[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Bokurano 19 and 20
This series really has shifted its focus and tone during its run. Whether or not I’d have noticed had the adaptation debacle not surfaced is a different matter entirely. That is to say, I expected a change in direction and therefore noticed one: it’s departed quite markedly from the episodic structure of the earlier days.
Tamotsu has a heart-to-heart with Jun
Ep #19 follows in the wake of Tanaka’s tragic death in which Tamotsu explains everything to Jun. It was a really enjoyable episode in that it offers some new storytelling and gives a break from the main plotline; after learning about his brave and noble parents I find it hard to understand why he turned out to be the boy he is. I mean, his biological father was as honourable as a gangster could be, right? What went wrong? I have to say though that I don’t think Jun deserved to have that sort of thing happen to him; this makes it all the more important I think that Tamotsu decided he needed to know the truth.
So they weren’t siblings after all
In addition to this, it turns out Kana knew all along! All those years of being bullied and treated like dirt…I guess she was too scared to tell him, which is fair enough. It also shows what a good kid Kana is - she’s been devoted to the little brat even though he isn’t her real brother. All in all it was a fantastic episode that explored Jun’s and Kana’s backgrounds really well.
Ep #20 brings things back into the ‘present’ and presents a lot more information as well. This is where my confidence in the anime-only story gets a bit shaky but it nevertheless clears up quite a lot of nagging questions and contains a lot of tragedy which makes it gripping in a different way. Even as a human, Dung Beetle is a thoroughly detestable character, just like Jun coincidentally (judging by Psgels’ assessment of this episode, the parallels between Dung Beetle and Jun weren’t lost on him either). It explains a lot about how the game works to a certain degree, but I suspect what’s going on as far those Masterminds that Kanji saw are concerned is being saved for later.
So Machi really IS Dung Beetle’s sis. Damn.
I felt pretty sorry for good old Kanji too, especially when Dung Beetle spills the beans on who’s been betraying them. My guess at this stage is that his mother sold the info off somehow to further her research but since I’m in the throes of life-threatening man-flu I may not have been paying enough attention to notice. The only problem I had with this episode is the socket in Machi’s neck, which she used to convey her memories. I know it’s important to explain the info but the way in which it was done felt too convenient, almost as if the writers were pushed for time and thought “We have to portray the flashbacks somehow.” and opted for a hasty approach. Still, it did the job and now we know (some of) the truth about Kokopelli, Machi and Dung Beetle.
Bokurano ‘feels’ a lot different to how it did at first but in all honesty it would have got repetitive, no matter how interesting the pilots’ back-stories were. That said, there appears to be a battle looming on the horizon so maybe this very informative exposition segment is now at an end.
Posted on October 7th, 2007 @ 7:00 am
Machi: “Why I happen to have just the socket you need, which looks like one you used to use to attach the printer, right here in my head, what a coincidence!”
Sigh.
I don’t think the show is going to end as well as I had hoped.
There’s a loss of energy now. Even during Kanji’s battle I felt it. Because it was half the battle and half the adults staring helpless at the computer monitor realizing horrible things, for far too long. The reason for the drop in energy? Simple. There are fewer protagonists now. The kids’ group dynamic has left us. You can’t just root for them; they’re mostly gone, including my favorites, and many of the adults too. The group energy is missing. We’re down to a tiny core of people and the decision Jun has to make.
In the final scene of Poulenc’s opera “Dialogues of the Carmalites,” the entire women’s chorus is chopped down one by one by the guillotine, and their group voice diminishes, but there it’s used to beautiful effect: at the end you have just the single voice of one woman as she walks to the scaffold. That’s not gonna happen here.
Sigh.