Boogiepop wa Warawanai Episode 4 Review
This week the story is more straight forward but the same languid pace and drip feed of information that makes little sense without context continues. It feels like a desperate attempt to make the story seem interesting as the visuals continue to be painfully dull to look at. Then again, I enjoyed this episode far more than any of the previous three so maybe I should look at what actually did work.
A new character was introduced this week and he has an interesting ability to see a flower inside of people and what it is lacking. However, he’s frustrated because he can only see it and can’t always help people and he has no idea what he is also lacking. This concept really could have been very interesting, and despite the delivery, I’m still kind of intrigued at the notion even if not so caught up in this particular story.
After encountering the spirit of the girl from the last arc (now named an Imaginator by Boogiepop) the new guy is caught up in a series of unfortunate events including a former student trying to rob him at knife point. Then said student, under the control of the spirit, slashes her own throat. During the interview with the police, more details of the girls’ life come to light and you can see that something is withering inside the man. Which probably explains his next actions.
Like with the first three episodes, the ideas are stronger than the execution here. The pace positively crawls and almost no-one ever emotes realistically. Every voice kind of ends up sounds dull and disinterested in the lines being delivered and with so many night times scenes and dull colours with limited movement it all just becomes a chore to watch where I’m wondering how long until the end of the episode.
But, whether I liked it or not, this flower idea has me so I’d watch the next episode regardless and I get the distinct impression that’s how this season will go. I may not be thrilled by the story but there’s enough intrigue to make me curious enough that I don’t want to walk away.
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Boogiepop Omnibus Vol. 1-3 (Light Novel)
- Episode 1: Leaving the Audience on the Outside in Boogiepop
- Episode 2: Boogiepop Begins To Reveals Its Secrets
- Episode 3: Disorderly and Dull, Perhaps the Worst Things for a Story To Be
- Episode 4: The Sprouting of a New Imaginator in Boogiepop
- Episode 5: Weak Introductions To Characters We’ll Never Know
- Episode 6: Beward the Dull and Languid Pacing
- Episode 7: The Interesting Premise That Just Keeps Putting Me To Sleep
- Episode 8: Things Finally Seem to be Popping Along
- Episodes 9 and 10: The End of the Imaginator and The Start of a New Arc
- Episode 11: An Enemy of the World
- Episode 12 and 13: Pop Goes the Fear Ghoul?
- Images from: Boogipop wa Warawanai (2019). Dir. S Natsume. Madhouse. 2019.