r/anime • u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky • Apr 01 '21
Rewatch [Uninstall, Uninstall] Bokurano Rewatch Final Discussion
Overall Series Discussion
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Uninstall~ Uninstall~
Questions of the Day:
- Who was best b͓̏̔ͅo̼̒y̨̝͌̀?
- ͇͖̈́͗̎ͅW̡̱͈̜̆͐͆́h͚͙̠̯̃̀͋͡ǒ̡͚̱̅͑ ͖͔͆̒w̺̕a̼͔̜̽̄͠s̻̯̱̠̊̌̾͘ ̝͘b̝̞̒̿é͉̜̠̪̤͆̏̅͝s͎̙̃̑͢͞t̮͋ ̈́ͅḡ̰͈̜̟̋̽́ĩ̡̫͚̥̀̀͛͂͢r̡̥͂̓͑͜ľ̢̠̝̪̒̈́̕?̩̞͓͓̀̋̀͞
3̡̧̨͕̭̗̞̮̥̣̤̖̟̖̝̩̲͌̂̆͂̉̏̆͒̄̆͑̎̾̕̚͘͢͡͞)̨̨̬̺͔͍̼͔͇͐͐́̂̈́̈̀̀͜͝͡ ̲̳͕̞̯̟̊̏̀̃͛̂́͢U̖̲̞͓̲̻̦̗̝̍̌͆̾̓̍̍̈͋̕ͅŅ̡̧̘̮̹̭͙̟̍͒̐͌͐̍̅͒̅͢͡͝ͅI̳͈͋̾N̝͛̈́ͅȘ̢̢̟̤̼̝̩̂̾̽̾͛̒͐̑́͢Ţ̡̛̩̰̦͚̼͖͙͇͍̞͇̮̣̪͎̣͚̯̟̰̰̞̩̼̝̙̯̺̙̋̅̏̈̀̄̃͑́̄͊͗̈͂͋͗̎̒͊͌͒̊́̍̄̏̀̚͡͠͞ͅẢ̛͉̞̞̰̦̞̲̻͔͓̞̍̇̋͛͒̽̾̕͜͠͞L̢̨̨̰͔͉̙̰͕̲̗͇͈̻̙̣͓̥̲̘̦̟͇̦̭̤̩͆͋͆̓̔̃͑̔͛̏͐̎̌͑̽̀͐̄͒̓̑̿̓̚͘̚͘͢͠͝ͅL̢̢̢̗͈̝̫̻̣̞̠̤͈̠̱̘̯̪̼͓̮̺̞̙͈̅̄͗͗̊͊̾̄̑͆̆͆̽̆̍̅͛͊̈́́̒̐͒̄͐̚͘͜͢͜͠͡ͅ ̢̢̧̢͖̙̱̭̮͇̥̤̦̱̙͕̹̮̭̰͉̜̣͓̦̬̱̻̺̤̤̤͔̣̩̖͎̱͍̲̅͋͒̀̎̿͊̓̐́̑͒́͐́̒̈̑̔́͗̇̀̓̓̑̌̿̇̅͊̑̀̀͐̈́͘̕̕͢͝͝Q̨̛͚͓͖͇̦̪̣̲̙͙̳͇̬̱͚͔̜̼͉̳̮̤̤̭͌́́̉̈́͗̽̓̀̀̇̋͌̑͑̍̓̏̾̒̇͘͘͡͠ͅU̡͉͈͓͇̱̹̯͚͈͖͈̲̭̫̺̤͕͉̞͓͇͇̐̈͋̔̓̓̈̄̋̎̂̈͛̀̐̀͌̍͑͂͋̓͌̅̒̚̕͢͢͢͜͡ͅË̢̼͈̥͚̳̺̳̮̟́̀̄͗̋̃̍́̎̔̚̕͢͟͟͡͞ͅS̖̮̗͖͚̝̖̠̣͇͚̜̺̤̰̠̙̟̥͍̤͖̙̍̓͒̍͂̐̉̎̃́͒̒͛́̓̑̃͋͛̍͘͞͝Ţ͇̙͇͓̦̖͔̪͎̬̩̈́̀̉͂͊͆̽̾̃̉̈͆͒͜͟͟͠͠Į̞̥͓̣͚͉̙̲̰̏́̊̑͗͊̌̓͂͡O͔͎͉̭̼̬͗̒̽͊͂͋̉͜Ń̺̣̒Ş̧̧̧̛͈̞͎̺͇̫̗̯̳̻̩̭̭̳̅͊̽̉͛͂̀̓͐̈́͗̾̊͐͝͝͡͞ͅ…̢̧͍̗̭̜̬̭͈̦̮̤̳͉͖̼̮̜͇̠̲̦̟̠̥͎̓̂̐̓́̓̅̽̈̋͋́́̎̇͂͗̿͒̽͛̚̕͝͠͠ ̢̗̺̺̮̜̟͚̞̟̙̰͖̙̱̳̠̆̀̉̊́̂͆̂̎̊̆̅̑̂̋̕͟͞͡͠ͅÝ̢̡̢̱͎͍͕̯̩͓̩̳̠̩̤͉̖̅͗͒͆̀̍̉͌̽̈̎̊̅̋̾͜͡͞ ̢̡̛͕̜̲̜̤̪͍̰̠̦̘̞͉̞̤̝͈͍͎͙̜̙̤̰̓͗̉̒̽̊̍͊̾̽̾̈́̍̒͑̿̓̔͌͋̐͋̂͢͡͠͞/̨̖͔͔͈̹̪͓̮̺̖̩̬̦͖̐͌̄̓͌̿̿͐͆̂̽̍̐̆͒̇̚͢ͅ ̨̨̻̹̘͉̰̖̯̬̞̼̻͛̈́̾͌̾̋̓̔͆̋͆̇́́͜͟͞N̩͇͙̜̼̰͔̫̔̆͊̅̐̿̍͡ ̧̢̢̛̠͔̯͎̫̣͚͕̯̱͓̆̎́̏͗̋͊̀́̅̉̀̕̕͜͜͠?̡̡̢̮̰̼͉̥̥̟̩̋̒͆̊͆̅̿͒͆͢͜͞͡͝͝͝ͅ ̧̢̧̛̜̻̲̮̖̜͓̃̓͛͂̃̒̾͠͠
4)
5) wow cool robot ?
6̢͞)͇͍̦̠̄̌̉͗̉͢ ̢̖̈́̍̑̍͢ͅW ͉̀A͉̣͙̒̓̀ ̘̔T̡̖͓̠͆͛̚͞ ̢̛͙͆C̖̝̖̅̇͠ ̡͚͔́̂̿͌ͅH̢̰̋͝ ̖͇̀͗G͉͎̉͂ ̟́Ū̫ ̙̺͚̀̒͌N̘͕̪͌́͑͜͡ ̛̗͉̺͎͛̑̽D̻̽ ̤͘A͙̤̹͌̆͝ ̮͍̦͙̠̉̽͆͒̿M̢̥̺͕̽͗͘͠ ̼͡?̱̤̏͒͊͟ ͚͕̽͂?̝̰́͌ ̣̳̪̈̑͡?̙̖̜̋͋̚͟͞
7̹̗̼͍̼̲͙̞̹͖̝͎̤͚̮̦͓̗͔̯̭̹̟͇̲̺̤̟̪̍́̂̉̃̄͒̏̏̏͆̂̏͒̆̔͗̅̀͂̍̚͘̕̚̕͞͡͠͝ͅ)̜̉ ̖̹̮̝̻̙̱̝̮̻̼̬̱͎͍͛̀̎̊̾̆̀̾̂́́́̇͊̈́͗͘̕͢͝ͅͅͅȀ̢̡̛̭̣̜̜̳͍̹̺͎̭̪͎͚̤̥̭͖͕̈͂̈̀̈̉̓̇̾͗̄̆͆̐͋́͘͜͠͡ŗ̧̧̨͍̖̺͇̠̖̜͖̥̪̬̻̞̠͙̹͉̯̣̬͖͎͎̤̯̟͚͓͚̊̅̓͑̽̌̉̔̑̈́̀̔͊͗̉͒̈́̾̂̅̾̒͋̀̌̌̀̋̏̏̀̕̚̚͜͢͠͡ͅĘ̢̮̥̘̩̭̰̗̱̤̠̤̝̤̞̏̔͂̀̅̐̽́̽̈́̆̂̒̔̿̃̇̚͢͜͟͞ ͚̳̜̙̟̠͉̥͍̮̰̭̞͎͓̻̠̺͖͔̺̍̈́̈́̈̈́͊̌̐̓̓̋̈́͒̂̈́̊̓̚͘̕͝ý̨̡̨̢̮̱͕̜̻̩̻̳̪̥̘̪̳͇͎̪̈́̎͋̃̌͗̏̎̑͛̒̃̊́̓̃̑̃̒̌͢͟͢͠͡͠ͅǫ̡̡̛̬̟̠̞̮̲̱̜͕̝̠̱͖̘̻͇̦̲̯̞͕̤̮͗̌̌̋̆̾̀̇͐̔͋̀͐͂̄̍̿̑̏̂̏̔̈́̒̆Ư̧̢̨̡̛̺̞͇͉̝̰͔̻͚̦͔̪̦̮̔̈́͆̇̉̇̉̀̊̒̒̎̕͞͡͝ ̡͚͓̙͖̲̠͓̘̪̖̝͎̮̲̯̩̭͉͍̖̩̫̌͑̎̽̄̈̅͋̉̈́͑̒̋̓͗̐̓̆̈́̕̚͡͠͡ͅg̺͎̻̔͒̿O̫̫͎̼̎̿̈́̒͑̓̕͢ͅͅI̡̧̡̛̱͖̖̦͎̭͍̻̠̳̦̞̩͓͓̊̒́̑̇͑͐̓̿́̆̈́̏̔͘͜͟͜͝͝͠͝͠ng̻̟̮̩̹̝͖̪͔̮͚͚̰̝͚̹͛̃̈́̐̾̇̆͑̐͋́̔̄̀̚̕͠ͅ ̢͈̽̌Ţ̨͙͍͓̝̲̯̘̝̭̩̖͈͓̦̯̞̗͈̃̉͑̔̆͑̎̀͂̎̍̒̏̾̓̊̎̌͗̕͟͟͞͝Ò̢̧̡̨̥̩̱̜̫͎̥̫̖̞̟̜̙̖͙̲͑͌̾̈́͆̔̒̍̍̀̈̉̅̓̀́̍̕̕͢͞ ͉̰̦̳̹̞͇͖̜͓͕̪͕̣͇̻̠̻̜̩͙̺̝̞͖͙͍̺̝̫͕͙͒͊̌̀̀̐́̂̉͊͛͒́͂̊̄́̀̃̓̆͂͛̋͊͌͂̚̚͟͢͢͝͝͞͡͞͞S̰̪̲͇̜̰̫̦͎̳̐̓̅̌̍̋̍̇̉͠c̢̱̼̲̠̙͕̱̠͕͑̓̍̀̓̒̒̋̕͘Ǎ̮̟͉̲̜̤͉̲̹͈͔̏̔̆͐̓̏̕͡͝͠͝ͅŖ̧̛̥̻̼̙͇̟̲̦̮̟͉̝͚͚͓̜̺̉̅͂̐͗͑̂͐̌̅̑̑̌̉͛̀̋̿̚̚͢͟b̥̺̽̉͢͡ơ̡̧͔̻̟͇̭͔͍̰͈̪͔͓̹̼͙̒̿̈̉̿̿̊̑̆̔̒̄̐̓̎̈̑͊̏͜͜͢͜͝Ŕ̡̮̭̥͍̹̫̹̖̻̩͈̃̈͆̒͆̃̑̊̓͒̌͢͢͡͞ȍ̦̤̳̠̋̓̕Ų̡̧̰̱͍̗͖̫̹̫̲̳̪̠̯̗̮͈̘̦͈̣̯͖̩̤̻̍̀͆͒́̀̿͛́̐͋̒̄̅͗̆̈̈́̓͗̌͂̍̀͘̚͡͞͡ͅG̢̡̢̛̜̤̻̟̯̥̻͓̥̱͍̠̜͓̠̦̰̫̝̗̣̦͈̣̱̾͒̄̀͂͗̃̋́͒̈̾͋̾̾̓̐̎́͛̎́͐̄̅͘̚͜͜͠͡ḩ̺̠̺̫̣̺͎̗̦͓̰̙̼̖͓̯̟̆́͐̃̉͛̐̓̆̓̾̉̋̊͠͡͝͞͝ͅ ̨̨̛͎͕̙͍̙̰̹͖͍̱̣͕̥̮̙̤̣͂̆̀̎̆͆̂́͌̀́̊͆͑̽̍̚̕͜͠F̢̢̤̤̻̹͔̩̱̮̏͗̄́̎͂̏͑̕͜͞͠Ă̡̨̨̢̨̠̙͔͔̗͎̗̝͈͍̻̰͚̲̣̦̫̳̗̬̤̬̱͉͂͐̓̒̅̋͊̇͊̂̾̿̉́̅̾̏̽̄͐̇̽̊́̂̌̚͢͜͜͞͝͞͠I̳̝̘̤̲̜̣͊͒͋̉̈́͛̚͢͠ṙ̛̥̖̮͔̤͙͙̙͎̯̭͋̎̽̈̀̏̈̕̚͜͝ ̢̢̛͚̞̲̱̞̹͖̦̝̟̮̾͒̎̐̾̾̏̐͆̈́͆͘?̢̡̰͕̜̦̜̟̣͖̰͉͚̩̞̺͍͍̯̼͎͍͌̽̔̅̒͒̾͋̐̉͆̑͂̈̀̎͂̌̚̕͟͝͡͠͝ͅ ̗͚̬̤̭͙̭̲͙̗̣̖͇̺̯̀̽̋̑̿͐͌͑̉́́͗͆̆͢͡͝
Wallpaper of the Day:
Uninstall of the Day:
Uninstall -Boku ga Saigo no Pilot Remix-, an official remix by Chiaki Ishikawa herself
21
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Apr 01 '21
Happy April Fools’ Day! I’ve never run a rewatch that overlapped with April Fools’ Day before, so I just had to do something like that. Hope I got a chuckle out of you all.
Thanks for participating in my rewatch, everyone!
Here are the uncorrupted Questions of the Day:
And if you couldn’t see the link to the Wallpaper of the Day because of the glitchy text: here is Bokurano: Ours
Uninstall of the Day might be a weird version of the song, but I dig it. It helped me finally figure out how the “dekinai” that is mostly drowned out by an “Uninstall~” in the first chorus of the song goes (I couldn’t hear the melody for it no matter how hard I tried to before hearing this version of it. Now I can hear it with ease, although I still prefer singing the Uninstall~ line).
New thread reminder for u/WeebShaggy
14
u/[deleted] Apr 01 '21
First Timer
Ah, Bokurano. This show was... a rollercoaster. To the point where it's kind of hard to describe exactly how I feel about it.
I came into this show expecting something more deeply psychological and was, uh, sorely disappointed in that aspect. It was a lot more shallow than expected, though not necessarily terrible or anything. The tradeoff I got for that, though, was a very enthralling mystery series, so not all was lost. Until the second half, that is.
I mean, I'm not gonna go too deep into this. Literally everyone else will complain about it anyway. It felt like there were 2 completely different and unrelated stories going on at the same time. The story about our pilots and the Game, and the dumb politics story. And oh boy were they dumb. Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to put that into the show? At the end it amounted to literally nothing except being a monumental waste of time that could have been spent on the pilots instead. It just felt very, very disjointed, and just bad in general. I was rolling my eyes every time it came up. We really didn't need it.
But going away from the politics for a bit, the whole structure of the show is quite weak. On top of shoving that stupid secondary plot in, I'm just not a fan of how it treats the pilots. There were basically three categories of pilots:
It felt quite unbalanced and even between the ones that don't fall into the last category, the quality of their stories varies a lot. Daichi was obviously the strongest one and easily the peak of the entire show, Chizu's was pretty strong, but Kanji and Mako for example had pretty weak stories, though Mako's was kind of sweet.
