Boogiepop and Others

Japanese light novel, manga, and anime series

Boogiepop and Others (ブギーポップは笑わない) is a Japanese light novel written by Kouhei Kadono and illustrated by Kouji Ogata. The first in the Boogiepop series, it was released in 1998 by MediaWorks and won the fourth Dengeki Game Novel Contest. A manga adaptation by Kouji Ogata began serialization in 1999. It is licensed in English by Seven Seas Entertainment under the title Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh. The story takes place in an unnamed Japanese city, and follows five students at Shinyo Academy as they try to piece together the puzzle of a new drug and recent disappearances among the student populace. While the teachers believe them to only be runaways, the female students whisper among themselves about the urban legend Boogiepop, who is said to be a shinigami.

When waiting for his girlfriend, Touka Miyashita, to arrive, Keiji Takeda sees a ragged looking man stumbling through the town. A short man in a black cloak speaks with the other man after he collapses, then berates the crowd for not helping. When the police arrive, the two escape, but what shocked Takeda most of all was that the cloaked man has the face of his girlfriend. The following day, Miyashita acts as if nothing had happened the previous day. Takeda sought to speak with her after school, but instead spots the cloaked man. Confronting him, the stranger introduces himself as Boogiepop. Boogiepop claims to be a split personality, who has emerged to protect the world. Boogiepop explains to Takeda that Miyashita is unaware of his existence, and would modify her memories to explain the blank periods. Boogiepop has appeared this time to face a man eater hiding in the school. Through their discussions, the two come to accept each other, and become friends. In the end, Boogiepop appears to Takeda in Miyashita's school uniform, and explains that the crisis was over, so he would disappear. To the end, Takeda is sure that Boogiepop is merely Miyashita's repressed possibilities, rather than a monster fighting hero. Kazuko Suema has an unusual interest: criminal psychology. Despite this interest, she had little interest in the rumors the other girls talk about in class, about a shinigami named Boogiepop. While walking home with her friend, Kyoko Kinoshita, Kinoshita is attacked by Nagi Kirima, The Fire Witch. Kirima interrogates her about something, but stops when she realizes that she had only caught a 'normal' person; a drug user. Suema confronts Kirima about this, but was told to let go of the events of five years ago – but Suema had never told anyone about that! Unable to let things happen without her being aware of them again, Suema searches for Kirima's house, and confronts her. However, Kirima reveals little about what she is doing, and only tells her that Boogiepop had saved her five years ago. Masami Saotome joins a group date with Akiko Kusatsu. Late in the night, he drops a tablet into her drink; when she falls ill, he tells the others that he will get her home. Taking her to an abandoned building, he signals for Manticore to come; she turns the corpse into her loyal slave. Two months prior, Saotome had found the corpse of Yurihara at school, before himself being attacked by Manticore. Rather than panic or fight back, he told Manticore it would be better off leaving him alive and taking the form of Yurihara. In time, the two were deeply in love with each other, as they hatched their plan to conquer the world. As their experiments in controlling people begin to fail, and Nagi Kirima seems to be investigating too close, the relationship between Saotome and Manticore strains, until Naoko Kamikishiro came upon them, calling for Echoes. Manticore kills Kamikishiro, but for Saotome, this was the missing link: he has a plan to solve their problems. Akio Kimura receives a letter telling him that Naoko Kamikishiro was dead. Two years ago, when they were in High School, he met Kamikishiro when she was confessing her love to Shirou Tanaka. Returning to his hometown to investigate the origin of this letter, Kimura runs into Touka Miyashita. Miyashita tells him that he should get over the disappearance of Kamikishiro, but Kimura tells her that an alien had taken Kamikishiro into space with him. Kamikishiro had told Kimura that she had met an alien named Echoes, who had been sent to evaluate humanity, but he had been cloned. His clone was now somewhere in their town, and he was looking to kill it before it killed the humans. As Kimura and Miyashita go their separate ways, Miyashita – but at the same time not Miyashita – tells him that Kamikishiro had "done her duty". Shirou Tanaka approaches Kei Niitoki about the disappearance of Naoko Kamikishiro. Masami Saotome suggests they ask Nagi Kirima, a friend of Kamikishiro. Unable to find her around the school, Saotome suggests summoning her over the school's PA. Recognising a trap, Kirima cut the lights to the PA room, and knocked out the three students with a stun gun. When they came to, they were presented to Echoes, who indicated that they were normal humans. After they were released by Echoes, Saotome stabbed him in the throat with a poison filled mechanical pencil before Manticore attacked. Saotome then slashed Kirima's throat, killing her. By the time Niitoki comprehended the situation, Echoes was being defeated by Manticore. However, he points to the sky, and transforms into light. Echoes directs the beam of light towards Manticore, but Saotome intervenes; he just barely saves her, but was killed instead. Hoping to take this chance to escape, Niitoki runs, but Manticore pursues. Hearing someone whistling Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, she heads towards the sound. Niitoki trips, but Manticore becomes trapped in a wire. Niitoki's savior has the face of Touka Miyashita, but claims to be Boogiepop. While Manticore is trapped, Boogiepop calls for Tanaka to shoot it with an arrow; an arrow to the head finishes the creature. Finally, Kirima rises from the dead, apparently resurrected by Echoes as he left.

