Kouhei Kadono

Even though the events in this novel pre-date those in Boogiepop and Others, they're told from a flashback standpoint and in such a way as it expects you to understand where its all leading to. The significance to Kirima meeting Kuroda Shinpei for instance or Niitoki Kei's involvement with Boogiepop.

This is an easier book to read then Others, the pacing is a little more familiar to English readers and the existentialism is dialed back a notch. I wouldn't say this is an easier book to understand, it does muddy the waters even further for some characters even while shedding light on certain other ones.

The book is again broken up into sections, each one building upon the one before it. This is a book mainly about Kirima Nagi's beginnings as a 'super-hero' and Miyashita Touka's beginnings as Boogiepop.

The only problem there is for Dawn is that some of the references and innuendos won't bare understandable fruit for a couple more novels--except at this point in time the English Publisher (Seven Seas) hasn't reached that point nor does there seem to be any forward motion in that area. Actually the news is rather dismal as Light Novels in general tend not to sell well in America.… (meer)

The Summary doesn't do it justice, but to reveal too much is to give away some important plot developments. Which is why this review may be a little sparse on the details.

Boogiepop as a series is kind of hard to categorize. Its not that Boogiepop is a separate entity--and thus its own identifiable being--but that Boogiepop exists only as a fragment of another. In this book its Miyashita Touka, an average 1st year HS student with little by way of 'extraordinary' talents. Its made unclear in the anime (at least the English Dub) whether Boogiepop is real or not. He is--its not a mental breakdown of Miyashita's due to trauma (as the English Dub suggests).

Boogiepop is also not magic, or a ghost, or an alien. Boogiepop just is. Throughout this book we see as lives intersect, crash into and separate from each other. Some of the events are repeated, but from the varied viewpoints of the participants so that its given a different spin. For instance a group date as viewed by Keiji is just that--a happy little group date that his underclassmen are having. Later, we see the group date through the eyes of one of the underclassmen--and hear his thoughts in regards to the people he's with, the reasons he's with them and Keiji whom they encounter.

The book can feel disjointed, since some of the storylines extend beyond others by quite a bit of time (some are short, existing only to clarify one or two moments of time, while others extend to 'before', 'during' and 'after' the incident) so you'll jump around in time a lot, and have the sense of de ja vu at times as well. The translation is really well done, so you have a feel of the tone that the original Japanese author was striving for, but for the western audience it might feel too foreign to the casual reader. At its core, the Boogiepop books and movie and anime are about human nature. What makes us human, what defines us and what can be called a human by those definitions.

The book moves slowly more often then not, bogging down in the minutiae of a day to day life of a school student, but frequently what is such a small thing to one narrator is a big deal to a later one. This doesn't make the book go by quicker, but it gives better insight. The action is very frenetic, wham-bam-thank you ma'am sort, but again we get it from several different viewpoints.

Unfortunately the book is out of print, but should be pretty easy to obtain a cheap used copy of. The style is probably something that will take most people a little while to get into and even then, if your attention wanders easily, or you want something with less character centric-ness, this isn't a book for you. Rent the movie.

Note about the Boogiepop Series in general: At the moment America only has 4 out of 15 of the novels (I think), both mangas, none of the short stories or side novel series, the movie and the anime (Boogiepop Phantom). Boogiepop and Others (both the movie and the novel) details the event that instigates the odd incidents seen in the anime, namely the weird light, and runs concurrently at points with the anime events. Boogiepop at Dawn (a novel) is a prequel to the series in general--explaining when Miyashita began acting oddly, and some more background information on Kirima Nagi. The publication order however has Boogiepop and Others before Boogiepop at Dawn.… (meer)

Technically, Boogiepop at Dawn is the sixth volume in Kouhei Kadono's series of Boogiepop light novels illustrated by Kouji Ogata, however it serves as a prequel to the entire work. Seven Seas jumped to releasing Boogiepop at Dawn after publishing the first three Boogiepop novels in English—Boogiepop and Others and Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator, Part 1 and Part 2. It was a decision that made sense: the entire series wasn't able to be translated, Boogiepop at Dawn ties in directly with the early novels, and the volume was partially the basis for the Boogiepop Phantom anime. Boogiepop at Dawn was originally published in Japan in 1999 while Andrew Cunningham's English translation was released by Seven Seas in 2008 (two years after the first three books). I discovered the Boogiepop franchise late, after the novels and manga available in English had already gone out of print, but I have still been thoroughly enjoying the series and looked forward to reading Boogiepop at Dawn

As an agent working for the secretive Towa Organization, Scarecrow is responsible for finding other humans who, like him, have extraordinary psychic and physical abilities and strengths. The Towa Organization is very interested in these remarkable people; by controlling them it hopes to control the course of human evolution. Scarecrow's search is made easier by the fact that he poses as Kuroda Shinpei, a private detective; he is able to continue his primary investigation while working more mundane cases. Scarecrow meets Kirima Nagi, a young woman who has been hospitalized with an undiagnosed but painful condition, while searching for evidence against another Towa agent whose loyalty has been called into question. Nagi has the potential to become one of those exceptional, highly-evolved people he is searching for, but instead of reporting her to the Towa Organization, Scarecrow decides to go against his orders, saving her life by risking his own and triggering a sequence of events that will leave multiple people dead.

