Starting Bokurano (first 7 episodes)

Right. No, I’m not going to start blogging Bokurano. Call me stupid, but I can’t really find the use of doing episode recaps. What’s the point anyway? I read a lot of anime blogs, but I skip through the recaps and read only that particular blogger’s opinion on the actual episode.

Who needs a recap anyway? Is there somebody, after all, who, right after seeing an episode needs a summary of that same episode? Or does somebody who skips an episode really prefer the written version of it instead of downloading the actual one? I don’t know. I need an elucidation about this whole recap business.

But anyway, I wanted to talk about this particular show that I am pretty much hooked on. I’m usually really behind with anime watching, I don’t get into the new series mostly because I hate being interrupted by a whole week and I prefer to do 4-5 episodes marathons at once. That is why I left Naruto Shippuden to “grow” in the background, in order for me to watch entire, uninterrupted story archs of Naruto goodness during the summer. But reading a spring season preview on a blog a couple of weeks ago, I got really intrigued by this anime – there was a picture and some lines about a couple of kids playing a dangerous, mortal game. I’m not really into mecca either, but damn the style looked fluent and eye candy enough (it had the all modern look) so I downloaded the first episode.

And boy, was I pleasantly surprised.

Bokurano is highly suspenseful. Not as suspenseful as Death Note though, but still. It really makes you wander about “what the hell happened”, “who is that”, “how does that work” and stuff.

The premise is intriguing: 15 kids go on a summer school vacation. Some of them had known each other previously, some of them hadn’t, but they certainly aren’t well acquainted with each other. They accidentally go into a cave where they meet an awkward man who proposes them to play a game. They eagerly accept it, enthusiastic about a new playful experience, and this of course triggers a set of dramatic, tragic, horrific events.

The beginning theme song is quite beautiful (Uninstall). A laid-back voice singing a very nostalgic Japanese song, over a pattern of poppish drums and violins. The theme really comes in contrast with the background music that covers the whole show. From eerie pitchy sounds to gory, horror-like melodies, the gallery of sound effects is really peculiar and makes you feel like “something bad is going to happen” almost all the time.

The episodes all end with more questions to add and the numerous mysteries and questions make me hate this one episode per week routine. But, like every first-class anime, the story, the characters, the overall elements that compose its complexity, develop slowly. Every component is being showed to us gradually, growing unhurriedly and we find out something new by each and each episode. I’m a sucker for “kids playing a dangerous game” type of situation and believe me, this anime takes itself very seriously. This is far form being your typical “how cool to drive a mecca and save the world” type of anime. No no no. This is the “I’m so fucking scared to drive a mecca that I will fucking shit in my pants, and god no, i don’t want to die a virgin” type of youngsters’ psychology. And plus, it deals a lot not with the actual fighting (until now) but with the consequences – the hazardous deaths, the political and military problem and how the regular people on the streets react to it.

I’m down at episode 7 so it’s definitely hard to form a structured opinion. The impressive number of central characters (15) makes it really hard for real portrayals to stand out but somehow it had managed to keep focus on some of them through the typical flashback habit, by showing a bit of background, slices of previous family life etc. It seems we might eventually get to know all the characters.

I’m really excited to see the outcome of this series. Until now, everything’s great.