Opinion: What is “VS Imaginator” and why you should not drop Boogiepop

Mar 1, 2019 9:30 AM

Offline

Apr 2015

Below are my personal opinions after referring to other opinions in English and Japanese. Long post ahead, jump to bottom for TL;DR.

It’s 1am at night I woke up just realizing the true meaning of VS Imaginator and now I cannot sleep. So I wrote this long post to discuss about what the author mean by ”VS Imaginator”.

The name of this arc is not “Imaginator”, but “VS Imaginator”. In the dialogue between Masaki and Boogiepop, Boogiepop asked Masaki is he really not being brainwashed, are his actions truly based on his own will. While it is true that he is being slightly altered by Spooky E, he is also being brainwashed by what we know as “society”. During a scene where he was running, Masaki said that he’s not strong, he lived by watching people’s facial expressions, reactions etc. and reacts accordingly. This shows that most of the time he is just acting according to how the society “brainwashes” him to do so, without his own will. This actually applies to a lot of is as well. In this case, the society itself is “Imaginator”. So humans in society struggles to become free, to be able to act upon his or her own will, which is equivalent to going against Imaginator, thus “VS Imaginator”.

Not only Masaki, Anno’s side of this arc is also very important in this story. He fell in love with Masaki, but is being altered (like twice?) by Spooky E and Asukai Jin. In the end, he became “straight” and had forgotten about his first love. This seems to be a result of brainwashing by Spooky E, however even if it did not happen, he too would suffer from the pressure by the largely homophobic society. In the end, he might be brainwashed by the society instead of Spooky E to forget about Masaki, enter a good school, get a girlfriend, living what seemed to be a happy life by the society’s standard. Him crying in front of the high school he’s about to enter shows that somewhere inside his heart, he is still not free from his sufferings, however he no longer knows why he suffers, as he lost against “Imaginator” (in this case, his Imaginator is Spooky E and Asukai Jin). This is a fictional example by the author, but I believe this also applies to many people who once had dream of being a rock star, an artist, an athlete, but were forced to become a doctor, an engineer, an ordinary white collar. Reminds me of my maths teacher who chose to enter Engineering instead of Mathematics major just because people said Engineer has higher pay.

“VS Imaginator“, is us struggling against the society, to become free of its shackles so we can act according to our own will. You may refer to Boogiepop’s final words to Masaki in episode 9 after defeating the clowns and people in costumes, something along the lines of “What is it that you truly desire, that you would struggle to achieve even if you’re being tightly bounded in this world?”

An example of victor against Imaginator would probably be Kirima Nagi, who gives zero fucks to society norms and does whatever she desires. The reason is explained in Dawn of Boogiepop (around ep 12 iirc). When Nagi found her father lying in his blood, her father asked her what does she think about being normal. That’s when she decided to stop being normal (well she’s kinda destined to be more than normal anyways).

To people who are still thinking of dropping this series, I strongly recommend you to finish it (might as well, right? Since you’ve come this far) because the last arc is damn awesome and if done right, it will more or less allow you to understand what you didn’t understand in the first few episodes (btw the first arc was a bad adaptation, but after reading the LN I realised that it is indeed too difficult to adapt). If you really want to understand further (especially about the first arc), I strongly recommend you read the LN (especially the first one). The reason why Boogiepop doesn’t laugh and a theory as to why it manifests in Touka is being explained in Takeda’s story in his POV. You can start anywhere, it doesn’t really matter.

TL;DR I think this series is awesome and you should read what I wrote if you didn’t understand VS Imaginator

Decarabia108Mar 1, 2019 10:33 AM

Mar 1, 2019 9:47 AM

Decarabia108

Offline

Apr 2015

Addition:
In this arc, Asukai Jin is not the real threat, or the “world’s enemy” as Boogiepop says, since his efforts are being proved futile. Minahoshi Suiko however, is dangerous being left alone, so Boogiepop wants to make sure she’s gone for good (while she’s gone, her will still exists in Kadono world as a concept). Besides, I see some opinions that doubt Suiko is a true enemy of Boogiepop, as what she does is kinda similar to Boogiepop (saving people and the world), but they have different ideals and way of doing it.

Also, about Boogiepop. Boogiepop is the “enemy of the world’s enemies”, while his/her ability is unknown, it is believed that it is the power to sense the danger which potentially leads to the destruction of the world, and his/her mission is to eliminate them before it happens (like Manticore and Saotome Masami). Those who poses no threat to the world is not his/her elimination target so he/she would usually ignore them even if they are evil. Towa organization itself is not the enemy of the world, in fact, they too eliminate the enemy of the world, but also eliminates those who weren’t an enemy of the world as well. The reason why Boogiepop is known as a grim reaper(not entirely true, just an impression) is explained in the Dawn arc (ep10-13).

Edit: in Manticore arc, the true enemy of the world is Masami. Manticore eats human only for survival, but Masami helps her for a twisted reasoning. If let alone, he will eventually devour and destroy the world. Since Echoes is the one who eliminated him, Boogiepop said that it is not him/her that eliminated the enemy of the world but someone else.

Decarabia108Mar 1, 2019 10:22 AM

Mar 1, 2019 12:12 PM

Daniel_Naumov

Offline

Apr 2016

4788

To start with, I find some of the explanation quite contestable and not exactly persuading; even worse, it would not persuade someone to not "drop" the series. It is a praise, maybe, but not an actual argument of why people should be watching the series. Rather than that, you have deliberately robbed them of possibilities (PuN iNtEnDeD) of fathoming the VS Imaginator narrative through their own perception, trying to find the truth behind and about it. Commendable notion, but I would not give you a candy for what you have done. The bit about society is the most contestable, while also being true for at least the Japanese society, both of the time the series was concepted... and, alas, the modern Japan as well.
Secondly, both Masami AND Manticore were "finished off" by someone other than Boogiepop. Boogiepop has never delivered a direct finishing blow. Always was around the moment, though. So that bit on shifting the narrative of world threat towards quite a real psycho adolescent is... understandable, but can't be supported by the facts from the series itself.
And but of course I appreciate you taking time and trying to actually do something the forums were meant to. These are those bits why I still cling to communicating with others through internet forums not because I don't have friends outside....

Re:formed

Mar 1, 2019 12:14 PM

1idd0kun

Offline

Jul 2009

783

Decarabia108 said:
Addition:
In this arc, Asukai Jin is not the real threat, or the “world’s enemy” as Boogiepop says, since his efforts are being proved futile. Minahoshi Suiko however, is dangerous being left alone, so Boogiepop wants to make sure she’s gone for good (while she’s gone, her will still exists in Kadono world as a concept). Besides, I see some opinions that doubt Suiko is a true enemy of Boogiepop, as what she does is kinda similar to Boogiepop (saving people and the world), but they have different ideals and way of doing it.

Suiko is a more complex character than the show lets on. The collective common sense that dictates how people think is what Kirima Seiichi called "Imaginator." Because of that, it's easy to mistakenly assume that Suiko Minahoshi, whom Boogiepop called Imaginator, wants to control the world or humanity. But actually she doesn't want that at all. She wants the opposite. She wants people to break all the limitations the world and society places on them. She wants people to break through all that crap and be free for real. But if that's the case, why did Boogiepop called her Imaginator? Because Suiko doesn't believe in people. That's why she ends up manipulating them. She manipulates them to force them to break through. Problem is, if she manipulates them, she's robbing them of the freedom she wanted to give them. She's doing exactly the opposite of what she wanted to, see?

That's why Boogie called her the Imaginator.

BTW, at the end of the arc, when Suiko talks to Masaki, you can see she's starting believe in others for the first time.

1idd0kunMar 1, 2019 5:22 PM

Mar 1, 2019 4:49 PM

Decarabia108

Offline

Apr 2015

1idd0kun said:

Suiko is a more complex character that the show lets on. The collective common sense that dictates how people think is what Kirima Seiichi called "Imaginator." Because of that, it's easy to mistakenly assume that Suiko Minahoshi, whom Boogiepop called Imaginator, wants to control the world or humanity. But actually she doesn't want that at all. She wants the opposite. She wants people to break all the limitations the world and society places on them. She wants people to break through all that crap and be free for real. But if that's the case, why did Boogiepop called her Imaginator? Because Suiko doesn't believe in people. That's why she ends up manipulating them. She manipulates them to force them to break through. Problem is, if she manipulates them, she's robbing them of the freedom she wanted to give them. She's doing exactly the opposite of what she wanted to, see?

