of this (plus 4 more novels! Boogiepop at Dawn finally!) just aired this year, I remembered that I read this over a decade ago.

My memory isn't good enough to recall what I specifically felt when reading this book, but I'll just say overall that I like unconventional (or in this case, fragmented and non-linear) storytelling that forces you to piece together the answers yourself. The main character is a badass girl (or guy? it's somewhat ambiguous) with double personalities who can take on superhuman enemies with a piece of wire while whistling Wagner. And the overall series tackles themes about human evolution, psychology, and other experimental sci-fi ideas that make you think. Not to mention, it went on to influence a host of interesting (or otherwise popular) light novel and anime series, but that's better documented in this ANN article.

Also I recommend the anime-only sequel, Boogiepop Phantom, although I personally watched that one first before ever having heard of the Boogiepop franchise, so needless to say I was more confused/enthused by all of the hints and references it kept throwing back to a main storyline that I didn't even know existed at the time. Hence why I'm so excited to finally see a series that adapts that storyline almost 20 years later (and geez, I feel old now).

Also a reminder that I still have a crap-ton of other light novel series that I want to read (Legend of the Galactic Heroes, The Twelve Kingdoms, Baccano, Durarara, Haruhi Suzumiya, and so on...). And that's just the stuff I already know I like. Gah.

[Aaron S · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's always a feeling of anxiety when going back to reading something that was extremely influential and inspiring to you as a teenager, especially when it's written for teens. I found myself nervous that it was going to turn out to be pretty weak and it was only because I'd been young and inexperienced when I'd first read it that I thought it was great. Fortunately with Boogiepop and Others that isn't the case. The book still holds up great and in fact does a lot of interesting things that I'd forgotten about over the years.

Boogiepop is basically a case study in unusual writing methods that probably shouldn't work, but are pulled off in a way that the whole thing just comes together. Looking at a plot synopsis, Boogiepop and Others is a pretty standard horror/urban fantasy story: monster serial killer starts hunting and eating people, mysterious unnatural creature is trying to track down said monster, and one of the local students has an alternate personality pseudo-supernatural personality that is trying to protect the school from the killings. It all culminates in a big bloody climax as the various forces come smashing together until only one is left and things go back to more-or-less normal. But where it gets truly weird is in the presentation.

None of the major movers and shakers of the story, the characters who could traditionally be referred to as protagonists, have their own point of views on display. Instead the story is broken up to half-a-dozen different characters who, when you get down to it, mostly aren't very significant. Instead, they each serve as a lens through which the reader can experience bits of the story, get to know the principal characters, and posit their own theories and ideas on what is happening. The whole story can only be understood by piecing together everything you learn from these various viewpoints, as none of them see anywhere close to the total story. But these side characters are not generic bystanders either. Each of them is immensely and instantly relatable, each with their own personal struggles, mental hang-ups, and unique philosophy on life. Considering many of these characters are only around for 30 to 40 minutes of reading time it's really impressive how well characterized they are, and every single one of them feels like they could have been a main protagonist. This is helped by a very strong first-person perspective. Yes, Boogiepop breaks the typical rule of not having multiple 1st person povs in a single book by having six of them, and yet they are are all immediately recognizable. By splitting pov like this each character gets to serve as an alternate examination of the book's central theme, the feeling of directionless angst and existential anxiety that comes from being on the cusp of adulthood.

The major characters, who are seen only through the eyes of these viewpoints, are no less engaging. By never letting the reader into their heads they manage to retain a sense of mystery. And by virtue of being very intense and abnormal they make strong impressions on the more ordinary high schoolers who meet them, giving each scene they're in a sense of edge. The titular Boogiepop (despite his dumb name) is surprisingly human and personable for being a spiritual personality that only arises to fight against evil. And "The Fire Witch" Nagi is an immensely cool character, a rich girl with a slew of mental issues who decided to use her extreme estrangement from society for good and do whatever she can to help people in need, despite coming across as intensely selfish and callous.

