Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh by Kouji Ogata and Kouhei Kadono

Takeda Keiji is an ordinary High School student who loves another student in his class named Miyashita Touka. But lately she's been missing his dates, and he doesn't know wny. Could she be getting tired of him and this is her way of telling him she doesn't want to see him any more?

But while he's waiting for her, feeling sick and stunned about the thought that she might not want him any more, he sees a man crying, blood on his face, and freezes. No one else around him says or does anything, when a young man approaches out of the crowd and castigates them for doing nothing to help the man.

Takeda can't help but notice the man's face. Because he looks just like Miyashita Touka, but his hair and clothing are wildly different. And, of course, he's a man. But this is no ordinary boy.

The school that Takeda and Miyashita go to have some legendary ghostly figures associated with them. One of them is someone called Boogiepop. He's a legend among the girls, but they tend to keep him to themselves. The story is that Boogiepop is someone responsible for the disappearances of several girls at the school.

Takeda knows none of this, but he finds out that Boogiepop is keeping watch after school, and while Boogiepop knows about Takeda and Miyashita, Miyashita doesn't know about Boogiepop. And that is the way it will stay. Whenever the school is in trouble, Boogiepop will appear, and when the danger is gone, he will disappear again. Takeda finds himself drawn to the strange figure, and he sits and talks with him as Boogiepop keeps vigil over the school. But when it is time for Boogiepop to go, will Takeda be able to deal with losing someone who has somehow become his friend?

This was a very unusual sort of manga. It's less a story about Boogiepop, than about the strange sort of friendship that develops between Boogiepop and Takeda. But while Takeda feels that maintaining his friendship with Boogiepop is important, he also realizes that hanging out on the roof of the school to be with this strange spirit living inside his girlfriend is isolating him from his schoolmates.

Takeda also debates on Boogiepop's existence with Boogiepop. Is he an alternate personality within Miyashita? Some kind of strange ghost that exists within her somehow? The story and the characters never really come to a conclusion on that, but the confusion and loss that Takeda feels when he realizes that Boogiepop will have to go are real and extremely well done.

This book is a prequel to "Boogiepop Phantom" and based on the strength of this, I will definitely want to seek out the series. Something about this series is strange but beautiful and moving. Very well done and recommended.