Bokurano

Japanese title: ぼくらの

Some info:
1) ANN
2) Wiki Article
3) Official Site (Japanese)

This 24 episode mecha-based anime series isn’t your usual fare of mecha. Well certainly there will be robots and fighting enemy counterparts, the way the story is presented is something new, at least to me. It’s generally quite sad and tragic in nature though it ain’t exactly the tear-jerking type (or maybe I’m becoming cold-hearted towards such shows).

Well, this story is about this group of kids who are cheated into playing a “game” where they fight off alien intruders, and they signed a contract in order to enjoy this experience. Though the initial thought of being able to pilot a huge robot and fight off enemies to defend your homeland sounds very much a good idea, the kids soon realise that this “game” is actually fatal. As long as the chosen pilot moves the robot, the latter will be powered using the life force of the pilot, thereby resulting in the death of the pilot not long after the battle. However, things will not go so smoothly so there isn’t a way to withdraw from the game. Neither can they choose to avoid combat with the enemy since there’s a time limit to each battle. If the time limit is exceed or the battle is lost, Earth will cease to exist. So yeah, it’s kind of a lose-lose situation for the chosen pilot every time.

The actual battles against enemy robots aren’t really the key focus of the show, though they do play an important part in some of the kids’ struggle during their piloting time. I would think the highlight of the show would be the psychological struggle that the kids go through when they are chosen (or not) as the pilot. On the one hand, it’s kind of sad and regrettable that after their debut battle they would have to cease to exist but if they choose not to battle (and win), all is lost anyway. Others have difficulty in convincing themselves whether it was worth it, to sacrifice oneself for the greater good, and of course to illustrate things better, the pilot’s past is usually shown to the viewers to get a better idea of what the character is thinking/going through. For those who are chosen earlier, it’s sad for them to know that they have to make a move earlier than the other people, but for those who remain it’s also rather painful to see more and more comrades leaving and the thought of being chosen next draws nearer. Kinda frightening experience if you ask me.

Of course, there are many more details and other stuff in the show that are quite important, but if I were to go on about those, this entry will probably end up with thousands and thousands of words. Hehz, watch the show and you’ll understand what I mean. This series is actually much better than I initially thought when I read the synopsis at those anime information sites. Goes to show synopsis aren’t always reliable.

Onto other things besides the story/plot, though the mecha design isn’t exactly very cool to me, I’d think the robots aren’t really the focus of the show (which I’ve mentioned above), so it’s perfectly all right for me. Other areas make up for it. =) The artwork of the characters are pretty okay, and each of them are given ample time to show more of their characteristics since there’s usually an episode dedicated to telling of their past/story before they actually go on to pilot the robot. The voice cast is pretty good too, nothing much to complain about.

A final point to add would be that the lyrics of the opening song are actually quite nice. Of course, the song itself is quite nice too. Take a look at the lyrics over at DarkMirage. Yah, so to sum things up, I think this anime is pretty nice to watch, and probably receiving less attention than it should (or at least I don’t see much discussion about it from the places I visit [though it's not much]).