Welcome back one and all. I think there are still a few people watching this series. It’s one of those tricky shows where it keeps looking like i might be going somewhere interesting so you never know if you should drop it. Perfect solution for you guys, you can just let Shania and I do the watching for you! Genius isn’t it? You’re welcome.
Yup, genius indeed. That way yall dont have to worry about losing brain cells through boredom!
You know, I realized when the episode started that I had pretty much forgotten everything about last week’s BoogiePop. There were some um..people and they did um stuff??? I seems reliable glasses girl realized that the brain controlled emotionally scarred cousin was acting loopy so she went to talk to creepy art teacher about it – AKA The Imaginator!
This seen was basically just two people monologuing at each other while trying to expo dump enough info for the plot to make sense. It didn’t really work for me – how about you Shania? Learn anything new?
Uhh…I wish I could say I did Irina, but the most I got out of that scene was Glasses girl has only a stem in her, and the Imaginator is more psychotic than I initially thought. I mean sacrificing a girl for his spine goals? Yeesh.
The second part of the episode brought back who I assume is fan favorite Nagi as well as her brother. Actually, the brother is initially being targeted by the *Organization* in what I assume is a ploy to lure out the real BoogiePop. The plan seems to be to murder him then display the body claiming the death of BoogiePop and confront the real one when they come to investigate.
Unfortunately for the would be killers, it seems both siblings are some sort of super ninjas because reasons! I did enjoy those fighting scenes though. What did you think of the animation?
In all honesty I loved the fight scene. Sad to say that was probably the only interesting thing I’ve seen in the whole anime thus far.
In the meantime, the Imaginator has taken matters into his own hands and gone to confront Spooky E directly. We finally get so substantial exposition here as character motivation is shared with the audience for the first time. Are you enjoying this more direct approach?
Definitely. Especially after my turn last week, I got a very enlightening comment from a reader @fred who told me about who the Towa Organization was back in the original Boogiepop series. It made everything that happened in this episode actually make sense!
Glad to hear it. Personally, the odd narrative structure was interesting and original so I’ll miss it. Although it might make a return, it’s hard to tell with this show.
One of the aspects that always bothered me about the show is how shaky or non existent everyone’s motivations are. Half the time I have no idea why people are acting this way. I clearer reveal of the Imaginators powers and this idea that he wishes to remake the world in order to allow people to connect on a much deeper level, thereby alleviating a lot of loneliness and pain, really helped bring the story together in my mind. Am I the only one?
Nah you’re not alone with that. It helped a bit on my end as well.
Of course it’s far from perfect. Still have no clue why the boy was risking his life playing vigilante in BoogiePop cosplay, beyond the fact that a girl he knew for a week asked him to. The Organization remains just as stale as always although the death of Spooky E may prompt a more interesting representative. Oh, I meant to say: SPOILERS. And 90% of the characters are still single trait plot devices but hey…at least there’s an idea of a story behind it all.
I was excusing a lot of these failings on the very unusual narrative structure but unless I’m mistaken, then plot has been plainly linear for a few episodes now, right?
It really has. Which even though is nice from when it first started, it feels like it’s kinda lacking something.
I hope this means they are going to dedicate themselves to bringing the plot threads together.
What are our thoughts for the future of the series?
My last thoughts are: I really hope this Imaginator arc has a purpose. Because else wise, we were better off with the manticore and Echoes. And thats saying something.
Shania wants purpose! I’ll settle for conclusion. Low expectations have always served me well!
Although we have doubts about the substance of BoogiePop, it can be visually intriguing. Here are some caps to make my point.
I think these people are all existentially bored. Cosplay ototou probably feels that risking his life for a cause gives it value it would not otherwise have. Jin probably feels that because he can see flowers, he must be a gardener, and his solution is monoculture – and that probably fuels imaginator who, ironically, needs someone elses imagination. Same probably goes for glasses girl; i don’t remember to well what she did in the previous arc. Is she some kind of class rep? She seems the type.
Maybe I’m just projecting the boredom I feel watching the show onto the characters? It’s possible.
I like the notion of pure boredom as a motivation – I think it should be used more often.
I’ll go with that – headcanon
Actually, she is fascinated by criminal psychology. No special position. You are confusing her with hairclip girl from the previous arc.
Ah, thanks for the clarification. It’s entirely possible I’m confusing people here.
I’m also finding it really hard to stay interested in this one, which just feels weird when you have so many potentially interesting things happening. How they manage to make a guy who can electrocute people with his hands and essentially over-write their personality feel dull I do not know, but they have succeeded in almost every scene Spooky E has appeared in. I’ll also be happy as long as this concludes because I just don’t expect much else from it.