Lastly I'd just like to talk about the prose. I didn't even remember until I reread it that I had actually intentionally attempted to emulate the writing style of Ogata in my own writing. He has a very fast-paced yet indulgent style. It's carried largely by dialogue to keep things moving swiftly and to put the personalities of his characters front and center. Little time is spent on setting the stage or exposition, but the characters each have a continuous running issue they are thinking about throughout their sections, going back to that central theme. It manages to have the sort of fast thriller style pace of an urban fantasy action story while also indulging in quite a bit of inner character struggle you'd more often see in standard literature.

Even after more than 15 years since I first read it, Boogiepop and Others is still unlike any series I've read.

[Arcadio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Primer tomo de esta LN sobre una figura mística (de identidad ambigua) que lucha contra fuerzas oscuras creadas por el hombre. Me gusta la estructura que adopta la novela al ser contada mediante diversos relatos que en principio no parece tener una relación entre pero que avanzado la historia va enlazándose formando una trama mas concisa, al menos en su mayoría.
Algunas no suelen tener mucha relación pero tienen revelaciones sobre ciertos personajes importantes en la novela u ofrecen una perspectiva distinta a la problemática principal. Como la historia de Akio desde su perspectiva se nos relata el trasfondo de Kamishiro y su relación como amigovios, determinados aspectos de su persona que da sentido a sus acciones en la novela. Eso sin mencionar cada historia su propio tono que va desde la intriga, la melancolía y el horror. Teniendo cada una su toque especial.
Si he destacar a unos personajes en particular serían Saotome y Manticora una pareja bastante curiosa entre un humano y una monstruo mimetista, sus interacciones resultan genuinas e intrigantes y su relación de complicidad es interesante a pesar de lo básicas que son sus motivaciones (aunque justificadas por su psicología). Prácticamente son los protagonistas de este tomo.
Boogiepop por su parte, es un personajes un tanto ausente, a excepción de la primera historia, casi no tiene presencia en este tomo salvo para hacer apariciones ocasionales quizás para un aire misterioso al personaje pero la manera es un tanto seca y sosa. Quizas en el segundo tomo tenga mayor presencia.
Si he de mencionar fallos en la novela, diría que el mas gordo es la exposición la cual al menos en las primeras es manejado de una mala manera con diálogos explicativos e impersonales que resultan secos y anodinos como si los personajes fuesen enciclopedias andantes. Mejora ya a partir de la historia de Saotome pero debido a ello las primeras dan una mala impresión de este primer tomo.
En general este primer es bastante bueno debido a su estructura que a través de diferentes se nos cuenta su trama que va tomando forma conforme avanza el relato por muchas que sean historias autocontenidas. Su mayor cae en su exposición que suele presentar de manera anodina en sus primeros relatos, pero conforme avanza va cobrando fuerza solificando su narrativa.

[Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kouhei Kadono's Boogiepop And Others is a sparse book. This sparseness is because of the "And Others" part of the title. Although the henshin hero Boogiepop is ostensibly the star of the show, he has remarkably little to do with the main plot and ultimately serves as a less-visible nexus around which the other characters orbit. Each chapter, following a different high schooler, offers varying degrees of insight into the main plot.

But Kadono is remarkably focused in the ideas he wants to explore, even as his plot wanders. Although Kadono suggests in his afterward that he is the last person who should be writing an authentic high school experience, the setting is the perfect medium to explore the themes of the immense pressure Japanese society (and society in most countries) places on young people, anxiety and mental health, and the origin of evil. Kadono is interesting in his investment in the idea that evil doesn't necessarily emerge from some traumatic history, but rather sometimes as a response to society's repressive forces.

Kadono is responsible for Japan's light novel boom and establishes two frequently recurring tropes for the genre: the high school setting and the supernatural plot. Boogiepop And Others is a great example of the light novel dealing with serious and heady ideas.

[Erik Moguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best light-novels. The story like how the author describes it as simple. But what makes it good is how it is told. And it is told through the perspectives of five people seeing the events unfolding at different times, but coming to the end at the same time. This was my first book of this type, and calling it a light-novel seems to do it as a disservice because it is as good as any non-light-novel found in stores.
The plot goes like this. There's a string of disappearing students at this Japanese highschool. All of the students tend to be those who have trouble with authority so the adults come to the conclusion of their disappearance as them running away.
Each of the main central characters that get the plot moving each has their own reasons. One has a strong sense of justice, while another is caught up out of concern over their friend who is one of the missing children. The most important character who we never see through their perspective of is Boogiepop. The urban legend of Boogiepop goes like this, the grim reaper of young girls who swoops down to take their life when they're at they're most beautiful. How this urban legend plays into the story is the main motivation for one of the character's actions.
Do I recommend this book, absolutely yes. It's a slow-paced mystery told like a Tarantino film woth fascinating characters.

[Steffi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boogiepop and Others is about a girl who has an alter-ego named Boogiepop. Boogiepop protects the earth from those wanting to harm it. In Boogiepop and others the story is focused around Manticore who wants to conquer the world. Students keep disappearing from the school but no one seems to care or notice except for a few.

Boogiepop and Others was a surprisingly good book. It was told from the perspective of different students. Some of the chapters took place before, after, or during certain incidences. You have to piece together what comes first. As you read on, the story all comes together perfectly. I really enjoyed reading this.

[Mary Wyman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it.
I was a little worried about the non-linear storyline. But, I followed it to the point I wasn’t confused. So, I basically didn’t lose track. But if you lose track of the timeline easily, then I suggest you have a pen(cil) and paper to write down notes to help you keep track.
Reading Boogiepop was enjoyable from start to finish. My favorite character was Boogiepop her/himself, although I wish I got the voice down better.
If you want something new to read in light novels, give Boogiepop a go. I guarantee you’ll want to know.
Enjoy :)

[Criizmeow]

This was so entertaining, it’s about a murder plot, and horrible thing happening; but it’s also about being a teenager and figuring out your place in the world. I think the way this was told was fantastic and the mood it creates resonated with me deeply, reading this was like playing a moody visual novel, I could almost see it in my head. I loved the intrigue and the pacing was great. It got a bit muddy at the end but over all this was a fantastic read.

[Gonzalo Lucena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool short story, each chapter being the perspective of a different character of the same series of events, its about normal people dealing with weird circumstances... or is it weird people dealing with normal scenarios? As the book says, in the end its just about the buble of weirdness that always appears under seemingly normal circumstances and eventually... pops.

[Sky Landman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best supernatural mystery novel I've ever read and (possibly) my favorite book of all time. Everything about it just works in the best way possible. Here's hoping that the 2019 anime is just as good.

[Rhomboid Goatcabin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A simple yet suspenseful tale of murder and mystery told in a remarkable way. The first Boogiepop novel birthed an entire subgenre of its own when it first appeared in 1998 and remains influential and engaging till this day!

[Kaylah Drace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was very thought out and in depth and really showed how dark others life’s can be even in the real world as students the plot was excellent and the details of the different characters

[Cecily Renns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh, or Boogiepop and Others, is a Japanese "light novel" written by Kadono Kouhei and published in 1998. It's the second book I've read this year as a challenge to read 12 books in 2024. I first read this book in the English edition, translated by the brilliant Andrew Cunningham. This year, I read it in the Korean paperback edition, published in October 2002. The year I was born, funnily enough!

Statistics time: I read this book for a total of 219:49, or roughly 3 hours and a half. It's a tiny paperback that's roughly 260 pages long, but I've also read this particular novel dozens of times before, so it was a quick read. I started reading it in 3/8, but I only actually read for a total of 4 days during that.

Boogiepop is an exceptional work of literary value. It's an immensely influential work, having created the "light novel" genre, and it's the reason why so many Japanese young adult media contains magical realism. Series like the Monogatari series by Nisio Isin, Fate/stay night by Nasu Kinoko, Denpa Shoujo to Seishun Otoko by Iruma Hitoma, and even the Persona franchise were inspired at least somewhat by Boogiepop, However, Boogiepop itself is hardly a household name, and despite receiving two anime adaptations, it's not exactly a massively famous novel series.

