Bokura ga Ita

Going into her first year of high school, Nanami Takahashi is filled with the hope of making many new friends. After meeting the shy Yuri Yamamoto, she hears about a popular boy in their class: Yano Motoharu. Yuri cares little for Yano because of his past relationship with her older sister Nana, and at first, Nanami doesn't like his attitude either. However, Nanami soon begins to warm up to Yano and takes a liking to him. The two spend more of their time together and eventually decide to start dating. But their love is not without challenges; Yano has trouble opening up to Nanami, since his first girlfriend, Nana, died in a car accident the year before, and she had been with one of her ex-boyfriends at the time.

Finding themselves living in the shadow of Yano's relationship with Nana, Nanami and Yano struggle to keep their relationship afloat amid misunderstandings and heartache with the certainty of their love for each other.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yano, Motoharu Main

Yazaki, Hiroshi Japanese

Takahashi, Nanami Main

Sasaki, Nozomi Japanese

Takeuchi, Masafumi Main

Kawakubo, Takuji Japanese

Yamamoto, Nana Supporting

Yurin Japanese

Yamamoto, Yuri Supporting

Nakayama, Erina Japanese

Takeuchi, Ayaka Supporting

Enomoto, Atsuko Japanese

Mizuguchi Supporting

Shimizu, Kaori Japanese

Kagawa Supporting

Ichinose, Hidekazu Japanese

Yano, Mother Supporting

Fuchizaki, Yuriko Japanese

Taka-chan Supporting

Terasaki, Yuka Japanese

Hieda, Susumu Producer

Ooshima, Yasushi Producer

Daichi, Akitarou Director, Storyboard, Theme Song Lyrics

Soutome, Kouichirou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Nov 6, 2010

FauxAzn

Recommended

My review will be different. I might save you some time:

The first half of the show (up through episode 12) was simply wonderful, hovering between 8/10 and 9/10 for me. I don't even mind what happened on episode 12 — I thought they were both right and both acted right.

But.

Between episode 13 and the end, it kept drawing out, and out... and out. It became a true shoujo soap drama where one character picks on the tiniest little things and makes the relationship unnecessarily difficult, while the other character can't get away from the past. It was slow and tiresome. ... I just didn't enjoy this second half very much, but it was still watchable, and you will probably be able to stick through it. Unfortunately, the ending is nothing really worth waiting for anyway.

The main girl, Nanami, plays it so perfectly in the first half though. The way she talks... if I hadn't seen the second half, she'd easily be one of my favorite characters. Animation: low-budget mediocrity galore with mostly static frames, but they do try to be artistic with it (e.g. all the bubbly framing around key scenes, or how they occasionally blank out one eye for effect). Pacing: slower than average. Music: gently compliments every mood, insert songs never feel unwanted or out of place, and they cycle through a remarkable number of ending themes (9!).

All in all, I definitely recommend at least starting Bokura ga Ita, and if the front half leaves enough of an impact, perhaps try a bit of the back half for yourself. It's certainly not awful, but just nowhere near as alluring as the front's wonderfully carefree slice of life, and far more irritating. And it may leave a bad aftertaste.

P.S. — If you do watch the entire thing, be sure to check the manga for the last episode since they leave out a key line after the anime's final scene. (It's in the last few pages of Chapter 31. You'll know it when you see it, but feel free to ask me if you're uncertain.) And if you're up for it, there are 39 more chapters to Bokura ga Ita after this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by FauxAzn (6)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Jun 24, 2009

Ranivus

Mixed Feelings

Quick Review:
Story: 9 (Manages to suck me in to this story from the very beginning and somehow forces me to find out whats next)

Art: 4 (its just damn awkward staring at characters for long periods of time without eyes.)

Sound: 5 (Not every scene when the on screen characters, gasp, gulp, groan, or preforming an act of moe, needs to buzzed in.)

Character: 6 (The fantasy slowly and effortlessly turned into reality.)

Enjoyment: 6 (No matter if you're a drama buff or feeling nostalgic of that love lost, this is indeed a drama roller coaster.)
...
Overall: 30/50 = 6.0 (...What is happiness to YOU?)


Full Review:
___Story___
This review is coming from a person who is not entirely into the Romantic Drama genre (prefer romantic comedies). So lets get to the brass tacks of this heart wrenching tale of an 'ordinary' girl and her boyfriend. Clearly the most important part of any deep seeded, plot twist driven, emotional roller coaster is the story. If you have watched any soap opera, telenovela, or romance anime/manga, you know how they normally go, Point A, plot twist, point b, repeat. This works perfectly fine in this show. And it even manages to suck me in to this story from the very beginning.
They perfectly sugar coat a taste of things to come, when you realize that such an important thing happens very early in the anime. I laughed a lot and cried a lot and even got pissed alot, but the story story still kept me wanting to know, 'whats going to happen next?' Behold, the power of the 'next episode' previews and skillfully placed teasers throughout the ending credits. Never have I experienced such a perfect mix of ending credits, cliffhangers, and music mold into such a unique experience, that I realized that i had spent over 10 hours watching this show.

___Art___
Aside the standard 'shoujo style' of drawing, the art direction is actually very 'unique' to say the least. It's sort of hard to describe the awkwardness I kept feeling when ever I tried to determine the feelings of the characters on screen. The first thing that will stick out the most is that 90% of the time, you will see all the characters with either one eye or no eyes. Now I don't know if this is to avoid "watching" their emotions like we normally do and instead, watch their emotions through sounds via the voice acting and chance flags. Whatever the reason, its just damn awkward staring at characters for long periods of time without eyes. Sometimes its just downright scary. And a large amount of the time, its not even necessary.
Sometimes I thought this was just a move to save time and money since you will also realize that they do A LOT of flashback inserts, especially during the later episodes. If you take a technical standpoint to that issue, from episodes 15 through 26, a full 8 minutes is wasted to the last episode recap, opening theme, and flashbacks to previous episodes. That is disappointing to say the least. But in their defense, each episode is riddled with so many plot and emotional twists that most viewers would easily forget why they are acting 'that way.'
Another useful 'cost cutting' technique that they seem to over use would be the pan and scan shots. Which means they draw an 'elaborate' drawing, then they pan and/or zoom the camera up, down, left, right, in and/or out to get the most effect of the drawing. In small doses, this is perfectly fine like in very important (emotional) scenes. But they do take this technique to the Nth degree. Do we really need to see a pan-shot of Nanami's face with no eyes for a full 8 seconds? There are many artistic flaws like that.
A little bit off topic but, this series does lend itself to very beautiful still shots worthy of any picture frame. Just google search the images for this show and you will understand what I am saying. Ironically, that is the reason why I started watching this show is because of all the artwork depicting this show.

___Sound___
As with any drama, there is a wide range of emotions being displayed through all the characters. Some of them play it out very well, some of them not so much. But any show that manages to get the audience to relate or feel the same way as the characters on screen, should be commended. They did a great job in creating such a wide range of emotions by not only voice acting, but the music and sound effects played a large part into pushing that emotional envelope.
The various songs portrayed in this show all came in at perfect times and never felt like it was awkward or forced. The lyrics to all 9+ songs are sure to bring tears to any drama lovers eyes. As it did with me numerous times. There is nothing really wrong I can say about the music in this show. Its all very appropriate and at times, too appropriate.
Again, with such a great execution of song usage, they manage to screw things up with using the same sound effects over way, way, WAY too much. As seasoned, anime fans would know, when a chance time (or flag) occurs, a 'pleasant' beep would go off. It sounds harmless at first, until you realize they are going to use the same sound effect 10-15 times in every episode.
Not every scene when the on screen characters, gasp, gulp, groan, or preform an act of moe, needs to buzzed in. Granted, half of the time the characters don't have eyes (the most predominant way to read their emotions), but at least let the audience realize these flags on their own instead of literally chiming in for us.

