Category: Finished Series: Mystery/Suspense

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.

Boogiepop’s this week further reaffirms what I really like about the show’s overall structure. Each week we have a total new perspective from the same arc, often with different level of impact to the main events. This episode, for example, is about two “lesser” interconnected plot threads compare to one last week, yet we still learn many new elements that could potentially change the tide of this sailing boat. We get another supernatural foe, but this time it seems like they are a small piece in the chess. We have more complex emotional range this week: from sexual to homosexual attraction (which the latter is actually pretty impressive). The main key here that can prove to be a crucial plotpoint, in hindsight, isn’t the characters that have their narratives this week, but Orihata Aya, the girl that dates Masaki, Nagi Kirimi’s little brother. It becomes clear that she has different values regarding her own, as she thinks it’s only natural to offer her body to guys, and think very little of her self worth. She comes off an inhuman vibe, but so far I can’t still put my fingers on who she really be. She could be another one of Towa Organization’s “terminal”, which kind of makes sense since that Spooky E is totally protecting her, but I feel that she’s carrying the bigger roles here. And she’s on the verge of breaking down now that she develops her feeling towards someone else.

Which brings us to the first segment where we get told in Masaki’s point of view. Masaki keeps his presence low profile, but he still ends up as a target of bullying amongst his class. The fact the he’s Kirimi’s brother also ties him into the bigger picture. Could it be that Orihata approaches him because of that? As the event progresses, his affection eventually reaches the girl, which I think will serve as a catalyst to the next big event. Asukai reappears to give these bullying guys justiced, and on the second segment it’s interesting to note that he regards the victim as “beyond cure”, which means that he believes his action as a way to cure the victims. At this moment we don’t see the aftermaths of the victims he touched so I can’t tell his version of “cure” would be like, but my gut tells me that it’s gonna be twisted.

The second thread is about Anou Shinjirou, Misaki’s classmate and as we soon learn, he has some physical attraction to him. I really like the way he behaves towards Misaki, you can see the whole waves of conflicted emotions this guy has towards Misaki. Trying his best to show some hesitant to the boy, yet at the same time stalks him and tries to approach him when there’s no one around. It’s creepy but Boogiepop nails his behaviors wonderfully. His stalking to Orihata (since he thought the girl has some hidden agenda) causes Spooky E brainwashes him and makes him one of his terminals. The highpoint of this episode for me is how despite him losing all his memories, his personality and his emotions, in some rare moments his real emotions surface. The scene where he looks at the painting “Snow falls in April” (which is definitely another important piece – who draw this painting?), for instance, evokes some kind of raw emotions to him. For the show that is on the emotional distance approach, it still doesn’t forget to let some emotions sip in.

Lastly, Boogiepop appears to tie up these stories and decides to banish Spooky E, however he escapes in the nick of time. I still think that some pieces are missing here, and until we learn the importance of Orihata’s role in this story, things will put into motion. 5 episodes in, the biggest strength of Boogiepop Phantom lies in its interwoven structures and it does a decent jobs to maintain the restless mood that prove crucial to its many mysteries. Well, viewers have to work way more than normal shows in order to be on track but for me it has been a rewarding experience so far.