I would imagine this is mostly because Boogiepop itself is an extremely bizarre series. And it really is bizarre in that purest sense of that word; after all, the primary influence for Boogiepop itself is, of course, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure by Hirohiko Araki. Many similarities can be seen; from the magical realism, the scientific approach to fantasy combat, and the changing roster of protagonists from novel to novel. Though, while JoJo has found massive success, Boogiepop has never reached such a height. I chalk this up to the fact that Boogiepop is not only bizarre but rather inaccessible by design.

The title "Boogiepop" itself, according to the writer, comes from this desire to write a story that contained both "weirdness (boogie)" and "pop appeal". According to the afterword to the second novel, Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator, after many rejections from publishers, he turned his sights into reading the popular pulp fiction of his era; researching them to figure out what his books lacked. The result was Boogiepop; a book which combines popular tropes such as magical realism, man-eating monsters, and secret superheroes with the bizarre literary techniques that Kadono wanted to employ.

A common criticism of Boogiepop is that it is convoluted and difficult to understand. I don't necessarily disagree, but if you actually try to piece things together, the core mystery and timeline of events of this book is not a complicated one. But Boogiepop utilizes several interesting writing techniques, such as multiple perspective shifts, non-chronological chapter order, and even musical allusions.

The brilliance of Boogiepop which makes it an excellently constructed work of literary fiction is that none of these feel like a gimmick. Each chapter has a new narrator, who is only provided with certain pieces of information which means none of them ever figure out the full truth. Instead, each character goes through an arc where they realize something about their life or themselves, making the chapters feel like their own satisfying standalone stories as well. They also ultimately reinforce the theme of "normal vs. abnormal" and "ordinary humans, not supernatural entities, have to change the world".

In Chapter 1, "Romantic Warrior", Takeda Keiji encounters Boogiepop, who appears as some sort of alternate personality of his girlfriend Miyashita Touka. During their several conversations, Takeda begins to admire Boogiepop, for his unrelenting tenacity and desire to "save the world". Takeda himself is an aspiring designer, who has decided to not go to university in order to pursue his dream. His anxieties explode when Boogiepop leaves, which causes him to accuse the "boy" (Though Touka is a girl, Boogiepop is consistently identified as a male personality) of not having saved the world at all. However, Boogiepop tells him that it is not entities like him which can do that; normal people like Takeda has to.

"Return of the Fire Witch" explores Suema, a girl who is obsessed with criminal psychology because she was almost killed by a serial killer in the past. She encounters Kirima Nagi, a truant who insists that "normal" people not get involved with her. Suema discovers that Nagi was the one who saved Suema in the past; however, she denies having done so, and Suema is not able to apologize to her. "No One Live Forever" introduces the antagonists: the man-eating Manticore and the sociopath Saotome Masami.

"I Wish U Heaven" is my favourite chapter, despite being the shortest chapter that is the least related to the rest of the book. It centers on Kimura Akio, 2 years after the events of the novel, who heads to his old high school to find out what happened to Kamikishiro Naoko, a minor character introduced early in the book who befriended and sheltered the shapeshifter entity Echoes, and was killed by the Manticore. The chapter ends with him finding a mummified hand in the school storage, as he becomes horrified and wonders what happened 2 years ago. This character, who lacks all of the information the reader knows, embodies the terrifying mystery behind this narrative; this character who might as well be an extra approaches slightly towards the truth, only to face the existential terror behind the entire story.

The final chapter, "Heartbreaker", is mostly a simple conclusion to what truly happened. It centers on Niitoki Kei, who has a particular type of OCD where she cannot stand letting something be "uncertain". I think this is, again, alluding to the theme of "an unbearable, terrifying mystery" - in the end, even Kei is not able to understand anything in the finale, and she is unable to face Miyashita, (who she lost her first love to) betraying her principle of always making things clear. Boogiepop is not necessarily interested in telling you the whole truth, but rather utilizes that sense of mystery to imply an even more terrifying truth lurking in the background.

While Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh has evil shapeshifters and superhuman caped heroes, it is ultimately the "normal" humans who save the day. The shapeshifting Echoes learns to love humanity through the compassion shown by Kamikishiro, and decides to take humanity's side in order to defeat the Manticore. The Manticore herself is eventually killed not by Boogiepop or Echoes but by Tanaka Shiro, who was Kamikishiro's boyfriend. It is the combined efforts of these powerless average teenagers who eventually save the world, just as Boogiepop said to Takeda.

Despite the fantastical elements of the story, Boogiepop is ultimately about a group of adolescent youths finding their place in life, and unintentionally managing to save the world from certain doom. It uses these magical realism plotlines and mysteries to explore how teens go through identity development and how they learn to navigate themselves in this world. I would say most of all else, Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh is a coming-of-age novel. That might be why it is called Boogiepop and Others in English, officially; Boogiepop is simply the observer in the novel, but the "others" are the real heroes of the story.

This is the end of the review, but something I wanted to quickly mention, again is the incredible English translation of Boogiepop the first novel. Andrew Cunningham is a cool guy who is still a Boogiepop fan to this day. His "translator's notes" to Boogiepop and Others is actually one of my favourite parts about that book, and provides a lot of insight into how Japanese-English translaton works. Highly recommended you read that part too after you're done with the story!

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's interesting how massive the gap between light novels and Western YA fiction can be. Boogiepop And Others has the same target audience as the lamentable The Alchemyst, they are written a mere ten years apart, and Boogiepop is (according to Seven Seas, anyway) a faithful translation, not a wretched localization. And yet, the prose is significantly cleaner than that found in The Alchemyst, the large cast both more realistic and more alive than the primary protagonists in The Alchemyst, and despite its format and genre, the narrative is substantially more focused.

Boogiepop is a supernatural mystery of sorts, though more science fiction than urban fantasy, with horror sprinkled on top. The story is told in fragments, each one provided by a different character who is working with limited perspective and information. Unlike omniscient narrators, that means that what the reader learns is limited by what the viewpoint character knows. Consequently, an event that looks meaningless at the beginning of the novel is a major turning point in the plot, but because the character who witnessed said event in the beginning lacked the necessary information, its relevance is not discovered by the reader until far later. Further, the story is not told in chronological order, but not in the way the magical realism genre would do it. Rather, each perspective is shared by the viewpoint character at different points in time - for example, some are told in real time during the period the reader sees, another relates the events three years after the event, and each one contributes to the puzzle of what is going on.

The prose is controlled, with the story delivered as much through dialogue as through description. Kadono-sensei did a good job of depicting realistic high schoolers as well as student he only proclaims are not normal, putting them through the story's events to create an interesting premise and conclusion. Despite the varied vignettes and the seeming randomness, the story is kept moving quickly and the narrative does not drag at any point. You know, the opposite of The Alchemyst.

I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I would highly recommend it to both young readers and older demographics.

[Esteban Guerrero · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5
Muy bueno para ser una "novela ligera", no es que sea malo que sea una novela ligera, pero estas son más famosas por su fanservice que por su historia, aunado a esto las múltiples adaptaciones de los últimos años no es que ayuden mucho la verdad.
La historia es buena, y el comoe s contada desde diferentes puntos de vista ayuda a sentirla fresca y mantener el misterio hasta el final, quizás el punto más bajo serian los personajes, que aunque no se sientan genéricos si yas has leído o visto diferentes historias actuales de Japón no son tan originales, aun así creo que son los suficientemente interesantes para llevar la historia.
En realidad es para cuatro estrellas, por eso le puse cuatro, aunque la edición tiene muchos typo/error de dedo, que la verdad si están demasiado presente como para arruinar la lectura, por eso le bajo media estrella, aunque a decir verdad yo lo leí en una versión *cough**cough* pirata *cough* *cough*, así que no sé si esos errores son problemas de la edición original o de la digitalización, así que hasta que no lo sepa, le dejo esa calificación.

[Magicfist · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first experience with reading a Light Novel, and honestly, pretty good. It's simple, and the translation I read a few grammatical errors here and there but that's no bother to me. I especially like the way the story is structured, unfolding through the eyes of different characters in each chapter, even though I think it should've been a little more faithful when following that rule.

