And then you have Bokutachi No Remake give its spin on time travel, following our main character after he gets sent back in time and decides to… enter an art college?
The story kicks off with the painfully generic main character, Kyouya, struggling to find a stable job in his current life. When life is looking worse than it’s ever been, he makes a wish to get sent back in time, and would you believe it? His wish conveniently comes true! Apparently, the only other possible choice he has to fix up his life is to enter an art college so that’s exactly what he does. I’m not sure why he doesn’t become financially stable using his knowledge of the future to win some bets or lotteries, but each to their own I suppose. Once he settles into the college, he enjoys making films and various pieces of media while being surrounded by his own harem, what a lucky guy. The aspect of time travel barely phases him, and rather than try to figure out the source of it he simply enjoys life as a 28-year-old in an 18-year-old’s body. Oh boy, it sure is great getting to project myself onto another pathetic main character who’s been put into a situation that others would only dream of.
Mr. Self Insert isn’t without his flaws, however. You see, he’s too amazing for his own good, often negatively influencing other people’s lives by simply being too perfect. This is a major issue that Kyouya is forced to overcome with each episode. Maybe his genius is from his extra 10 years of experience, or perhaps he’s naturally talented and wasn’t given the correct opportunity in his previous life. Either way there is very little attempt made to justify his amazingness, and you just have to accept that he is and always will be an incredible human being. They’ve made sure to give him the same character design as every other light novel character to ever exist, so you will have no problem imagining his experiences as your own.
“After all, no matter how amazing an individual is, they’re less interesting without some kind of flaw.” This is a quote taken right from the very first episode, and it is absolutely hilarious to look back on after having watched all 12 episodes. It dares explain basic storytelling techniques straight to the audience and then completely butcher it in practice. To state out loud the character needs flaws, then to proceed to write a main character without any, is one of the funniest ways I’ve ever seen an anime screw itself over. It can’t go an episode without contradicting itself in some way and it’s almost impressive.
But I don’t wanna bully the poor main character too much, as there are plenty of other characters to focus on as well. There’s a writer, a voice actor/singer, and an artist all living with Main Character-kun. They aren’t great, but when compared to the main character they are a massive improvement in terms of writing. They help provide a good insight into the struggles and hardships of various artistic industries while actually adding a sense of life to the anime. Granted it’s not perfect, but I can appreciate how the series at least attempts to show some of the struggles of real-life through the characters. An artist might lose their motivation to draw, a writer might be overwhelmed by how hard it is to become truly successful, or a singer might lack the self-confidence to truly work for their dream. These are all shown to some extent through the character decisions and various pieces of dialogue. It isn’t great, but at least there is something there in terms of character depth.
For a show that likes to ramble on about media and storytelling it really sucks at both. There’s one scene in the first episode where we get to listen to a characters explain some screenplay techniques. This was more for the sake of showcasing the characters’ intelligence than anything but seeing as the anime went out of its way to spend five minutes explaining it, I might as well see how well it goes when paired against its own advice. It brings up the idea of ‘complications,’ an unpredictable turn in a story that leads to the protagonist failing. In this anime, however, you’ll find that the ‘unpredictable turns’ are simply terrible. The twists make no sense as this anime is pack-full of plot contrivances. Our protagonist never truly fails, and small inconveniences are overdramatised to the point where they just looks silly. This anime will try to make you believe that minor incidents are huge failures when they’re obviously not. Also, in case you’ve forgotten the main character is a generic self-insert, and no one wants to insert themselves into a guy who fails at something. Seeing him effortlessly complete every task that comes his way is anything but a complication, and no, I don’t count the fact that he is too good at everything for his own good to be one.
Scenes will often feel incredibly forced, with numerous out-of-character moments that only exist to make something is happening on screen. There is never any sense of fluidness in the writing, and the entire anime is filled to the brim with ridiculous plot conveniences. The main character makes progression in a relationship? The love rival appears. The protagonist needs help doing something? Another character will appear with exactly what he needs. Multiple characters will act different to their usual selves in some scenes for the sake of the plot, completely ruining everything that had been built up about them previously. It’s lousy writing down to the core, and everything about it feels forced.
The art and animation are subpar for the most part. A decent amount of effort was put into making sure the girls were cute enough, then the bare minimum was done for everything else. Character expressions are surprisingly well done for the most part and you’re able to get a good understanding of the characters through them. The soundtrack was forgettable, and I still can hardly remember anything about the opening or ending after having finished the anime.
Bokutachi no Remake had the comedy tag when it began airing, but by the end was labeled as a drama with touches of supernatural and romance. Childish ideas are hidden behind failed attempts at a dramatic telling of a situation many people may wish to find themselves in. Because of this, this anime will never be anything more than another typical and forgettable light novel adaptation full of plot conveniences and lackluster characters. There are much better time travel anime out there, and there are other anime that manage to achieve what this anime attempts at a much better standard. If you want to see an adult re-live their school life, go read Re:Life. There’s no place for Bokutachi no Remake, and honestly there was never going to be.
