Alternative TitlesSynonyms: Bokura no Japanese: ぼくらの
Information
Type: TV
Episodes: 24
Status: Finished Airing
Aired: Apr 9, 2007 to Sep 17, 2007
Duration:
23 min. per episode Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
L represents licensing company
StatisticsScore: 7.811 (scored by 3031 users)
Ranked: #4682
Popularity: #420
Members: 7,606
Favorites: 108 1 indicates a weighted score
My Info
Popular Tags
drama horror mecha sci-fi |
SynopsisDuring a summer camp, 15 children, 8 males and 7 females, find a grotto by the sea. Deep within they discover working computers and some electronic equipment, and later the owner, a man called Kokopelli. Kokopelli claimed to be a programmer working on a brand new game, in which a large robot has to defend the Earth against fifteen alien invasions. He persuades the children to test the game and sign a contract. All but one of them signs, barely a moment later they mysteriously awaken on the shore believing what happened was just a dream. (Source: ANN) |
Related AnimeAdaptation: Bokurano
Characters & Voice Actors
Staff
Reviews
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otaku228
22 of 30 people found this review helpful
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24 of 24 episodes seen
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
9 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Character |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
Bokurano was one of those shows that you can't really like unless you really look at the deeper meaning. If you're looking for a series that you can watch without thinking about, then you might as well stop reading right now.
STORY:
Bokurano's story is very unique and interesting. You may think of it as just mindless killing, but similar to Gantz, it is a psychological anime that shows what happens when normal people are put into hopeless situations and are forced to put their lives on the line.
ART:
The art was not as good as it could have been, but I had no problems with it. It was a bit annoying having to switch from 2d to 3d a few times in every episode, but it wasn't something intolerable.
SOUND:
I thought the sound was pretty good, and was able to partially cover up for the slightly disappointing art. There was nothing wrong with the sound in Bokurano, but I wasn't blown away by it in the least.
CHARACTER:
This is where Bokurano really stands out. There were 15 main characters in the series, and depending on how you look at it, there could even be a few more. At first, I was a bit skeptical, seeing as though there are only 24 episodes in the show. But amazingly, I learned about the back story of every single character and realized that each one was very much different from the others. And even though there was so much character development, it did not take away from the story.
ENJOYMENT:
I really enjoyed seeing how each character reacted. There may not be enough action for some people in Bokurano, but there was plenty of drama to keep you interested throughout each episode.
OVERALL:
With all that said, I'll give this series an 83/100, a solid score. read more
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Venneh
46 of 63 people found this review helpful
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24 of 24 episodes seen
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| Overall |
8 |
| Story |
9 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Character |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
Title: Bokurano
Manga, Light Novel, Anime: Bokurano was originally a manga done by Mohiro Kitoh. It began running in Shogakukan's Ikki magazine in 2004, and is still running at present, at a total of eight collected volumes. It has yet to be licensed Stateside.
A light novel entitled Bokurano ~alternative~ written by Renji Ohki and with character designs done by Mohiro Kitoh began running in May of 2007, and is still running at this point in time, with three volumes released this far. It also has yet to be licensed Stateside.
The anime series clocked in at a total of 24 episodes, and was done by Studio Gonzo (famous for Gankutsou: The Count of Monte Cristo and Saikano) and directed by Hiroyuki Morita (famous for his work on The Cat Returns). It ran from April 8th to September 25th, 2007 on Japanese TV, and has been licensed Stateside by Funimation, though they have yet to say when they're actually going to release it. EDIT: As of this time, Funimation has only ordered cease and desists to fansubbers on behalf of Gonzo, but a NA liscensor has yet to be announced for this series.
Story: So, there are these fifteen kids, all in middle school except for one girl in fourth grade, and they're at this summer camp. They end up finding a grotto with a random guy in it, and he enlists them in a "game" involving robots. What he fails to mention is that the game is real, and that they actually do have to pilot a robot. There are fifteen robot enemies, one for each kid. They have to beat them, or the Earth goes bye-bye. The robot they pilot runs on their life forces, though, so even if they win, they die, too.
The story focuses on the backgrounds of each of the kids as they're called up to pilot initially, but there are subplots involving the government and the overall game added in after the halfway point, along with some AMAZING plot twists.
The story isn't quite as good as Gankutsuou was, but this is up there with Gonzo's better works. Yeah, the story's just a bit depressing, but there are little rays of brightness that peak in every once in a while, and it's enough to keep you going through. Each kid gets development enough that you care as they go to face their deaths, and you'll at least be able to remember either their first or their last name, as do other people who become involved in their situation.
It's a good story and all, but it didn't quite have the impact on me that I thought it would. I mean, just looking at the show's description, I thought it would be Saikano-esque levels of depression, but it never quite reaches those.
The show's also very self-aware at times, and pokes fun at the mecha genre (the kids naming the robot, shouting out their attacks, getting "uniforms" to wear as they ride in it, etc).
If you're going into this as a mecha fan, though, be aware that the robot fights aren't central to the story; there's at least one every episode, but the story's more centered around the children than it is around the robot.