___Characters____
Love them, hate them, or both, they do pull off their lines with ease. They can pull of their personalities with perfection, but for some reason, I had no connection to the characters after watching for a while. I grew to love Nanami and the other cast of characters early on (remember sugar coating), but the plot twists weren't living up to my expectations later in the series that I just gave up cheering for them. The fantasy slowly and effortlessly turned into reality. That's when I started to become disappointed with it as it started feeling like high school all over again. Take that however you may (good or bad) I'm sure you're like me and just end up wanting to watch what happens next 'just because'

It's also a little hard for me to feel an attachment to the characters when they appear not to have any eyes for no apparent reason. I feel like this show would feel much more complete if they completed drawing their eyes, no matter how ugly they are. Kudos to the main cast though as they did manage to just keep it somewhat interesting from beginning to end. Hell, I even caught myself yelling at the screen from time to time at how irrational this drama can be. But hey, that's life right?

___Enjoyment___
No matter if you're a drama buff or feeling nostalgic of that love lost in your past, this is indeed an emotional roller coaster for the soul. Be prepared to cry tears of joy and sadness, and reflect on things that could have been that never were. You will most likely experience all of those things. But sadly the production value and direction they took this show is what ultimately gave me this score. I really wanted to give this show a 9 or even a 10, but the excessive nuances are just too much bear for this poor soul. Maybe they might do a re-release down the line. I'm sure that's just wishful thinking on my part. And on that note...

...What is happiness to you?

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by Ranivus (90)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

May 9, 2010

ZeDesu

Not Recommended

"I always begin to inspect the anime, even if I did not like" this proposal is
anime Bokura ga ita
In other words a waste of time on useless characters - children and their inclinations emovskih
(All bad, he does not love me, etc.)

Start honestly intrigued me, because I have always liked romance, do not know if the creators
confused her, instead of romantic melodrama, they have done "a la Santa Barbara", whether it is anime constructed
only for girls who love this genre and from that strange and appreciation of the anime ...

Story: 1 (boy, girl meet, then parted, then again there are - for mneya is quiet
horror ... of snot and confusing emotions)
Art: 1 (The most terrible show-off that I've seen, although I do not care for showing off extreme, but constantly
closed bangs when they have problems and not middle of painting the characters of the second plan, it is my vyvorazhivaet)
Sound: 1 (tedious music, all I can say)
Character: 1 (I do not understand the nature of these characters, I can kind of person who over trifles
do not survive, and if there was love, you can find another, but probably not destiny)
Enjoyment: 1 (It was a feeling of "When will it end, and when finally one of the protagonist'll bet
girl and make her truly happy? ! !)
Overall: 1 No comment

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ZeDesu (3)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Akitaro Daichi Directed Anime Watchlist

by TheCoolGuy82

28 Entries · 6 Restacks

Discover Yourself and Love Yourself

by GonXalo

46 Entries · 114 Restacks

doki doki collection 1

by barcanoloski

50 Entries · 9 Restacks

	Poll: Bokura ga Ita Episode 26 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) jacobpaige - Mar 16, 2008	136 replies	by catzolasnahouse »» Nov 16, 7:20 AM
	Poll: Bokura ga Ita Episode 16 Discussion jacobpaige - Mar 16, 2008	33 replies	by miyatobio »» Apr 6, 11:28 PM
	Poll: Bokura ga Ita Episode 19 Discussion jacobpaige - Mar 16, 2008	26 replies	by Suoly »» Mar 20, 10:10 PM
	Bokura ga Ita Season II Discussion Rufus - Jul 4, 2008	25 replies	by chrisma »» Feb 7, 8:57 AM
	Poll: Bokura ga Ita Episode 11 Discussion jacobpaige - Mar 16, 2008	28 replies	by poobular »» Jan 20, 12:54 AM

Top 25 Best Romance Anime of All Time

Let's just be honest and admit that every story is spiced up if it contains at least a small degree of romance. Love makes everything better, so here are the 25 most romantic anime shows in which love plays a very important role.

by FreeNightFalls

8,189,548 views

Spoiler

RecommendationCollectionCute GirlsCute GuysKawaiiLoveGIF

9 Anime's Greatest Directors: Writer's Picks

If you ask the general public to name anyone associated with anime, they’re almost certain to name a certain director – Miyazaki Hayao. But for anime fans themselves, the director is a crucial component of anime success that’s too often overlooked.

by GuardianEnzo

99,605 views

RecommendationCollectionAnalysisDirector