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| Unique sci-fi that really felt like it could have been something great initially, but ended up pretty disappointing. Mostly it lacked impact; many of the characters stories weren't all that compelling nor were some of them given enough time to develop. One big problem I had with it was that most of the battles felt staged, the conditions always allowed the chosen person to perfectly complete their emotional journey. For instance, the battle where the enemy mech suicides is very convenient because this is the one fight where the chosen child decided they weren't going to move a muscle. We weren't given enough information on the master minds (also too convenient how whats his name gets that burst of enlightenment...) or why their goal makes sense. But I guess that's unimportant, its supposed to be about the drama of the kids situation, right? They shouldn't have half-assed it then and just kept the master minds out of it if they didn't want to explain it satisfactorily. 6/10 Tempted to try the manga.. |
AlexSadist-sama said: I hated the changes done- they should've followed the manga all the way. The ending was bad too. I agree. In comparison the manga has a far better storyline. However it is more depressing. But much better written. I can always tell when Gonzo jumps in to change the story. Even if I hadn't read the original material I would have spotted it. There's just something "Fake" about Gonzos writing. I know that's a strange way to put it but I find it hard to describe. It's when characters suddenly start saying strange lines that obviously hint "LOOK, This has deep meaning!" However I did like the Russian roulette chairs and some of the changes to the Daiichi kids story. Still I think Gonzo should have stuck to the manga. It was a story that was fine the way it was. Nobody can emulate the writing style of another author perfectly. I am ok with making changes to a flawed story but if it ain't broke then you shouldn't fix it. |
 "I always take life with a grain of salt, ...plus a slice of lemon, ...and a shot of tequila." |
| I don't think it was that bad an ending. Were people really expecting all the answers to be resolved? They only hinted at the masterminds and a deeper plot, but they never really explored it in the anime. I'm satisfied with the ending; it's just what I expected and I was prepared for the 'plot holes' left after finishing. I knew it would be unrealistic for them to include such a far-fetched idea within the anime which only stuck to the experiences of the children. I'm sure they never intended to explain the truth behind the Game and the masterminds. I believe it was just mentioned to give some backbone to the story. I mean, I would've been frustrated if I never even found out why the children were fighting in the first place. But that's all I needed really. After finding that out, I didn't really mind whether or not it was explored further because the anime was focused on the children. If they were intending do something as ridiculous as taking down the masterminds, they wouldn't have wasted episodes going through each of the children's lives. I give Bokurano a 9/10. Definitely a lot different from a lot of other anime out there. It's like a nice, depressing breath of fresh air from all the childish or moe stuff that has been circulating lately. |
"A detoxified Akihabara would just be another electronic town!"  |
| I didn't want to cry... but the tears just keep shedding :'( It was a great serie, even though I was expected of some universe battle in the end.. And I wanted to understand more about those mastermind people in white Daichi's story is still my favorite episode |
| Its an great ending of an great anime, the plothole about the true masterminds is something you should fantasize about. I think the was the meaning of the director. 9/10 |
 Steam: Zeemanhuismerk |
| I don't believe Bokurano is about solving questions anyway - there are millions of small metaphors during the whole story that keep telling us that we're actually the ones that are destroying our own world. Not only the obvious thing that Kanji's mother done in Research Institute, but also the fact that parallel universes might actually be metaphor for ourselves. We're battling each other as part of "natural selection", resulting in everything being destroyed for sake of what? |
| People complaining about Gonzo changing stuff should check up on things, it was the creator himself who approved most of the divergences from the manga, because he disliked how his work turned out the first time. I realize haters are gonna hate, and manga purists are haters like none other, but when the mangaka himself is OKing the changes I think he certainly has a right, don't you? Anyway, this was an incredible ending to an unbelievably awesome anime. A 30-hour battle to the death to finish things out, killer. I like how it showed the effects of the exhaustion on both Ushiro and his opponent, whose color scheme reminded me of Evangelion Unit-01 for some reason (purple and neon-green). At the ending I was afraid that someone was going to come along and recruit fifteen of the kids to do more fighting, but instead Kana-chan tells everyone the story of the kids that died for their Earth. I do wonder if there's no consequences for Ushiro destroying Zearth and refusing to recruit more worlds into the Masterminds' insane game. The Masterminds seemed rather careless about the whole thing, shrugging and saying 'We're busy, so we'll let this slide for now.' It would've been kinda awesome to see it go all Tengen Toppa on us, but it really wouldn't have fit with the mood of the story. Flying off to confront space-gods on their home turf isn't what this show is about, it's about the emotions of the kids sacrificed to save the planet. I suppose any future comeuppance for the Masterminds would have to come in the form of fanon, since the story seems pretty complete and I don't see there being a sequel. Ah well, c'est le vis. A true classic, going on my top 20 (and possibly my top 10). 5/5, 10/10. |
