Boogiepop and Others Episode 4 Review: VS The Imaginator 1

Boogiepop uses a non-linear narrative where things aren’t very clear and makes it work so well. It might be a bit confusing for some but at the same time it keeps the story interesting and intriguing.

Japanese Original Episode Title: VSイマジネーター 1

Plot

Another student named Suiko Minahoshi has been reported to have taken her own life, but was actually killed by Boogiepop. Although she should be dead, she reappears on a rooftop where she meets Boogiepop once again who tells her that Nagi’s father referred to her ‘type’ as the Imaginator. We are then introduced to Guidance Counselor Jin Asukai who has always been able to see what was missing in people’s hearts (in the form of a rose inside their bodies) and has been using his skill to make them feel better. The Imaginator appears before him and offers him a chance to develop his power but he refuses, so she later appears in the form of his sister and offers him a different future which he again rejects. She then reappears to him in the form of a drug-addicted previous student of his by the name of Imazaki Shizuko and she forcefully makes her slit her throat, while highlighting his inability to help others. At that moment Jin flips and we later see him encountering three boys that were bullying a girl and starts testing the power that Imaginator gave him in order to ‘help’ people. Later, when Komiya prepares to jump off a building to join her dead friend, Suiko, Boogiepop appears and says she will not join her dead friend as she is still on a journey in this world.

Episode Highlights

‘I don’t even have a name yet:’ So yet another weird entity takes the spotlight. Boogiepop seems to be aware of what she is doing but once again she doesn’t do much to stop her, or at least for now. For me the Imaginator seems like she is trying to change the future in whatever way possible and tries to get people like Asukai to develop their powers and that makes her an enemy of the world. Let’s wait and see what kind of ‘freak-army’ she is going to create.

Asukai is the next Kira: The moment I saw this character I thought to myself ‘Hmm, he looks a lot like Light Yagami’, but later on when he smiles insanely I was like ‘Yup, we certainly got another Kira in our hands.’ I think that even though he seemed like a really nice guy at the beginning, the Imaginator didn’t really do much to make him flip. She just manipulated him cunningly by poking at his desire to help people and then he went mental. He believes that he’s helping people by using his powers, but he fails to realize that he was actually doing this already during his therapy sessions, though in a less direct way. Removing the thorns himself is just an escalation of what he was already doing, or at least that’s what I think he is doing. Maybe the consequences of him removing the ‘thorns’ might be the same ones as in Boogiepop Phantom and the whole bug situation.

The reason this child was beautiful was because he had a rose within his heart.

Themes & Trivia

So in case you didn’t notice, SOMETIMES IT SNOWS IN APRIL: Even though this might sound like random nonsense, this whole snowing in April situation is actually a reference to the Prince song of the same name. Prince wrote and produced the song along with Wendy & Lisa (who co-wrote the music). The song’s narrator recounts memories of Christopher Tracy, Prince’s character from Under the Cherry Moon, and how Tracy’s passing affected the narrator; it also expresses their desire to hopefully rejoin Tracy in heaven.

Comments

When Asukai started thinking about the girl’s dreaming situation during counseling, I honestly thought he was just staring at her boobs and analyzing their whole shape. I know, I am horrible. Also, I really liked many of the quotes in this episode: ‘Sometimes birds fall from the sky..’, ‘Love is like snow that falls in April, unexpected yet not unforeseen.’

Sometimes it snows in April.

Can’t wait to see how the Imaginator story will unfold in the next few episodes. I must say though that this show would be easier to just binge because I am sure that many people will miss or forget details with this weekly episode pacing.

NEXT TIME: VS The Imaginator 2