Boogiepop and Others Episode 3 Review: Boogiepop Does Not Laugh 3

Humanity was saved by normal people who decided to act instead of averting their eyes from the surrounding troubles. In other words, Echoes let humanity survive. Boogiepop left us with a wonderful message in this week’s episode: the worth of a human being is not valued by who we are and what we can be; it is valued by the choices we make.

Japanese Original Episode Title: ブギーポップは笑わない 3

Plot

Tanaka Shiro is looking for his girlfriend, Kamikishiro Naoko, who appears to be missing from home and hasn’t been to school for the last couple of days. He begins to ask around and with the help of Nitoki and Masami they decide to go look for Kirima Nagi, who seems to be the one knowing more about Naoko’s situation. As they look for her everywhere at school, they eventually find her but she attacks them and ties them up because she doesn’t know if she can trust them. They are also introduced to Echoes. When he lets Nagi know that they pose no threat, she releases them. On their way back to the main building, Masami takes off a poisoned pen, stabs Echoes and then cuts off Nagi’s throat. Manticore then appears in the form of Yurihara and starts attacking Echoes. Tanaka runs away in fear, leaving Nitoki with Masami who confesses that he has been helping Manticore all along. When Manticore brings Echoes to his knees, Echoes activates his powers and returns to space. He failed to kill Manticore since Masami sacrificed himself for her. Furious, Manticore screams that he will kill everyone but then Boogiepop along with Tanaka show up and finish her off. Kirima Nagi survived because Echoes shared some of his lifespan with her and the survivors turn back to normal the following day, realizing that Naoko has just saved humanity from going extinct.

Episode Highlights

Saotome was not just an insane psychopath: Even though we do not understand why he ended up this way and wanted to kill everyone (‘Being the killer myself, I think I could get used to it’) and help Manticore thrive and survive, he actually showed that he had feelings for her (or it I don’t know). He might have been insane all along but at least he tried to protect Manticore when Echoes attacked her and ended up sacrificing himself for her.

Naoko and a group of ‘normal’ people saved the world: I liked how they presented to us that ‘normal’ people have saved the world for now. Naoko showed kindness to Echoes by taking care of him, Nagi tried to find out the reason of her friend’s disappearance and worked with him, Nitoki tried to help him stand up and protected him when he was injured and poisoned by Saotome, even Saotome showed that he can be selfless and love Manticore, and Tanaka showed enough bravery and strength to pierce through Manticore’s head with an arrow. Boogiepop didn’t do much this time; she just popped in when needed and assisted the ‘normal’ people to save the world. What a nice moment.

Masami had the hots for Nagi: So did he do all this just because he was rejected by her and didn’t like being called ‘normal’? Did he actually liked Manticore or was just using it to make himself feel special? When Manticore mentioned that she would take Nagi’s form just to make him happier, I was grossed out and disgusted by the whole situation.

Yurihara was so damn creepy: Oh my lord, when she saw that Saotome was dead, her face was so creepy. I honestly don’t understand how Nitoki could keep her cool witnessing this whole scene. I think I would have passed out since the cutting of Nagi’s throat.

Themes & Trivia

In case you are confused: So, if you find it hard to follow up with the characters and the fast pace of the whole series, here is a character guide that you can reference back to every time you feel like you have no idea what is going on.

Comments

So, that was the light scene that was shown countless of times in Boogiepop Phantom. It was Echoes that was returning to space or his homeland or whatever; it all makes sense to me now, finally. Also, I am very interested to learn more about the ‘Fire Witch’ that Boogiepop called Nagi near the end of the episode. There are still so many juicy parts and information that we have no idea about. I am intrigued.

I’ll kill you all.

With this episode, it seems like the Echoes story arc has come to a closure, but I believe there are still many bits and pieces of the story that we have to learn about. For example, the slaves and all the drugs situation that was mentioned in the previous episodes. Let’s see what kind of horrors they will show us next week!

NEXT TIME: Boogiepop Does Not Laugh 4

Boogiepop is also part of our weekly previews. Check our preview for Episode 3 here.