Boogiepop and Others was adapted into a live action film with the same name, which was released in Japan March 11, 2000. The film was directed by Ryu Kaneda, and starred Sayaka Yoshino as Miyashita/Boogiepop. MediaWorks, Hakuhodo and Toei Video were also involved in the production of the film. The director, Kaneda, said he did not wish to simply depict modern children as they were. "Here, the characters that appear on screen embrace all of their loneliness, and that's something that doesn't change in any era." He continues, "I thought perhaps I should turn it into the message that, no matter what, we must express our 'sense of isolation from deep inside that won't let us smile.'" He encouraged the actors to adapt their characters, and allowed ad libbing. Asumi Miwa's role as Naoko Kamikishiro was considered the most demanding of all. Her scenes were shot in quick succession, so she finished before the rest of the cast. Miwa considered the scene where she meets Echoes for the first time to be the most demanding of all. Sayaka Yoshino gave up her summer break to appear in the film, and had to perform in Boogiepop's "sauna suit" in days reaching 35 °C (95 °F). With the actors performing entire days in full sun, cool packs had to be brought in to keep them going. Each of the original songs composed represented a theme from the movie, such as the song "Forget me not" thematically representing Naoko Kamikishiro and Kimura Akio. A Boogiepop version of the classical overture to Wagner's "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg" was included on the album as an additional bonus track, arranged by Yoshihisa Hirano and conducted by Orie Suzuki. The soundtrack was originally released in Japan by Media Factory on 25 March 2000. It was published in North America by AnimeTrax and released by Right Stuf International as a single disc CD on 30 April 2002.

Issues relating to growing up and change are central to the Boogiepop series. The narrative style demonstrates how different people observe different truths.

The Boogiepop and Others novel won the fourth Dengeki Game Novel Contest in 1997. The novels English release has received favorable reviews, though these have mostly focused on the translation, which has been cited as "a standard against which future Japanese novel translations are judged". It has also received praise for ripping "the rules of narrative wide open", especially for how it allows the characters to grow on the reader. The English release of the live action film met mixed reception. Whilst the characters and plot were well received, the special effects and costumes have been described as "campy", but "par for the course of something of this level and budget". It has been primarily recommended to fans of Boogiepop Phantom, so as to gain "a complete understanding of the Boogiepop events". The Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh manga received generally favorable reviews, particularly for capturing some of the more complicated scenes better than the original light novel. This makes the plot easier to follow, and captures the urgency of the climactic battle. However, it has been noted that breaking the complicated plot of Boogiepop and Others into a multi volume manga results in individually weak volumes. As with Boogiepop Phantom, the character designs have been noted as "lookalike and nondescript", which can make some of the events difficult to follow. The art has also been described as "washed out and dull".