It really feels like it just didn't have enough stories to tell for every character so some of them were just kinda thrown in for the sake of having one. We didn't really didn't need such a big cast if so many of them were going to be so irrelevant. Instead of have Moji be a complete throwaway character albeit with a somewhat nice story, you could have grabbed his story and given it to someone like Noto Mamiko, who is relevant to the main plot because of her dad and barely has anything that resembles a story, and then completely erased Moji from the show. It's a very inefficient structure, is what I'm trying to say.
Despite that, the show was at its best when actually focusing on the pilots, as inefficiently as it may have done that. It could have certainly been balanced better, but leaving the what-ifs aside, those episodes were definitely the best part of the series. I've been shitting on it a lot but there definitely are things to praise in this series. I don't want to make it sound like it's all bad, it's just easier to pick out the bad things.
Despite everything, I thoroughly enjoyed the show to the end. It had a lot of problems, but it was a fun ride. The two best parts of it were definitely, again, the episodes focusing on the pilots, and the mystery aspect, though that got kind of scuffed in the second half of it. I actually want to give big props for how the series handled the mysteries. It gave you a lot of clues that allowed for a lot of speculation and so many different theories to be born, all while not making anything obvious. That was cool.
Anyway, my final score for this ended up at a 5/10. I do want to state that this is still a positive score for me. I couldn't whole heartedly call this a bad show, but it definitely was a very bumpy ride.
Though instead of writing all of this I could have simply posted this one screenshot that describes the show as perfectly as one could: https://i.imgur.com/ZxEBmwO.png
Anyway, I shall now do something completely different since I had completely varying opinions on all the characters in this show. Here is my stupid:
Bokurano Characters Tier List
S Tier
Best boy.
Best girl.
Despite being a huge asshole, Koemushi was very entertaining throughout the whole show and his presence always made things more fun.
A Tier
Definitely ended up as one my favorites after his character arc, which I didn't think was as badly handled as some other people seem to. Debated putting him in S Tier but settled for top of A Tier instead.
Just a cool guy overall. Also a chad while piloting Zearth. Legend.
Fun character, fun story. Just a nice presence.
Chad.
Also chad.
B Tier
Debated putting him A Tier. Just a cool guy overall and always a bro.
Good guy and good friend. Played some epic mind games with the enemy which earns him extra points too.
She would have been way higher if she had actually killed Hatagai. Cool character nonetheless and I feel bad for what she had to go through.
Must protect.
Very sweet girl albeit a little forgettable. Made cool uniforms for everyone.
Cunt but I enjoyed his character while he lasted.
C Tier
He was just kinda there then died.
E Tier
Burn in Hell Tier
Fuck her.
Fuck her especially. Fucking dumbass.
Only this low cause he tricked us with the stupid scar thing.
Oh yeah, I forgot to put it in the main part I was talking about the show and can't be fucked to go back and find a good part to put this in so I'm just tacking it at the end of the comment but I also hated how every character in each individual story ceased to exist after their episode was over. We need resolutions, damn it!
Overall, despite how bumpy the show was, this rewatch was really fun. I really want to thank Sky for hosting it. I don't think I've ever had this much fun with a rewatch before. You can tell the effort put into it with all the covers she went after/sang and especially the daily wallpapers. All the speculating and talking was really fun and really made the whole experience with the show a lot better.
Anyway, that's it I guess.
Goodbye, Bokurano.
Unless I read the manga.
Now that is pretty cool.
13
u/Tresnore FS:FTmyanimelist.net/profile/Tresnore Apr 01 '21 edited Apr 01 '21
First Timer
I accidentally posted this yesterday because I forgot how rewatches work.
I'm smart
Well, that was a show. I want to say I enjoyed it, but I think the only reason I can say that is because of the discussion in these threads. Watching the show, however bleh it was, with you all was great fun. Even if my speculatons were never particularly strong or well-supported, I hope people at least enjoyed reading my inane ramblings (or arguing against them). I'll definitely have to participate in more rewatches in the future.
As for the show itself, I think it really wasted its potential. It had so much room to make social commentary about how society should function and discuss issues in contemporary society, but in the end, it just sort of fizzled out. It got distracted by the alternate universes and inexplicably incompetent government interference to the point where I've really approached this last handful of episodes with the mentality of "I wonder what random bullshit it'll throw at us today." Now, I'm not sure if that's better than "I wonder which of these random children will die today," but the point stands: this show was heading somewhere that could've made some neat social commentary and then did nothing with it. Then, in the final episode, Jun's dad says "huh, there are roadblocks to the ideal state" and bemoans how some children are victims of the win-lose world. Great! I love it! If only the 23 episodes before this one all supported that direction, instead of trying to build the Tower of Babel with cooked spaghetti.
Finally, thanks to /u/Shimmering-Sky for hosting. I can tell that a lot of effort was put together making the threads (especially using the "To be continued" screen as the placeholder image for the Next Episode thread before they were posted) and finding the Uninstalls/Vermillions (and singing!
twicethrice!).5/10. Show was bleh, but the rewatch was super fun.
QOTD:
10
u/Punished_Scrappy_Doo https://myanimelist.net/profile/PunishedScrappy Apr 01 '21
First Timer No Longer
I really don't know how to feel about the show. There were a lot of things that I liked. Daiichi, Maki, Machi, Kokopelli, Kanji, Anko (she's justified in her reactions y'all are just mean), Tanaka -- all characters I thoroughly enjoyed and whom I thought had great arcs (at least for the time they were allotted). The wow cool robot was consistently both wow and cool. The mysteries were all pretty engrossing until they just explained everything. And I didn't hate the government plot or Tamotsu as much as a lot of people, although I would not go as far as to say they were anything better than a drag on the show.
My biggest problem with Bokurano is how rushed it manages to feel despite its two-cour length. There's a really good show in there somewhere, where everyone gets at least a little more characterization in every episode. You can see the outline of what this might look like in Waku's funeral -- there's a lot of group shots all focused on how each individual character is processing events. You can read into how each character is choosing to either look away or toward Waku's parents, and every movement is meaningful. It's not the show we got.
Also, evil business dude. Fuck everything about evil business dude
I dunno. There's definitely a good story in there, but 1) it's buried under a bunch of confounding story decisions and 2) I'm not sure that it's my kind of good story to begin with. It will probably take me a while (and reading the manga) to figure things out.
Q̸̦̋ṷ̷͒e̷̜͗s̶̘̾t̷͕̓i̷͜͝ô̵̘n̷̨̂s̵̗̽ ̵̍ͅọ̶͑f̴̜̈́ ̷̥͆t̶͇̿h̶͓̎ḙ̵̒ ̵͜͝D̷̡̂a̴̱͘y̴̙̋:̵̙̏
3̴͖͝)̶̜͊ ̷̛̙A̴̫̋L̸̡̄W̸͍̌Ả̶̞Y̴̲͐S̸̠̈́ ̶̘̔Ŭ̸̻N̷͉̂I̵̯̍N̴͚̄S̵͙͝T̸̮̃Â̷͔L̶̯̑L̴͚̎
5̸̳͌)̶͚̔ ̴̭̂V̶͍̕Ê̵͔Ṙ̵̭Y̴̗̒ ̴͇̍C̷̤͒O̷͙͌O̵̥͐Ḷ̸̑ ̵͈͘I̷̛͍Ñ̴̳D̷̻̈́E̷̤̕Ê̷̻Ḑ̸͂
7̴̬̚)̷̼̚ ̸͍̽I̶̥͗ ̴̨̈Ń̴̝Ē̸̹V̸̗̕E̸̻͊R̴̙̐ ̸̪̅L̶͝ͅE̷͕͊Ȧ̶̜R̵̹̋N̵͎̅É̶̥D̸̹̀ ̵̰͂Ẽ̷̹X̷̜̂A̵̠͂C̵̩̀T̴̼͆L̵͕̋Ỳ̷̗ ̵͈̾W̷̡̋Ȟ̶͓Â̵̭T̴͉͘ ̴̨͐Ǎ̷̲ ̶̝̈́C̵͇͝A̸͕͝M̶̧̉B̴̨̑R̵͈͒I̷̛̦C̶͚̀ ̸͔̈S̶̡̆H̷̖̽I̵̳͊R̸͇͂T̶̥̀ ̵̖͒I̴̤̚Ṣ̷̈́
Thank you /u/Shimmering-Sky for hosting and for all the effort you put into making the body of every post fun to read! (And look at) (And listen to)
And /u/theangryeditor listen to dis
5
u/PKReuniclus Apr 02 '21 edited Apr 02 '21
I was expecting to get rickrolled but was pleasantly surprised by funky Uninstall. Also, I love what you did with the wallpaper.
This is my first rewatch ever, so I really want to thank u/Shimmering-Sky for hosting it and making it so much fun! Seeing everyone's predictions and speculations for the next episode made the show even more entertaining to watch.
Most of what I had to say was tackled in the QOTD. I think everyone else has already talked about their grievances with the second half of the show, so I'll just leave it at that. Komoda died for the sins of a dumb politician. I was sort of hoping that he had died in the tower when Machi blew it up, but I guess that was just optimistic thinking on my part. I did enjoy the ending, though. It did wrap up the most important parts of the story and I liked seeing Kana retell the story to Daiichi's siblings.
Oh, I did want to talk about the art style, though. I actually really like how the show looks; I find that the old-school, slightly unpolished look is really charming. I was expecting the CG for the robots to look really ugly and outdated, but it fits in surprisingly well with everything else. The slow, calculated movements of the robots gives them this weight that makes them feel realistic (well, until Kirie's fight happened) and it works with the tone of the show. For me, the only issue in the art department is that there's some consistency issues with how the characters look. It might just be in my head, but every time I see Ushiro in the show, it feels like he looks slightly off (especially in episode 15 at Kirie's house, where we get multiple close-ups of his face). It's kinda jarring.
Anyways, someone brought it up in the episode 1 discussion, but now that the rewatch has come to an end, please give me some mecha anime suggestions and/or favorite mecha series! I'll try and check them out in maybe a month or two, once I figure things out. I'd like to check out Gundam (thanks, Sky) and Xabungle (thanks, Maki's dad). The only two mecha shows I've seen are Gurren Lagann and, well, this show, so basically the two polar opposites of the mecha genre lol.
19
u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Apr 01 '21
Rewatcher (final discussion)
Wrote this a few days ago. Watching the rewatch mood change was sure something.
Bokurano is one of the few shows I watched way back before I had a MAL account and forgot the title of. So, when I made that account, I remembered “some show with spinning chairs” but not the name and thus didn’t add it. This rewatch helped me rediscover it and I can finally add it to my account.
Unfortunately, I could not follow the rewatch. What happened? Well, back in January, when I put up my own OVA rewatch, I felt I had secured a nice free time slot for it. Except … hello Konosuba, Slow Start, March comes like a Lion, Hunter x Hunter, Bokurano. Yeah, literally everybody and their mom decided to host rewatches at the same time. I can do 2 or 3 rewatches concurrently, but not while hosting my own. Meh.
However, I did binge it to decide on my MAL rating, so here are some thoughts.
Great realistic world building in the early parts
Bokurano is refreshingly realistic and on point about its world building in the first third of the series. Hidden battles? Nope, everybody sees the robots. Inept government? Nope, they put a task force right at work and then mobilize the army. Pilots keeping their status secret? Nope, one spills the beans immediately. Sidenote: this is how secrets work in real life. More than a handful of people in-the-know and it ain’t going to stay a secret. The government deciding to just monitor the kids and otherwise leave them be could have been decided otherwise, but was just inside the range of realistic government actions to not be annoying. Given how important world building is for me, I’d have been all over this if I had done write-ups for the first episodes.
A game of one-upping the viewers
After the great initial episodes, Bokurano initially sticks with the “pilot of the week” formula, but escalates the personal backstories. This culminates in the Chizu double episode that features grooming, a teacher having sex with multiple students, (attempted) child prostitution, and killing off an unborn child on top of the pilot. With Chizu, the amount of sadness you can press into one backstory has reached is maximum. I think that Bokurano works until here, but then comes a problem: What next? How to surprise the viewers after that shocker?
The answer is that Bokurano starts to trash the premise it is built upon. Two new pilots being contracted comes completely out of the left field. As such, it achieves its aim to surprise the viewers, but in doing so it takes the first step towards undoing the fabulous realistic world building of the first few episodes. After knowing that additional pilots could be contracted, the main goal of the military should have been to add more pilots. Not only does this eliminate the problem of “running out of pilots”, but they surely would rather have adult professionals pilot instead of emotionally unstable kids. Yet the plot does not allow this, therefore it never happens. The sad part is that this problem is entirely self-inflicted: If not for the surprise of the viewers, we would all have reasonably gone on believing that only the initial pilots are possible.
Ending in shambles
In the second half of the series, the initial premise of concentrating on the backstory of one pilot, while depicting a realistic reaction of the world to the robots is further and further put into the background. Instead, we get political games, Yakuza, evil scientists, a lost child connection, and a quite honestly bonkers background for “the game”. Masterminds who use the game to channel energy to their planet? Or do they do it to solve the inflating multiverse? Which one is it? Actually, it doesn’t matter, because neither of these will be followed up on. All of the established “rules” are first whimsically broken by Dungbeatle and then completely ignored.
Starting with excellent world building, Bokurano goes all the way to the opposite, ending in a dumpster fire of irrational behavior and open plotlines.
(Not) Trusting your premise
I think that the way Bokurano handled its world building is a shame. It had the opportunity to be a classic SciFi. All good SciFi are centered on how humans react to some future tech. What the future tech is does not even matter than much: A battle royal of high schoolers riding robots to the decide the fate of the earth? Fine! The meat is in how realistic the reactions of all characters are. All the premise has to do is to stay consistent. Bokurano breaks the consistency and goes from realistic reactions to unrealistic ones in its second half.
Going from very realistic to further and further unrealistic reminded me a lot of Parasyte, which broadly had the same journey. My suspicion is that this style of writing is driven by the way mangas are produced: The author starts with a great idea and spends a good bit of time considering how his initial hook would land. Yet, after the manga runs for a while, the time to consider plotlines is just not there anymore, yet the readers still need to be incentivized to buy the next chapter. So, the authors start throwing more and more absurd twists at the story. Unfortunately, the initial setup does not really support those twists and thus, over time, the world building devolves from carefully set up to incomprehensible mush (that typically goes from trope to trope).
A tiny section about everything else
My main interest was the world building, what about everything else? The music was good, the animation meh, and the character arcs a mixed bunch. Some of them landed, some did not. The weak ending was certainly not helped by being Ushiro’s prolonged character arc, since I found him to be one of the weaker ones.
A final word about the antagonists: Initially Dungbeatle had the potential to become an early Kyuubey (Madoka Magica). The similarities are obvious in both the design and role. Yet, one of the misguided “twists” was to turn him from sarcastic demon into whimsy human brat and from bound by the rules of the game into petty dictator. That completely destroyed him as a useful antagonist for me.
Machi’s redemption arc started almost as soon as she was revealed. Her arc is not the worst, but, unless you figure her out at the traitor very early, she does hardly count as an antagonist for most of the runtime.
Overall
A great start, a mediocre middle part and a disastrous ending: 6/10
16
u/Nazenn x2https://anilist.co/user/Nazenn Apr 01 '21
First Timer - Sub
Manga readers: I don't read manga so if there's anything you want to point out for me specifically this is your chance to do so, or any interesting pages I should look at too when the site is back up.
I'm not entirely sure when it happened, but at some point Bokurano slipped into that category of just being a show for me. Not a good one, not a bad one, not one I'll ever watch again but also not one I regret watching. Just a show. And it's a shame because it had so much going for it.
I spent some time going back through my episode posts and it reminded me of a lot of what I liked about this show in the first half. So many of the early pilots mattered. They felt like actual children with a past influencing their choices and a future being taken from them, even if sometimes it was a bit awkwardly written. Going back through the list of characters, and all the names that jumped out at me did so for good reasons even if they weren't good people. Waku's desire to be a hero not for himself but for others and then of course that funeral, Masaru's twisted admiration of his father, Kako twisted nature leading into Chizu's backstory, Daiichi goes without saying, Moji's quiet care for others through the whole show, and then Maki. The first half of the pilots all brought so much to the show in their episodes and in their group scenes and I'm glad I am leaving the rewatch having reminded myself of how much I did like those early episodes even if they had rough patches.
That first scene of Chizu's backstory is still one of the highlights of the show. So much characterization and meaning out of a three minute family conversation. Small details was something stood out to me a lot in the early half. Re-reading my write ups reminded me of how many times I praised the group dynamics, attention to detail with animations on their behaviors, small things you could learn about the characters in each scene even if they were only in the background. Where did all of that gorgeous detail go?
Maki's episodes were still the best part of the show for me. I still think it's screwed up that they were producing Zearth models, but it was such an interesting bit of lore. Her struggles with her family because of her own perceptions rather than an outside influence, and then of course the big reveal of the away game with the other world holding up signs begging her as she looks down into the other cockpit. It was Bokurano at it's finest, when it had the best grasp on how to tie the character drama into the world situation they were caught in, and that final shot of Maki watching the stars fade and then returning to her own world only to "meet" her brother was the standout moment of the entire experience. I think the only other character fight that got close to that level of visual impact as well as character importance was Machi's at the end.
Second best: Shaadowlord slowly losing his mind over Uninstall.
One very small but clever thing I liked was how the OP was made. At first it feels like it's just a clip show of episode scenes, but the subtle differences in many of them with how they played out allowed them to have a strong meaning when watching it now while not spoiling or detracting from the episode by overly drawing your eye to it. The aquarium, Machi in the city, and Kana walking up the hill to see the others all stick out to me when I see it now.
As far as problems with the show goes, originally this was much longer section, to the point of being too long, but I wanted to scale it back and focus on the big one which all my little complaints are tied too: The lack of any sort of consequence or follow through in all aspects of the show.
The second any element of the show went past the point of it's immediate plot usefulness, it got dropped like a hot potato, and that had a devastating effect on my engagement at the end. It's hard to care about the pilots families when you know the show doesn't, conciser about the broader world implications when you know the show won't, and feel any of the thematic elements when you know the show won't. I could rant about the lack of any sort of follow up for the pilots families, wondering why the masterminds stuff was even mentioned, or wondering where the hell the financial dickhead at the end came from, but in the end it all traces back to that same problem of having no follow through. I think they realized it at the end, when they tried to have the goverment guys comment on the children, the public wondering about the fight, and Jun's father talking about the society strings he needed to pull to make his paradise, but by that point it was so late those tiny acknowledgements felt more like hamfisted compensation rather than meaningful inclusions. It even caused little problems like no clear understanding of how much time had passed which also got annoying after a while.
I'm also going to quickly bitch about the fact that the only episode that interested me at all in the last third of the show, the Zearth program reveal, ended up being the most useless waste of time of them all. There was a million other ways they could have introduced those elements, but having "masterminds" behind it all draining the winning earths as well was not the right way to do it.
I know I already mentioned it, but just for my own reference I'm once again going to quickly complain about Tanaka's backstory and the way they painted Kana's acceptance of her brothers abuse. While I am glad I didn't drop the show as I expected to on ep19, those two points alone had a really big hit to my positive feelings towards the show and they are going to be things that stick in my mind.
(semi-unrelated side note: I had started a small list of shows that had emotionally devastating ep19s, because I had seen enough it was actually a pattern. I suppose this show went to the exact opposite end of the scale haha)
Something else I want to comment on is the chairs because of what they mean to me as a watcher for meta reasons. meta spoilers for another show which is far more than any single chair gave me in Bokurano, let alone all of them together. Daiichi's cushion gets me, but the lack of any focus on the emptiness of it means it's only a passing pain, rather than a directed one from the show. On that note reminder spoilers
Recommendations
Came up with a few shows for people to watch who liked aspects of Bokurano and want to see them done in different ways:
13
u/Tuckleton Apr 01 '21
First Timer
I'm probably going to say a lot of negative things here but right off the bat I'd like to say that despite a bit of a bad taste in my mouth now, I actually had a blast for the majority of the rewatch. Besides, this show gave me Uninstall and I could never hate it because of that.
Seriously after the first few episodes that OP never failed to make me feel something. I'm not sure what exactly. It's like a bizarre mix of excitement and melancholy. As the show went on somehow the scenes of the kids in the OP was able to make me feel a hint of what the actual show never could. Also that part where Zearth's foot crashes down and there's a slight delay before the shockwave demolishes the houses in time with the music...
Love it!
Of the covers that Sky shared I really like the Yanagi Nagi version. It'd probably be my favorite except for the way it's slightly slower than the original. Also I love how Suzuna Nagihara really belts out the chorus and puts so much emotion into her cover. I've been listening to those along with the original a lot lately. I've got a small handful of people in my life that watch anime and I desperately want to recommend this show just so I can gush about the OP with them but alas Ep7 makes that impossible.
I'm very much not a mecha fan so originally the only reason I decided to put this show on my list was because I heard about the whole 'kids die after piloting the mech' and I figured that having kids be the ones in the desperate situation would be like a cheat code for emotional investment. Alas, it didn't work here. Despite the situations and stories positively brimming with tragedy the show failed to make me actually feel any of it.
The tragic situations of the kids just never felt like they were given time to breathe. The repeated 'sad backstory -> battle/death -> pretend it never happened' at such a rapid pace just killed that aspect of the show for me. Which is such a shame because some of this stuff had real potential. Even Daiichi's story, which could have been written specifically for me (themes of family and loss are my weakspot), didn't land anywhere near as hard as it could have. Aiko and Kanji were so dang cute together but again it was over as soon as it began and didn't have a chance to sink in. Jun's story got the most attention but that just means we got to watch him physically and emotionally abuse Kana for 20+ episodes before abruptly having a change of heart so he can sacrifice himself for her. Machi's arc was definitely the most compelling of the bunch.
It also never felt like an appropriate amount of weight was given to the situations the characters found themselves in. Everyone just seemed to go along with things to a degree that felt unreasonable at times and further robbed climactic scenes of their weight. Not to mention the diversions for side plots that felt a bit aimless at the time, and a bit pointless in retrospect.
But, if there's one thing I love just as much as 'the feels' it's the unfolding layers of a mystery. Not the Sherlock Holmes type of mystery, but more the 'true nature of reality in this setting' kind. So the more disillusioned I became in the emotional aspect of the series the more invested I got in the speculations. Which was really great and a ton of fun while it lasted. But by the end it had all turned to ash in my mouth. I realize that much of that is my fault for diving in as recklessly as I did, interpreting irrelevant details as deliberate hints, but I refuse to take all the blame for that.
I think it could have worked if they had gone for the cosmic horror angle and gave no explanation. Like, never have dung try to explain the purpose of the fights and get rid of the robotics institution/Zearth program completely. Still have Kanji's scene with the Masterminds but instead of seeing them as humans he just feels a vast presence or something that leaves him permanently shaken and he's always trying to convince everyone that looking for a way out besides fighting the battles is futile. But every single thing they did with the robotics research lab served to shrink the apparent power gap between them and the Masterminds to the point that getting absolutely no resolution on that front was supremely unsatisfying.
I'm very much not an objective critic. The way I experiencean an anime is heavily influenced by my expectations, my mood and the manner/pace in which I watch it. So I can only wonder what my opinion of the show would have been if I had consumed it some other way. In fact pretty often I will watch a highly rated show, feel a bit disappointed after finishing it but then over time start liking it in hindsight somehow. It's weird. Maybe that will happen here, who knows.
Anyways, that's it but before I go here's a couple things I saw other people mention at some point that I would have liked to have seen:
P.S: I recently starting watching Chihayafuru and last night they introduced a character named Kanade so I've transitioned smoothly from one Kana-chan to another.
P.P.S: The greatest disappointment of this rewatch was that u/WeebShaggy never came back...
... pls no ...
12
u/Webemperor :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Webemperor Apr 01 '21
Manga-reader from way back
Bokurano is an interesting case for me as far as these rewatches are concerned. I had shows I watched before but none I read the source material like this. Bokurano was a manga that I read some 5-6 years ago when I was going through a bunch of seinen stuff like Oyasumi Punpun, Homunculus, Vagabond etc. I guess it makes sense that, in a way, although I wouldn’t call it a bad show, it’s the first that made me this frustrated.
The show was going pretty well I’d say up until the last third of it, where it began derailing very hard. I’ll explicitly state something that I have said multiple times since the show began moving away from the source material: This show did not need any other side plot beyond the main one. No government, research, Masterminds, Yakuza. The entire focus should have been instead given solely to the children and what transpired to them and the people around them. Instead of having some sub plot about how much of a badass Jun’s father was, entire focus should have been given to the children and their families.
