(L) Bokurano

[Deathkillz]

For some reason I had this on hitus but finally managed to finish a few days ago. All I can say is: WOW

The series got quite heavy near the end where the story ceases to be episodic "arc" types and progresses to the main big picture. I have to say that even though I didn't like Jun at the start, his character grew on me. As much of an ass that he is for beating kana I guess he has the excuse for being a naive brat. Though seeing him fighting the final battle was somewhat heart breaking. Nearly fell off my chair when zearth's arm fell off.

Such a bitter/sweet end to this story. It is great they did not attempt to do the impossible ie go over to the masterminds and open a can of kickass but rather maintained a more focused, realistic situation to only save this current earth. The battle is over but the same thing is repeating all over across thousands of different worlds - thinking like this is somewhat shocking and gives that heavy feeling. Nonetheless this earth manages to survive and no matter how ugly it is, kana remains to tell her story.

I just love how unique this series is compared to some current shows. The designs stand out and the drama/angst is something that will remain for some time. The dark mood is quite fitting to balance out all the light and happy series I've seen recently - and a closure that is pretty much waterproof.

Overall 8.5/10

[Myname]

So if Ushiro Jun's foster dad is actually Tanaka Misumi's uncle, wouldn't that make Kana, Tanaka's cousin and Jun's aunt?

So why did Tamotsu say that Jun and Kana are cousins?

Also, Kako was pretty pathetic. Everyone had a sympathetic death (though Chizu went all selfish before she died) except for Kako. He was a fag till his last breath.

In a way it is kinda sad though, he died attempting to rape the girl he likes and never even got to pilot it. Never even got to redeem himself.

Does Kokopelli play a bigger role in the manga? Cause you never know what happens to him. I always thought he'd play a bigger role from that screenshot of him holding the earth in the palms of his hands.

[Antonik]

great show

[mangalowres]

Sad Sad... the story, not the anime.
It really teared me apart... inside.

And as some people before me:
Ill never ever watch this anime again,
Thanks for the Show, The Subtitles but its to much for me. 10/10

[shin_no_noir]

Does anyone have pictures of any of the children's tattoos from the anime or manga that they could post here or email to me? Your help is greatly appreciated!

[Ghostfriendly]

Hello. This series has seemed amazingly good from the manga, but does anyone know anything about the propects of it being licensed in US/UK?

[Guts]

Just a curious question, would someone recommend the anime or the manga for this? I stopped reading the manga many chapters ago, and I want to start again, but if the anime does a better job portraying the feeling, I would choose to see that.

[DmonHiro]

The anime is a POS compared to the manga. The ^&#^&*^$*& director didn't like the manga and decided his "vision" was better. I would not recomend this anime to ANYONE who likes the manga. Hell....to anyone at all.

[ZippyDSM]

http://anime2manga.com/20070423/boku...han-mecha.html
this mentions protrusion but I am 18 eps through it and the only thing to come close is being a drink server(what is the proper name for it?) at a bar I know they cuddle up to the customers but not much more than that, altho I guess it and striping it can go hand in hand.

[ragnarokr]

Originally Posted by Guts

Just a curious question, would someone recommend the anime or the manga for this? I stopped reading the manga many chapters ago, and I want to start again, but if the anime does a better job portraying the feeling, I would choose to see that.

Go for the manga, then watch the anime.

[ZippyDSM]

Originally Posted by DmonHiro

The anime is a POS compared to the manga. The ^&#^&*^$*& director didn't like the manga and decided his "vision" was better. I would not recomend this anime to ANYONE who likes the manga. Hell....to anyone at all.

0-o
as a psychological drama with a tint of horror elements this is a great anime, it might match up to the manga but holly hell it hints most of the point pints from it.

