English Dub Review: Boogiepop and Friends “Boogiepop At Dawn”

You decide what makes you a person.

Our Take:

The entire Dawn arc has been released at once, and it’s quite enlightening.

The focus this time isn’t on Boogiepop, but rather on Nagi herself. Boogiepop is still around, but this time they are the narrator, putting this entirely as a frame story. In a completely different but ruined world, they have reunited with Echoes, who has since regained the ability to think and speak for himself. Since Echoes is curious about what Boogiepop’s drive is, Boogiepop responds by telling him the story of how Nagi came to be.

Nagi’s father, who we know is dead, is revealed to have been assassinated by the Towa Organization because he came too close to finding the truth. Towa, as is revealed, is a company that’s researching evolution, and specifically wants to direct which path human evolution ends up taking. In order to do this, they have created and proliferated artificial humans, that then interact with and impact humanity. In order to make sure said humans don’t get out of hand, they are under constant observation and are killed off if they get out of hand. The same goes for any human who starts to venture into and come close to the truth, such as Nagi’s father. Seeing her father murdered gave Nagi the desire to look into things herself, and most importantly, prevent tragedy from ever happening again by being proactive.

As it turns out, Nagi is an artificial human herself, and when she was young, her growing pains were a sure sign of her own personal evolution. An investigator from Towa, Scarecrow, tasked with watching her, ended up befriending her and stealing medicine for her to get better. Unfortunately, this marked him as a traitor to the organization, and got him killed. While he is dedicated to his job, what does his in is forming a connection to one of his victims unknowingly, and being moved by her plight. He always found himself to be just a tool, but in doing something on his own, including turning against Towa, he gave himself meaning in the end. His death made ripples: on his assassin, Sasaki, on his friend and fellow overseer, Pigeon, and on Nagi herself. Although he claims to have not made much of a difference, his actions say otherwise. From his death unfolds a great pattern, that spins out of control.

One of the doctors overseeing Nagi, Dr. Kisugi, recovers the cure used to help Nagi and becomes obsessed with it- ultimately using it on herself and transforming herself into a monster. She studies psychology because she wants to rationalize her own fear, and in becoming a monster, becomes something that feeds on the fearless. Thing is, even when a monster that can’t die, this hasn’t cured her root problem: she’s still a coward. She still fears, it’s merely that she tricked herself into thinking that she doesn’t. Becoming a predator, a murderer, doesn’t do anything but act as a mental trick. It’s ultimately her own arrogance that leads to her downfall, in being unable to predict that someone like Nagi wouldn’t fight back, wouldn’t have something up her sleeve.

Pigeon and Sasaki are at odds, for although Pigeon works for Towa, she cares deeply for the deceased Scarecrow, enough to turn tail herself. Her going rogue and acting on her vengeance is her way of being human- that she cares so deeply for someone to forsake her own life and safety. The same goes for Sasaki, who believes he is a cold-hearted killer, but is still genuinely has other emotions that he suppresses. He’s nervous, he’s curious, he doesn’t know how to deal with people, he’s more than just an assassin. There is a bug inside everyone, and that bug can only come into place by connecting with and believing in other people- something that isn’t wholly good or wholly bad.

In the end, that’s what makes the artificial people truly human in the end. They are artificial when they act mindlessly under Towa, because they have no desires of their own. It’s only once they make the choices to act for themselves, for their own desires, that they become human. They don’t even have to survive; dying as a person makes you still human as well. Ultimately, it’s a tale of self-determination, and how Nagi reminded people that they do have that choice to make.