English Dub Review: Boogiepop and Friends “Boogiepop and Friends 3”

For the good of humanity.

Overview:

Looking for his missing girlfriend, Shiro uncovers a secret he isn’t expecting.

Our Take:

Echoes’ true identity is revealed; he’s an angel sent from the Heavens. Space was actually Heaven, and he was sent with the purpose to observe and judge humanity. When cornered by the Manticore, he sheds his physical form and returns to Heaven, bringing his judgment with him. Luckily, even despite the cruelty that Echoes had witnessed, that people willing to care, protect, and even work together in the face of dire circumstances gave him a good impression. Humanity stays alive, at least for another day. However, they came pretty close to annihilation- if Echoes had been hurt, then it’s pretty likely that humanity would’ve been completely destroyed. Kindness and fortitude allow us to survive.

As for Manicore, she loses both herself and her sanity once Echoes leaves. Her purpose for existing was tied to him, being his clone, and even though she wants freedom, she wants to destroy him just as much. After he leaves, is able to escape while she isn’t, she becomes utterly enraged. At that point, she becomes fully willing to kill just because she’s angry, not because she needs to survive. She is done in by Boogiepop, who was hunting her, and Shiro, getting revenge for his girlfriend.

Kirima comes back to life thanks to Echoes’ sacrifice, and that makes things all the more mysterious. Boogiepop calls her the ‘Fire Witch’, but doesn’t explain what exactly that means. Most importantly, Kirima seems to know who Boogiepop is, and complains that Boogiepop should’ve appeared earlier if they were around from the start. This means that they’ve met before, and while they don’t seem to be enemies, they’re definitely not friends either. If the opening comes true, they might end up being enemies later on.

We also learn something very important: that this series is non-linear. In the first episode, Boogiepop mentioned that the monster had been vanquished because it already had been by that period of time. The monster was the Manticore, and Boogiepop and Shiro managed to kill her, seemingly for good. When the group meets at the very end, it’s not in the future, but chronologically, at the end of the first episode. Going forward, this means that not everything that we’re presented in might be the full story. It’s not just different perspectives, but jumping around in time as well.