Five Years Ago: A serial killer terrorized a city.

One Month Ago: A strange light appeared in the sky.

The Present: One by one, children have been disappearing without a trace.  The cause is officially unknown, but a strange rumor has been circulating among other children.  They say that the children who disappeared were taken by the angel of death, a being whom many of them call Boogiepop.

Is this Boogiepop really the angel of death?  If she isn't, what is she?  One girl intends to learn the answers to these and other questions, even if it means coming face to face with the so called angel of death herself.

COMMENTS

Boogiepop Phantom is nothing short of brilliant.  Coming from me, that's awfully high praise; but in the case of this series, that praise is well deserved.

Boogiepop Phantom's story is driven almost entirely by its characters -- It has the most extensive character development 
I've ever seen.  Each episode tells the story of a different character or set of characters.  The actions and development of every character interweave with one another throughout the series in intriguing and often unexpected ways to create the complete story.  And the story that's put together piece by piece is extremely compelling.  However, it can be confusing at times because of the way it's presented.  Episodes frequently jump around among (mostly) three time periods: five years
ago, one month ago, and the present.  Because of that, 
this is not a series that can be fully comprehended if it's only 
watched casually.  Translation: While watching this series, rid yourself of distractions and pay close attention to everything that happens.  In addition, I recommend watching this series at least three times.  Why three times?  Because after you watch it for the first time all the way through, watching it again with the commentary track turned on will help you to gain a better understanding of and more insight into the series.  After that, I recommend watching it with the commentary track turned
off at least one more time all the way through.  Some people may have a complete understanding of the series after watching it only once, but what I described above was what I personally had to do in order to achieve that understanding. Yes, it really is that complex.

Boogiepop Phantom's story and character development aren't the only things that make it great.  It also has a dark and  twisted atmosphere that's fueled by a deranged and unsettling score and 
dark tones (both in the animation and in dialogue) that permeate every scene.  The shadowy border surrounding the “camera lens” also helps to darken the mood.

A side note: There's one single shot in Boogiepop Phantom that is by far the creepiest thing I've ever seen on a television screen. 
Believe me, you'll know it when you see it.  Even the people
participating in the commentary track commented on how creepy it is.

Another side note: Watch the next episode previews at the end of each episode.  In my opinion, they're done in such a stylish manner that they deserve to be watched.  Interestingly, a piece of classical music that isn't heard anywhere else in the series plays during these previews.  That classical piece in its entirety is one of the two tracks on the soundtrack CD that's included in the 
Boogiepop Phantom DVD box set.

PRESENTATION

As I'm sure most of you have seen, many DVDs have a quick opening sequence before the main menu screen appears.  Most of 
them are just unimpressive throw-away material, but Boogiepop 
Phantom's amazed me with its creepiness.  Fortunately, the menu screens are equally as moody with ambient mood setting music playing in the background of each one.

As I mentioned above, the Boogiepop Phantom DVDs have a very
insightful commentary track included.  The commentary was done by several of the people responsible for the series’ excellent English dubbing.

Others extras included on the DVDs are various Japanese television promos, music videos, original line art, and producer and character notes.

The video quality is about what one might expect given the high
quality of the series – No problems here.

In the original Japanese, Boogiepop Phantom is only available in 2.0.  Surprisingly, Boogiepop Phantom's sound was remastered for a special English 5.1 edition. A standard English 2.0 option is also available.  The default language setting on each DVD is Japanese 
2.0 with English subtitles, so you'll have to set it for either English 5.1 or English 2.0 to watch it dubbed in English.

If you want to purchase Boogiepop Phantom, I recommend purchasing the DVD box set.  Depending on where you purchase it, it will likely be cheaper than purchasing each DVD separately.  Also, a  short two track soundtrack CD is included only with the box set.

CONCLUSION

Boogiepop Phantom is the most compelling, twisted, profound, and
intelligent series I have ever seen, animated or not.  The writing is brilliant, the story and characters have incredible depth, the art direction is outstanding, the music sets the mood perfectly, and the English dubbing is first rate.  In my mind, Boogiepop Phantom is the greatest thought provoking anime ever made.
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