Blind_GuardianOct 31, 2011 10:31 AM
| Great show, sure some questions weren't answered, but I didn't really need them to be. |
| Need more series to follow this by example. Also, love the OP song and her angelic voice |
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| I think I salvaged something from the blunt ending and I'd love to know if it was intentional: it was when Santa-kun defended his actions of nearly killing off that bird by saying how we kill animals in order to survive. Could the theme be that all lifeforms have to kill other lifeforms in order to advance away from death? The masterminds clearly didn't have any malice against humans on other earths and it seemed like it was out of necessity (albeit a selfish one but for all we know maybe more humans benefit from their actions rather than are hindered because in their universe mankind's population is far greater than a certain number of other galaxies put together). So having said that a further theme could be: there is a trade-off in any given action no matter how infinitesimally small it could be. Of course this conflicts with what Dung Beetle said about this being like 'pruning the plants' which would lead onto theories on astrophysics that I know not enough about to elaborate on here but that could just have been a lazy and misleading analogy to justify an advancement how I described in the first paragraph. Anyway I felt this series to be an unpredictable one- my post in the episode...11(?) discussion is testement to that and even a couple of episodes ago I was expecting Ushiro and Kana to take the places of Dung Beetle and Mochi respectively to give a clean trandscending ending (wut? Sorry I got that phrase from a Death Note review I don't know if it is...semantically correct(? Sorry I got that phrase from...I'll just say 'somewhere' to end the potential recursion)). |
| I am disappointed with the ending. People can say that these "masterminds" and the "space war" were not the focus of the show, but they were still part of it and deserve some sort of closure. |
| Ah well. Atleast Ushio was the last one to fight. I wanted him to be, since his character was the most interesting to me. An alright ending I guess. I expected to feel a lot more things but I guess it's just me. Don't get me wrong though, I enjoyed the show and mature, dark themes but eh. Felt alright overall. 8/10 overall. |
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| Probably it might have been for the best if we didn't know more about the Masterminds or whoever was really behind it. But anyway all's well that ends well, right? |
| became one of my favorites 10/10 episodic anime done right |
| ~"The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands." (Pirsig) |
| well i checked the characters profiles and some of them where really different in the anime it said. anyway i don't know why people say many things stayed unanswered since most of the things where revealed. oh and was i the only one that noticed that when Koemushi moved you heard the same sound as in Saikano when Chise would come to destroy another army. |
| "When a flat-chested loli hugs you, she holds you closer to her heart" "--I am a single bullet. It has no heart. Therefore, it does not think. It just flies straight towards its target."  |
ichigo1991 said: well i checked the characters profiles and some of them where really different in the anime it said. anyway i don't know why people say many things stayed unanswered since most of the things where revealed. oh and was i the only one that noticed that when Koemushi moved you heard the same sound as in Saikano when Chise would come to destroy another army. Hehe, I was wondering where I had heard that before, thanks for the reference. I think it's a common sound effect used in different games/shows also though. The ending did seem hasty, but I enjoyed the anime overall. I give it a 10/10; its dark-theme and structure seriously pleased me. I'm more than satisfied of this anime. |
| _____________________________________________________________ Come visit the Rec club! Everyone gets confused as to what they want to watch or read next. :T Here is the Official Rec Club list of Recommendations! |
| 7.6/10 This sort of burnt out towards the end. |
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| Dammit, did the masterminds seriously get away with it? =.= But I guess that's the cruel reality check message given out here XD 5/5 |
| sexual incest in nisomonogatari - no one bats an eye romance incest in SAO - everyone loses their minds |
