Bokurano – “Ours”

I wasn’t really quite sure what to expect, when I came across this anime opening when surfing around randomly on the net two days ago:

I read a quick description about the series and it seemed to be a very Evangelion-esque show, and I like Evangelion. So I decided to download the first episode and watch it, only to find out that the director for the anime apparently disliked the original manga and made some heavy changes. Which lead me to start reading the manga instead.

I started reading Bokurano Wednesday night, expecting a evangelion clone. I finished it about 24 hours later, and what I got was very different from my expectations.

Maybe I should explain what Bokurano is about before I continue. You’ve no doubt noticed the huge robot in the opening video, and might be thinking that it’s probably just another mecha show. Wrong.

Bokurano begins when 15 kids at a summer camp find and explore a cave by the sea. Inside they find computers and other equipment, which make it seem like someone is living here. At this moment a man enters the cave and reveals himself to be the one living there. He introduces himself as Kokopelli, and he has been developing a game. A game where you pilot a large robot against 15 other robots, and he wants the kids to play-test his game. The kids, thinking it sounds like a fun idea, enters a contract with Kokopelli by placing their hand on a weird metal object. Everyone but the youngest girl agree to the contract, and just as the last one agreed everyone wakes up on the shore, with Kokopelli and his contract seemingly being a dream. But that night two 500m tall robots materialize out of thin air, and a levitating creature calling himself Dung Beetle appears to the kids and teleports them inside the cockpit of one of the robots. There they find Kokopelli who shows them how to pilot the robot and defeat the other robots, by destroying a weak point which is a spherical object hidden somewhere on their body. Just as he defeats the enemy robot the kids are teleported away again, and Kokopelli can be heard whispering “I’m sor…”.

It is now up to the kids to pilot the robot, taking turns in doing so. But there are rules. The most devastating one being that the robot, which the kids dub “Zearth”, uses the pilots life force to move. Meaning the pilot will die after he defeats the enemy robot. And they can’t choose not to fight, or earth will be destroyed.

From here on Bokurano follows one pilot at a time, from the end of the last fight where the next pilot is announced, to the current pilot defeating his enemy. During this time the pilot is certain that he/she is going to die, and have to ask themselves, how should I spend the final time of my life? The pilots have no way of knowing when the next enemy will appear, which makes it even harder on them.

Bokurano is probably one if not the most beautiful and intense manga I’ve read, but don’t misunderstand my intentions with this article. I’m not saying that you should read Bokurano, I just want you to know that it exists.