Sunday, June 08, 2003

Boogiepop Phantom 3

Boogiepop Phantom 3

Life can be so nice (spoilers ahead)

Scene 001 - Shinyo Academy - Apparently a serial killer stalks the city (Hisashi's mother was murdered by the killer) and a junior high school girl has also been found dead. Nagi is being pressed for answers by a classmate (who has read a book by Nagi's father) about whether or not she was involved in the events of 5 years ago, or even the dissapearances of a month ago.

Scene 002 - Hijiridani High School - Classmates are discussion the dissapearences, Death and Boogiepop. We meet Panaru, who doesn't know if Boogiepop exists or not. Panaru's real name is Arifuji Misuzu and she's a Senior at Hijiridani High School (Class 5). Yoko (the girl that Jounichi Hisashi caught cheating) walks home with Panaru and wonders where Hsashi has gotten to. After Yoko wanders off, Misuzu sees (a vision of the real?) Panaru. Panaru is someone that loves and accepts the entire world as is. Misuzu and Panaru wander off through the town...

Side scene, we see a disturbed lad being restrained by the police. As Misuzu and Panaru wander by, he calls out the name "Rie" and reaches towards them. (We'll see him again in a future episode.)

As Misuzu sees the guy that she has a crush on with another girl, Panaru fades away (she was just a vision) and Misuzu claims that she's never gotten angry or upset because she accepts the world as it is. Anything can happen in this world, and everything does happen in this world. Suddenly, a voice calls out "Liar!" and Misuzu turns around to see a vision of Panaru with blood covering her face.

Misuzu goes to a record store and buys (2) CDs and has the clerk gift-wrap one. As she's riding on the train, we see the white light appear up on a power transmission tower and it then darts down and begins to chase the electric train. When it catches up, the train suddenly comes to a stop, but Misuzu doesn't seem to notice (she's listening to her music player). As the conductor looks around outside for the cause of the problem he sees blood up where the power lines connect with the train. A voice speaks to only Misuzu and asks, "who summoned me?", it then takes up residence in Misuzu's CD player and begins to speak to Misuzu through her ear phones. It wonders why Misuzu was able to summon it, then it sees something in her mind/memories and understands.

Scene 003 - Kitaguchi Park Same timeline, Misuzu has gotten to the park we learn that the 2nd CD that she purchased is a gift for the deceased Panaru. Misuzu lays the CD at the base of a tree and the man-eater (in the form of Saotome) shows up to talk about Panaru's world love and asks if Misuzu wants to spread Panaru's love to the entire world.

Next up, Yoko is complaining to Misuzu that ever since Hasishi dissapeared, the pain in her heart has beeng getting worse. So, Misuzu summons forth the man-eater (again, in the shae of Saotome) to help Yoko to be more accepting of everything. However, Yoko dies as a result of the feeding before she could experience the happiness, or so Misuzu believes.

Nagi finds Misuzu at the Kitaguchi Park playground (Nagi calls it creepy, Misuzu calls it special). Misuzu leaves, and Nagi notices that her compass is going nutzo, plus she starts to see blood spattered on the playground equipment. The man-eater sees Nagi as a threat, and convices Misuzu to lure Nagi to a place of his choosing so they can "teach her world love".

As they wait for Nagi to show, Misuzu finally starts to realize that maybe things are not what they seem to be. Boogiepop appears and things come to a head as Misuzu argues that her and Saotome are not the enemies of the world and that she rightfully took over Panaru's world love. A vision of Panaru again appears and calls her a liar.

Scene 004 - Junior High School Flashback. We see Panaru exhorting Misuzu not to cry over things like that as Panaru introduces Misuzu to the words of Panaru. But, the very next day, when Misuzu goes to meet up with Panaru at Kitaguchi Park, she finds that Panaru has been slain by the serial killer.

Back to the present, Boogiepop continues to admonish Misuzu, explaining that Misuzu's version of world love is not Panaru's, but merely an attempt to hide from the world. Misuzu begs Boogiepop to take her to the other side like HIsashi, but Boogiepop refuses saying that Misuzu is not worth taking and then vanishes. Misuzu now stumbles through the street, looking for someone to take her from the world.

And, who does she stumble across but a nice officer - who turns out to be not so nice (same officer that was watching Hasishi). Nagi seems to show up about 30 seconds too late (the officer has bundled Misuzu's body into the back of his patrol car and is driving off) and smashes the CD player that Misuzu dropped, releasing the man-eater back into the electrical network.

Labels: Anime

posted by Wuphon's at 11:46 PM