Bokurano
 

It isn't Narutaru's 2nd season, but it's just as good! Mohiro Kitoh now brings his newest work to animation for us in 2007 - Bokurano! The website is of course http://bokurano.jp/ and there's some really great staff working on it. I was surprised. Here's a list below:

Original Work: Mohiro Kitoh (Narutaru)
Director: Morita Hiroyuki (The Cat Returns, Gunsmith Cats, Kiki's Delivery Service)
Character Designs: Konishi Kenichi (Millenium Actress, Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke)
Mechanical Advisor: Suzuki Tsutomu (Zone of the Enders, FLCL, Naruto movies)
Music: Nomi Yuuji (The Cat Returns, Whisper of the Heart, Hi no Tori)
Animation Production: GONZO (Saikano, Kaleido Star, Hellsing, Gankutsuou, Last Exile)

Triad of course plans to sub this when it comes out, and boy does it sound great so far with that director, character designer, and mechanical advisor!

Based on a seinen manga thats serialized in the seinen manga magazine IKKI.

ぼくらの
Bokurano

Broadcast: 2007

http://bokurano.jp/

Based on a manga thats serialized in the seinen manga magazine IKKI.
For now there are 5 volumes released of this manga, and volume 6 will be released on 26/12/2006.

http://img489.imageshack.us/img489/6...anovol1za5.jpg http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/4...anovol2ve7.jpg http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/3...anovol3yh4.jpg http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/6...anovol4ei8.jpg http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/4...anovol5xl8.jpg

Info about the manga can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokurano

Genre: Seinen, Drama, Horror, Mecha, Science Fiction

Oh my god! Morita Hiroyuki and Konishi Kenichi?! I have been interested in finding out more about this manga after Narutaru (but never got around ot it because I am very lazy when it comes to manga)... but this is something very exciting for me.

Wow! And that composer too?!


But I'm really very very surprised that Gonzo of all companies is doing it. I hope the combination of Morita and Konishi can bring in their own animators and do it their own way. If it's Gonzo then that means... definitely Hiroyuki Okuno, and maybe they'll get to entice Masashi Ishihama back after his stint in NHK? And if they could get Hisashi Mori in NHK then I bet he'll be here. Of course then I'm hoping Shingo Natsume will be there...

Does seem rather um dark for Morita Hiroyuki, although he worked on Perfect Blue, so perhaps not. And yes indeed, Yuuji Nomi is a very talented composer, his scores for Whisper and Cat Returns are superb.

I'm interested but as I didn't take a shine to Narutaru I'm a little cautious. For those who've read the manga how does it compare to Narutaru?

So Gonzo got a few peeps who worked on a few Ghibli films on this new series, eh? Gonzo cannot seriously blow this! :D

For what I have read (only one volume is been released in my country) Bokurano has similar subjects to Natutaru (Ethic viewed by children with a... superior power and such) but a different approach and flow of the story... You can say that Narutaru take is time to show is true color (with a very clever and subtle preparation), while Bokurano just take one chapter (oh but with Kito you can't really tell :D)

P.S.: I'm still not so happy (I like euphemisms :p) about GONZO doing that series :(

Dito. Or I should rather say: Gonzo! RAAAAAAH! But the staff sounds very good so far, that appeases my fear a little bit.

I'm also glad that Triad is going to sub this series.

@Sonhex: If you haven't read the manga, you might want to give it a try. The first 6 volumes are the same story as the anime, but a lot better executed, if you ask me. I believe most Narutaru watchers are fan of the mangaka who has a very distinctive style. You'd either love it or hate it.

I'm already terrified of how they're planning to end this one...
The manga is rather tightly plotted and is still 1-2 years away from ending.

Yup! I convinced myself that there will never be something like Narutaru animated ever again. After watching Narutaru, I looked for alternatives in the form of Elfen Lied and Utakata, but they weren't quite the same. I read a few volumes of the manga, and it quenched my Narutaru thirst.

This is the *perfect* alternative. I hope there's a happy go lucky opening too!

Bokurano is one of the better manga titles atm, actually at times is near mind blowing with its subjects and philosophy, but I think just like with Narutaru anime won't do it any justice, and I'm sure there'll be lot of censoring aswell. And just like with Narutaru you'll get unfinished anime since manga is nowhere near to it's ending.

As for other similarities, yes again you have bunch of kid characters put in the most twisted of situations. If Narutaru felt almost as some weird and perverted Pokemon/Digimon clone, Bokurano then feels like some totally twisted and f* up 'kids in mechas fighting aliens' sort of anime.

I advise to read manga before trying anime since like I said I don't believe anime adaptation will be as good.

Yes the manga is definitely recommended though beware it is pretty dark.

Mangascreener are kindly scanslating it if anyone wants to check it out. :)

Somehow Gonzo+Ghibli combination doesn't sound too promising for Bokurano anime, but we'll see.
Yeah, though they haven't released new chapter in a while :(

Well keep your finger's crossed for this being Morita Hiroyuki's pet project and not Gonzo's.

*crosses fingers* Hrm~

@Scribble: Oh! I didn't know you write Tokyo zOOm O.o Anyways, I think if you want something similar to Naru Taru, it's rather likely to find it in the form of manga. Anime, after all, are supposed to make money and despite everything, always rather mainstream-y. In manga, you have more diversion and thus more series with a more, say, selective fanbase as Narutaru.

About the scanlations... if you buy the Afternoon, you can read the most recent chapters with the translations on Stephen's site. Otherwise, well... I'd speculate they are currently lacking raws.

Hi Rion, :)

I believe Stephen had some computer troubles that meant a lot of manga series weren't translated for a while, at the moment the MS team are catching up on a fair amount, so there is a bit of a backlog.

Please correct me if I'm wrong Stephen! ;)

My friend keeps rambling on and on about how great the manga is, so he'll probably be excited to hear this (he's not a forum dweller, so he most likely doesn't know).

There was a delay on our part for a while, and then we decided to hold back and release all of the next "arc" of chapters as a bunch. Raws for the final chapter of that arc just hit the net today, so it shouldn't be too long.

oh god!!!!!!!!an anime.

I can't believe this,this going to be great.the manga rocks.

How many eps?when does it air?I hope it's spring.

Hey tsurumaru, long time no see :) Hopefully the discussion of Bokurano will stir up as soon as the anime comes out.

Yeah, that might be. What I meant is that Stephen nearly always is one or two chapters ahead with his translations of Bokurano (and it's not easy for me not to look at them and spoil myself *haha*)

@stpehen: Oh, personally I think it's a great idea to release the story in arcs... the cliffhangers don't hurt that much this way ;)

I think it would work well if we were translating a story that was already finished, but with an ongoing series it would mean you guys have to wait five months for any new material... not that I mind, since I can read the Japanese!