Okay, it seems that my theory of two episodes per pilot still holds, it’s just not as static as I thought. This probably was the most focused episode of Bokura no yet, when it focuses on just Chizuru, with a bit of Isao and Yosuki. The rest of the cast never even appeared. I originally believed that Chizuru would be the pilot in this episode, but it’s entirely focused on a flashback of her, explaining her background and making her the most fleshed-out character so far.
Chizuru’s case: she wants to do her best in school, but her parents just think that she’d go to the same school as her sister did. She doesn’t really feel appreciated by anyone, and believes that nobody cares about her. Then she meets a teacher (the one she spoke about two episodes ago) who does support her, and the two start to have an affair. The only problem is that Chizuru fell in love with the wrong person, as he’s one of these guys who posts pictures and videos of the two of them doing “it” on a website. Not only that, he also has an affair with her sister at the same time.
So far, I liked this episode a lot, but somehow I feel that the juiciest details have been saved for the next episode. It should focus on Chiruzu’s turn to be the pilot, but something tells me that the fight isn’t going to take a massive 20 minutes. And after all, a still of her background is still missing: the reason why she returned to the guy, even though she knew he was hitting on her sister. in episode five, we clearly see her remember her teacher without any feelings of hate, so some things are still about to happen.
The question also remains: what will she do once she’s going to pilot Zearth? It’s not like she has a reason to kick the enemy mecha’s ass, like Masaru and Takeshi did. Also, this episode has been the perfect example of lazy animators. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that the same animation-teams from NHK ni Youkoso worked on this anime.
I like the way this anime is going, so far, by the way. Apart from Masaru, the pilots chosen so far have been the least interesting ones at first glance. I’m really curious to seeing a bit more of Yosuki, what was in his mind when Isao bullied him. I’d also love to see Aiko and Takami break down when their turn begins, and I’m really looking forward to finding out more about Jun and Kana. In fact, the only meh-character remaining would be Maki. We’ve seen a bit of things from her, but so far she seems like the most normal character around.
Finally, I’ve been wondering something… I finally realized in this episode that each new pilot gets a marking. But why didn’t Takashi, Masaru and Kokopelli get this mark? Or was this mark on their bodies, instead of their faces so that we’d never get to see it?]]>
Bokura no – 07
The whole mark thing was something they added in the anime, it wasnt in the manga. I wonder if they will come up with some reason for it, or if they just added it because they thought it would be cool.
I havent watched the episode yet, but I get the feeling that they didnt do as good a job as the manga did. The way they move things around seems to change the impact the manga had (in the manga she doesnt go back with the teacher, and she doesnt find out about her sister dating him till a later point
i doubt episode 8 will feature the “abuse” part of the storyline. From what looks like, they’re going to change the focus from the abuse (manga) to a jealousy story. Since she doesn’t seem to be tense or angry towards the teacher in the anime, while in the manga she had a lot of motives….
‘sides, if you look at how kako died, it’s a bit more coherent with the “new chizu”, who is quite a bit more relaxed than the one in the manga, so in the anime it was more of an accidental death. Kako’s death in the manga was so much more dramatic, btw, it’s quite bad how the anime adaptation turned out….. but i guess the manga version was a bit too intense for the anime format.
the next characters should be more manageable, thou’…..
I’m kind of curious what you mean by this comment:
“Also, this episode has been the perfect example of lazy animators. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out that the same animation-teams from NHK ni Youkoso worked on this anime.”
I’ve seen all of NHK, and never once noticed animation that seemed unintentionally bad. Every time the animation slipped into something “low-quality,” it came across as a wholly deliberate stylistic choice, and overall, I thought the show was really animated quite well.
I also got the impression from the first episode of Bokura no that it was going to be a superbly-animated show throughout (though the episode itself was kind of a disappointment, and it’ll take me a while before I’m willing to give this show a second shot… Narutaru it ain’t, at least not initially!).
Just kinda curious, as that comment seemed to come out of nowhere, and is never really explained…
-Tom
Ack, lazy animators isn’t really the right word, no. It’s the difference in animation style I meant, the current episode really reminded me to those “artsy” episodes in NHK ni Youkoso.
I don’t think that these episode were a deliberate choice, though. It’s just that different animation-teams worked on them. I’m not sure if you’ve seen the series “The Third”, but it’s the perfect example to illustrate this, when most of its episodes show excellent animation, only for two episodes to just look horrible.
Waku and Masaru both had markings on their arms… how you failed to notice Waku’s I don’t know as it’s explicitly mentioned when he’s on the balcony yelling. Kokopelli on the other hand… well I guess he was wearing a full bodysuit so we really can’t be sure.
But yeah, the marks are a new thing for the anime.
I think it’s clear that different animation teams worked on different episodes.
Ah, OK, I think I know what you mean. I haven’t seen The Third, but PopoloCrois 2003 episode 7 is pretty much my definitive example of the phenomenon you’re describing. It’s very, very obvious that that episode was drawn and animated by a “B group”, as there are some very notable stylistic differences there that obviously were not intended (especially in the eyes, and in the characters’ movements).
-Tom
I don’t think we will see 2 episodes per kid. Waku and Kokopelli only had 1 ep each. Ep 3 technically was not Masaru’s storyline (Maki was listed first in the credits), so he only had 1 ep.
This somewhat mirrors the manga as the first three only had 2 chapters. Starting with the kid after Masaru (who I will not name since the anime changed the order), they had 3 chapters, then with Chizu, each kid had 4 chapters, and now with the two most recent kids, they have 5 chapters.
That obviously won’t happen in the anime. We still don’t know how many episodes there will be, whether it’s 24-26 or 30+, but if it’s 24-26, i’m expecting some of the kids to only have 1 episode stories.
Really intense, even tho there was no mecha action. I admit the hardcore action fan in me was itching to get out, but this episode was necessary. Otherwise it would’ve been rushed and contrived & sell Chizu short.