Bokurano Anime Review
Episodes: 24
Genres: Drama, Mecha, Psychological, Sci-Fi

Disclaimer: Light spoilers

Plot: 9.5/10
Hands down, Bokurano has one of the most interesting plots I have ever come across in anime. With a lot of the same recycled plots coming out, this was a breath of fresh air. The basic plot consists of 14 7th graders, and 1 4th grader, that are tricked into piloting a mocha to save the world from aliens! Now, this may seem normal for a show, but Bokurano is far from that. The kids are told that it’s just a simple game and they act with that mentality for a while until they realize that they did not sign up for a “simple game”. There’s a big twist with piloting this mecha, and that twist is the mocha runs on your life force. So, when you win your battle, you die (To put it simply). This leads to interesting psychological problems with the kids. Do they pilot the mecha to save the world? Or do they run the risk of keeping themselves alive in case their world is not destroyed? From the very beginning, the kids are set up with a dark future, and they deal with it in different ways. In the end, how many of them will have to die for the Earth to be saved?

Art/Animation: 6/10
So I’m very strict with the whole 1-10 grading scheme. 10 being it cannot get any better and 1 being it cannot get any worse and 5 being just average. Bokurano’s art and animation can only be described as that, average. Why it gets a 6 and not a 5 is because it’s lackluster character design actually works for them. Bokurano seems to pride itself on the realistic aspect of the show, despite it being giant robots fighting to the death. The cast, though different personalities, look realistic and act in a realistic way. Besides that though, there are times where the animation is great and others where the animation is horrible. So… Average!

Music: 7/10
The music suffers from the same fate as the art and animation sadly. The differences between the two are that the opening and ending themes to Bokurano are outstanding. “Uninstall” is a perfect opening theme for a show so dark and twisted, while the ending shows the more human side of the characters and calms you down. There’s nothing special about the insert songs. Actually, I don’t remember any of them…

Characters: 9/10
This is where the show needs to shine since like other survival anime, it has a huge cast. 15 characters (plus a couple more that show up later) that need time to develop and grow. The show does a surprisingly good job at developing its characters too. Not all of them had enough time to develop fully, but for the time they’re given, it was pretty impressive. As said above, the kids find out that to save their Earth, they need to die, basically become a martyr. A lot of the time in anime, you don’t receive realistic reaction towards situations like this. Maybe some disbelief and light shock at most. These characters cry, kick, scream because they are kids. It’s a good choice that the main cast is kids to because their views on morality and the situation they are in are mostly unfiltered. Overall, a great cast of characters (Especially Ushiro).

Overall Score: 7.9/10