In early March of 2018, Madhouse announced a new anime project by the team behind One Punch Man. Having been impressed by the team's previous work, I was naturally curious as to what their next project would be. It turned out to be an anime based on the Kouhei Kadono's Boogiepop series.
Now, I'd heard of Boogiepop before. A few whispers of it being a sort of progenitor to much of the light novel craze, so I knew the series somewhat by reputation, but nothing more. I'd never had a reason to peak my head in before. However, upon watching Madhouse's announcement PV for their project, I immediately sought out the novels. Based on the little I'd seen, this was one that I couldn't wait for.
So, I picked up a copy of Seven Seas' translation of Boogiepop Doesn't Laugh: Boogiepop and Others. Needless to say, it blew me away. I ended up reading the few other existing translations soon afterword. And, eventually, I also watched the other anime project, Boogiepop Phantom.
And then it stopped.
I had no more to read. Seven Seas never continued pushing out translations after their 4th translation, Boogiepop at Dawn. I knew there were more books, over 20 of them, in fact, but, as an American, I had no real way of reading them. And, in a twist of fate, I could not find any fan effort to translate these.
But then I thought, wait, I'm currently in the process of learning Japanese, I could at least try, right?
And so I did, I got a Japanese amazon account, bought the 4th novel, Boogiepop in the Mirror - Pandora - and started translating it. It was a stumbling, small little privet project at first, but over time I started to realize that my translations were getting... acceptable.
Now here I am, making a site for Boogiepop translations. I can’t promise perfect, professional level translations; however, I am trying to keep them as high-quality as I can. Thankfully, unlike when I started, I’m not alone. I have a couple of other people that’d rather remain nameless helping me out with translation and presenting the novels in a readable state. I think we’ve done a good job so far, and I plan on continuing for as long as Seven Seas continues to not release new volumes.Yes, Seven Seas has since released a translation for the 4th and 5th novels in the series, but they show no signs of continuing after more than a year. So, I continue on with a small team of people to deliver these books to the people who want to read them, because these novels deserve to be read by more people.
If you would like frequent updates on these translations, you can either follow me on twitter, or join the /r/Boogiepop discord. Well, it’s really just a Reddit discord on paper. It’s pretty much just a general Boogiepop discord. Links to both are provided below.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy, because this is going to be one wild ride.
BGM - "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Overture"
by Richard Wagner