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Well~ I realised that I haven’t mentioned about this great show. I’ve actually read the manga it really hit me so hard, it’s terrific.

Sypnosis

15 children, 8 males and 7 females, gets involved in a game by a man called Kokopelli. Kokopelli claimed to be a programmer working on a brand new game, in which a large robot has to defend the Earth against fifteen alien invasions. He persuades the children to test the game and sign a contract. All but one of them signs, and suddenly find themself to be awoken at the beach believing what happened was just a dream.

That night, two giant robots appear suddenly by the beach. A small creature, calling itself ‘Dung Beetle’, appears and claims to be their guide. It teleports the children into one of the robot. Kokopelli was inside and controlling the black robot in order to defeat the enemy robot. During battle he gives the children a brief tutorial on how to pilot the robot as he destroys the enemy. Once he has finished he tells the children that they are on their own now and sends them back to the beach. As the children are teleported out, somone observes Kokopelli whispering “I’m sorry”.

In Bokurano, the story tends to focus on one character and their background story. Of course in a game, there are always rules.

The Rules (Contain Spoilers)

Here is a list of the rules revealed so far in the manga.

• Zearth’s pilots must fight and win 15 enemy robots without a single defeat. Each battle must be concluded in 48 hours at most. If they lose a battle, or the time expires, the Earth will be destroyed and all life, including humanity, will be extinguished.
• The battle is won by finding the enemy robot’s cockpit, located somewhere into its body, and killing its pilot.
• As long as the enemy pilot is killed by someone from the opposing world the victory is valid, a pilot is not the only one who can do it.
• Zearth consumes the life force of whoever pilots it, thus even if the pilot survives the battle, his/her life ends soon afterwards.
• The pilot must be one of the people who signed the contract with Zearth, and just after an enemy is defeated, the pilot for the following battle is selected among them.
• The pilot controls Zearth using his/her will, and all knowledge about Zearth’s capabilities can simply be implanted within his/her memory if desired.
• While a pilot can control Zearth from the outside, rules prohibit the pilot to be anywhere but the cockpit during active combat.
• No change in control is allowed unless the chosen pilot dies before the battle is concluded. In this case the control is automatically switched to another eligible pilot and he/she must continue the battle.
• When the pilot dies after winning a battle, normally the body is delivered to his or her family. However, the pilot has the right to decide previously how it will be handled. It can be made to disappear, or stored within one of the many crevices inside Zearth, for example.
• If at any moment the group is short of pilots to complete the remaining battles, more people can sign the contract to fill the quota.

Impression

Bokurano seems to lean towards the tragic spectrum and focus primarily on the vulnerability and cruelty of human beings. I often find myself being drawn into the plot and also into the shoes of each characters to the point that I can really understand their feelings and what causes them to be like that. Often I find myself feeling emotional after each arc as I think back of their past and what their actions actually affect the people around them and themselves, to a certain extend that I find myself tearing sometimes. I have to say, this is one series you have to watch. Mohiro Kitoh, is really good at these stuff. Makes me want to check out his other works such as Shadow Star Narutaru. The OP and ED is terrific too. In fact, the lyrics suited the sequence so well, I could felt the emotions and teared when I saw it for the first time.