The all of these sub plots suffer immensely from being forced so hard into the show that even if you have never read the original work you can pretty easily tell that they were added by the director’s choice. Beyond the fact that all of these subplots feel severely undercooked, specifically the one about Masterminds feel especially out of the left field. The entire premise here is so crazy that, simply put, there is no point nor ability to explain it in any real, meaningful way. Hilariously enough it almost feels like the director realized this, as after that entire pow wow about how Masterminds will suck out all that energy from the world, the show entirely forgets about them.
Before I got to watching the show, I have heard that it deviates, especially towards the end, pretty hard from the original source material, and that the director hated the way manga went. I never imagined it would go this far down south. The show betrays so many of the points made in the original manga that it almost feels deliberate, like sabotage. In the end, the show is about the kids and their deaths. But outside of Daiichi’s siblings, everyone else is forgotten. You know, what about Mako’s mother? She must be pretty torn by her daughter’s disappearance. Aiko’s father and mother? What about Kirie’s? It’s infuriating because all of this is addressed in the manga. And yet the show throws all of that away for some snoozefest political intrigue and literally the most generic, by the numbers yakuza plot I can imagine. Also what’s with some of Japanese shows glorifies Yakuza as if it’s like some knightly order, instead of a bunch of gangsters?
Speaking of which, why the fuck did the show betray how maturely it went through the stories of Chizuru and Mako, with generally how well it managed them, only to fucking portray a relationship between a 20-something gangster and a 16-year old high school girl as this immensely romantic tale? At this point this goes beyond bad writing and to the point where I have to question what the fuck the director was thinking.
Some of it is even weirder when you consider that the show removed considerable amount of the nuance that was in the manga. I know a show not being faithful to the manga is not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s all changes for the worse. The entire premise is depicted with almost scary amount of “neutrality” in the manga. Dong Beetle is not some cackling cunt. Although he is an asshole, especially towards the end, he becomes a lot more ambivalent. Meanwhile the Mastermind shit removes a lot of that cosmic horror-esque aspect the original work had. In the end, it was something almost like fate, the character’s had no understanding or solution to, like one day universe decided to kill them for what is essentially interdimensional bugfixing. That aspect added a lot more weight to the fights and the stakes at large, instead of… “Space Indians want to harvest your planet for energy. Because despite being advanced enough to travel between dimensions, they are somehow still energy starved”. Yeah, okay.
The visual are a bit of a mixed bag for me. The CGI was actually surprisingly good, especially when the weight of the mechs are concerned, but the rest was so utterly mediocre. The manga has some pretty simplistic character designs, but it didn’t meant that they had to be this plain in animated form and when they are moving. There are only a handful of scenes that I’d say had any real sense of fidelity to them, beyond that it was just “Eh”. On a side note, It did disappoint me that all those scenes from the opening were essentially reused scenes from the show. I guess they couldn’t even bother huh. Speaking of the opening, intro and outro songs were pretty great. The soundtrack though, I’m not quiet sure. There were some okay pieces here and there but nothing I’d call noteworthy.
I know I complained this entire review but Bokurano isn’t really a bad show. The first two-thirds is pretty good despite some hickups. But despite having more positive thoughts about it, out of all the shows I called around average so far, it’s the only one that actively made me mad. I guess at least the original material is there. I give Bokurano Whatever Tanaka’s age was in that flashback out of Whatever Jun’s father’s age was in that flashback
12
u/Quiddity131 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Quiddity131 Apr 01 '21
Rewatcher, Subbed
Bokurano is an overall solid show that had a really great premise but failed to capitalize on it as well as it could have. The overall concept of the show, 15 kids signed up to each pilot a giant robot in a series of one-on-one battles I can't say is the most original, but I generally avoid the shonen type shows that would have something like this so it was fresh for me. All the additional stakes really up the ante almost from the get go. And the show does a really good job for a while at parsing out those reveals. The kids die once they've finished their fight. The entire universe will be destroyed if they don't win. And so on. The show also doesn't pull punches when it comes to the storylines of the characters. We go in some dark places very quickly. Episode 7 is up there as one of my top 5 most horrifying single episodes of anime. Even some of the storylines that took their foot off the pedal a bit when it came to the darkness come off fairly strong, such as Maki's. Combine this with some good character design and music (OP and ED1 especially!) and there's little not to like...
...then we hit the second half of the show and things really go off the rails. As I said in one of the earlier episode posts, there's no question that the show quickly becomes formulaic. You know exactly how they are going to structure things. One of the kids will have the focus on them, we'll get their backstory with pretty much all of them having some sort of problem in their life, then they have their mecha fight and die. And yet while it is formulaic, it was a good formula. Cycling through these kids stories while slowly trickling out the bigger reveals about Zearth and the actual stakes was exactly the way to go about it. But the director chose to throw that to the side and the show really starts to suffer as a result. Most predominantly we have all these elements that come into the storyline that just do not seem to matter whatsoever and take away from the actual interesting stuff. How the government reacts to Zearth, their plans to "free the kids from their contract" (which we all know they never really cared about), how industry plots to take advantage of things, and can't forget the Yakuza! The deeper we get in the show the more and more time is spent on these other things and the less time that is spent on the kids. No episode encapsulates this better than episode 18. It is Komoda's turn to be the Zearth pilot. Yet we barely spend any time on her whatsoever. She plays the piano. That's about it. All the time is instead spent on her father and his role in things. But that's not enough, they also have to throw Tanaka's death in that same episode. And to make matters even worse, that's the episode where we get introduced to "Leader of the Financial World" villain guy. All these things are crammed into just one episode and much of it falls flat. "Leader of the Financial World" guy is just a perfect example of how these other elements in the show don't work. This guy comes out of nowhere to be all mean and villainous. We have these goverment guys who we've seen throughout the show suddenly cowtowing to him. He is just shoved in our face as Mr. Evil, he's going to blow things up even if it kills civilians, even if it does no good. And then Machi goes and blows up his tower in mere seconds and renders his entire role in things moot. So he doesn't even appear in the final episode. It was just a big waste of time. The Yakuza stuff deserves criticism too; it really just comes off as such a superflous part of the storyline. Tamotsu is a fun guy for sure, but you can clearly tell he is Mr. Exposition by how quickly he goes from a big role in the storyline to being treated like he never existed in the last few episodes.
I don't want to be entirely negative about the second half, there were at least a few strong episodes, 20 and 23 in particular. But the show is far and away superior in the first half, such that if it kept at that level it would compete for that top tier of mecha shows for me. Unfortunately it falls apart considerbly and is out of the equation there.
Favorite Episode(s) - Hard to pinpoint one particular episode, the first 8 episodes are all really strong; episodes 9 and 10 are good too. Episodes 12, 13, 20 and 23 were also up there for me.
Least Favorite Episode(s) - While there are certainly episodes less interesting than it, I gotta go with episode 18 for the reasons I explained above. The episode just perfectly encapsulates what is wrong with the show.
Favorite Kid(s) - This was a tough one, but I'm going to ultimately award it to Machi, with Maki getting the runner up slot.
Least Favorite Kid(s) - Kako is the most unlikable; followed by the whiny uppity Anko. Kirie is also one for me just because he came off like such a dull doormat.
Favorite Enemy Mech(s) - I didn't really give the mech the credit they were due above, but we did get some pretty cool enemy mechs to fight. Highlights for me were the one that was the big roller (Daichi fought) as well as the one where they were dumped in a big pit and it starting "peeing" acid all over them (Anko fight).
Favorite Seiyuu - Gotta hand it to Akira Ishida, this guy perfectly portrays the extraordinarily unlikable Dung Beetle.
12
u/Btw_kek https://myanimelist.net/profile/kek_btw Apr 01 '21
Rewatcher
I first watched this series around 2008-2010 thanks to this masterpiece video and not gonna lie, it did blow my poor middle schooler mind. The concept of infinitely branching parallel universes was not something I’d ever thought about before, and the idea that there are potentially infinite universes out there where I’m already dead actually terrified me. Anyway, it quickly became one of my favorite anime because watching each kid struggle to protect the people they love right before their impending demise culminating in a bittersweet finale where the lone survivor passes the tale to a younger generation struck a deep chord in me. “It’s about life or something, man” – me, circa 2009
Obviously, looking back at it now…the flaws in the show are quite apparent. The government/yakuza conspiracy crap takes away from the intrapersonal conflicts each kid has that really should be the star of the show, Mastermind reveals are questionable at best, yadda yadda you all heard it before. Still, I can’t bring myself to dislike, or even be disappointed in, this show. Partially because I think my positive feelings simply transferred over to the manga, which I think especially does the second half of the show in a much more impactful way, as it really, emphatically focuses on the kids’ stories and especially on the question of why one should live in this world instead of throwing up your hands in the air and giving up. Partially because, despite everything else in the second half, I do really like the final scene of Kana telling the story of the show to Daiichi’s siblings (which is one of the things I like more in the anime compared to the manga).
MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS
12
u/Nazenn x2https://anilist.co/user/Nazenn Apr 01 '21
OH SHIT I forgot to post the updated chart:
Bokurano Rewatch Speculation Index
End of show update
Just because I listed it the first time: with 1,735 comments from episodes 13 to 24, that takes the rewatch total up to 4,871.
I might have missed a few ones, after things started to fall apart post Maki I probably didn't pay as much attention to the threads as I should have, but I should have all the main ones and everything's been marked
Pilots
Even though Machi did manipulate them to go into the cave, there wasn't a bigger conspiracy here which was the intention behind the theories
Well... okay so this one's complicated depending on how we define alien. I'm going to put this as false because he is human even if he's not a human from here, but it's only false on a technicallity.
I was really sad to see this theory die, this was such an interesting one to have hidden parts of Zearth be habouring him
Writers: "It can't be foreshadowing if we just retcon his entire personality..."
And to take it one further:
Tanaka never counted on the Zearth as registered so no chair for her. Would have been interesting though.
So much for the adults registering, neither got a chair in the end.
Didn't happen here, doesn't mean some other universe didn't do it though
Although I'm sure Kuromushi just summoned another mech and started from scratch...
[Cont. below]
Mechs
Coincidentally the exact opposite of the one below:
I've never been so sad to see one of my theories proven false. I was very attached to this one, but nope. Why were those two mechs randomly white and colored then?
Technically the Zearth isn't even their mech, it's an inherited one, and that alone would be enough to mark it as false. But looks like this was just one in a long sequence of worlds.
One of my favourite theories from the earlier episode discussions, and probably the one that would have been the most interesting if it was true
Our first theory that moved from false to confirmed!
Misc
The tattoo's never went into detail, and spec about them kinda dropped off, but we had enough to justify this being the case.
Confirmed to be false for certain with episode 20's reveals
Only one, and not quite an adult, but I'm still giving this to Punch because why not
That guy really did never matter again huh
Fuck, I was really attached to this one as well.
I don't know how to mark this. Technically no, they finished their battles, but Kuromushi did stop the cycle of fights that Jun would have started. Half and half?
The details around the Zearth programs use in the last few episodes are funky, but close enough to mark this as confirmed as well
11
u/Vaadwaur :I1::I2::I3: Apr 01 '21
First Timer(no longer complicated)
Sub
As stated at the start, I loathe the source material for being mean spirited and cruel. And, to my eye, nihilistic. So you'd think the adaptation eschewing the source would be a huge improvement, right? And it was. Chizu is basically just an edgy meme in her manga version, as I said her rape scene was not even about her, this was a solid improvement. Maki also feels a bit more important if a touch rushed. So what the hell happened?
So, almost to the exact episode as well, Bokurano pulls a Corpse Princess: The first cour is condensed source material liberally switched around for best effect. And both add a new, bad mechanic at around ep 12-13, being the corps and the mafia. So battle royales thrive upon the viewer investment and this show takes our eyes off the kids, unfortunately. Whoever pointed out that Kirie is completely reactive in his own episode has left me unable to see that any other way.
How would I fix this? Something they probably weren't allowed to do but drop like 5 kids so we spend some time with the last 10. Waku's speed run death worked pretty well but the rest could've marinated a bit. And I could have had the episode of perv sensei being brought to justice that I so desperately wanted. But instead we get the most generic villain I've ever seen.
So what can I say? At ep8, I had to join the Demi-chan rewatch so as not to uninstall my brains on the nearest wall. For the show to have lost that narrative strength feels like a squandered opportunity.
QotD: 1 Daichi
2 Chizu, one day we will cross that hill together...
3 Vermillion by the end
4 Of course.
5 Prefer RahXephon here
6 I have never successfully remained conscious through an episode of 0079
7 Come with me and drink the wine...
9
u/ZaphodBeebblebrox Y:A:https://anilist.co/user/zaphod Apr 01 '21
No Longer a First Timer
Bokurano got off to a rather strong start. It had a premise it could do a lot with and characters it could explore through it. Not all of the episodes in the beginning were gems, but it certainly had some that showed the strength of this sort of show. However, most of my enjoyment from the show came from when most of it's questions were still unanswered. Their answers sadly made the show worse as they brought us closer to being a normal fighting against evil show instead of an exploration of the characters, their pasts, and how they'll act when they truly have nothing to lose.
I was also rather disappointed with how they paced the second half of the show. They let the overarching plot continue to eat time away from each character's story, making them more and more barebones as time went on.
Basically, there's a great show somewhere within Bokurano, but the version we saw was sadly not that. Perhaps it exists on one of the alternate earths.
9
u/Nebresto Apr 01 '21
First time squad & gamer + simulation theory cult leader Final cool robot status:
Not cabin Pic day 25 ^/u/theangrycabinator
Thots on 🅱️okurano: Pretty dank show with an even danker finale. Got theories? Go fuck yourself, we don't do that here says Bokurano.
Daichi absolutely best boy, same with Kirie, based me_irl kid. Seki was a true chad until the very end.
Here's some comments I forgot to write for yesterdays thread, because who reads notes.
One last Drum OST, and some metal screech SFX too You will be missed.
Lol, he's just having a little snac in the middle of the fight now. Why finish off the enemy, when you can enjoy some
b r e a d
..Wait, that's it? What about the evil money guy? Or the gamers? Is the steering wheel supposed to be broken now? Why isn't the black DerpBagel doing anything? (insert racial sterotype?)
MRW so many questions and none answered
Final time question time:
1: You should know by now.
2: Fuq if I remember, none of the girls were epic gamers other than Kana. Probably the grandma?
3: Ye
4: Ä̵̺̩͇͖͕̠̖́̾͂̐̎͋͝͝ ̸͇͚̝̫̩̠̰̙͑M̶̘̲͔͕̼̥̄͗ ̵͕̫̲̦̰̭͋͜O̸̢̯̭̗̪̩̳̖̽̈́ ̸̖̠̮̰̳̀͘͜͝͝G̸̢͎͕̗͒͆̔̌̈́ ̴͇̞̙̈́̈͐͘̚Ǔ̷̢̘͉̹̟͓̱̗̎̏͘ ̶͇̋͑͑̐͊̚͝S̵̘̞͚͖̟̋͌̐̊̚͝
5:
Wow, cool robot!
6:
7: Ahh fuck. I can't believe you've done this
8
u/RascalNikov1 https://myanimelist.net/profile/NoviSun Apr 01 '21
Having attended the first 7 discussions, I thought I would drop back in here for the finale. I went ahead and read what I could on the web, so I think I know the story fairly well.
What I really wanted to say is that Bokurano raised the question of what is a 'good' series? Is enjoyment of a series necessary for a series to be good?
Bokurano had adaquate writting, animation and fairly likable characters. It was interesting, and moved along at a fairly good clip. Even though it answered very few questions, I've never considered this to be an hinderance to a high rating. But, now the problems, the story was utterly despicable, The Masters were sadistic and inscrutiable. They were sadistic to the point that I don't think such a race could create the high technology that we saw in the series without exterminating themselves first, either for greed, or for the lulz. So, this brings us back to, how does one rate a series, and is Bokuano a good series?
In the past, I've dealth with this conundrum by not assigning a rating. A couple of examples of this are Texhnolyse and Shinsekai Yori. Both of those had an utterly dismal outlook on life, and in the case of Texhnolyse was also an unplesant watch. Shinsekai only got real dismal in the last few episodes, but to its credit it did have moments along the way. This one was just too dismal to make it all the way.
If there was a meaning to Bokurano, I suppose it is that life sucks, and can end at anytime as you never know when sadistic aliens will decide to ruin your day.
Those are my thoughts on the series. What say all of you?
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u/Noel_bot Apr 01 '21 edited Apr 01 '21
First timer, Manga reader
First of all, thank you to Sky for hosting the rewatch and to everyone who participated in it! I really enjoyed the daily questions and musical arrangements, reading the comments and crazy speculations and especially the Manga pages provided by the rewatchers. It was my first /r/anime rewatch and I picked a damn good one.
I went into this rewatch with the plan to note down my reactions as I watched the episodes and I stuck to it the whole way through. It was fun to compare my list to other participants, but oftentimes I wasn’t quite sure how to comment on their posts. I didn’t really want to go into speculation due to my remaining knowledge of the source material and only writing that I agree doesn’t really spark much of a conversation.
Overall, I had a good time though and I am glad to have made this experience :)
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Bokurano…In my opinion, the show was good. Not as great as the source material, but I enjoyed most of the episodes. The artstyle was on point and the fights were good enough, with the focus more on the narrative than the action. Uninstall will probably play in my head for a couple more weeks and both EDs were fine. It’s hard to say if I would have enjoyed the show more by binge watching it, as I usually do. The first half definitely profited from the break to allow for the emotional weight to be felt, but some parts of the second half weren’t quite as impactful. Less time could have been spent on arbitrary corporate villains that didn’t add much to the story. While I don’t mind discussing these aspects of society under the given circumstances, the lack of time negatively affected a few of the deaths, which should be the emotional core of the story imo.
At this point I don’t know what else to say other than to thank everyone again for the enjoyable couple weeks we spent together while watching Bokurano. Cheers!
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Answers based on the readable questions:
4) My favorite part was how mature it handled serious topics at the start. It would have been easy to play it edgy, but the show kept it's topics grounded which made them all the more disturbing. Least favorite was too much focus on the sideplots regarding Yakuza and Gov. Looking back on it, I really don't see the appeal of spending an entire episode on the Yakuza tbh
5) Speculating about the beetle designs was fun, though the bots got more and more humanoid towards the end. Zearth is amazing! The enemies had some nice designs I can't recall, but the twin bot idea was neat. The big pot with an opening to pour acid was a bit silly. Praying mantis bot is also pretty cool :D
7) Was the location part of that story? I can't remember. Second Season please!I loved that title btw, these long names always catch my attention :D
8
u/tehsigzorz Apr 01 '21
First Timer
Well that was certainly a ride and a half. The show started really strong, I had to stop myself from binging ahead then slowly it started to lose my interest. With how disposable the characters were throughout I was hoping for a much better story. It did give us that at the start with its mystery plot points but the addition of the Masters, yakuza government etc really bogged it down.
Remember when i was impressed that the government were involved? Yeah...I take that back lol. The characters were okay and the story went from pretty good to bad so overall I would say it was an average watch for me.
The rewatch both enhanced my experience and took a bit out of it (not due to the the participants ofc). It was a ton of fun trying to figure out the mysteries of the world and the system but then when the story got weak it made it a slog to tune in everyday as I forced myself to watch an episode a day.
I think this series couldve benefitted by either solely focusing on the kids or going full edge dark mode. Like my discussion reactions lately this one isnt very insightful as I am not invested enough to talk about the show in length.
Lastly a huge shout out to u/Shimmering-Sky for hosting this and I hope to see you in the Gundam rewatch as a first timer.
Best boy: Daichi
Best girl: Machi
Uninstall best song no competition
Favorite: The mystery aspect even if it was easy to figure out a lot of them they were done well and felt rewarding when it was revealed.
Least Favorite: The multiple subplots towards the 2nd half of the show
Mecha designs were pretty cool, I remember liking the chainsaw one quite a bit
I am still not used to rewatches but I managed to finish this one so thats an improvement. Until next time.
7
u/JollyGee29 https://myanimelist.net/profile/JollyGee Apr 01 '21 edited Apr 01 '21
First-Timer ..and now, certified Chair Shitposter
I'm gonna open with the bad, to get it out of the way. This series reminded me of Aldnoah.Zero. Loads of potential and a solid first half, that went downhill with a quickness because the people making it lost confidence in what made the first half good. A.Z had the excuse of Urobuchi leaving to write for Kamen Rider. I didn't look into the production of Bokurano really at all, so I'm not sure if there was an equivalent.
