Want to know why Bokurano is so great? Continue reading to find out.
-Story & Characters-
The plot of Bokurano revolves around a group of 15 middle schoolers hanging out at a beach together. One of the children notices a hidden cavern and suggests that they go in. Bored with nothing else to do, the rest of the children enter the cavern, but find a bunch of computers and machinery inside, and they meet an old man named Kokopelli, who tells them that he is designing a game, and he asks them to be the testers of it. The goal of the game is to ride a giant mech, destroy other mechs, and save the world. Thinking that this sounds like a cool idea, the children enter a “contract.” To the children’s surprise, they learn that this “game” is actually very real after witnessing a giant mech appear out of nowhere, later named “Zearth.” The children then board Zearth as they see yet another mech appear out of nowhere. Kokopelli is piloting Zearth and tells the children the rules of the game: Each of the 15 participants take turns piloting Zearth as each new enemy mech appears. However, things are never that simple in an anime: They later meet a mysterious floating creature called “Dung Beetle”, who acts as their guide throughout each battle, and they soon learn that Zearth operates by sucking up the life out of each pilot, resulting in their immediate death after each victory.
When one of the children is dubbed the next pilot, we are shown a brief arc, learning about their backstories. I really enjoyed these, as they were incredibly well-written. While this setup may sound formulaic (New pilot, backstory, battle, rinse and repeat), the show starts to throw in many unexpected plot twists and shockers, breaking the predictability of it all. Seriously, Bokurano has more plot twists than there are stars in the sky. What is Zearth? Who is Kokopelli? What is Dung Beetle? You’ll get your answers, and be stunned learning them. Bokurano’s story is excellent and interesting from start to finish, and once you get into it, you won’t be able to stop.
Unfortunately, I can’t lavish the characters with the same praise. The main problem with the cast is that there are WAY too many of them. As previously stated, there are 15 children, and that’s only the main cast. We have tons of supporting characters, such as the relatives of the children, as well as Dung Beetle. None of the characters are bad in any way, as their backstories provide some much needed depth, and help us care about them, but the fact that there are so many of them makes it hard to remember a lot of them. But then we have Dung Beetle, one of the most evil bastards to have ever appeared in any anime. He insults the children, lies to them, keeps vital information from them, and I hated him with every fiber of my being, but I suppose that was the intent. It’s pretty clear that the show was more about the story itself and not the characters.
As a whole, Bokurano’s story is intriguing throughout, and while the cast is not the best, they’re not bad, either. The story more than makes up for the cast, anyway.
-Animation & Sound-
The second I started this show, it was obvious that this had Gonzo written all over it. I have only ever seen three Gonzo animes: This, Solty Rei, and Welcome to the NHK. While Solty Rei looks fine, both Bokurano and NHK have very inconsistent visuals. Sometimes the animation is great, while other times, it plummets into the “Kill it with fire!” territory. The scenes where the animation dips in quality make it hard to take those particular scenes seriously.
As for the character designs, they look good, but they’re rather simple in design. This can be both good and bad, depending on how you look at it. It’s good because it makes the characters look like real people, but some may consider it to be a bad thing, because no one really unique. Personally, I fall into the former camp, as I prefer them to look just like normal people. Gonzo also decided to direct the mech battles in CG, which look decent enough.
As previously stated, there is no dub, so I can’t critique the voice work, simply because I don’t speak Japanese.
Musically, Bokurano sports a solid soundtrack. While only a few songs stood out in my mind, every song matched the situations that they accompanied quite well. Again, comparing it to the other Gonzo animes that I’ve seen, I would say that the soundtrack is better than Solty Rei, but not as good as NHK. It’s a good soundtrack, but nothing to write home to mom about.
-Conclusion-
Bokurano is an anime that I wasn’t expecting much from. Needless to say, not only was I pleasantly surprised, I was blown away by how excellent this anime was, and it’s very depressing to know that a lot of people have never even heard of this anime. I would say that Bokurano is better than Solty Rei (Which I did like quite a bit), but tied with NHK as my favorite Gonzo anime.
If you’re looking for a mech anime with a great story, then you’re doing yourself a disservice by not watching wonderful anime. Bokurano is a hidden gem that everyone needs to watch.
+Outstanding story
+Well-written individual character arcs
+Many plot twists
+Epic mech battles
+Decent soundtrack
-Inconsistent visuals
-Too many characters
Final score:
9/10
