Boogiepop and Others | First Impressions

Feels good to be back here doing a first impressions post. It’s been some time. I thought the best way to get back into the groove of things is to talk about one of the anime series that I look forward to the most weekly. I will say that this anime season and just the year of 2019 has just started off with a bang with some great anime. We will also have some other first impressions for those series too but today, I’m here to talk about Boogiepop and Others. Let’s jump right in!

Synopsis:

There is an urban legend that tells of a shinigami that can release people from the pain they are suffering. This “Angel of Death” has a name—Boogiepop. And the legends are true. Boogiepop is real. When a rash of disappearances involving female students breaks out at Shinyo Academy, the police and faculty assume they just have a bunch of runaways on their hands. Yet some students know better. Something mysterious and foul is afoot. Is it Boogiepop or something even more sinister…?

[From MAL]

The cool thing about this synopsis is it only really captures what’s happening in the first three episodes. I’d rather know as little as possible going into a series. But that’s just me.

NOTE:

If you are wondering if you need to watch the original Boogiepop to watch this series, you do not.

Boogiepop and Others is animated by Studio Madhouse and directed by Shingo Natsume. If you’ve never heard of Shingo Natsume, he doesn’t have a large resume but he was the director for One Punch Man season 1 and a personal favourite of mine, ACCA. Here’s a list of some other stuff he’s done. Someone as versatile as him should be able to give us quite a show with a story such as Boogiepop that has action but also has drama mystery and psychological elements. So far, I can tell he is a good fit.

Since I’ve talked a bit about the director, I should probably talk a bit about the thoughts I have regarding the animation. Due to this series being centered around a lot of dialogue, we haven’t seen a crazy amount of fights(yet) but we have received a glimpse of what’s to come. The overall animation is good. No real sense of laziness there. Some of you may be surprised with some events that happen and how well they were executed to hit you with that shock value.

The main issue with a show like Boogiepop and Others is there’s a large amount of information to keep track of since they mess around a bit with the timeline to tell the story. At least with the first arc(episode 1-3). This can easily be corrected by doing a tiny amount of research but I take this as a challenge from the creator to follow along so I quite enjoy it. I do see this as a barrier for many to get into this series and maybe it’s just not for them.

Now, let’s talk about this opening. Over the past year or so, I’ve been getting really into MYTH&ROID. All of their OPs and EDs are just wonderful to me so you can tell I was super excited to hear that they would be performing the OP for Boogiepop. To no one’s surprise, this OP is fantastic! It can only be seen as a top 3 OP of the season. I’m not saying this from just my perspective it seems to be one of the OPs everyone has been talking about next to Promised Neverland, Kaguya-sama and Mob Psycho 100 II. Visually and sonically great. Definitely check out the OP at least if you haven’t!

Boogiepop and Others is currently listed as an 18 episode season and is currently streaming on VRV, Crunchyroll and Funimation. It is currently sitting at a 7 on MAL but I believe it’s mostly for the reasons I mentioned earlier. Watching the first arc should be enough to know if this series is for you. If you are currently watching it, what are your thoughts on this series thus far? I’d love to know, so hit me with a comment down below because I need more people to talk about this series with!

Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a great weekend!