Boogiepop Phantom - Production

Production

Boogiepop Phantom was conceived as an original story taking place after the events of the novels Boogiepop and Others and Boogiepop at Dawn. Sadayuki Murai developed the series concept and wrote the screenplay for both the anime and the live-action prequel Boogiepop and Others, having previously worked on the script for Perfect Blue, a feature film that explored many similar themes. The character designer and key animator Shigeyuki Suga had been a key animator for Serial Experiments Lain, a series with which Boogiepop Phantom is often compared. The reduced brightness and sepia color palette for most of the episodes, added to the anxieties and depressions of the characters, were designed to make the series play like a psychological horror. Production staff later commented that the color scheme was more effective than they had originally intended, and were surprised by how bleak the series turned out.

A mixed media campaign was planned which would have had the live action prequel Boogiepop and Others released before the anime series, with the idea that people would watch the anime after seeing the movie, but the release of the film was delayed until after the series had neared the end of its original run, and so this strategy failed.