#and weird little freak is just hilarious for assorted other reasons

[ineffable-gallimaufry]

of all the things that elias bouchard has ever been called i think that probably my two favorites will always be "weird little freak" and "cocky prick"

[drink-n-watch]

BoogiePop’s messy release schedule was driving me just a little nuts so I did the most reasonable thing possible and drove Shania a little nuts too. The results! We are almost caught up! Here’s everything that happened before this Friday! There Shall Be Spoilers!

go us! we wrote posts! YAY!

Boogiepop at Dawn – Episodes 12 & 13

The BoogiePop at Dawn 4 episode arc has been quite the rollercoaster. It started with what I believe is the best episode of the season then plunged right into the worst only to settle somewhere in the middle for these last two.

I definitely agree with you there Irina. But on the flipside, we finally get what I’ve been hoping we would get for a long time. More info on Nagi! Starting with her illusive father no less.

First we get a flashback episode to Nagi’s past and we finally get to meet her mysterious father. I gotta say, I was sort of disappointed with how ordinary he is. BoogiePop (the series not the phantom) has made a habit of creating these weird, disjointed, drastically underdeveloped characters and Mr. Kirima just didn’t stand out in any way. The only notable thing about him is that evolved humans liked his books.  In principal, that notion is actually very cool, but it came off rather dull in presentation.

He was a bit dull, but I did like how much his books were basically the driving force for most of the situations in this series. Especially since they are referenced to so much.

we just thought he was a little boring…there’s no need to take it this far! huh soilers

Was the little girl in the park a little BoogiePop?

Wait…there was a little girl in the park that looked like a little Boogiepop? How in the world did I miss that…

There was some throwbacks to earlier episodes, we got the sentence sometimes it snows in April again, proving that this wasn’t some odd mantra of the Imaginators. By the way, t is currently mid March and there’s a good 6 inches of snow on the ground right now. It was snowing quite generously all weekend as well. I really wouldn’t be surprised if this weather held up for another two weeks. I don’t get this expression at all. Is it suppose to mean something rather common but not guaranteed. Like sometimes it rains on a Tuesday?

I think what they are trying to get at is more psychological and metaphorical. Like sometimes unique experiences can happen whether we plan for them or not. It just matters how we deal with them when they come.

But it’s not unique at all. That’s my point.

this little girl…. not the same body but the same entity?

Besides the book thing, we found out the Nagi’s dad is divorced and that’s actually it. Next thing we know he gets murdered by synthetic megane same as scarecrow and his daughter takes it rather well, all things considered.

I think she just has a rather large capability to internalize things but I could be wrong.

The narrative has gone back to the nonlinear format which I liked. The sudden jump forward brought us back to a little after Scarecrow’s death which is still a flashback when compared to other episodes.

Synthetic megane teams up we now esper Nagi to hunt down whoever’s been murdering left and right. Let’s keep in mind that this particular synthetic already killed Nag’s dad when she was little, and her friend Scarecrow just recently. There’s a little sleuthing, nothing too impressive. They talk to one girl and Nai magically figures everything out so they go confront shrink lady who’s name I still don’t know. (Synthetic megane is called Sasaki, and hilariously Mo Murder!).

well um, I guess that’s an important distinction?

At this point we see an unrecognizable Pigeon bait and distract Sasaki so that he can get promptly murdered by psycho shrink while he simultaneously killed Pigeon. It took my awhile to figure out what was going on but apparently Pigeon was sacrificing herself to avenge Scarecrow nd n her last moments BoogiePop came to her in a scene paralleling her friend’s death. It would have been touching if I knew the first thing about Pigeon. I honestly thought that she had ordered Scarecrow’s death in the first place. Anywho, she dead now.

In a way it was rather poetic though. Especially with Pidgeon’s last line after Boogiepop told her instead of Heaven shes go to hell: “Heh, you’re right. Just like you.”

I did love Pidgeon aesthetic though. She might be a cool cosplay in the future.

I like her better with her blonde and pink hair. It helps sets her apart I find

see, it’s cool

Then Nagi and Shrinki face off in a swamp, after Nagi’s done all the work, BoogiePop appears and finishes her.

Again, this could have been exciting or at least cathartic if this shrink wasn’t the worst villain so far. Just plain uninteresting even when considered a madman evil with no viable motive. She didn’t even hurt anyone we care about so it’s not like we felt any sense of justice or retribution here.

It’s unfortunate that Nagi went from being a bedridden sick girl straight into being a superhero without BoogiePop bothering to show us that evolution. A training montage, an indication that she suddenly wants to solve crimes because of her father’s murder all batman style…something would have been nice. Nope, just jumpcut and apparently we’re a firewitch now.

True. A little explanation would have been nice.

don’t make that face

Nagi makes it back to have Sasaki die in her arms. Two synthetic humans have now sacrificed themselves for her, for no real reason. I assume that just like her dad attracted espers, she’s catnip to synthetics.