I'd recommend it as a psychological drama with sci fi elements, as its own thing it manages to build story and characters and hit its plot points well all in all its worth while if you can stand drama :P

[Diedrupo]

to be honest, other than a retarded masterminds subplot, there's not THAT much diversion from the manga. Most of the kids' stories are the same (in essence) and the only true diversion comes at the end, and the anime director can be forgiven for that because the manga had not reached that point yet.

spoilers for the difference if anyone wants to know:

Spoiler:

Jun and Machi were not in the contract, Jun didn't sign it and the manga has yet to explain why Machi's initial signing did not work.
Kana signed the contract out of sight after Kokopelli's arc.
Kana DIES.
Seki dies sacrificing himself. Tanaka later dies, but not in the same way as in the anime obviously.
Jun, depressed by the loss of his mother and sister, signs the contract. For whatever retarded reason, Machi decides to sign the contract too.
Jun is the last pilot, and likely plays a Kokopelli-like role in the next earth (manga hasn't reached this point but it's the logical conclusion).

Also, the manga NEVER explained how Machi could be Dungbeetle's sister, even though it was shown that Machi had a family and everything prior to the anime. I strongly believe this was not Kitoh's original intention and that he was pressured to use it by his publisher to be aligned with the anime, and that he started putting hints about it into the manga during Kanji's storyline.

[CoolKidsClub]

^ the guy above they clearly explained how they are brothers and sisters..they came from another universe and she originally followed him bcuz she was worried

i read the manga and i was happy with the story, i thought the ending was conclusive its a fitting ending to the story i heard the anime is a lot toned down so i dont plan to watch it..Seki and Tanaka's death was very well done in the manga

[sniperz]

It's been a while but i guess the anime was fine. i watched it after skipping it since 2007. Overall suitable time to watch. nice story.

[qwertyuiopz]

oook just finished it, it was a good run
i got hooked from start to end but whats with the plotholes? who were the guys in white? and how did this all start in the first place?
it was pretty dark and gruesome at first but then after the middle or so it transitioned into a pity anime

[ZippyDSM]

Originally Posted by qwertyuiopz

oook just finished it, it was a good run
i got hooked from start to end but whats with the plotholes? who were the guys in white? and how did this all start in the first place?
it was pretty dark and gruesome at first but then after the middle or so it transitioned into a pity anime

The guys in white are the masters of the fights/universe, they made the fights as so they can enjoy the suffering,ect.

[qwertyuiopz]

Originally Posted by ZippyDSM

The guys in white are the masters of the fights/universe, they made the fights as so they can enjoy the suffering,ect.

that was just the kids assumption and that doesnt really answer how

[Digi-Dragon]

They never really explain it in either the anime or the manga. If you enjoyed the anime, I suggest taking a look at the manga. They do a bit better of a job with tying up loose ends and don't try to force out a happy ending. It somehow ended up almost uplifting to me, regardless.

[roriconfan]

REVIEW TIME

I will be making many references to Narutaru. Can’t help making a joke about it and for all intents and purposes, this is a double review for both series. Damn things are practically the same anyway.
Also, this is one of those weird retrospective texts that focuses more on what happens around a series that in it. If you don’t like it, it ain’t my fault.

Bold letters refer to other titles. No links provided for those, do your own homework you lazy bums!



PROLOGUE
Bokurano, aka Narutaru mk2.
Ok, the guy who makes these things clearly goes for impressions through shock value around children abuse. Where Narutaru was “Let’s have kids being tortured and miserable, with Pokemon flavor”, Bokurano is “Let’s have kids being tortured and miserable, with huge robots flavor”. In both cases, the critters or the robots don’t really play a role in the actual points the titles want to show. They are there for flavor, just like milk is to tea. Down to it, the only focus to both series is “Torture kids, torture them more, and them kill them miserably.” Sounds disgusting and vile, doesn’t it? Well, that’s what makes it so damn special. It’s like Ausvich in a way. You don’t care about the area, as much about the inhuman acts that took place there during the era where being blonde and blue-eyed was totally GAR.

