Do not read this review until you have completely finished Bokurano, or have at least seen the first 5 episodes. I will be spoiling an extremely major plot point that is explained during these episodes, and it is near impossible to discuss this show without mentioning these points. I will try to be as vague as possible, but you have been warned.
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Story:
If you go into this anime expecting an epic mech series, you're looking at the wrong show. Yes, Bokurano has some pretty epic mech battles, but that isn't the real meat of the show. What you get is a myriad of short stories, if you will, about 15 children, their backstories, and the time they have left before their inevitable demise.
The thing that Bokurano does that is very much unique is that there is no main character. I haven't seen all too many anime so far, but I can safely say there are probably very few if any at all that have done this. The thing I find so refreshing about this fact is how many possibilities open up for the story. Excluding many romance and slice of life animes, you follow a main protagonist. Most of the time he/she either lives and saves the world, dies and saves the world, or dies/ lives and fails miserably. With Bokurano, its much more difficult to figure out how the story will unfold because of this fact, and it's one of the major pros of this series.
Keeping positive for a while, we have the stories of the individual characters. Each character has a backstory, most of the time with some kind of negative aspect attached to them. The stories all tackle what a lot of kids their age may sometimes have to deal with, ranging from teenage pregnancy, abuse, neglegence, and the list goes on. This anime touches on them in such a way that doesn't feel forced or offensive. The story never changes from its deep and dark tone, and is very serious when dealing with these kinds of subjects, which is something to always keep in mind.
Of course, the story is not perfect. The actual "overarching" story is lackluster to say the least. There are some things the writers never bothered to explain ( I won't go into any detail because spoilers). And when you're trying to deal with a "theres multiple universes" plot point, it's very hard not to fall into plotholes large enough to sink the Earth into. There aren't too many of these plotholes, and they can be easily brushed away after due time, but they are there,and do hurt the show. I also didn't really care much for anything happening that didn't have anything to do with the pilots of Zearth; The whole government debacle just didn't grab me, and did nothing to really have a stance on whether what the government was doing right or wrong.
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Characters:
The characters are what make this show so unique. Each pilot has their own way of dealing with their fate, and what they decide to do with the little time they have left, which is, at least in my opinion, the best part of the entire show. There is no way in hell I would go explaining each character individually because there are so many.
Each character, personality wise, have very realistic personalities, almost as if I could meet someone who was exactly like that character. Yes, many of the backstories are sad, but none of them feel to the point that they are borderline psychopathic. One comparison I will make is to that of Mirai Nikki (Future Diary). Mirai Nikki has characters with backstories that are so unrealistic that you could actually say with absolute certainty that they were even human. All they tried to do is randomly throw seemingly sad shit in you're face expecting you to succumb to the absurdity of their backstories. The backstories in Bokurano are backstories that many middle school students could actually have in real life, and that genuine feeling of reality is truly powerful.
Each character gets one or two episodes to focus on their life. I find it amazing how the writers managed to use their time so well to develop each character enough in such a small timespace. However, because of the small size of each character arc, you are unable to really grow to like that character and relate to that character, as they are never to be seen again after their arc. One more criticism I have are with the first three pilots of Zearth. They really did feel like no care of effort were put into their backstories, and were just put there just to fill in time. I mean, you have a guy who's "compelling and heartbreaking story" is that he used to play soccer but doesn't is kind of strange to say the least.
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Sound:
Other than the Opening and first Ending, their isn't really anything that great soundwise in Bokurano. The soundtrack never intensified any of the dramatic or action-packed mech scenes this anime had to offer. To be fair, it never dragged those scenes down, but it does leave you with a wish that it could've been so much better. I'm nitpicking at this point, but I felt the sound effects were a little bit janky and strange. A really minor point, but something I felt needed to be said.
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Animation:
Ah, Gonzo. It's been a while my dear old pal o' mine.
If anyone has watched more than one Gonzo show, you know what I am gonna say. For whatever reason, Gonzo has this habit of not keeping a steady quality of animation. You can point out scenes in many a Gonzo show where the animation looks like it came straight out of a 5 year old colouring book. On the other hand, you have scenes that look like they could be from the future because they look so damn amazing. Thankfully, Bokurano doesn't have godawful animation, but it does have patches, mainly during the in-between scenes, that are fairly poor. However, the CGI used during the mech scenes were executed with brilliance. Many anime seem to fail when using CGI, but this does well in implementing it to good use.
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For something I probably would never had batted an eye at, I am glad to have experienced Bokurano. In a way, Bokurano reminds me very much so of a Gen Urobuchi work, as it will readily make you sad and depressed to get it's point across. It knows how to tell aspects that some people have to deal with in their everyday lives with finesse. Although flawed in many ways, Bokurano is truly a gem in the rough, and should be regarded highly. It might be a bit too tear-jerky for some, so be warned, it's not a Nichijou.