This would have been such a sad scene if Sasaki had any sort of personality or developpement other that “follow the plot”, well you get the idea.

At this point there’s a conversation between Nagi and BoogiePop. It’s one of those cryptic small talks at an inappropriate time, what with all the murdered bodies all around. We didn’t get any information or anything. What I got from it mostly is that at this point and time, Nagi and BoogiePop are on rather friendly terms. BoogiePop is impressed and interested by Nagi and has helped her out in a difficult situation. From what I can tell the feeling is mutual. So something must have happened to make their future encounters so frosty. Knowing this show, there’s almost no chance they’ll tell us what that was.

Which is a shame. Its really good for character development. Then again, that’s exactly what Boogiepop lacks.

And this is when I realized that I had forgotten that the entire arc was a story being told by BoogiePop to Echoes. We still don’t know where that weird red place is or why Echoes is alive but you know, I’m just going to let that one go.

oh yeah….you guys….

The King of Distortion – Episodes 14 & 15

The King of Distortion open with a familiar face. We catch up with Takeda some time after the Maticora arc and he’s reading an architecture magazine. I grew up around architects, several members of my family were architects including my mom who use to say that every time there was an architect in a work of fiction they were evil. It was a weird sort of mini persecution complex. I don’t think she was right at all but it always stuck with me. So yeah, I’m saying akeda is evil now!

There’s this new swoopy monument building and it’s the place to be apparently. It’s one of those decorative buildings that cost a fortune in taxes to upkeep but the government hopes it will encourage tourism so they brand it as a national treasure and source of pride. It looked pretty cool.

I like it….cause I don’t have to pay for it

So a crowd of people are there for the opening inclusion an assortment of Shinyo Academy students. We learn that the man whose building it is (I’m assuming the man who designed it) was some type of multi talented super genius who just recently passed away. It wasn’t specified by I’m going to assume it was under odd or mysterious circumstances. And yet, ironically he’s seen talking to little boy at the beginning of the episode. And leaves him with the ominous phrase of saying he was just reborn.

Takeda is also meeting Miyashita there for date s we’re setting up all our big players. However, when she gets there Boogiepop takes over and she ips away into the crowd. We’re quickly introduced to this arc’s baddie, The King of Distortion.

We are told that this entity wants to turn the world to gold. I should be annoyed by the cryptic nonsense of it all but I actually like that motivation. I dunno. It’s completely ridiculous yet so concrete that for some reason, it speaks to me.

oh…I was just talking to a supernatural entity that wants to turn the world to gold. Tuesdays! Am I right?

The King of Distortion seems to be able to trap people within their own minds and make them confront unresolved issues in their past. I’m not entirely sure why yet but as clichéd as it is, it’ also a mechanic I generally enjoy.

True. It is a quite overused trope, but I think the King of Distortion could actually be a decent villain this time. I hope.

Between the shrink lady last arc and this trauma facing/closure seeking character, I’m starting to think that the main thesis of BoogiePop is that psychiatry is evil!

Or straight up freaking confusing heh.

BoogiePop and I are freaked out by mannequins

Not that we have much of a moral judgement on the King of Distortion yet. So far they haven’t hurt anyone in any way. If anything they do really seem to be helping people. But BoogiePop considers them an enemy of the world so you know how that goes…

After a brief setup, both episodes mostly consisted of set pieces where the Kin of Distortion has conversations with various characters and makes them confront traumatic past experiences by taking the appearance of people from their past. These dreamscapes are very abstract and at times the narrative felt more than non-linear but downright non-sequitur.

This is a level of weirdness I like. It’s not pretending that everything is supposed to make sense. There is a surreal element. Heck the second episode turns into a kaiju movie at some point. But you can still follow along easily.

Heh, so true but I gotta admit it was a bit entertaining to see it go that way.

entertaining is a good thing!

We catch up again with Kentarou which we had seen briefly in the past. At this point, I’m starting to blur the manga and anime together so I’m not sure how much we’re supposed to know about the character but I always liked him. I’m happy to see him again.

I do remember that manticore killed his girlfriend, so there’s that.

I’m not sure he had a girlfriend?

Conversations with dead people is my favourite Buffy episode. Now I’m not trying to imply that BoogiePop comes anywhere close to it but there is something comparable in the mood and pacing of his arc. A bittersweet melancholy. Rather than having people turn into monster or cause their own doom through fear or greed, The King of Distortion is creating a hollow longing and cold guilt and offering up salvation. There something particularly disturbing about that.

I don’t want to call it a strong start or the most promising arc yet. I do that everytime and every time I get stung. BoogiePop knows how to start stories, it’s everything else that falls apart. But it’s a really strong star and seems very promising….

I’m scared to get my hopes up…

Since we didn’t write much today, cough, here’s a bunch of pics to tell the story instead. This is 4 episodes worth!

BoogiePop and Others Ep. 12-15 with Shania BoogiePop's messy release schedule was driving me just a little nuts so I did the most reasonable thing possible and drove Shania a little nuts too.