Bokura ga Ita - We Were There

Series: Bokura ga Ita
Episodes: 26
Studio: ArtLand
Genre: Shoujo

I'm a huge fan of shoujo anime so when I saw the title "Bokura ga Ita" and looked it up on the internets, it was immediately on my "To-Watch List". I hate giving out spoilers but I think it's necessary if I am to review this. So bear with it and I hope it would encourage you to actually watch Bokura ga Ita.

Anyway, Bokura ga Ita is a story about two high school students, Takahashi Nanami and Yano Motoharu. Nanami unexpectedly falls in love with Yano - the most popular guy in school - despite her initial hatred for him. Feelings turned out to be mutual for the two of them, and they start going out.

Further into the story (as I will skip the details of how lovey-dovey the two are), we find out more about Yano's past - that his former girlfriend, Yamamoto Nana, was killed in a car crash. Since then, Yano has been afraid to fall in love. Then there's the seemingly eternally-present "love triangle" between the couple and the best friend.

Were those too many spoilers? Orz

I'll stop now and just write what I think about it.

Bokura ga Ita has one of those bittersweet themes to it. It's a love story but at the same time, it's so heart-wrenching and frustrating. I mean, with all the things that went on with Nanami and Yano, I can't quite imagine them being sixteen to seventeen years old. Their problems, a main contributor to the plot, is both mature and immature at the same time. I mean, I never had those problems when I was their age, give it 4 more years, and that's the only time when I "started" having those problems and it never escalated to a magnitude such as theirs.

But then, there's the animation style. If you're too keen on the drawing style when selecting an anime to watch, then you'd better think twice about Bokura ga Ita. I guess in a way, that's how the studio related the anime with the manga...it's not really terrible. Mediocre, perhaps, but the style isn't that bad.

Ahh...then we have those endless flashbacks that the story could perfectly do without. I got tired of watching those flashbacks to the point that I skipped them entirely. Sure, they were there to "remind" the viewers, but if you're watching Bokura ga Ita 4eps/day, there really is no need for those flashbacks.

Overall, I'd really recommend Bokura ga Ita to anyone who's a fan of shoujo. Sure, some themes are just recycled in almost every shoujo story but Bokura ga Ita twists it in a way that you wouldn't realize you're too hooked into the story until you start cursing at Yamamoto's sister, cheering for Takeuchi, getting frustrated with Nanami and pitying Yano. You get mesmerized with the story and you might find yourself falling in love with Bokura ga Ita.

(I actually cried at the last two episodes.)