| I enjoyed this but it is a shame there is so much left unanswered. Obviously who were the masterminds being the main one. But little things like, what happened to the successor? Did they die after their first fight as an instructor? I assume so but if that is the case, then the whole, ' the successor will survive' thing was a bit overdone. Seeing as they would survive only long enough to recruit 15 kids to die and then do one example fight and die themselves... And then of course it didn't really make sense why they didn't need a successor in the end, or did the guy without a arm become the successor? I enjoyed it a lot but sadly this goes in the pile of anime that start off epic but majorly disappoint you if you want any answers.' |
"When everyone else is about to give up, the fighter who becomes the role model, is the true Leader."  |
| So bad... Thirty hours? Really? After all of those thirty second battles with extremely easy wins, this battle lasted thirty hours? That's just retarded. Especially since Jun just sat there like an idiot whenever the enemy backed up and stopped moving. He could have won right there on the spot, but instead he felt like making a cup of tea and eating some bread. Then later, when he's being pummeled by the enemy robot, he randomly gets a "courage rush" and tackles the enemy for a quick victory. Really? If it was really that easy, he could have done it the whole time. And they end it all by showing a few flashbacks? That's it? That's all they could think of to close this story off? Why did they even bother showing "the 'materminds'" (a stupid concept in my opinion) if they had absolutely no intentions of building on that? The anime was interesting at first, but then it rapidly degenerated into idiocy. There was way too many ass pulls, the most obvious of which was episode 21 where the robot randomly revived itself and suddenly we have this huge retarded explanation of some vauge program they made and how the enemy robot is somehow attracted to it and somehow this computer program draws from all the energy around it and for some reason the enemy robot is attracted it. All that, out of absolutely nowhere, for absolutely no reason at all. They never explain what that program was for, why they made it, what they were going to do with it, and why the enemy didn't want them to have it. They could have completely left that part with the enemy robot reviving itself out, and the story would have continued on normally. Stuff like that is extremely dumb and degrades the quality of the rest of the story. There isn't even any substance to the story. It's just "Kids find guy in cave > guy in cave contracts kids to pilot robot > kids pilot robot > kids die > the end". That's all there is to the story. Nothing else. We never learn the reason behind these fights. Why were they necessary? We never learn who's in control of the fights. Who are the "masterminds"? The most integral parts of the story were completely ignored. Granted, the whole concept of making people fight each other in massive robots to determine which universe gets to survive is retarded (what the hell is the point of it? seriously!), but they could have at least tried to take the story seriously. I'm probably going to read the manga after this. From what I've read, the director of this anime actually hated the source manga, and drastically changed the story as a result. Hopefully the manga won't suck. My rating: 5/10 |
LarasoJun 13, 2013 12:49 AM
| Some parts of this post may be exaggerated. |
| I thought the concept of the show was good, but what I disliked was how it went from a dark theme to a light theme back to a dark theme...I also didn't care for how short the fight scenes were, it was too much description and not enough action to back up the build-up each episode created. The unexplained reasoning behind the show is why I give it a 7/10 |
 "To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment" |
zq said: Same here.I don't regret watching this show and picking it up again after I dropped it. :> I tried/dropped it years ago because it was boring... interesting, but boring. My opinion hasn't really changed, but it was definitely worth finishing. The final battle was the only one where I could feel the suspense. I can't give the show more than 5/10 because of the "blah" that is so typical of Gonzo. For an Eva clone, I do kind of wish they had copied a bit more of the extremeness/desperation/fear for the battles. It would have gone nice with the depressive stories of all of the kid's lives. |
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| I quite liked it, though I hear it's not quite what the Manga was. The realisation that they were Daichi's siblings took me by surprise, and noticing the eyecatches prompted this topic and video: Definitely worth finishing, for all the melancholy it brought. |
| A quite wonderful way to end the story! A complete end to the battle with a nice look into the near future for the people that were left behind! I have to say that I'm quite surprised from this anime, I didn't expect much from it as I'm not a huge fan of mecha but man there sure are some unique ones like this anime where the story and character development was ow so good combined with the main setting and concept! The whole anime was lovely to marathon and with the great pace and nice balance between drama and action it sure managed to give me an overall great feel about this anime! 9/10 |
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| Nice ending. I really enjoyed the anime and its quite adventurous/mysterious plot. I would definitely love to see it as a live action film! ^__^ |
