Bokurano

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bokurano: Ours
Front cover of the first volume of the manga
ぼくらの (Bokura no)
Genre	Mecha, Drama, Horror, Psychological
Manga
Author	Mohiro Kitoh
Publisher	Shogakukan
English publisher	Viz Media
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Ikki, Kappa Edizioni
Original run	November 25, 2003 – June 25, 2009
Volumes	10 (List of volumes)
TV anime
Director	Hiroyuki Morita
Studio	Gonzo
Network	SUN-TV, Tokyo MX TV, TV Aichi, TV Kanagawa
Original run	April 8, 2007 – September 25, 2007
Episodes	24 (List of episodes)
Light novel
Bokura no: Alternative
Author	Renji Ōki
Illustrator	Mohiro Kitoh
Publisher	Shogakukan
Demographic	Male
Original run	May 24, 2007 – June 18, 2008
Volumes	5
Anime and Manga Portal

Bokurano: Ours (ぼくらの, Bokura no^?, lit. "Our") is a Japanese science fiction manga by Mohiro Kitoh, serialized monthly in Ikki since 2003; currently 10 tankōbon have been published by Shogakukan. The series has been adapted as an anime television series directed by Hiroyuki Morita and produced by Gonzo that aired in 2007, and a light novel series under the title Bokura no: Alternative (ぼくらの〜alternative〜, Bokura no Orutanatibu^?), featuring an alternate story by Renji Ōki and character designs by Kitoh himself.

The manga is licensed in English by Viz Media, which will publish it in the online English version of Ikki.^[1]

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Rules of the battle 2.1 Anime only rules 2.2 Manga only rules 3 Characters 4 Dimensional robots 5 Anime 5.1 Episodes 5.2 Music 5.3 Hiroyuki Morita blog controversy 6 Light novel 7 References 8 External links

[edit] Plot summary

During a summer camp, 15 children, 8 males and 7 females, find a grotto by the sea. Deep within they discover working computers and some electronic equipment, and later the owner, a man who introduces himself as "Kokopelli". Kokopelli claims 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 enter into a contract. All but one of them agree, and a moment later they mysteriously awaken on the shore, believing what happened was just a dream.

That night, two giant robots appear suddenly by the beach. A small creature calling himself "Koyemshi" appears and claims to be their guide. He then teleports the children into the black robot. They find Kokopelli already inside and controlling the black robot in order to defeat the white 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, one child observes Kokopelli whispering "I'm sorry."

Each story of Bokurano: Ours tends to focus exclusively on one character - the next pilot. It starts with some background information on the character and their underlying motivations while building up to their battle. The episodes themselves are named after the character currently being focused on.

Takashi Waku is the first pilot of the robot, which is named "Zearth" by Maki Ano. Upon winning the fight, Waku is accidentally 'knocked' into the sea by Jun Ushiro. The second pilot, Masaru "Kodama" Kodaka, dies unceremoniously after defeating his opponent. Koyemshi explains to the children that Zearth runs on life force, and the cost of every victory would be the life of its pilot.

The next two pilots, Daiichi "Daichi" Yamura and Mako "Nakama" Nakarai, lose their lives similarly. Daichi protects an amusement park so his siblings can go there and Nakama uses Zearth's abilities to help save a classmate of hers. Before her victory death, Nakama manages to give the others some pilot costumes that she sewed herself. Through Takami "Komo" Komoda, the military finds out about the children's connection with Zearth, and they are brought together for their own protection. The next pilot, Isao Kako, becomes too cowardly to fight. Chizuru "Chizu" Honda kills him, and becomes the next pilot. Before fighting the enemy robot, she seeks her revenge on the teacher who had abused her sexually. While attempting to kill him, she is stopped by her sister. Both her life and her unborn baby's life are taken as Zearth's payment, revealing that there is another person besides Kana Ushiro who is exempt from the contract.

During Kunihiko Moji's fight, it is revealed that Zearth's cockpit looks just like their enemies' weak points. Maki, the next pilot, realizes that they are in an alternate universe when an unknown fighter jet attacks them. She pries open the enemy's weak point and reveals the human pilots inside. Koyemshi explains that these battles are meant to weed out parallel universes.

[edit] Rules of the battle

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

• Each group of pilots must use their robot to fight and defeat a number of enemy robots without a single loss. Each battle must be concluded in 48 hours at most. If they lose a battle, or the time expires, their world will be destroyed and all life on it will be extinguished.
• The battle is won by finding the enemy robot's cockpit, located somewhere into its body, and killing its current 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.
• The robot 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, and just after an enemy is defeated, the pilot for the following battle is selected among them.
• The pilot exercises total control of the robot just by his/her own will, and all knowledge about its capabilities can simply be implanted within his/her memory if desired.
• While a pilot can control the robot from the outside, rules prohibit the pilot to be anywhere but the cockpit when fighting an enemy.
• No change of control is allowed unless the chosen pilot dies before his/her battle is finished. In this case the robot's control is automatically switched to another eligible pilot and he/she must continue the bout.
• 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 the robot, for example.
• People from one world are able to sign the contract to fight for another world; however, they cannot be a part of more than one contract at once.
• If at any moment the group is short of pilots to complete the remaining battles, other individuals must sign the contract to fill the quota.
• Koyemshi must appear whenever a contractee calls for him and must obey the pilot's wishes, even if it includes being teleported out of the robot in the middle of a fight to run away.
• Koyemshi may not teleport the robot during a fight, although he is capable of summoning it outside of a fight whenever he chooses to.
• The last remaining pilot is sent to another world, with the task of assembling another group of people to be the pilots representing it, and battle there to make a demonstration to them. The number of pilots needed doesn't necessary have to be 15, if your world is lucky it can be another number like 11.

[edit] Anime only rules

• The group's guide (Koyemshi in Zearth team's case) has authority to determine the order of the pilots.
• The current pilot carries a tattoo-like mark on his/her body which resembles a trait of the enemy robot he/she must engage. When the battle is won, the mark disappears before the pilot dies.
• If the enemy robot is destroyed without the pilot taking any action (for example, if the enemy commits suicide) he/she doesn't die, but is still selected to take part in another match, as Zearth only takes life energy to move. The fight still counts towards the total number of wins.
• The pilot for the final match still has the task of assembling the pilots for another universe, but if this pilot survives the battle, his/her life will be spared.

[edit] Manga only rules

• If there is no pilot for the robot, the battle starts regardless. All attacks to the robot are nullified. If no pilot is contracted within 24 hours of the battle's start, then the other side wins, but the pilot will still die. If a pilot is contracted, then the battle takes place in the remaining amount of time.
• If the last pilot loses the demonstration battle on the next Earth, the contractees from that world will be revived and the world will not be destroyed. The last pilot's world will be destroyed instead.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Dimensional robots

The robots featured in Bokurano: Ours all share similar traits as well as differences;

Size: The most obvious trait is their surprisingly large size, each roughly 500 meters (around 1,640 feet) tall. Considering the average size of mecha and monsters featured in Japanese productions, these robots are extremely large.

Armor: Each of the robots featured are covered in thousands of layers of armor that makes conventional weaponry useless in regard to both offense and defense. It was estimated by the JSDF that Zearth could destroy the entire American military in approximately 48 hours.

Lasers: It seems that every surface of the robots' bodies are capable of firing lasers of incredible power (enough to destroy a mountain with a single volley). However, the lasers are insufficient for damaging any of the robots until they have had their armor stripped off.

Faces: Each robot has a panel somewhere on their face with fourteen illuminated slits. With the death of each pilot, a slit darkens so it is possible to tell how many pilots are left by counting the number of glowing lights.

Cockpit: The pilots' seats are always within a bulb-shaped cockpit. Destroying this is the goal of each bout, most specifically killing the current pilot. The pilots of the robot have their individual seats, reflecting their personalities.

[edit] Anime

An anime adaptation directed by Hiroyuki Morita and produced by Gonzo premiered on April 8, 2007 on Japan's SUN-TV.

[edit] Episodes

[edit] Music

• Original soundtrack by Yūji Nomi
• Opening theme - Uninstall (アンインストール, An'insutōru^?) by Chiaki Ishikawa
• Ending theme (episode 1 - episode 12) - Little Bird by Chiaki Ishikawa
• Ending theme (episode 13 - episode 24) - Vermillion by Chiaki Ishikawa

[edit] Hiroyuki Morita blog controversy

Regarding differences between the stories in the manga and in the anime, Hiroyuki Morita, who directed the anime, wrote in his blog that he dislikes the original story and has, in some ways, been making changes to the plot for that reason. He also wrote that, at one point early in the development of the show, he asked manga author Mohiro Kitoh if he could find some way to save the main characters—the kids who must pilot Zearth. He wrote that Kitoh responded that his choice was fine as long as the changes did not involve "magical solutions" to the story. Morita closed out the blog entry with the statement, "The director of the anime version of Bokurano hates the original work. Viewers should not expect to see any aspects that they liked about the original manga appearing in the anime. So fans of the manga, please stop watching the anime"^[2]

[edit] Light novel

There is also a light novel featuring an alternate story entitled Bokura no: Alternative. Mohiro Kitoh only handles the character designs for this installment, as the story is written by Renji Ohki.

It depicts most of the original characters from the manga accompanied by a handful of new ones, with the same task of piloting Zearth to protect the world at the expense of their own lives.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website (manga) (Japanese)
• Official website (anime) (Japanese)
• Bokurano (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia