Forum - View topicBokurano (TV).
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Ramadahl
Posts: 325 Location: MK, UK |
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It's not licenced in the US yet.
If it gets licenced over there I'd recommend checking it out. Judged on it's own it's a good series - it's about the characters rather than the mecha, and they really shine through, each one having their own individual story. While it's not especially violent per se in terms of lots of blood and gore, there's still, uh... shocking content, perhaps. All that said, once I read part of the manga I couldn't finish the anime series. Just seemed washed-out, almost. Or like extra-light mayonaisse - it's fine til you have the real stuff. |
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Siilent
Posts: 184 Location: Canada |
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Ehehhh, well played. I guess I was just wondering if there was another method than the one I used for Higurashi, which didn't get me the best image quality. I was sort of hoping for some way to purchase the series, to tell you the truth.  My logic isn't the greatest.
NocturnalUX, that sounds like a wonderful method. Bet the image quality is amazing via telepathy. 
Ramadahl-- thanks for the info! I was hoping the mecha wouldn't steal all the limelight since mecha isn't my thing (it's the thing scaring me away from another series I think I'm interested in, "Code Geass, Lelouch of the Rebellion". A website said over 40 people linked it as similar to Death Note, which I love). But anyway, I look forward to watching this series. I already love the opening theme-- does it reflect the series well, would you say? |
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Ramadahl
Posts: 325 Location: MK, UK |
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Heh, I'm not really a fan of mecha myself, but I thought Code Geass was quite fun - I'd recommend giving it a go.
I'd say so, yes. [EDIT: Merged with previous Bokurano thread.~Zalis] |
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Magari-Yari
 Posts: 12 |
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I believe it was licensed by Funimation, right? Correct me if I'm wrong as that was what it said on the site I usually watched it from. Anyways, I liked the anime, though I preferred the manga due to the differences between the stories of the characters (though some remained the same). The manga's story's seemed 'stronger' in shock value and drama in my opinion, I suppose that could be the reason why some of it was changed in the anime, especially certain a certain scene in the manga... spoiler[I'm looking at you Chizu (maybe Mako?), though it was actually a mild surprise when she was found out to be pregnant, making the baby contracted as well.] I liked the anime, that's it, spoiler[Though I rather disliked how the anime changed up Komo and Anko's stories, those were my favorite ones.] The music was amazing though. On a different note, did anyone manage to read Bokurano ~alternative? The alternate story of the plot? I've been wanting to read it myself, but haven't been able to find it. |
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Ramadahl
Posts: 325 Location: MK, UK |
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Well, I checked ANN and the "ethical fansub site", and neither of them thought it'd been licenced in the US. Not the most in-depth research, but it's usually enough. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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It's a novel, and fan-translated novelizations are not as easily available as anime or manga. |
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Dan42
Chief Encyclopedist
 Posts: 3786 Location: Montreal |
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Ok, I just finished Bokurano and I'm so shook up that I have to say something, I have to write something. I don't know what but there's no way I can remain silent, otherwise I'd go crazy. Maybe I'm just a sucker for shows like this or Saishuuheiki Kanojo, but it was just SO FREAKIN POWERFUL. I can't get it out of my head. We didn't get to spend that much time with each character, and yet they felt very well realized, very real to me. Although strangely every single one of them seemed to have quite a chip on his/her shoulder. I think my head is going to be messed up for a week or so. And I can't believe the votes for this don't give it a higher rating. It's so obviously a masterpiece. Or am I just too sentimental, too easy to sway? garglglg.... *foam coming out of mouth*
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hipnox
 Posts: 143 |
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I only recently finished watching Bokurano and felt the need to discuss it with the ANN comunity.
