All’s well that ends well. Wait, it’s not over yet?…
What They Say:
Episode #9: “VS Imaginator”
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
This episode foregoes the opening and ending credits, in favor of a longer runtime and an insert song for the end of the episode. This episode definitely has an air of finality to it before we jump into a new story arc.
This episode picks up immediately where the last left off, with Misaki racing across the city to find Aya. He knows that there’s someone else on the phone line and knows that Aya is in trouble somehow. He’s kicking himself for just going with the flow and not looking into the things going on with Aya.
Meanwhile, Suema is visiting a now hospitalized Kotoe, who is having trouble remembering exactly what happened to her. She’s still hung up on her cousin and tells Suema where she used to escape to and the last location she remembers before the madness with Spooky E. Suema she tries to track down Jin to confront him and set things right.
That places Suema and Misaki on a collision course, and Jin knows that Misaki isn’t likely to give up on Aya so easily. This is where things get silly as he has a small army of brainwashed heart-rose transplants at his disposal, and all are dressed in mascot costumes or clowns for some stupid reason. I swear it’s just to have a scary clown moment, but we get a bit more hand-to-hand combat from Misaki before he’s taken down and almost out.
That’s when the title character finally shows up to save the day with piano wire.
Boogiepop, enigmatic as always, declares that nobody is really their enemy. Not the Towa organization, at least, although they would likely not see it that way. Jin finally loses his cool, collected, and dead inside demeanor and attempts to attack Boogiepop and carry out his plan.
It doesn’t work.
Boogiepop reveals that Jin’s final solution to fixing humanity won’t work because hearts change and grow, which means that his careful pruning is only temporary. Just as Spooky E’s electro-hypnosis was able to be overwritten, the hearts of those he touched are ultimately going to go to seed. There’s a bunch of philosophizing and pontificating from Boogiepop as they casually break down everyone’s plans with a flick of the wrist and some choice words.
In fact, Boogiepop admits that they weren’t even planning on getting involved but everyone forced their hand as stuff began to get messier. Would Jin have killed Aya? Would he have killed himself? Why did the Imaginator, after all of this, acquiesce to Boogiepop in the end? We may never know. For now, Suema is left wondering if the truth is still out there, Miskai and Aya are together, and Touka is still none the wiser.
In Summary:
This arc ends with almost as much mystery as when it started. While the conclusion of this arc ties it off neatly, it doesn’t do a particularly good job explaining exactly what the Imaginator was or is, leaving the past history with Boogiepop to be covered another time. The immediate conflict has drawn to a close with no major losses and one solid victory for the good guys. Although, if Boogiepop is any indication, good versus evil seems entirely subjective. Was this whole conflict for naught? It appears to have ended in a stalemate, although Towa lost one of their key operatives and experiments in the process. Humanity is safe once again, but for how long?
Episode Grade: B –
Streamed by: Crunchyroll
