Never have I watched an anime that had me as conflicted as Bokura Ga Ita. Do not be fooled by it’s rather cute, airy, fluffy shoujo feel because this series is very dramatic, frustrating, conflicting, and head wrenching especially in its second half. Relationships is never a straight path especially for High School students and Bokura Ga Ita emphasiez on those crooked parts.
The main couple, Takahashi and Yano, will almost do nothing but frustrate you in the entire run of the series. WHY CAN’T YOU JUST GET ALONG?!!?!? The series spends so much time on these two dumbnuts, making them so annoyingly realistic and flawed. Yano is an asshole and Nana has no guts. They are not likable at all but somehow that’s what makes this series shine.
It’s crazy that I’m praising this series now, especially after getting way too frustrated at it and dropping it a few years back. If Mysterious Girlfriend X was the perfect example of an anime with a couple that does things right, Bokura Ga Ita is the perfect example of an anime with a couple that does things wrong. Takahashi and Yano lie to each other, don’t talk about their feeling to each other most of the time, and Takahashi takes it to the next level and becomes completely wishy washy. She’s spineless and weak (oh god I’m ranting) and the frustration I have with this series elevates when her internal monologues get too AAARGH WHY CAN’T YOU JUST GET ALONG?!?!?!?
I contemplated with this series for a long time because I honestly thought it was doing all the wrong things thus making it a terrible series but the more I think about Bokura Ga Ita, the more I realize just how amazing it is. Humans always do the wrong things, choose the worst decisions, don’t take opportunities when it’s there and Bokura Ga Ita capitalizes on this. It’s crazy that I grew to love this series even though it got increasingly frustrating as the episodes go by.
One thing to note though, the animation of Bokura Ga Ita is terrible. Oh wait terrible’s not the right word. . . maybe non existent. Most of the time, nothing is animated at all, and this series cheats us with pan shots and one eyed cyclops. The animation is VERY lazy (they probably don’t have a lot of budget for this) to the point that the characters bangs go beneath their eyes. It’s like they just pasted the eyes! Still credit is where credit is due since there’s some strange consistency in Bokura Ga Ita’s static feel. There were never any episodes that had more animation than other episodes and in a sense, you could say it’s consistently cheap. What gives the animation life though is the OST. Damn that OST, making me feel uneasy. Bokura Ga Ita has a fuckton of EDs, insert music seguing to EDs, insert music, and heartfelt background music that can really make you cry at times. The OST is used perfectly and it sort of compensates for the animation.
If you asked me over a year ago on how I felt about Bokura Ga Ita, I’d say that I hated it. Looking back, I realized how big of a fool I was. It’s the exact fact that I hated it that made it amazing. This isn’t going into my all time favorites because I hate it and it made me even more frustrated than Kimi ni Todoke’s frustrating parts but I wholeheartedly recommend it. Just be warned: You will get frustrated.
Execution: 39/40 (Flawless in a sense)
Engagement: 24/30 (Frustration can go overboard at times; I ended up dropping it for more than a year)
Characters: 19/20 (I hated them; Flawed and frustrating but it’s the exact same reason why they’re amazing)
Production Values: 8/10 (Almost non existent animation; Amazing Soundtrack)
Overall: 90/100
Traveler on Revenge 
so it’s bad that it’s good??
i think the show is solid. it just ended pretty badly.
the characters are easy to relate to and the romance aspect is fine. not great but it’s fine. XD
It’s not bad per se but I thought it was bad. The bad that I was seeing though was the realism of how their relationship worked which made me appreciate this so much more than I thought it wad. Maybe it’s just me being masochistic.
Even tough the ending was open-ended, somehow I didn’t take it against the series. It sorta fits Bokura Ga Ita’s themes which is being forever frustrating.
yeah, it was a very unique approach to a love story. the presence of yano’s ex was so strong it drove the hammer on his relationship with his current gf. i love it cause she’s dead but she’s also very alive. XD
it was a cheap ending. another cheap approach to get you to read the manga. it’s just like pandoras hearts and nana. i believe the ex’s sister got more aggressive after the events of the anime.
If you put it like that, it really is cheap but I guess looking at the brighter side of things is better especially after I’ve invested so much of my emotions to the series.
I’m very fond of BgI despite its many flaws; I was also a big Takeuchi supporter 🙂
As for the art, while the animation may have been minimal, I did like the art style. I didn’t mind the cyclops look because it quickly conveyed either shyness, or non-communication.
Agreeing with Pants, I was pretty upset with the ending. I even tried to read the manga, but became frustrated with the turn of events in Tokyo between Yano and that little sister girl, GR.
Well fuck I was for Takeuchi the whole time too! He was the only character that wasn’t frustrating in character (though he’s definitely frustrating in terms of action).
I honestly thought the cyclops thing was completely cheap. There’s no way around it other than not having enough budget for something that already didn’t need that much budget. You’re right in saying it sorta fits the mood but good golly they did it in almost every episode!
And fuck spoiler with the little sister, I was just about to read that part today (so that’s why it was so controversial oh fuck marina why’d you spoil it!!!!!! loljk not really mad just GAAAAAHHHHH).
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Anyway I just finished the manga now and the ending was pretty frustrating in a sense that it wasn’t frustrating at all. It ended perfectly.
I’ve tried to get into this series on three separate occasions, but it frustrated and annoyed me to the point of dropping it once again each time. I’m sure in no time I’m going to attempt to get through it once again only to repeat the process of frustration and drop it. Oy….
The art really was lazy. I can always remember how none of the characters ever really had any eyes.
I know dat feel. And yeah, cyclops design can get annoying at some point.
hi i’m a big fan of BGI, and i’m currently watching it again over and over. hehehe O_O
nice to know. . .HAHA hope you don’t get depressed and kill yourself.
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