This is an anime that I started watching that I had no clue what to expect. I had no idea what it was about. It had been given to me by a friend and just sat on my ‘To Watch List’ for ages. So on World Otaku Day I took the chance to watch something unknown.

• Genre: Mecha, Drama, Psychological, Horror, Tragedy, Sci-Fi
• Episodes:24
• Release Date: April 2007
• Animation Studio: Gonzo
• English Title: Ours

About:

A group of mostly 7^th graders on a camp during a school holiday explore a cave and stumble across a hideout. The guy who lives in the hideout claims to be a game developer who has developed a game where 15 robots will attack the Earth and the only way to defend it would be to fight them off in a giant black robot. The guy asks the children if they would like to be beta testers for the game. Agreeing the group signs the contract only to wake up mysteriously on the beach. Confused the group think it was a mass hallucination until they see two robots. The black one they are meant to control and one that looks like a giant insect. The group name their robot Zearth. Soon they are forced to battle and it is made clear that there is much more to their battles and contract than they ever imagined. Will they be able to survive and save the Earth?

My Thoughts:

The artwork for this anime is simplistic and not overly colourful. The characters develop and evolve as the anime continues revealing more about each of the groups past and their individual personalities. This anime is sad and I would advise not getting overly attached to the characters. Even though I didn’t know anything about this anime, three episodes in and I knew that I would be binge watching it. I just had to know who was next and how they would find their way out of their situation. I only went to sleep at 7am! At first I liked Dung Beetle (I had a good chuckle at his name) but that quickly changed as I got to
know his character. Even once his past was revealed it still didn’t improve my opinion of him. This anime was full of plot twists which I had pretty much guessed at but it was nice to have my hunches confirmed. The end of the anime made sense and all the loose ends were tied up nicely, however I cannot help but wish that it had a different ending. This anime got me thinking hard and wondering what would I do if I had been in their shoes and how would I have coped? It seemed a little much that each of the characters had some sort of emotional dilemma of one sort or another from dying friends, disappearing fathers, affairs with teachers and runaways. Then I took a step back and realized that it was part of the story and even in real life everyone has at least one big issue that they are dealing with. I really enjoy trying to figure out the order of things and plot twists in all that I read and watch before it happens. I usually do this by looking at past events and subtle hints given to us but mainly I know just from my intuition and experience from the sheer volume of plots I have witnessed unfold. This left me happily guessing at the order that the children would be piloting the robot. I tried looking at the order they signed the contract in, nope, the order they appear in the intro and ending songs, still I was wrong. I wish I could accurately describe how happy that made me! I just wish they had explained the master minds behind the whole concept a bit more. If you enjoy mecha anime and mysteries with a hint of drama and sci-fi this is a must watch! I would love to know who your favourite of the children is, mine is Ushiro Jun even thou he clearly has some serious issues.

The opening track for this anime reminded me of the intro for .hack//sign which I found ironic because I look at both anime and see a ‘game that went wrong’ theme.

Have you watched Bokurano? If you have, what did you think of it? Will you watch it? I would love to know in the comments below!