| Sort of disappointed that Ushiro didn't live. I made spot on prediction that he was the most important of the 15 in episode 1 because he had the best character design and voice actor (and got attached). Didn't really feel all that sad for the other characters except the kid that gave up his heart, and the kid with the 3 little siblings, everyone else was cannon fodder imo. Because the series was a "1 episode about character and then death" you didn't really feel for the other 14 kids. Just Ushiro cuz they developed his story through all the episodes. 6/10 for the above and because there was no payback against the masterminds nor we don't know exactly who they are |
| This show is way too sadistic. I can't believe that I've wasted my time watching 24 episodes of kids being tortured and killed with a meh ending, where most of the crucial questions were left unanswered. Still it was an above average show but unless you're emo who enjoys sad endings or a sadist who likes to see kids being tortured to death then I wouldn't recommend it. |
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| this is the hardest show to rate for me since i Midori Shoujo Tsubaki, not really sure if i liked it as strange as it sounds near the end the show got goofy an ultimately we didnt got answers about the masterminds, no i dont think we needed to see Zearth revolting an defeating them in a climatic battle with the fate of the multiverse at risk, the show wasnt about that but i wanted some explanation about them anyways my fav parts were the backstories of Nakama an Daichi an the ones i disliked were Chizu, Kaku, Komo an Aikos, that aside this anime made me interested enough to read the manga an find out what part got properly adapted an what got Gonzo d i guess ill give it a 7 |
silversaintJan 11, 2015 7:25 PM
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| yeah just like i said, one word defines this anime: desapointed It had a great plot line, but the characters were weak and forgetable. The animations was weak and there was looose ends and a lot of cliches for me was just fine (6/10)... not sure if Im happy with all the time spent |
Love... hurts... so... |
zq said: I don't regret watching this show and picking it up again after I dropped it. :> |
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| Really amazing anime. I loved almost everything (except that ugly CG robots). I like Gonzo's productions, their anime is almost always unique, and they are not afraid of sci fi genre. 9/10 for me. Definitely not for lovers of mainstream action series, or shitty characters with God complex. |
| Dub = fake crap. Always. |
| 9/10. CG has aged quite a bit, but the story stays pristine. Uninstall is probably going to stay in my mind for quite a while... |
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| decent ending but I really wish they reveal some information about the mastermind. That is my biggest pretty much my compliant of the anime thus far otherwise a solid sci fic anime that doesn't involve harem bs. And wtf! All the children won their battles in a reasonable short length of time and die afterward but Jun was about to sustain his life for 30 hours of fighting? I honesty do not get how the mech draining life force in order to be operation works. |
BornWithCHeeSeMay 1, 2016 4:59 PM
| Well I really enjoyed this series, although the ending did feel a little weak. This episode was good for and other episode but the fact that it was the last one, with so much unexplained is a bit annoying. |
| I like the anime as a whole but i still have some questions about the "villains". I 'll give a 8/10. I know that the manga is different from the anime so if i read it will i take some answers? |
| Turns out this anime is shallow. I started loosing my hope for it halfway through - should've dropped it then. It tried to be unpredictable and dramatic, but failed to leave an impact. Overall a fine watch, but deceiving and disappointing. |
| What happened to the original Kokopelli from episode 1? Seemed like there were some loose ends that needed to be wrapped up but didn't. |
| MAL: A community that thinks every anime is bad, but rates everything a 7/10. |
not really episodic though ay? - if all these haters ahd got what they 'wanted' with all questions answered at the end, they'd probably be complaining that everything hot wrapped up too neatly or answers were too simple. its better this way right? |
"Urushibara Ruka. The mannerisms and voice of a woman... No... More feminine than any woman. But he's a guy. Taller than Mayuri, but so very thin... But he's a guy. Looks great in a miko outfit... But he's a guy. It's already twilight And yet, it's so hot. The cicadas are crying. But... He's a guy." |
| there was so much bla bla bla in the last battle that i completely lost the mood. The problem is that it wasn't a emotional bla bla bla to make you cry or something, it just... dragged the episode. This series got me hooked from epi 1 to 23, but in the last one they fail me. That is a strange feeling i have right now. BUT, the part when she tells the story for the little kids got the job done. I wish everyone knew their story, like the other earths they visited. |
akiraicAug 10, 2017 9:50 PM