Also, let's cover a big controversy that came up while this was being released, and contains slight spoilers, so read ahead at your own risk. The creator of the manga, Mohiro Kitoh, made a blog entry while the show was being released that claimed that the author hated the source material (he did dislike it, admittedly, which begs the question of why he was even chosen to do this), and has asked if there was a way that he could save the children. Kitoh supposedly gave the go ahead, but asked for fans of the manga to stop watching the anime, because it wouldn't be anything like the manga. Well, I went and compared what I could find for information about how the manga unfolded and how the anime turned out, and the only real difference that I could find was in how some characters were handled and the order in which they were called to be pilots. Again, yes, different from the original, but the children were not freed from the contract and the fifteen who are contracted do end up dying, and the changes that did happen were nothing that would call for Kitoh to ask fans to boycott the series. I think this is a case of overreaction from the original author. It's all the more ironic and hypocritical since he's involved in a complete retooling of the story (the Bokurano ~alternative~ light novel).
Art: The style that Gonzo chose to use for this is a bit simpler than I've seen with other productions that they've done. It just doesn't look very good, honestly -- I've seen other series that have done simple well, like Kino no Tabi, but it just doesn't work as the series goes on.
3D is obviously used for the mechas, and it looks pretty good. Yeah, it stands out quite a bit, but then again, it's highly doubtful that one could do a robot entirely in 2D, and the thing's SUPPOSED to stand out.
Music: The background music for this series is, like Toward the Terra and Elfen Lied, one of the few scores I've actively listened to and noticed since Gankutsuou. Excellent recurring themes.
The OP, "Uninstall", is done by Chiaki Ishikawa, and is an absolutely beautiful piece that fits the series perfectly. Both of the EDs are also done by her, and are more of the typical female JPop ballads, but I like the second one ("Vermillion"), more than the first one ("Little Bird").
Seiyuu: Kenji Nojima, who replaced Takemoto's seiyuu in the last episode of Honey and Clover, plays one of the children, Tomokazu Sugita (Soldier Blue in Toward the Terra and Mayama in Honey and Clover) also appears as one of the children, and another child's seiyuu also appeared in Paranoia Agent as Shounen Bat. The rest of the cast gives excellent performances, as always.
Length: This feels about right, though there were some character's arcs who took more than one episode and probably could've been shortened a bit. Any longer and it just wouldn't have worked.
Overall: A good, solid mecha story centered around the children who pilot it, with decent art and length, beautiful music, and pretty good seiyuu.
Story: 9/10
Art: 8/10
Music: 9/10
Length: 8/10
Seiyuu: 9/10
Overall: 43/50; 86% (B ) read more
Recommendations
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Both contain a plot driven by death among the main characters.
Both series are about people being forced into hopeless battle, against unknown beings. Plus each have a bad-mouth mascot character: Gantz has the Gantz ball & Bokurano has Dung Beetle. ^_^
Both Bokurano and Gantz are about a dreadful game that entraps its players and submits them to inhuman torment. Gantz is considerably more violent in terms of credible gore while Bokurano is more pervasive insofar as the violence is mostly psychological yet in both there is an overwhelming feeling of unfairness and unavoidable doom. The mystery that surrounds the nature of the game is similar in both series, Bokurano eventually provides an explanation that ties up with larger than life consequences while Gantz remains enigmatic through and through.
Both Bokurano and Gantz have similar concepts: There is a horrible "game" in which one must kill to survive. However, although Gantz approaches this concept in a dark fashion, Bokurano makes it darker. Whereas in Gantz one can survive the game, in Bokurano you have no choice but to die once you've signed up for it. Both animes are thought-provoking and deep, with great character development.
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Both have Mecha's, children's problems are very similar, run a similar issue, they seem to be complement
Eva and Bokurano deconstruct the mecha genre by adding layers of extremely dark psychological content. Both are highly visceral, the action being centered around children who are forced into a conflict of literally cosmic proportions. In these series the nature of the enemy is ambiguous to the extreme, which makes the whole experience all the more poignant. Eva's latter episodes focus heavily on existential topics, which are replaced in Bokurano with a more psychological approach. The limitless situations the casts are subjected to and the depth of characterization makes these anime masterpieces, with an appeal that goes beyond the giant robot niche.
I think is obiviously..In both some kids must save the world, with an giant robot..But many problems apear in their way.
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Opening Theme"Uninstall (アンインストール)" by Chiaki Ishikawa
Ending Theme#1: "Little Bird" by Chiaki Ishikawa
#2: "Vermillion" by Chiaki Ishikawa
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Fansubbing Groups
Which fansubbers do you like the best? Click + to approve of their subs for this show. Click - if you don't think they did such a great job.
HakkeSHU [HakkeSHU] (Brazilian Portuguese)
SubTnT [SubTnT] (Brazilian Portuguese)
Related ClubsYusuke Kirie Fan club., Mindfuck-Anime-Club, MAL Ultimo Psychobats, Horror Anime Fanclub, Bokurano, seinen & josei, Psychological Love, Existentialism, The Mamiko Noto Club, Cogito Ergo Sum - Philosophy In Anime and Manga, Mole=Moe, Mohiro Kitoh, Haruka Tomatsu Fanclub, Watch Anime Together Club Headquarters, Studio Gonzo, ~+{Yui Makino Fanclub}+~, Tomokazu Sugita Fanclub, Mecha Fans Club!, Mecha Kingdom メカ王国, Noto Mamiko FanclubBokurano FC, Dark Anime Club see all
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