Bokurano is a 24 episode mech drama based on the manga of the same name by Kito Mohiro. The anime originally aired on TV in Japan in 2007. The anime differed from the manga due to the directors dislike of the source material, causing Kito to tell fans of the manga not to watch the anime.
The story starts with 15 middle school/elementary school children attending a summer nature school. They explore a cave on the beach near the school and find a room full of computers within. A man calling himself Kokopeli finds them in the computer room and tells them that he is designing a game. He asks them if they want to test it out and has them all place their hand on a pedestal to register for the game. The next thing they know, they are in an empty room surrounded by a number of chairs. Kokopeli tells them to each find their chair. Each one represents that child’s favorite chair. When they all sit down the darkness of the room turns into a 360 degree view far above the surface of the water near the beach. Kokopeli tells them that they are inside of a gigantic mech. The purpose of the game is to defeat a number of enemy mechs. Kokopeli pilots the behemoth and shows them how to defeat the enemy. When the battle is won they wake up on the beach, Kokopeli and the mechs are gone, but the damage from the battle is not. This is the first clue that this is not a game.
The story starts with 15 middle school/elementary school children attending a summer nature school. They explore a cave on the beach near the school and find a room full of computers within. A man calling himself Kokopeli finds them in the computer room and tells them that he is designing a game. He asks them if they want to test it out and has them all place their hand on a pedestal to register for the game. The next thing they know, they are in an empty room surrounded by a number of chairs. Kokopeli tells them to each find their chair. Each one represents that child’s favorite chair. When they all sit down the darkness of the room turns into a 360 degree view far above the surface of the water near the beach. Kokopeli tells them that they are inside of a gigantic mech. The purpose of the game is to defeat a number of enemy mechs. Kokopeli pilots the behemoth and shows them how to defeat the enemy. When the battle is won they wake up on the beach, Kokopeli and the mechs are gone, but the damage from the battle is not. This is the first clue that this is not a game.
The next day, as the news is reporting about the massive earth quake that rocked the island, the children begin to wonder about the game they are all a part. They are all in it until the last enemy is defeated. They wonder what the purpose is and who Kokopeli was. When they wake up to find themselves inside of the mech one of the children understands that he is now the pilot. They take their chairs and fight the enemy, during which the city is heavily damaged, this time the citizens know it is not an earthquake. After winning the battle the children go out side of the mech to get a better perspective. The pilot, ecstatic with his win, accidentally falls off the mech to his death after one of the other children playfully nudges him. When they wake up again both the death of their friend, the casualties and damage to the city during the battle begins to heavily set in. With all of this, a mysterious floating creature, named Dung Beatle, shows up and begins to explain to them the game they are playing. He tells them each of them has contracted to pilot the mech and to defeat all of the enemies they face. If they should lose a battle or choose not to fight an enemy the world will be destroyed. They are fighting for the survival of the planet.
Now with a sense of purpose, the children take on their task of piloting the mech. They choose to name it Zearth, to represent the stake of their battles and willfully carry on with the next fight. At the end of this battle however the pilot falls over dead in front of everyone. Now with two of the children dead they fear that all of their lives are at risk. Dung Beatle explains to them that the mech is controlled with the pilot's life force, when the battle if over the pilot dies. The remaining children have to face their own deaths to protect the world. Each has to find the strength and purpose to carry on instead of choosing death for everyone, while at the same time figuring out how to stop the game before more die.
This is a very mature and serious anime, filled with many adult themes and some pretty heavy situations. Once you find out that everyone is slated to die it becomes a spiral into destruction. It's hard to think of a series that killed off this many developed characters, X the movie did, Neon Genesis Evangelion did as well. In the beginning you are like, oh well that guys dead, oh well, but as it goes on you start to like some of the characters only to see them die for this twisted game of attrition, it is incredibly harrowing.
This is a very mature and serious anime, filled with many adult themes and some pretty heavy situations. Once you find out that everyone is slated to die it becomes a spiral into destruction. It's hard to think of a series that killed off this many developed characters, X the movie did, Neon Genesis Evangelion did as well. In the beginning you are like, oh well that guys dead, oh well, but as it goes on you start to like some of the characters only to see them die for this twisted game of attrition, it is incredibly harrowing.
This anime is all about the story. The animation is good, but unique. The characters are simplistically drawn. The mech's are outright bizarre looking. What really drives this series though is the story, each characters background unfolds as they face their death, the longer lasting ones develop over a longer period of time of course. The military steps in to try and study the mech and the children in order to find ways to save them. Dung Beatle berates and assaults the children, cowing them into submission. The randomness of the pilot selection causes everyone to be on edge. When someone is selected a tattoo appears somewhere on their body, once that shows up there is no going back. Each person finds they have to reconcile the issues in their lives and find the strength to fight their battle.
For the most part every single one of the children has a messed up home life. One girl is sleeping with her teacher; one boy and his sister have run away from home, another boy has to take care of his 3 younger siblings due to the absence of both parents, etc. I said that this is not a mech series and it really isn't, this is a series about human compassion and human suffering. I am pretty glad that I did decide not to read past the first few issues of the manga after I found out it was going to be animated. I highly suggest checking this series out if you enjoy serious dramas, you will not be disappointed.
The anime has been licensed by Discotek Media but has not yet been released in North America. Viz released the English language version of the manga..
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