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| This was an unpleasant anime to watch. It wasn't bad, but it was unpleasant. Years ago, I learned about this anime from its opening being featured in the Nico Nico Douga Medley video. Now, having finally finished Bokurano, I can finally say that I'm not completely regretful for watching this. At the beginning, I knew this was going to be a rough ride, if my experience with Shadow Star Narutaru was any indication. My issue with "everybody dies" sorts of anime is it's hard to make a connection with any of the characters. You don't follow the anime see who survives, but rather, more so to see how long the anime can keep up its reserves of warm bodies to throw into the fire. I don't like characters dying. At least, not before it feels like all the stories they could have told have been told. It seems wasteful in a pragmatic sense, and I moreso dislike suffering as a whole. But, at least in Bokurano's case, it wasn't a complete loss. The established scenario made any happy endings impossible, and by the anime's mercy, we don't get to see the after stories to the main characters' loved ones after their deaths. Furthermore, a good amount of the characters seemed to have made their peace by their ends, with others being less than fortunate in that regard. For what it's worth, the anime could have been a LOT more rapey, paedophiliac, murder-filled and depressing. If anything, the idea that everyone, at the end, exist as a single entity, hence "Bokurano," lends to a sort of optimistic idea that that everyone worked together to the very end in order to protect what was important to them individually. That being said, it did feel formulaic at some point. It was one character after another dying. Yeah, I did dread watching more characters die, but that, if anything, should have warded me away from the anime, rather than getting me to continue watching. As such, we have the political problems happening in the background. I will say, I truly became interested in the anime when we had the adults helping out. We had a soldier with connections to the mafia, a diet member, a scientist and a reporter, which seemed like a great mix of professions (if not a bit convenient, but I digress). Though, my initial interest was instantly dashed once they were removed from the scene one after another. With that, the government and business people remaining became a nuisance if anything, distracting from the main point of the anime: Zearth itself. Speaking of which, the whole scenario seemed pointless. Not that the anime was a waste of time, but the fights were zero-sum where the whole conflict would seemingly keep going on for all eternity. With infinite Earths, these fights would potentially never end. The apparent underlying scheme is for these overlords to drain energy from these infinite earths. These fights, as such, would just be delaying any given Earth's eventual demise. It's these types of scenarios where it feels like the multiverse is bent on destroying itself, to where any logical conclusion would just be the death of all existence. I'm...I'm not sure if that's the correct writing decision. Rather, I'm concerned with titles where wiping everything is the only option left. It just feels like such titles wrote themselves into a corner where there's no way to win. If that was the intent, then sure, that makes for a successful title in and of itself. I read partway through the manga, so from what I can tell, the anime is certainly more...bright. At least, comparatively. There were some jokes thrown in here and there, the fights felt purposeful, the drama was toned down A LOT, and even the ending didn't feel like a gut punch. That being said, I haven't read the entire manga, so from hearsay, there was a point where the anime diverted from the manga, to which the anime director and original mangaka had their differences. I can tell that a lot from the anime was sidestepped. For some reason, the battles stopped by the end, giving a sort of peaceful end for the characters left behind. Zearth was dismantled, the higher beings were never addressed, and the general state of the world was never given a conclusion. Not every loose end needed to be tied up, but as is, Bokurano's anime certainly feels incomplete. That being said, I have no intentions to finish the manga anytime soon, so I'll be satisfied with the anime's interpretation. Oh, and also, that OST is pretty good. I suppose if there was anything that could be considered nice about Bokurano, it's that. |
| What a ride. I had no idea this show was about dead kids, so episode 2 took me totally by surprise and I haven't been able to stop watching since. The manga must be pure sadism if it's darker than this. Best ED ever too |
| To be honest, I expected more from this. As the story goes on, it becomes more loose and a lot of things doesn't make sense to me but still a good ride. Shame. I want to like it more but its not that good. |
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| Solid final fight; it seemed much tougher than the other ones. Felt it could've been drawn out a bit more though considering they crammed a thirty-hour fight into 10 minutes. R.I.P. Jun. I appreciate him for taking matters into his own hands, but I can't forgive him for abusing Kana. Seeing Kana describe the story of Zearth to Daiichi's siblings was pretty cute. Would've been a great ending if their weren't so many questions left unanswered. Overall, the anime was okay, but nothing spectacular. It was geniunely dark and depressing at times and the OST was solid, but there were many glaring weaknesses that held it back. The animation was mediocre, there were too many characters for any of them to get any meaningful development, and it felt needlessly convoluted at times. Despite all these flaws, I still enjoyed it to some extent and it scratched that sad anime itch I was looking for. 6.5/10 |
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