GigaSheep
20-03-02, 11:30 AM
Hi folks...
I'd like to start a post for Boogiepop fans to discuss the plot of the show.
Let's start with this:
SHINPEI KURODA'S STORY
It seems to me that the body from which the column of light (Echoes) erupts is that of Shinpei Kuroda. Echoes was within him at the time, and escaped as light.
The real Kuroda was killed five years ago after he injected Nagi with the Towa Organization's drug. As Kuroda left Nagi's hospital room, he was killed by a Towa agent (as seen in episode 12).
Toka found his body, flipped out, developed a Boogiepoop personality, and took Kuroda's cloak (more discussion on this another time). Kuroda was then resurrected by Manaka from the future, since she can transcend time, when she 'makes' him (as she did poom-poom), to hold her hand just before her death in episode 11. As explained to Kuroda/Manticore by Boogiepop later in episode 12, "the girl that brought back the past created you/that girl's power brought you back to life at that moment".
We can assume that Kuroda had always been hyper-evolving, and indeed WAS ALWAYS ECHOES. This is because in episode 11 we see a flashback of Towa scientists explaining how they have crippled Kuroda's speech ability, while he is trapped on a crucifix-like stand. Notice that they NAME HIM ECHOES *at that point* ("your name will be echoes"). This, then, was not always his name; the Organization only punished Kuroda once he evolved to the 'dangerous' point of "higher intelligence".
Echoes/Kuroda later escapes to track down the Manticore (as told in ep5), and is encouraged by Boogiepop ('you are searching for something...' ep8) leading to the light explosion event. The light shoots up from a wounded Kuroda. We can assume that the cut on his head was madeby Nagi, given the short "Echoes-eye-view" of Nagi slashing with a knife that we are given in ep11.
This explains why Boogiepoop Phantom told Nagi "YOU took down the Manticore", since SHE freed the light that scattered Echoes and Manticore's consciousness. (Boogiepop, who was there strangling Minako, was scanned by the light which thus created her Phantom.)
After the explosion, Kuroda is an empty shell but nevertheless still alive. He crawls around bleeding, and almost dies again in the streets. As Boogiepop says in ep12, it "should have ended there", but Manaka finds Kuroda lying there (ep11) and keeps him going. She presumably returns his memories but, muddled by the trauma, Kuroda thinks he is Ichiro Kishida. This one of his alternate detective identities, as Boogiepop explains in episode 12.
So, after the light and his subsequent revival, Kuroda thinks he is the journalist, as in episode 8. During a key scene in the episode, the weakened Manticore jumps into Kuroda's nearby body before he leaves for Tokyo. Manaka calls back Kuroda/Echoes one last time in ep.11, where they hold hands and the combination of Echoes within them makes the huge light flood that clears the electromagnetic field.
And in the final episode, it is the residual Echoes in Kuroda that brings out the Manticore from within so Boogiepop can kill them both.
NB: Neither Kuroda nor Manaka necessarily had any speech (echo) problems until the Towa Organization punished Kuroda's end-stage evolution.
Does this sound right to everyone? opinions?
peace
GIGASHEEP
I'd like to start a post for Boogiepop fans to discuss the plot of the show.
Let's start with this:
SHINPEI KURODA'S STORY
It seems to me that the body from which the column of light (Echoes) erupts is that of Shinpei Kuroda. Echoes was within him at the time, and escaped as light.
The real Kuroda was killed five years ago after he injected Nagi with the Towa Organization's drug. As Kuroda left Nagi's hospital room, he was killed by a Towa agent (as seen in episode 12).
Toka found his body, flipped out, developed a Boogiepoop personality, and took Kuroda's cloak (more discussion on this another time). Kuroda was then resurrected by Manaka from the future, since she can transcend time, when she 'makes' him (as she did poom-poom), to hold her hand just before her death in episode 11. As explained to Kuroda/Manticore by Boogiepop later in episode 12, "the girl that brought back the past created you/that girl's power brought you back to life at that moment".
We can assume that Kuroda had always been hyper-evolving, and indeed WAS ALWAYS ECHOES. This is because in episode 11 we see a flashback of Towa scientists explaining how they have crippled Kuroda's speech ability, while he is trapped on a crucifix-like stand. Notice that they NAME HIM ECHOES *at that point* ("your name will be echoes"). This, then, was not always his name; the Organization only punished Kuroda once he evolved to the 'dangerous' point of "higher intelligence".
Echoes/Kuroda later escapes to track down the Manticore (as told in ep5), and is encouraged by Boogiepop ('you are searching for something...' ep8) leading to the light explosion event. The light shoots up from a wounded Kuroda. We can assume that the cut on his head was madeby Nagi, given the short "Echoes-eye-view" of Nagi slashing with a knife that we are given in ep11.
This explains why Boogiepoop Phantom told Nagi "YOU took down the Manticore", since SHE freed the light that scattered Echoes and Manticore's consciousness. (Boogiepop, who was there strangling Minako, was scanned by the light which thus created her Phantom.)
After the explosion, Kuroda is an empty shell but nevertheless still alive. He crawls around bleeding, and almost dies again in the streets. As Boogiepop says in ep12, it "should have ended there", but Manaka finds Kuroda lying there (ep11) and keeps him going. She presumably returns his memories but, muddled by the trauma, Kuroda thinks he is Ichiro Kishida. This one of his alternate detective identities, as Boogiepop explains in episode 12.
So, after the light and his subsequent revival, Kuroda thinks he is the journalist, as in episode 8. During a key scene in the episode, the weakened Manticore jumps into Kuroda's nearby body before he leaves for Tokyo. Manaka calls back Kuroda/Echoes one last time in ep.11, where they hold hands and the combination of Echoes within them makes the huge light flood that clears the electromagnetic field.
And in the final episode, it is the residual Echoes in Kuroda that brings out the Manticore from within so Boogiepop can kill them both.
NB: Neither Kuroda nor Manaka necessarily had any speech (echo) problems until the Towa Organization punished Kuroda's end-stage evolution.
Does this sound right to everyone? opinions?
peace
GIGASHEEP