VALUE SECTION
Anyway, where Narutaru lacked an overall objective in its story and was mostly random arcs about kids in happy-go-lucky situations going from bad to worse, Bokurano actually tries to have one.
Saving the world with a huge robot!
…Pretty lame-sounding, doesn’t it? What are we to like this premise, twelve year olds?
(EVA 01 stares angrily towards me)
Errr… What I meant is that it basically uses a childish concept as means of shock effect. And it works too. Imagine the Care Bears dancing happily around a tree and then suddenly the tree sprouts teeth, eats them, goes “munch, munch” and them spits out their bloody sculls.
…Yeah, nice way to kill your childhood innocence.

Bokurano is similar. Just like its older brother used cute little critters, this one uses big robots. You think it’s going to be childish but then turns Happy Tree Friends … without the humorous irony.
Does it work? Erm, yes, it works as shock value for sure. It really is GASP material the first time you watch it. The thing is, shock value is a one-time special ability. Just like any super attack in any shounen series, it only works once on each individual. The second time you try to use it, the opponent has a way to counter it, block it, negate it, or in the case of the viewer “It’s not as shocking anymore!” Therefore, it needs to have other elements to keep the viewer still interested in replying the whole mess.
…And this is where it all falls down.

Narutaru was bad in this regard as the complete lack of general direction as a story meant that you have no reason for you to want to relive the whole mess. What is there to watch? Bokurano kinda fixed that problem by adding the objective of world salvation. Ok, now you can watch again the process of how they try to do it.
…And it still fails.
Thus, Value is very low. (3)

STORY AND CHARACTER SECTION
You see, it’s not really about saving the world. It’s about kids in miserable situations. It’s like “Wow, I will be dead soon; how will I spend my last hours alive?” So you can pretty much screw the whole battle for the salvation of Earth. Although losing the battle automatically means that Earth will blow up, it’s not really the point at all. The robot battles are as I said flashy extras that serve very little to the actual plot. They do provide mystery as in many cases the cast tries to figure out what the hell is going on here, and in some other cases it does affect the story as the damage from the battles affects the lives of the rest of the world. All that unfortunately happens too rarely and in very convenient moments to actually feel natural in-story. For example, if someone is killed by a bad robot, he will be relative to the kid piloting the robot at the moment.

Practically, the story could easily be remade as individual arcs around the last moments of children with terminal diseases. You can take out the robots and the salvation of Earth and it would make almost no difference. What I mean is that although there are 14 kids that are supposed to be the main cast, the story always focuses on one or two at the most at any given time, leaving all the rest as background decoration, until their time to fight and/or die comes along. Now, I am not an ass to demand 14 characters being exposed at the very same time. But I do demand for all of them to be equally important to the story. They could for example do a Bacanno! type of non-linear story, where we see the same events happening all the time but through different perspective, each time from a different kid. We could have 1 battle with a bad robot in the whole series and each kid gets to fight it at the same time. That would make it concrete. But no, what we got was a singing contest. The kids were taking turns, waiting like drones for an invisible force to choose their turn and then all of a sudden they would be thrown in a dreadful situation where they are supposed to resolve it before fighting for the last time in their lives.

It works as shock value but at the same time it has no overall binding with the freaking setting of the story. Not to forget to mention all that political mambo-jumbo they threw in that serve as nothing else but detracting from the main themes of the series. Why have them if they make the story even sloppier than it already is? That translates to bad storytelling. It was bad in Narutaru; it tried to be better here but in fact it ain’t.

I must also point out that the anime version pulled the adaptation decay turd on us and changed the ending to be happy in a way. Well, duh, I preferred the sad and grim manga version far better.
Thus, Story and Characters are bad for not feeling natural to the viewer because of the lack in uniformity. (5)

And I know that a series is not supposed to be realistic, but come on, the story is supposed to be about contemporary Japan of today, normal kids of today, having normal lives of today. Excuse me for expecting some realism. Not in reactions to normal problems; it does a good job in its slice-of-life drama. I mean on a level of constant uniformity where they are main characters all the time and not for a few episodes when the scriptwriter decides out of the blue to throw in a “The robot calls you to be the next pilot” ass-pulling trope to turn their role from Kid12 to Main Hero.