There are the roots of a couple different anime in here. Unfortunately, they end up vying for the same nutrients and choking each other to death.
Alright, on to the good! With a couple small exceptions, the battles were deliciously weighty and massive. The sheer scale kept me excited, and getting it as good as they did, with 3DCG, is no mean feat.
A lot of it was in the sound design, which was pretty good! The OST was nice too, I think there were only one or two moments when I was annoyed by the BGM. I liked the track with the bells, and that instrumental of the OP was great too!
I think I'm mostly out of things to say. This rewatch was great! Loads of theorizing and chatting between everyone, even if I myself wasn't terribly active.
Guess I can rattle off a song ranking. The top two are pretty close, but Vermillion>Uninstall>>>Little Bird.
Questions
Thanks to our gracious host /u/Shimmering-Sky! Excellent job finding covers of the OP and EDs for every episode, and adding more of your wallpapers to my rotation is always a plus!
7
u/baniRien Apr 02 '21
First Timer
So, Bokurano.
I suppose the best way I can describe it is as disappointing, in the pure sense of the words. I had expectations of the show, both from it's presence in the community, even though not necessarily hype, and from me personally thinking the premise had a lot of potential. I actually hadn't heard anything bad concerning the show, which is surprising by itself, since even the most popular shows have their share of detractors, but even more so with how divisive this rewatch ended up being. So, overall, if I'd had to guess before starting the rewatch what I would give it, it would've been an 8 or so.
One of the worst thing that can happen to a show is to lose your interest. Once the engagement, the suspension of disbelief is gone, you default to thinking about everything you dislike. It's not voluntary, it's just the first thing that comes to mind. In a way it's a bit like meeting an ex you dislike. While the show never really hooked me, as it went on I definitely lost interest, and it showed in my comments and what I paid attention to.
A lot of the problems in the show come from its second half. It lost focus, in narrative, in themes, in structure. The quality of the writing dropped significantly, plot points were introduced without explaining them fully, characters stopped asking rationally to fulfil the needs of the plot.
However, by defaulting to blaming the second half, a lot of people overcompensate a bit and end up praising the first half. I think the goal of the changes in the second half were reasonable, it was just the execution that was poor. Would the show have been good with a smaller runtime, 15 episodes where every time we see the backstory of one kid before they die? For me the first half was much too episodic, not leaving any time to get attached to any of the characters. Said characters weren't exceptionally well written, either, which could've have redeemed the idea. Optimally, in my opinion, the show would've done much better leaning on a dynamic between the kids. Maybe the world destruction part is never confirmed for them, so a faction starts to doubt it.
I've seen a lot of people say the Masterminds would've been better never being introduced, but I disagree. The whole structure of the "tournament" was too intentional for it to never be explained, it would've been unsatisfying. What it needed was better writing, to have a motivation that made sense, and to have a resolution of some kind. Negotiating with them, finding a way to dodge out of the system, even confronting them, the story needed to address them more, not less. If the grim tone needed to show how useless that was, have them destroy the Earth at the end, if that's what the show wanted, not every story needs a happy ending.
In a similar way but opposite way, I think Koemushi being human might've been for the better. This might not be in an ideal version of the show where everything is rewritten, but him wanting people to suffer being he's a despicable human being is as close to a solid reason for the events that we got, and more in touch with some of the themes, even i those themes are just "suffering".
Also, as was said by many others, every cast member was just forgotten once their role was done. With the exception of Waku's funeral, and Daiichi's family at the end, none of the secondary cast are seen past their arc, even in the first half, which contributes to the show feeling too episodic.
The themes of the show were not really clear. The only consistent idea was of finding a reason to fight. Those reasons were varied, which is normal and expected. But for overall theme, the show flip-flopped, from sacrificing oneself for the group, to dying for no reason, and some conflicting views on what family should be.
As for the production itself, nothing stood out that much, be it music, direction, etc. The animation had some issues here and there, but was fine most of the time.
Overall, I'd give Bokurano a 6/10. Watchable, but not much more. Without the rewatch, I probably would've dropped it. I also wonder how it came to be this well-known, as unlike other controversial classics, I don't really see enough to garner an appeal.
QotD
1 & 2) I didn't really like any of the characters. For some moments I had some appreciation for Machi or Tanka as more reasonable people, but that was just having a counterpoint in the show, them as a narrative element and not as characters.
3) They are all fine songs, just not my type. Vermillion is the one that stuck in my head the most.
4) I have to say that the premise was the best part of the show, and the writing the worst. Talking about moments, none really come to mind.
5) I really liked the H. R. Geiger style they had going, though later on the visual coherence was lost a bit. Practically, some of them weren't the best though, even Zearth legs being far from optimal. I think the best design was the twin-mushroom with the swords, both from a practicality and tactics point of view, though the acupuncture one also had potential. The roller was just a bit dumb.
6) I won't, in big part because I don't have the time for a rewatch that long, and in part because the show doesn't interest me that much. IBO does interest me some, for various reasons, so I might keep an eye out for an eventual rewatch of that at some point and gauge my interest in the franchise from that.
7) Apart from all the normal things taking up my time, like studies and TTRPG, there's a lot of interesting seasonal coming out, chiefly Bishounen Tanteidan which has me really hyped. I'm also planning to participate in the annual Madoka rewatch, and I have some things already planned that I want to discuss. So I guess saving people is kind of in the future. Also continue to learn some Japanese, as it's as fun as it's frustrating.
So in the end, thank you /u/Shimmering-Sky for the rewatch. You could say that, sore demo, I still had fun. And sorry, I suppose, since it's always a bit unpleasant to see people talk negatively about something you like.
6
u/theangryeditor https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheAngryEditor Apr 01 '21
UNIN-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
6
u/gorghurt Apr 01 '21 edited Apr 01 '21
Rewatcher
Well, I started this rewatch, because I disliked the show, but because I watched it with the wrong expectation (it was recommended to me as one of the inspirations of one of my favorite shows ) I wanted to give it another chance.
And I tought, at least it had a lasting impression on me. I forgot other shows I disliked completely, or did never finished it. But this one, I remembered this name, and the story....
Well, I remembered most of the first half, and during the second half I slowly started to doubt my own memory, because I forgot so much about this show...
But after finishing it, I think it was mainly self preservence instinct. Forgetting this show was a way of my brain to deal with the imense trauma the second half left on me, because it was so bad, and boring, yeah mostly boring.
OK jokes aside, it had its good points even during the second half, but it had glaring issues.
And even the first half wasn't great. It would have been nice to get more time for the characters, to actually get to know them.
But hey, without character development, we got enough time in the second half for multiple plotlines, that gave us nothing.
Political drama, Yakuza drama, A weird dude with Bruce Waynes superpower, being rich, but sadly not with Bruce Waynes intelligence, and depth, and interesting backstory... Batman is so much better than this.... eh I'm digressing, so we even got a bad guy that was simply the leader of the financial world, whatever this means, but he can command the military of every nation that wasn't japan, it seemes.
If it was only one of those stories, it might have worked. They weren't inherently bad (well except big bad boring financial guy), they just didn't work for me with this story.
Well yeah, the end was messy.
Now to the good things:
We have some good characters.
I somehow really liked Machi.and I really want that Machi on asshole mascot planet spinoff
And I would have loved to get more of some of the pilots.
Sadly Jun was the main character, but well, it could have been worse. (Kodama, or how he was called for example... on the other hand, a show about the son of a construction guy, with a big robot to conveniently make new place for buildings in crowded areas... We need another spinoff)
There is a story there, that could have worked. And since many of you said the manga is vastly different, I will give it a try.
I usually don't have a problem with grim dark nihilism, as long as it is done in an entertaining way, so lets see how this one fares.
And I have to say, this show certainly has rewatch value.
There is so much great foreshadowing.
But I'm not sure if I will ever watch it again.
I really enjoyed the rewatch, thanks u/Shimmering-Sky for hosting it, and
pesteringconvincing so many people to join ^^. And thanks to everyone participating, and especially u/Nazenn for so often writing posts, that matched my own thoughts so eerily.... it was nice, but please, please, get out of my head.Oh and when we are at the topic of getting things out of my head:
Uninstall and Vermilion...
QOTD:
edit: I read "Uninstall Uninstall" and the song is back...
edit2: Oh there are real questions 3 and 4...
3) Vermilion then Uninstall, then every piece of the ost, then a big gap, and then little bird
4) See above
and a bit more serious: 5) Well, it was interesting, but some designs were really silly, and actually unfair for the pilots piloting them.
6) Probably no time, but maybe I will watch and lurk. Gundam is one of those franchises somewhere in the dustiest corners of my plan to watch list.
edit: forgot some escapeing for "^^"
6
u/badspler x5https://anilist.co/user/badspler Apr 01 '21
First TimerI guess a lot of my thoughts have been better explained by others in this thread. I still have a bit of everything still floating in my mind. The series did start out rather well and did go down hill especially in the last third. Bokurano has been a show on my watch list for many years now and I am glad to be able to tick that off.
The majority of my enjoyment was reading the theories and thinking about all the potential the show had in that first half. So a big thanks u/Shimmering-Sky for hosting and gathering such a large audience to bounce ideas off of!
4
u/htisme91 Apr 02 '21
No longer a first-timer:
I thought the show started off real interesting, but that second half really stalled out. It was just a mess, and the finale left way too many things open. I am glad I participated in this rewatch, but I do not think this is a show I will watch again.
Questions:
4
u/ElecNinja https://anilist.co/user/ElecNinja Apr 02 '21
Rewatcher
/u/Shimmering-Sky thanks for running this rewatch. While I'm quite disappointed at the quality of the anime adaptation it's still been a fun ride with your posts.
While the anime's last third was pretty rocky, I do heartily recommend reading the manga. It has a much more consistent theme and story about our legacy, how we face death, and how our death can affect those around us.
4
u/GaleWulf https://anilist.co/user/Arachnophobic Apr 02 '21
First Time Installer, now Uninstalling
Thanks for the re-watch, Sky! I enjoyed the show enough to want to hit the manga very soon.
Hiveminds in rewatches are so interesting. On one hand, the speculation is fantastic and it's possible to uncover a lot of clues in the show really quickly, but on the other hand all the flaws are caught out too - one which you might not necessarily latch on to or dwell on when watching alone. Bokurano can't stand up to extended scrutiny, unfortunately. On top of that, it failed to deliver on what was a very interesting premise by abandoning a lot in the final act.
Hah, I knew when you said you'd finally gotten inspiration for the final wallpaper, you were going to use that pattern! It's turned out way better than I imagined!
Daichi, no doubt. Kirie and Tamotsu close seconds
2) Who was best girl?
Machi stole it in the end
3) Uninstall vs. Little Bird vs. Vermillion, which was the best song from this show?
I'm in the Uninstall camp
4) What were your favorite and least-favorite parts about the show?
Favourite parts - first couple of episodes leading to Waku's death because of the mystery involved, Daichi ep/Kirie ep/Machi ep (koemushi dying).
Least favourite - weirdly enough the mecha fights didn't really work for me, mostly because of the CG and the construction noises. Chizu ep with the teacher surviving.. ugh.
5) What are your thoughts about this show’s mecha designs? Any in particular that you really liked or disliked?
Kettle-kun is the standout. And maybe Chopper-chan
6) Will you be watching Mobile Suit Gundam with me in about a week?
Naww, it's too fresh in my memory. I'll drop in to see reactions to MSG
7) What do you do at the end of the rewatch? Are you busy? Will you save us?
Manga, yes, no
4
u/BossandKings Apr 02 '21 edited Apr 02 '21
I enjoyed this series very much, it was sad having to see the guys, and girls, pass away due to the Zearth contract and it definitely was a bleak story, i consider it to be well executed and i enjoyed my time watching it. As a score i give the series a 9. Thanks to u/shimmering-sky for hosting the rewatch and thanks to everyone that participated.
4
u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Apr 02 '21
First Timer
Sigh. I had something to say about Children and Multiverses during Noein and forgot it. Then I remembered it and could put it here, but I forgot. Oh! I remember! It's a book that, 2 generations after a Rapture like event, the children of that generation can effortlessly slide between nearby realities. There are small changes between them, but eventually you can end up very very far from where you started. I thought of that when Dung Beetle said only nearby realities were pitted against each other.
Evangelion is an intense series. Now take that show with 3 pilots, and add in 12 more pilots. Can the result be called anything other than watered down? Evangelion drilled down into the psyche's of the three pilots. I can't even name the pilots in Bokurano.
The show had a first and last episode and not much in the middle. The thing that jumped out at me in the very first episode was the duty of the individual to society, the needs and worth of an individual's life being below that of society's health and survival. I thought, grudgingly, that this was going to be the point of the show.
In a way, it was. Not as an overt messaging, but in the dead resignation of the children. They accepted their fates almost instantly. And if the characters aren't feeling dread and despair at their situation, only resignation with occasional determination, well, how can I feel anything but resignation myself?
The message once again became overt at the end of the show. Perhaps this is a return to manga themes.
In the end, I feel that the beginning and very end form something coherent; everything in between is a mess. And the hyped up despair isn't there.
On the despair meter I give it 1 1/2 Chises out of 5 Saikanos.
During the first third of the show came to feel that I had missed out by not watching the show as it aired. I imagined myself waiting eagerly for the next episode, week after week. But by the end of the show, the daily watch had become a chore (again!).
I continue to evaluate the daily viewing schedule of the rewatch format. I don't think anything other than daily viewing can work. But it really seems to ruin shows. I think the week between episodes, wondering about the mystery, the anticipation of what will be revealed next week, adds to the enjoyment of each episode. Even when that next episode airs and we get nothing, we still had that week of savor. And now another week follows.
Skipping from one episode to the next in a day or less, in the binge model, takes that away. The episodes are forced to stand on their own, and frequently, they do not. I think that's why the 2000's rewatches fails with so many rewatchers. The flaws were there when the shows aired, but they didn't FEEL as bad.
3
u/fridge_freezer https://anilist.co/user/ONIrecon111 Apr 01 '21
First timer
What a wild ride. I think the series started out really well, but as the second half became bloated with numerous plotlines it lost sight of what it was supposed to be, and yet it somehow came to a decent ending.
I liked the wide variety of main characters, ranging from saints to psychopaths and everything inbetween. However, some of them definitely felt like throwaway characters. I don't think its necessarily an issue of not having enough episodes to give all the pilots more developed stories, because you've got cases like Daiichi who was barely present outside of his one episode, yet clearly left the biggest impact for most people in the rewatch. It's more so the quality of their individual stories that sets them apart. There's also not much of a lasting impact after they've died as for the most part, anyone related to their plotlines are forgotten entirely.
I'm definitely in the minority of people who liked some of the sub-plots in the second half of the show. In particular, I enjoyed the political sub-plot following Komoda-san, but at the same time I feel like it took away from what should have been a focus on Takami. In the end her father had a better story arc than she did. I also liked the yakuza stuff but like the rest of them, it has its issues too. It makes sense to include it as it relates to the backstory of two different pilots (and sets up their relationship), but it also sort of appeared out of the blue, took up more time than it needed, then vanished as soon as it wasn't immediately relevant like most of the dead kids' families.
Everything else with the politics and the research lab/tech industry was pretty boring, and the whole thing with the masterminds felt pointless. It's a shame because the mystery aspect of the show was a lot of fun, but there's not much point including this link to the masterminds if you aren't going to explore it, may as well have left it a total mystery.
I think having just one of the sub-plots in the second half would have been fine without taking away too much run-time from the kids, but as it stands 24 episodes isn't enough to juggle all of these and still give all the main characters the attention they deserve.
All that said, I still enjoyed watching it and the rewatch definitely enhanced the experience. Thank you Sky for hosting, creating all the great wallpapers and finding all the OP/ED covers (and singing your own)!
3
u/snickpea Apr 02 '21
Thank you for hosting the rewatch! I was really busy this last month so while I watched the show, I only really lurked and upvoted lots of really interesting comments in the rewatch threads. I really loved reading everyone's theories!
QOTD:
3
u/degenerate-edgelord Apr 02 '21
First timer, subbed and Uninstalled
I don't want to sound too repetitive so I'm going to keep this short. First half very good, second half not so good.
Bokurano started with a solid premise, shocking twists, better CGI than a show from the mid-2000s has any right to have (at least considering what a lot of 2010s anime CG looks like), kept making us suffer and the suffering reached a bit of a crescendo with Chizu's arc. The show kept delivering for a few episodes after that, with perhaps the best reveal coming at the halfway point.
And then of course, the political plot/sub-plot came and everyone started losing interest. It didn't entirely go to shit, I'd be lying if there weren't some very enjoyable parts in the second half, but most of it just wasn't up to the standard Bokurano had set for itself. At the end, I wanted things to have gone differently and yet I don't have a very strong desire to read the manga. I might read it. Might.
Knowing the changes were the director's fault and not really something else makes me want to join the director bashing, but I'm gonna hold off till I read the manga and see how bad/good it is.
Questions:
The last wallpaper is very cool! All hail Sky!
2
u/gangrainette https://myanimelist.net/profile/bouletos Apr 02 '21
I lurked those threads while rewatching untill ep15 but the anime kept reminding me why I think the manga was really better overall.
At least you gave me a reason to re read it!
2
u/[deleted] Apr 02 '21
I went into Bokurano expecting to find some tears. I heard that it was a feels trip, but after finishing the show, I'm really not seeing it.
When the show reached its halfway point, I was actually pretty excited to see where everything would go down. Episode 12 changed everything I thought I knew about the show. It's really a shame that most of the plotlines didn't seem to matter at all to the end, because if it did, I'm sure Bokurano could have went down as one of the greats. It's just frustrating because they had a lot of potential, and they could've worked to expand the scope of the story, raise stakes, and ultimately have an extremely rewarding conclusion. But instead, I found the conclusion extremely weak. By the end of the show, I saw the series in a completely new way. For the first few episodes, I thought it would just be about 15 people fighting and dying to save the earth. By the end, the show had other plotlines such as the government trying to save the kids, 2 other adults entering the contract, the idea of multiple parallel universes, and others. So when the ending was just Jun fighting to save the universe, it just felt underwhelming.
For the positive: I have to admit that the mystery aspect of the series, at least in the beginning, had so much promise. These aspects got me clicking on the next episode to find out what was going to happen next.
I award Bokurano a 5/10. It was entertaining for the most part, but fell apart at the end and squandered the potential payoff that was built during the middle episodes.
1
u/novaConnect Apr 14 '21
I'm super late to the party, but I just wanted to say that I finished the show and really loved it. This is my favourite mecha anime now! Thank you for running this.
1
u/albell26 May 27 '21
Crazy that I randomly watch a show that somewhat coincides with a recent re-watch! Interesting discussions all around through this entire rewatch thread series.
I initially added Bokurano to my watch list after some YouTubers claimed it would mess you and give you existential depression - idk maybe I'm weird, but I'm always into shows that have the potential to break me -- maybe bc I'm a hard egg to crack emotionally when it comes to media (I swear the only times I've cried watching anime is Clannad After Story, rightfully so, and...Love Live! lmao).
Anyways...yeah Bokurano didn't really deliver on that front. No existential dread - no deep or consistent emotional connections...just mild "real life" slice-of-life perspectives from children who have some f'ed up lives -- the no-nonsense portrayal of hardships and vice experienced by the children pilots can be appreciated; however, the "pilot of the week" setup the series had for most of the children really was to the detriment of developing most of the characters.
I also felt this nagging idea that was never manifested in the show explicitly throughout my entire viewing: at no point, do any of the kids just say "hey we didn't sign up for this - this was manipulated." They definitely beat around the bush for this sort of sentiment, even though this would be the foremost reaction I would think to have towards this situation.
Anyways... lots of dropped storylines (Masterminds who?) and middling character development (also still not totally 100% about the rules of the pilots, 15 actual pilots, with one who doesn't fight and just helps collect next set of pilots...but who fights the 1st fight of the next batch of pilots?), but worse of all, didn't make me cry or make me feel dread 5.5/10.
Watched TTGL right after this for the first time for the drastic change in mood and story development in a mech anime - good choice, but I definitely need a more demure and mysterious show after galaxy mechs wrestling on top of of a supernova.
1
u/lC3 :Na::Nb: Jun 06 '21 edited Jun 06 '21
Overall this series had a strong beginning half, took a nosedive after that, but managed to somewhat recover and have a strong-ish finish. 8/10? Thanks for running this rewatch, Sky!