Keiji's girlfriend stands him up, but while still waiting for her he sees a strange boy who looks very much like her. Upon meeting the boy again, Keiji finds that this boy is (sort of but not exactly) a supernatural multiple personality of his girlfriend called Boogiepop here to help the world. Or something. Girls have also been disappearing from the school and no one really knows why.

Mostly all that happens for the first 2/3 of this book is that Keiji and Boogiepop sit around on the roof after school and talk about the nature of Boogiepop as a being and his relationship to Keiji's girlfriend. The sympathy I imagine we're supposed to feel for Keiji with this girlfriend being sort of possessed isn't really there, since we don't get to know his girlfriend beforehand, or what sort of relationship they had and whether it's worth feeling sad about. The manga has a moody, mature feel, and while it doesn't come off as affected and ridiculous as I've seen in many manga that try at this and fail, it's still unclear what the point of it all is. The point of view changes to a girl at the same school for the last 1/3, and while things have a bit more direction, I still couldn't bring myself to care much.

The premise of this series does seem interesting, and I like that it's trying to take a more mature tone compared to a lot of supernatural stories. But this installment seems fairly aimless to me in both character development and events. Perhaps the novels or anime are a bit better? ( )

Manga adaption of the first Boogiepop novel. Drawn by the illustrator of the novels, who clearly doesn't have much experience with manga layouts. ( )