Boogiepop Phantom Evolution 2 (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer-100 sec promotion Trailer-Evolution (disc 3) promotion Featurette-Fruits Video Trailer-Cowboy Bebop;Evangelion Death/Rebirth;Lain;Vampire Princess DVD Credits Audio Commentary
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	71:58 (Case: 85)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Takashi Watanabe
Studio Distributor	The Right Stuf Int. Madman Entertainment	Starring	Kaori Shimizu Yu Asakawa Mayumi Asano Jun Fukuyama Kazuo Konta
Case	Click
RPI	$34.95	Music	Yota Tsuruoka

    Boogiepop Phantom is a Japanese animated series that features a number of supernatural elements and an unusual story structure.

    The series opens with a strange column of light appearing in the city and causing a widespread blackout. Five years ago, a serial killer was terrorizing the community, but the murders suddenly stopped for no apparent reason. Unhappy students from the city's local high schools are disappearing without a trace and objects are rusting quickly. All these events are somehow connected and a few people believe that Boogiepop, the angel of death who is commonly regarded as an urban legend, may be involved.

    This twelve part series utilizes an unusual story structure that may initially confuse some viewers. The story is based around a series of related events that take place over approximately five years. During each episode, these events are examined from a different person's perspective and often utilize a very non-linear timeline with numerous flashbacks and an occasional flash forward. To help the viewer keep track of the jumps in the timeline, each major scene change is clearly marked but the actual dates of the events are not provided. Luckily, providing the viewer is aware of the jumps in the timeline, keeping track of these events does not pose any significant problem for the viewer.

    This disc contains the following three episodes. I have included a very short description for each but as these may contain some minor spoilers you may wish to skip directly to the Transfer Quality section.

my fair lady
    Yoji is a high school student who works part-time in a local restaurant. When a young girl starts work in the restaurant, he is determined to pursue a relationship with her. A new drug is becoming available on the streets, and the dealers are specifically targeting young social outcasts.

interlude
    Morita and Yamamoto are two local police officers who have some free time during their shifts. During this time they discuss conspiracy theories that have been circulating about the strange events that have recently occurred.

mother's day
    Shizue is devastated by the death of her father and when her mother shows no outward emotion about the event they quickly grow apart. To help her confront these issues with her mother, Shizue seeks professional help.

Video

    The transfer is presented at its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    The transfer displays a very unusual image that has a vignette filter applied to it at nearly all times. This results in outer edges and corners of the image being slightly darker and softer than the centre of the frame. The image always appears quite soft and has obvious low level noise present during many scenes. During the numerous dark scenes, varying levels of shadow detail may be seen. During some scenes, significant information may be seen in the dark portions of the image but in other scenes the dark areas reveal almost no information. All of these variations in image quality are part of the unusual original animation design and are consequently not distracting to the viewer.

    The transfer displays a significantly reduced colour palette that features a heavy reliance upon greys, browns and yellows. All of these colours are constantly quite muted throughout the transfer. This palette design is an intentional part of the original animation design.

    No MPEG artefacts were detected during the transfer.

    Two instances of aliasing may be seen during the transfer at 40:46 and 62:24. Both these artefacts are very minor and are not distracting.

    A very small number of film artefacts may be seen during the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 26:42, 31:36, 38:04 and 40:36. All of these artefacts are very minor and are never distracting to the viewer.

    During the eye catches that were originally found leading into and out of advertisement breaks on television, a NTSC to PAL conversion artefact may be seen around the Boogiepop logo in the bottom right section of the frame. These artefacts only last for a short period of time and are only minimally distracting.

    At 42:18, an unusual artefact may be seen with a series of diagonal lines appearing over the top quarter of the frame. This artefact appears for a single frame and is only very minimally distracting.

    Obvious interlacing artefacts may be seen during the end credits for each episode which are moderately distracting.

    A single set of yellow English subtitles are included on this disc. These subtitles are always clear and easy to understand at all times. At a number of points, non-removable white English subtitles are used to translate Japanese text on signs and newspapers. A set of yellow English and white Romaji subtitles are provided for both opening and closing music sequences for each episode. No subtitles are provided for the short episode previews that appear at the end of each episode.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The dialogue is always clear and easy to understand. During the English track, the sound design has been slightly changed to help emphasize the differences between the characters' internal thoughts and general dialogue. Pleasantly, there are only very minimal differences between the dialogue in the English and Japanese tracks.

    As this is an animated feature, there are the expected obvious problems with audio sync for each soundtrack. No dropouts were detected at any time during the transfer.

    The effective original score by Yota Tsuruoka varies considerably, ranging from Gregorian chants to experimental electronica. Surprisingly, these sound choices work extremely well and always seem to suit the on-screen action.

    During the English soundtrack, the surround and subwoofer channels are used extensively. These channels are utilized aggressively and they provide an extremely enveloping soundstage.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The minimally animated menu is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

100 Second Promotion (1:34)

    This is a short video for the opening music track from each episode in the series. It is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. A set of non-removable white English and yellow Romaji subtitles are also provided.

"Evolution" Disc 3 Promotion (1:52)

    This is a promotional trailer for the Japanese release of the third disc in this series. This clip appears to contain mainly segments from episode four that is included on this disc. It is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack, and a set of non-removable white English subtitles.

Fruits Video (2:36)

    This music video is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Audio Commentary

    This scene-specific feature-length commentary is presented by Jeff Thompson from The Right Stuf International, and Crispin Freeman, the series script adapter and the English voice of Saotome. During the third episode, Crispin is replaced by Rachael Lillis, the English voice of Nagi. In this commentary, they discuss how the series script was adapted, the translation process and the multiple interconnected levels of the series. A number of spoilers for the entire series are revealed, and thus it is recommended that viewers do not listen to this track before watching the complete series. This track is presented as a Dolby Digital 1.0 track and includes the original audio mix in the background, unlike the first disc in this series.

Trailer: Cowboy Bebop (1:29)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Trailer: Evangelion Death and Rebirth (1:38)

    This trailer is presented with a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and it is not 16x9 enhanced.

Trailer: Lain (1:43)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Trailer: Vampire Princess Miyu (0:30)

    This trailer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    Unless the viewer has a specific requirement for a dedicated English stereo soundtrack, I would have no preference for either version of this disc.

    Boogiepop Phantom is an intriguing series that should appeal to any fans of supernatural anime.

    The video transfer accurately reproduces the unusual original animation design.

    The audio transfer helps to capture the stunning original sound design that is displayed during both the Japanese and English soundtracks.

    The extras included provide some interesting insight into the series but viewers should be aware that the commentary track does contain a number of spoilers.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall