Manga Review: Bokurano

Title: Bokurano
Author: Mohiroh Kitoh
Release: Monthly
Status: Finished
Genre: Mecha, Psychological, Horror
Art: B
Originality: S
Story: S
Characters: S+
Humor: B
Action: A

Impression: This is the story of a group of kids at a summer camp who are tricked into riding a giant robot thinking that it was just a game by man called Kokopelli. The truth behind the sinister nature of this "game" is that these fights between huge metal behemoths is that they are a way to weed out parallel universes and should anyone of the children lose, they and their entire universe will cease to exist. On top of that, the robot is powered by the pilot's lifeforce and will kill whoever is the current pilot of each fight so the children effectively condemned themselves to death the moment the agreed to join in on Kokopelli's game. Yeah, it IS a very depressing manga so most people avoid Mohiroh Kitoh's works because of the downer factor. I on the other hand am not affected by such a thing since my interest in philosophy and humanities ripped that part of me right out. While the concept is about a huge giant robot, the actual focus of this story are the children and the various problems they face in today's society. It is absolutely fantastic in that respect as we get kids who are suicidal, being bullied, becoming pregnant and have family problems. It really makes me wonder if the author had a problematic childhood for him to create such troubled characters. It is a very fascinating look into the lives of children who face such problems and so it there are many moments where an event will shock and horrify you. The mindscrew part here are the many disgusting and horrible things that humans are capable of and the reasons behind them and the excessiveness of them in this manga. Incidentally, Mohiroh Kitoh and Naoki Urasawa are my favorite authors because they like to do dark and unique stories.