Although Boogiepop at Dawn is a prequel, it really is intended to be read by those who are already familiar with Boogiepop in general and with the first few volumes of the series specifically. But for those readers who are, Boogiepop at Dawn is spectacular and a very satisfying addition. Ostensibly the volume is the origin story of Boogipeop—a supernatural entity in conflict with the Towa Organization who is also keeping watch over the super-evolved humans, destroying them when necessary—and to a small extent it is. But Boogiepop actually makes very few appearances in the volume. However, Boogiepop at Dawn does provide an extensive background for another of the series' primary characters, Nagi, and explains the purpose of the Towa Organization. Many of the other protagonists and antagonists from the earlier Boogiepop novels make a showing as well, which ties everything together very nicely. I was particularly pleased to learn more about Nagi's father, Kirima Seiichi, an author of peculiar importance to the series whose story hasn't been fully revealed until now.

Boogiepop at Dawn is a collection of four closely connected narratives with an additional framing story that bookends the volume. Most of the stories focus on Nagi, either directly or tangentially. Much like the other Boogiepop novels, Boogiepop at Dawn employs elements from a number of different genres, but it may safely be called speculative fiction as a whole. All melded together in the volume are bits of mystery and detective work, horror, action and martial arts, the supernatural, and science fiction. Boogiepop at Dawn is engaging and at times chillingly dark with heavy psychological components. The individual stories are seen from different perspectives, at various points following Scarecrow, Seiichi, a serial murderer, and an assassin. Boogiepop is mostly a presence in the background, but an important one nonetheless. Boogiepop at Dawn is also similar to the earlier volumes of the series in that it does not adhere to a strictly chronological structure, but it's fascinating to seen the beginnings of the plot threads that will become so entangled in the other novels.

Experiments in Manga… (meer)

Boogiepop Returns: VS Imaginator, Part 2 is the third volume in the Boogiepop light novel series written by Kouhei Kadono and illustrated by Kouji Ogata. It is also the third out of four Boogiepop novels to have been released in English. Translated by Andrew Cunningham, the second part of Boogiepop Returns was published by Seven Seas in 2006. In Japan, the volume was released in 1998, the same year as the first two books in the series. Boogiepop Returns is actually a two-part story, and so after reading the first novel in the arc I was particularly anxious to read the second. With all of the setup and steadily increasing tension in the first part, the story needed a conclusion and the final volume of the arc promised to deliver just that. Boogiepop is kind of an odd series which freely mixes the surreal with the real, making use of multiple genres in the process. But it's also a series that I find peculiarly appealing because of that and because of its willingness to explore the more troubling aspects of the psyche.

A year ago a young woman committed suicide under the influence of an entity known only as the Imaginator. Her life was ended when, being pursued by Boogiepop, the Imaginator failed to change the world through her. But now the Imaginator has returned to inspire yet another person, this time with much greater success. Asukai Jin, with the Imaginator as a catalyst, has begun to use his unique abilities to not only read the hearts of other people but to manipulate them as well. Meanwhile, the mysterious Towa Organization also has a vested interest in the direction humankind is taking. Spooky E, a synthetic human and one of its agents, is actively hunting Boogiepop in order to prevent the spirit's interference with the organization's affairs. In an effort to draw Boogiepop out, he has arranged for the love-besotted Taniguchi Masaki to serve as a decoy by impersonating Boogiepop. Masaki didn't initially realize he was being used as a pawn, and even if he had there was very little he could do to stop the developing crisis.

Despite the title being Boogiepop Returns, the real Boogiepop actually plays a very small albeit very important role in the two novels and is mostly relegated to the edges of the narrative while the other players take center stage. Granted, when Boogiepop finally does make an entrance during the second volume's finale, it's pretty spectacular. But until then the story largely follows the more mundane characters, the seemingly normal teenagers who have been caught up in the battle over the fate of humanity and who frequently are the victims of the supernatural and superhuman forces at work. At the same time, they are also dealing with their own personal issues and troubled relationships. In many ways I actually found these smaller struggles to be more emotionally immediate than the novel's grander schemes, probably because they're more relatable and the more realistic elements help to ground the stranger aspects of the Boogiepop series.

The doomed love story between Masaki and the girl he likes, Orihata Aya, has always been an important part of Boogiepop Returns but it become especially prominent in the second volume. It is because of his love for her that he "becomes" Boogiepop, his feelings and the burgeoning romance becoming closely entwined with the larger events of the novel. The second part of Boogiepop Returns has some fantastic fights and action sequences, but the novel also has deeper contemplative and philosophical aspects to it as well. Employing the trappings of science fiction and the supernatural, the Boogiepop novels explore thought-provoking themes of free will, personal identity, the individual's place within society, sacrifice, and what it truly means to be human. The characters are all damaged or suffering in some way but it's how they choose to live their lives despite that pain that makes them who they are and makes Boogiepop Returns such an interesting and at times even compelling story.

Experiments in Manga… (meer)