Is Boogiepop Wa Waranai Worth Your Time?

Hello everyone and welcome to our shelter! 🙂

Time to start writing the first impressions of the Anime shows I already was able to watch 3 episodes of. Let’s start with Boogiepop Wa Waranai! All of these First Impressions are part of my Ultimate Guide for the 2019 Anime Winter Season. A guide with more than 100 pages with a first impressions to every Anime coming out in the Winter Season. You can get your own here (it’s free!).

Title: Boogiepop Wa Waranai (MAL Page)

Alternative Titles: Boogiepop Never Laughs, Boogiepop Doesn’t Laugh

MAL Score: 7.14

Genres: Mystery, Horror, Psychological

Number of Episodes: 18

Broadcast: Fridays (JST)

Studios: Madhouse

Source: Light novel

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: R – 17+

Synopsis

Boogiepop Wa Waranai is an adaptation of the Boogiepop Series Visual Novel. The story is about Boogiepop, a Japanese urban legend, who is believed to appear when someone is in distress. Everything starts when a break of female students disappearing happens. Contrary to what the adults think, the girls are not running from their homes… In fact, there is something dark and mysterious going around…

Story

The first episode was a mess. The plot was conducted in a very confused way and, to be honest, I think that was the objective! The second and third episodes are used to explain everything that we were not able to understand in the beginning. However, as a good mysterious show where you are given everything you need to know so you can get who the culprit is before actually the show says it and I feel Boogiepop actually created some distractions and told the story in a way so people wouldn’t get it and get surprised by it in the end.

I was able to get it right, but that’s because I was super observant in what was happening so I could write a blog post. If I was just watching for the sake of it, I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t overthink what I was watching, neither would I go back a couple of times to understand a specific scene.

However, I have to say the premise is actually good and I’m interested to see what is coming next.

Characters

It’s not I don’t like the characters. However, the characters’ reaction is way too off. Right in episode 1, we get a very detached Takeda. Although he sees his girlfriend being possessed by Boogiepop’s spirit, he doesn’t really seem to mind. In fact, by the end of the episode, it seems that he’s actually sad that Boogiepop is leaving and his girlfriend is regaining the consciousness of her body.

But, it does not end her… Even in future episodes where you get into mass murder, the characters seem to be way too forgetful. I understand someone as Nagi Kirima to overcome what is happening pretty quickly. But to see, one day after discovering that a certain person died, two characters who seem to be completely normal and not used to dark stuff to be completely ok just confuses me. Especially when the character who dies is close to one of them… It does not make sense and the characters just seem to be empty shells which do not have feelings besides the immediate reaction to what is happening.

Animation

The animation is pretty normal for a 2019 Anime show.

Character design is nothing to be thrilled for. However, I understand that being this a mysterious/horror Anime, we get a more simple and strick character design. The idea of the show is not to have the antithesis between cute and dark, it’s to be completely dark at all moments.

I like how the characters when seen from afar do not have a face. It gives you that mysterious and dark vibe which is perfect for Boogiepop. Moreover, the action scenes also have very polished animated movement.

When it comes to the environment and ambiance, I have to say that for a mysterious/horror Anime is nothing really that great. Yakusoku no Neverland, for example, is way better in creating that “puts you in the edge of your seat” kind of environment.

Audio

The intro music is good and it gives you the vibe of what Boogiepop represents. The music has that mysterious vibes with both smooth and agitated beats. It represents very well the discovering/mysterious part of the Anime and the more action, fighting scenes.

The score is also good! It’s full of mysterious music that we are used to listen when characters are trying to uncover some type of secret. Moreover, it has also a lot of scenes with no background soundtrack which normally results well in this type of Anime shows.

However, in episode 1 there were many cuts from having music to silence which didn’t work well at all. But, it seems they have been able to overcome this in the following episodes.

Final Verdict

If you love mysterious/horror Anime shows and you have watched almost everything there is – watch it!

If you love mysterious/horror Anime shows, but don’t have much time – don’t watch it! – Yakusoku no Neverland is way more worthy of your time than Boogiepop.

If you don’t like this type of genres – don’t watch it! – there is really not much more than that to the Anime, at least so far.

Final Score: Average!