Boogiepop thickens its narrative considerably this past 2 weeks. Instead of peeling the skins to its already complex narrative, it feels as if Boogiepop adds more layers to it, each layer matters differently to the big picture. While I feel the first arc Boogiepop and Others suffers from rushing too much (it scraps many side characters for instance), this arc it suffers from totally opposite issue, it’s meandering quite a bit here. I don’t mind the way it jumps around between narratives to narratives. After all, it’s make the central mystery more intriguing, but I do feel that there is little progress in the last two episodes. News emerges that the next arc of Boogiepop: Boogiepop at Dawn will be a 2-hour OVA which will be Boogiepop’s 10th to 13th episode, it’s safe to assume that there are two more episodes to wrap up this current Imaginator arc and for me they certainly don’t need 6 episodes for this material.
To be more specific, Masaki and Orihata’s relationship makes up the main emotional core of this arc, but I feel the chemistry is stalled this last episode. Orihata is torn between Spooky E’s order and her genuine care for Masaki. Now that we learn that Orihata’s mission is to cross-breed to create a new non-human being, whatever that is. At the beginning of episode 6, Masaki finds her being manipulated by Spooky E but he manages to control him, and instead of making him his puppet, he just erases his memory. Orihata makes sure about his safety by playing along with Spooky E’s order, dressing him up as a fake Boogiepop to lure the real one, but at the same time protect him with all her might. While they certainly share a mutual chemistry together, and Masaki’s naive care towards the girl plays well against the dark tone of the series, I don’t feel like they provide enough reasons for me to care for their wellbeing.
It’s neat, however, to have one of our main character pulled into the heart of this story from the outside looking in. Kinukawa Kotoe, who is Jin’s cousin, reaches Suema to investigate about his strange behavior. What she witnesses afterward is something “creepy”: he performs a ritual to plug/modify highschool girls missing hearts, so that they feel “fulfilled” afterward. It’s a interesting concept, since it remains to be seen whether his action can be perceived as “savior” or “crime”. On the one hand, we have him going through some malicious intent and was on the verge of breaking down. On the other hand, the people he saved feels happy afterward. Too happy that they seem to lose their drive to live. Suema, in the meantime, bumps into Orihara whom about to jump of the building. As she proceed to talk her out of it, they also spell out loud the themes about Boogiepop franchise as a whole. That’s all these supernatural beings are the result of teenager’s growing up. As Suema frames it, Boogiepop is there to lend the helping hand to fragile young hearts that adults won’t provide, as adults they feel adolescence is just a phase everyone goes through, and will pass. Well, what do I say? Obvious issues aside, it’s nice to know what Boogiepop is really about, right? We need that for something as roundabout as Boogiepop.
Lastly, Kotoe makes up for the last missing piece of this chessboard. We learn about her affection towards Jin (since childhood, no less) until it gets abruptly interfered by Spooky E goddamn mind control power and now she becomes his copy – not a terminal- but a copy. Actually, I found those raw moments where the victims’ is completely erased, but in some rare moments their real feeling sip in one of the more effective moments in the series. Whether it’s Kotoe this week or Anou in the past few weeks, although with their identity erased, the feeling they had for somebody still remains within their conscious. That’s harsh, yet beautiful. It’s amazing that while the main conflict of the arc is between Imaginator and Boogiepop, neither of them appear much in the last few weeks.and I still don’t think that Imaginator is that bad, it’s Spooky E is the main villain here. He’s spook for sure, not sure what an E stands for anyway.