The story itself can be a little unclear and vague, but honestly, so do most of the anime and manga I've had the pleasure of reading/watching, so I'm gonna chalk it up to a cultural thing. Anyways, the point is that Boogiepop isn't considered about a tightly-knit plot but about character-writing. It does a great job at exploring themes surrounding identity, mostly seen through a rather grim lens. What makes you replaceable? Would anyone care to look for you if you suddenly disappeared? Do people really think about you?

I like that it asks me good questions, the kind of questions that make me a little depressed about how we all treat each other.

[Sylvia Flora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to read this light novel because I love the anime series that are based off the books by Kouhei. The structure of the narrative is non-linear at times, but it all comes to a nice conclusion. I'd recommend this to anyone who liked Boogiepop Phantom or the more recent Boogiepop wa Warawanai and wants to get a better sense of "who" or "what" Boogiepop may be. Or if you just really like Kirima Nagi like I do, lol. :)

Oh, and the translation I read of this book was the one by Andrew Cunningham. I mention this because I'm not sure if there are other translations, but if there are I doubt they're much better than this one is.

One thing finishing this book did was set me up to rewatch the 2000 anime series, which I've been watching and realize now that it hasn't aged that well, but is still as weird and dark as I remember it when I was in HS.

[Crystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm hooked on Kadono now, I wish more of his books were translated in English because I'm going to be sad when I run out of Boogiepop. He writes with a deep empathy for children and a disgust for the institutions that seek to mold them into callous adults. The plot is not really that complicated the way you might think a nonlinear book with five narrators is, but the different perspectives highlight the ways everyone is a complete person with a complex interiority, but struggle to communicate themselves and understand others, and instead fall back on the easy stereotypes adults have taught them.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

The concept of Boogiepop always resonated with me and I’m really pleased with how the light novel version went. It’s still got that 90’s feel, with shades of The X-Files and teen angst and a fun narrative where no character knows the whole story but the reader can put it together from the individual chapters. I’ve read the manga, watched both anime, and now this version. I’d have devoured this as a teenager and it’s still a quick breezy read in the Omnibus edition.

[Brian Skeats · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little nostalgic fantasy

I've read this book many times. It is my absolute favorite, for a number of reasons. I haven't read it since high school when I came across it in a Barnes and Noble.

The way the story unfolds is uniquely intriguing to me and, the first time I read it, kept me guessing. Ultimately, it means nothing (quote from the book) but this book always makes me think fondly of high school, which sucked hard. Also, it is just a pleasant quick read.

[Asif Morshed · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's just the start of a really confusing story and I've yet to discover what the author is going to show me . I'll give it a 2 more volumes and then decide will I continue it or not .

The prose was really good ( teen friendly ) and it was really UpTo my taste .There were too many illustrations and they were really good too . Let's not say too much of the story . It's overall average and of course to remind you , we've yet to discover stuffs .

[Gracie · Rating 3 out of 5]

As far as light novels go (which are definitely not a preference of mine, or even something I would actively seek out to read) the prose in this was at least tolerable. The story, on the other hand, was really REALLY solid. This won't go anywhere near my list of all time favorite books, but I didn't dislike it and it succeeded in making me extremely disappointed in the anime.

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to describe what I read without spoilers so I will say Boogiepop and Others hits that sweet spot of weird and different that others can't. It reminds me of odd late 90s/early 00's anime that were as I like to say "weird for the sake of weird" that just aren't being made anymore. It's also a lot more coherent than than the Bakemonogatari stuff in my opinion. I also like it's "Pulp Fiction-esque" narrative structure that was actually pretty easy to follow. I will definitely read more in this series when I get chance and check out its anime: Boogiepop Phantom, an early 00's original story that takes place in this world that is canon!

[DJ Linick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Multiple personality disorder mixed with body snatchers mixed with high school love polygons

-1 star for having more characters to keep track of than a Russian novel!

I'm excited to see where the series goes from here; as a(n) LN vol 1, this wrapped up rather succinctly, so I'm curious to see the direction the author takes it in!