That's why Boogie called her the Imaginator.

BTW, at the end of the arc, when Suiko talks to Masaki, you can see she's starting believe in others for the first time.

Wow I didn’t realise that, thanks for the insight.
Just out of curiosity, did you read Heartless Red already? I am guessing that’s the arc that shows what kind of character is Minahoshi Suiko. I haven’t read it yet. I am actually a newbie to this series.

Mar 1, 2019 5:15 PM

Decarabia108

Offline

Apr 2015

Daniel_Naumov said:
To start with, I find some of the explanation quite contestable and not exactly persuading; even worse, it would not persuade someone to not "drop" the series. It is a praise, maybe, but not an actual argument of why people should be watching the series. Rather than that, you have deliberately robbed them of possibilities (PuN iNtEnDeD) of fathoming the VS Imaginator narrative through their own perception, trying to find the truth behind and about it. Commendable notion, but I would not give you a candy for what you have done. The bit about society is the most contestable, while also being true for at least the Japanese society, both of the time the series was concepted... and, alas, the modern Japan as well.
Secondly, both Masami AND Manticore were "finished off" by someone other than Boogiepop. Boogiepop has never delivered a direct finishing blow. Always was around the moment, though. So that bit on shifting the narrative of world threat towards quite a real psycho adolescent is... understandable, but can't be supported by the facts from the series itself.
And but of course I appreciate you taking time and trying to actually do something the forums were meant to. These are those bits why I still cling to communicating with others through internet forums not because I don't have friends outside....

The title is a clickbait tbh haha. I too don’t think what I write on a whim just because I couldn’t sleep can be persuasive, and I also don’t think this anime is good enough as a faithful adaptation. I got so immersed into this series after reading the first LN (to see what kind of story caused the second light novel boom in LN history) because the anime left me clueless (as always I feel so lucky for being able to enjoy LN in Japanese). So basically I am a total newbie to this series. However, my thought process is to try and get people who have came this far, and are on the verge of dropping it to give this series a chance (this series, not the anime). I also believe that people who visit this forum probably belong to this group, looking for something missing in the anime. So I became the reaper of possibilities. (Those who already dropped it are mostly not gonna return anyways.) I read a lot of super long analyses in Japanese, but not in English (not denying the possibility that it exists), so I decided to do one (which really is out of my character) even though it’s probably going to fall short compared to true enthusiasts.
Also I really appreciate your reply. It’s the biggest candy I have received even though you didn’t want to give me (tsundere?) Anyways I was really happy because I have no friends that someone took me seriously.
I think you read the LN, probably further than where I am, am I right?
Sorry if what I wrote make no sense. It happens quite often.

Mar 1, 2019 5:31 PM

Decarabia108

Offline

Apr 2015

Shit I forgot to mention that Boogiepop is physical damage type so he/she is basically ineffective against mental types like Imaginator and Distortion King, but I guess most people here would’ve figured out already.
Second thing I forgot to mention: most of the things would be clear after Distortion King arc (hope the anime don’t mess up). One of the reasons I hope people can decide whether this story is for them or not after watching the final arc.

See All Discussions

Poll: » Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019) Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Feb 22, 2019	84	by Noninho »» Nov 1, 4:19 AM
Poll: » Boogiepop wa Warawanai Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jan 25, 2019	92	by Noninho »» Oct 30, 5:02 AM
Poll: » Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019) Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jan 18, 2019	87	by Noninho »» Oct 30, 4:42 AM
Poll: » Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019) Episode 18 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Mar 29, 2019	105	by OneMoreFinal »» Jul 29, 7:44 PM
Poll: » Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019) Episode 17 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 22, 2019	46	by Rexnihilo »» Jul 27, 8:18 AM

Opinion: What is “VS Imaginator” and why you should not drop Boogiepop

More topics from this board

Poll: » Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019) Episode 9 Discussion ( 1 2 )

Poll: » Boogiepop wa Warawanai Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 )

Poll: » Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019) Episode 4 Discussion ( 1 2 )

Poll: » Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019) Episode 18 Discussion ( 1 2 3 )

Poll: » Boogiepop wa Warawanai (2019) Episode 17 Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters