Review: BOKURANO:OURS

We got a lot of original mecha stories around the turn of the millennium, most of which were anime originals.  This is one of the rare exceptions (even if it got an anime adaptation later down the line). 

BOKURANO OURS (Bokurano), by Mohiro Kitoh.  First published in 2003 and first published in North America in 2010.

PLOT:

It's an ordinary summer in an otherwise unremarkable seaside town.  A group of kids are wandering around the beach when they discover a cave in the cliffside.  Inside that cave they find a strange man in a makeshift room loaded with machinery.  The man asks the kids if they want to play a game, but asks them to pledge to keep it secret.  The kids don't take the situation seriously at the time, but everything changes when they are whisked away from their classrooms and into a sparse, white room inside a giant insectoid robot.  It's only then that the man explains the rules of the game: each child will be given a chance to pilot the robot to fight other alien robots, with the fate of the world on the line.  The kids win their first battle, but in doing so expose some of the emotional fault lines within their friend group with deadly results.

STORY:

There's no mistaking Bokurano: Ours as anything other than a product of the post-Evangelion wave of dark, depressing, psychological complex mecha stories from the turn of the millennium.  If you know anything about Mohiro Kitoh and the series he made previous to this, you'll know that this sort of story is absolutely up his alley and that he's better at it than most.

At the start, you might think that this is just another coming-of-age adventure, the sort where the cast of children persevere through their troubles through The Power of Friendship (tm).  The kids even have a cute, mascot-like creature to tag along!  That said, that illusion is dispelled pretty quickly once the aliens show up and the kids are called upon to start piloting the strange man's machine.  At that point it becomes more of a breakdown of each child in the friend group as they are called upon to pilot the strange man's mecha.  There's no traditional cockpit, only a plain white space with a single chair, one that is unique to each child.  Once seated they pilot through movement and voice, but as part of the process they are confronted with their worst fears and past traumas.  Some are able to manage well enough in the moment, while others discover more negative qualities within themselves.  It's compelling stuff, but very heavy.

There's an air of uneasiness throughout the volume, and the source of it is Kokopelli, the strange man who sets all these events into motion.  The strangeness of his situation, the vagueness of his explanations, his insistence upon secrecy and use of peer pressure on the kids make him a mysterious but disturbing presence.  It makes you want to learn more about him, but it also left me wanting to snatch these children away from him faster than you can say "stranger danger."  His vibes are so off that even some of the kids pick up on it, but those that don't take it at face value are pressured into staying silent.  I guess it's only fitting that he's named for a minor Hopi trickster god.  His presence tempers the joy these kids might feel at something as fantastical as piloting a giant robot, turning it from adventure to sci-fi tinged psychological horror.

ART:

Kitoh's artstyle is kind of gawky, but honestly it works well with a story like this.  The kids are lanky and slightly bobbleheaded, which only emphasizes their youthfulness.  Koyemshi (Kokopelli's proud, cantankerous robot assistant) is equal parts cute and disturbing with his teddy-bear eyes and mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.  He also puts effort into making the setting feel as realistic as possible.  There's a lived-in quality to the backgrounds that makes me wonder if it isn't based on a place Kitoh grew up in, or at least knows well.  The mechs and other alien technology are fascinatingly abstract in their design, far removed from the humanoid forms so typically seen in the genre.  If anything, their hard exteriors and jointed legs evoke the exoskeletons of things like crabs or insects.  Again, this mash-up of the natural and unnatural, the cute and the disturbing is clearly purposeful and meant to unsettle the reader. 

RATING:

Bokurano:Ours is heavy stuff even by mecha standards, but its well-crafted and pervasive atmosphere of dread makes it unique.  I'm not going to claim this is a fun series to read, but it's absolutely a compelling one.

This series was published by Viz.  This series is complete in Japan with 11 volumes available.  All 11 were released; the physical volumes are out of print, but digital copies are available via Viz.