For the Mods: i found here (ANN series discussion thread): animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=28479 this thread animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=28479 but the oldest post is like 2 years old and hardly anyone commented on the complete series. So... I came across the name Bokurano from this thread : animenewsnetwork.com/bbs/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=136081&highlight=bokurano about downer animes. Not that i wanted to drown myself in sorrow or anything, but i decided to give it a try. At the moment i didn't know it was a manga adaptation (which sadly is impossible to acquire here where i live) so i cannot complain on the quality of said adaptation. I wasnt sure what i was expecting from it. The ANN description didn't sound very interesting. it rather felt like an excuse to pitch 1500 feet tall robots into a densely populated area and watch the fireworks (like any toho monster movie worth its salt), and i hate mecha series in general. So i gave it a shot. By episode 2 i was hooked, and the ending of said episode hinted at a possible dark twist to the series, which was finally revealed (spoiler[the fact that they die after fighting is what drives the series forward]) As the series unfolded and more enemies where defeated it became apparent that the charm of the series did not lie in the blandly rendered CG robot fights, but in the personal lives of the pilots in between missions (spoiler[more precisely, their reaction to their sure-to-come death and how each of them decides how to spend those last moments of their lives. be it quality time with their love ones, finishing some unfinished business or conflict, revenge, redemption, etc...] ) The Series emphasizes this in later episodes by not even showing the enemies appearing, the kids being summoned to Zearth, the destruction of some of the enemies, or spoiler[the actual death of some of the characters]. The fights start to take less time per episode, time which is given more and more to character development. Its when the true nature of the game is revealed, and once the implications and consequences of these fights are explained that the series takes a much darker tone than it already had. And when i say darker i mean it. It takes the series into new heights of psychological torture to both the cast and the viewer. spoiler[ fighting desperately to save your world (and die in the process) knowing your enemy is also a scared group of humans in the exact same dilema, and that the winner will be awarded with the complete destruction of an entire enemy universe at his hands can break anyone´s will ]. The ending of the series was appropriate (which in manga to anime terms means a lot more) and i have no complaints about it. I´d say the series is "bold". It could have easily focus itself on the robot fights, the destruction in their wake, the military, one or 2 of the pilots, a "the weight of the world is on your shoulders" cheese plot and be "just another mecha fighting series" with nothing interesting or original. Bokurano took a different rout. it appeals to a different crowd. Its not an action series, its drama. 100% pure depressive, horrific, cruel, drama, and i love it for it. in fact, probably my favorite fight was the one whenspoiler[ Kirie was going to fight and the enemy robot commits suicide. That one shocked me for a moment. I can only imagine the horrors that where going on in that cockpit. What had happened to those people, to the pilot, their love for their own universe, their will to fight? What could force a person to willingly destroy himself, his companions and his world, the same world the other previous pilots fought to save? Maybe they couldn't take it anymore. Maybe their world wasn´t worth fighting for... we will never know] Overall, its an awesome series and i´d recommend it to all drama fans. It drags at time and can feel psychologically disturbing to some, but overall its pretty well made. It succeeds in putting us in the kid´s shoes and imagine what it would be like to be in their position, making those tough decisions and spoiler[having the weight of the world in our shoulders while we wait for our inevitable death]. Fans of action mecha shows should probably stay away from this one. Fun Questions for bokurano fans: 1- What would happen if we take one of the 15 children and replace him/her with Shinji Ikari? what would the series be like? 
2- spoiler[What would you do with your time once you are selected as the next pilot?] |
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egoist
 Posts: 7762 |
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Appropriate but incomplete. My main beef with the show was the ending itself... it's okay, but it's so obvious there's a lot left. My final rating was an 8/10 for incompleteness, although I'd really love to give it a 9/10 (I'll reevaluate that on my re-watch). I also agree to the fact that the fight where the enemy pilot spoiler[suicides] was the most marking fight in the whole series. I'd say that unlike the positiveness we often see in anime, in this case we have a much more realistic story. I'll never forget that boy who tried to spoiler[rape] that girl. That really added points to the realistic factor of the series. The boy wasn't paranoid or lunatic, but just a normal young man who did something a lot of sane boys would do. Of course, if that were me I'd have lured her first, instead of acting like a starving wolf right away; that's exactly what makes him a normal boy! 1- Not much. He would act the same way, running or whatever, but would still get spoiler[summoned back and die like everyone else.] We did have a lot of his cowardish attitude presented under many formats, so it wouldn't really affect the overall. 2- Try to have sex with an unwilling girl while licking a Cornetto and drinking Mars Milkshake before killing someone I dislike and stealing a police car so drivers would let me speed freely. After that I'd most likely have a few dozen police cars trapping me in the middle of town centre; then I would leave the car, use the gun I found inside the police car, just to find out that as soon as I stepped out and the first cop shot me I was teleported. Now with a gunshot wound, I'll pilot the robot [while stepping on as many people as possible], destroy the enemy, and finally die because of the wound before my life is drained. Before dying I'd definitely shout "FREEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" while trying to smoke my last cigarette. See? Giant robots are more deadly than cigarettes. Take that ministry of health. Now, raping may sound very, very bad under normal circumstances, but in this case I'd have the right to violate her personal rights, since I'm unwillingly giving my life to save her life, her family, and her world. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Untagged spoilers ahead. If you haven't watched the show, then what are you doing in this thread? o_0
First of all, the OP is great, and I've listened to it probably more than any other. Although the show's obvious focus was on the kids, I would have appreciated the villains to get at least a little bit of screentime. Because geez, they must be one of the most destructive and dastardly races in fiction (let alone Anime). 2^15-1, or 32,767 dimensions are destroyed over the course of the show, and this was only one tournament out of an almost infinite amount. The sheer death toll, not to mention the required evilness to sentence that many people to non-existence, are mind boggling. And then the dimensions that do survive are harvested for energy; yikes. So yeah, I would have liked to see how the villains justified their actions. We are told that the tournaments are held to prune dimensions, because too many are (apparently) bad, but there's never any real evidence. The kids all have their own problems (except possibly the first guy who dies), which is par for the course in a post-Neon Genesis Evangelion show. But some of them weren't all that interesting, or the stories were really forced. But some characters came through. Kirie was a huge surprise, far and away the best pilot despite his so-bland-and-you'd-miss-him looks and outwardly dull personality. He seemed cowardly, but once he found a reason to fight he was unstoppable. And then he exposed Machi's identity; awesome. Moji was very sympathetic. He asked Dung Beetle to transport his corpse to hospital after the battle so that Nagi, his rival in love, could live and make the girl (Tsubasa) happy. That story was touching. Komoda, an otherwise very proper and well-spoken girl, had a huge moment of badarse when she broke out of the trap Zearth was then in after saying one of the best lines in the series. And of course, who could forget Jun, who managed to change his personality around and fight the second-best (and at thirty hours long, arguably the most epic) battle in the entire show? One thing I really hated was the lack of any sort of support to the children. I'm talking real support, not what exactly two soldiers can provide. Here we have the fifteen most important people on the planet, and nothing is done to protect them or to give them psychological support. It just beggared belief, and was a huge weight around the show's neck dragging it down. This is a big criticism of NGE; heck, even my beloved RahXephon falls victim a bit. But Bokurano surely takes the prize of supreme callousness and indifference towards its pilots. Overall I gave Bokurano a rating of Good. The writing was pretty uneven, the battles lacked the power found in NGE or the grace present in RahXephon, and some of the characters were neither sympathetic nor compelling. However, it did offer some great moments, the story was an inventive twist on the NGE formula, and although it never showed the true villains, Dung Beetle was always a good watch. |
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KanjiiZ
 Posts: 661 Location: Central Coast |
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Really bad and repetitive series. All the characters had over the top ridiculous back stories that I just stopped giving a damn after a while. From what I read of the manga, it was much, much superior in it's telling and approach. All the plot twists in the story were laughably weak as well.
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I remember I was somewhat angry when spoiler[the teacher who was having sexual relations with both his student and that students' older sister was somehow permitted to live when a lot of other people less deserving were killed throughout the series].
I also remember that there was one character that I really liked, him being a nice guy and all. Of course despite his not wanting to fight as soon as his enemy spoiler[ went all rollie-pollie on the town that he wanted to protect, particularly the theme park that he had promised to take his younger siblings to, he had to reluctantly fight.] I remember when we first got a glimpse of Dung Beetle's truly evil side. It was such a simple thing, when he just flatly said spoiler["You're all going to die". Such an evil bastard.] Then the big revelation of how spoiler[ they're fighting parallel worlds in a winner-take-all (or winner destroy all) gladiator match... that hit me pretty hard. When you think of the billions, nay, uncountable people who died in just the bouts with Zearth... I think it's fair to say that no manga/anime will ever even come close to the kill count as Bokurano. I particularly remember when she made the cockpit visible on the enemy and saw that they were just kids like them. Really creepy.] As far as the ending, I didn't like it. I didn't like spoiler[the whole agent X being Annoying Kid Y's mom. I didn't like Annoying Kid Y surviving because he was my most hated character in the entire show. Why did so many of the good characters have to die just so that bastage lives on?] Overall, it was pretty good. Had its up-points and had its down-points. "Uninstall" is definitely up there on my favorite opening theme list though. So gorgeous and enchanting. |
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egoist
Posts: 7762 |
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But the animation and sounds were so much better in the anime, dude. Druid.
Yeah, yeah. How about elaborating it just a very very tiny bit every now and then? |
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KanjiiZ
Posts: 661 Location: Central Coast |
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There is really only one serious plot twist in the story, I thought you'd know by now. I'm referring to the spoiler[robot being a human back in the day]. That twist was just terrible in the sense that it seemed like it was thought up in a spur of the moment. I also didn't appreciate that the director took liberties with an amazing property like Bokurano. I don't read much manga, but Bokurano is one of those cases where I agree that the manga is better.
The mecha also looked very poorly made for their time, but that's to be expected of a Gonzo title. I saw this show recently, so the animation did not age well, at all. |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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I can recall at least one other serious plot twist, you might want to read my post above to remember it.
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