Hm, what did I leave out? Ah, yes, Animation and Sound.

ANIMATION AND SOUND SECTION
I won’t stick here much, sue me. The CG on the robots is generally unnatural but still better than in most series out there. The character figures look simplistic and unappealing but that is not really a minus. If they were trendy shounen leads, they would be complete sh*t in the context of the story; so at least they save face where they lose it in character motivation. So good job there for a change. Cinematics for atmosphere built-up? Sure, they are ok. BGM? I didn’t lose my mind over it but it was ok. Voice acting? … Hm, they sound natural. Even that mascot critter does not have a squeaky voice. Nice.
Ok, I must admit they did a very good job here, despite not WOWing me in any way. 8 on both of them.

And for the final entry we have Enjoyment. Boy, so hard to excuse this part.

ENJOYMENT SECTION
I sure liked the controversial aspect of the series. It’s not really about kids piloting transforming robots and happy-go-lucky protect the planet from evil aliens. It is also thought-provoking in a way, as it does make you think and feel strange about the situations the kids are thrown in.

And now the nasty part. This series is based too much on shock value. It leaves you with a vivid impression because of the horrible things that happen in it. Yet at the same time, it has very little to back it up. The second time you try to watch it, you clearly see it ain’t so dramatic and the actual plot is peanuts. Also, the focus on character exposition is pretty amateur’s work, as most feel like stunts for most of the story until magically thrown to the position of Main Hero for the sake of… well, dying. Character exposition moments before dying? Talk about Newbie Errors 101. Too many characters, too little time invested on each, too many things befalling each one at once, making it unnatural.

I know most anime fans don’t care about that and as long as it shocked them it is considered a success. I on the other hand look at the bigger picture. Does it do it better than other stories with similar elements? Just think about the most famous titles that kinda remind you of Bokurano (and it ain’t Narutaru ).
Alien Nine ? Hm, maybe.
Elfen Lied ? Far less characters and thus far more focus on each one of them.
Neon Genesis ? Sorry, dwarfed big time.
Battle Royale ? Ok, now it is invisible.
My, look at that, now it ain’t so special after all. It may rank on the better made but it still feels bad next to the titles it has similarities with. For all it maters, I admit it’s better than Narutaru.
…Oh well, let’s give it the base and call it for the day; I feel generous today. See ya next time I feel like writing something.

SUGGESTION LIST
Narutaru
Alien Nine
Elfen Lied
Neon Genesis
Battle Royale

p.s. Here are some overall rating for Narutaru next to Bokurano. Just a last moment bonus and such…

Animation: Narutaru:6, Bokurano:8
Sound: Narutaru:6, Bokurano:8
Story: Narutaru:4, Bokurano:5
Characters: Narutaru:5, Bokurano:5
Value: Narutaru:3, Bokurano:3
Enjoyment: Narutaru:4, Bokurano:5

Overall score: 5.5 / 10

[FireChick]

I just got to episode 6 of the anime, and I must say it's quite wonderful, though very disturbing and depressing at the same time.

But seriously, what's with all the hate and the unnecessary vial being poured on the anime? I mean, sure it's not entirely faithful to the manga, but it's still great in it's own way. Heck, I think the creators did a good job in adapting the manga and taking a good amount of liberties while staying true to the core message of the show. I mean, think about it: if the creators adapted the entire manga frame by frame, translation and all, then wouldn't it be rather boring? We'd know what was going to happen, and it'd be too predictable. I think the change is good, because in the anime (if we haven't read the manga), we'll never know what happens to which characters, and I think that makes it more exciting that way. Just my opinion, no need to get volatile.