I could be wrong but I’m blaming paper thin characterization (not all the readers agree)
The characters are incredibly dull and most of them are indistinguishable from the other because they all talk more or less exactly the same way. Of course the bland character design and general slow pace doesn’t exactly help either.
true – artistic choices tend towards homogeny here
It’s always interesting to read these collab posts because I have LOVED Boogiepop from the start. I never find it boring – I mean, people are getting electrocuted and turned it slaves and stuff. But at the same time, I can totally understand why other people wouldn’t like it. For me, I think the universe kind of sets up that the characters in this world are just quick to believe in supernatural things and will just go along with things easily. I don’t really mind the “lack of motivation” because I like where the story is going. I also think there’s more to it than the kid just pretending to be Boogiepop because hormones…that girl did try to save his life before, so it makes sense that he would be fighting for her to me, anyways. As for glasses girl, I’ve seen a lot of narratives where people just get nosy and want to investigate something that barely has anything to do with them just because they’re like, bored and want to be involved. Like there’s a whole show on TBS called Search Party that’s basically that, lol. I guess this is rambley, but my point is that I guess there’s a certain amount of suspension of disbelief with motives that I’m willing to have just because, well, I’m having fun and I like what the show is saying! It’s like, weirdly optimistic despite being dark. I guess I’m gonna have to formulate some thoughts and write about it myself instead of essay-ing in your comment section, hehe…
I look forward to reading it. Sounds like an interesting counterpoint especially now that most reviewers have dropped the show
hahaha, now I am the lone Boogiepop fan…! Now I feel like it’s my duty!
You ad Fred got to represent!
Not so fast! Even though I am not to everyone’s taste, I’m still not chopped liver.
Watch the original BP. STARZ has it. Same general story but done completely differently. It is fun to compare and contrast. The original also sheds some light on the remake. I did a post on it.
I may actually break down and read the manga after.
We shall overcome!! I watched BP a long time ago, so I guess that’s part of why I’m more forgiving of this Boogiepop, since I’m already used to its set-up. Didn’t know it was on STARZ, though, so I’ll have to check it out and give it a rewatch soon!! I bought the book long ago but still haven’t read it, lol
Wow. I never doubted the motivations from the start of VS Imaginator. The details for sure but the broad sweep was clear. But then, I have enjoyed it from the start. The missing stuff I just conjectured and let it flow. Not the first time I’ve rewritten a script in my head while watching something.
Pretty obvious the girl has an ulterior motive and is just using Jin. There are parallels between her and Manticore.
When I started watching the BP Phantom after I discovered how to make Starz work on Chrome instead of Mozilla, I realized it was the same story only *completely* re-imagined. New stuff added, old stuff deleted. Ep 13 of the original is even titled “Boobiepop and Others”. It is not a sequel. I still haven’t looked at the manga (which has been ongoing for 20 years now) but I may want to now. I’m not much of a manga reader.
Because the characters are purposefully underdeveloped it’ difficult for me to understand why glasses would put herself in danger for a girl she doesn’t know and who, as far as she knows, isn’t even in any danger. I’m uncertain what the actual catalyst for Jin to let go of his aversion towards physical violence and accept murder as a viable means to his ends in opposition to what he previously believed. I don’t know yet why the imaginator as a bein cares about the world at all – and what the plan was before they met Jin. Jin himself this week mentioned that he was rather indifferent to others when he was younger but now all that effort to make people *not sad*. I still don’t know why the kid is risking his life pretending to be BoogiePop or why he cares aout the girl beyond “hormones”. This is what I mean by motivation. I am currently having a tough time putting myself in a character’s shoes and following their entire line of reasoning that would bring them to where they are.
I get that this is a plot driven narrative and not a character driven one so all this little information is simply not what the story is concentrating on because it has a lot of lore to establish before that.
I watched the original and read the manga. I like the manga best personally. If you’re interested I would say give it a shot.
Hormones and wanting to be hero. She has the immense attraction of the bird with a broken wing.
And that’s enough for him to risk his lie and his family? Maybe…I don’t know. Maybe not. Maybe he has something to prove because of his childhood or he’s trying to get out of the shadow of his unusually strong sister, or blind heroism runs in the family, or this is a type of teenage rebellion.
I had the same issue when watching Index.
I think it is a standard anime character type.
I keep thinking about this one and I think a mystery plot somewhat thrown into a blender construction like this is one of the few times that I will consider lack of characterization… maybe. It’s all interesting, but if nothing connects together well in the end and makes up all of that lack of things, then there is no point…
I would love a mystery actually. It’s actually very straight forward and not too hard to follow, it’s that so far everything is very shallow which makes the deeply symbolic and surreal plot just seem disjointed.
When I watch this, I feel a bit like a small child someone is trying to explain string theory to. It makes sense but you can tell they’re skipping over most of the actual material.
I think that makes you smarter then me, haha.
And I don’t mean that in a sarcastic manner at all.