The Essentials
Name: Bokura ga Ita, We Were There
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama
Episodes: 26
Released: July 3, 2006 - December 25, 2006
Based On: Bokura ga Ita manga by Yuuki Obata
Director: Koichiro Sohtome and Akitaro Daichi
Produced By: Marvelous Entertainment
US Distribution By: N/A
Major Japanese Cast
Nanami Takahashi: Nozomi Sasaki
Motoharu Yano: Hiroshi Yazaki
Masafumi Takeuchi: Takuji Kawakubo
Yuri Yamamoto: Erina Nakayama
Mizu-chin: Kaori Shimizu
Taka-chan: Yuka Terasaki
Nana Yamamoto: Yurin
Major English Cast
N/A
Scores
Animation: 6/10 (x 4 = 24 pts)
Story: 8/10 (x 4 = 32 pts)
Music: 9/10 (x 4 = 36 pts)
Coherence/Story Arc: 10/10 (x 2 = 20 pts)
English Dubs: N/A
Gut Score: 7/10 (x 5 = 35 pts)
Total: 147/190 (77.4%)
Review
Bokura ga Ita is a series about Nanami, a girl who has just entered high school and who is classmates with Motoharu Yano, who appears to be your standard, carefree guy. At first Nanami, who is usually just referred to as Nana, hates Yano because his apparent laziness and carefree nature. However, she ends up coming to like him. Soon she finds out that Yano’s ex-girlfriend, who was also named Nana, died in a car crash a year prior. As a result, Yano isn’t open to starting a new relationship, at least at first, and his reactions to Nana’s feelings to him were often contradictory, frustrating Nana.
However, on the night of their first cultural festival, Yano confesses his love for Nana, and the two start dating. However, their relationship immediately becomes rocky as Yano can’t seem to get over his old love for his ex-girlfriend, despite his repeated statements that he thought she was a cheat (she died while riding in the car of her ex). This leads Nana into fearing that Yano’s heart still lies with his ex and not with her and ultimately creates a significant trust-gap between the two.
In the middle is Yano’s best friend Takeuchi, who also falls for Nana and ends up putting Yano on notice that if Yano messes up, that he’ll be there to catch Nana. There is also Yuri, who is the little sister of Yano’s ex-girlfriend and also in the same class as Yano and Nana. She has her own past with Yano and harbors extremely conflicting emotions.
For how heavy the series sounds, there is still quite a bit of comedy, though this is much heavier on romance than your typical romance-comedy, making this title more suitable for a female audience (or you mushy-mushy guys out there). I didn’t particularly like the story, largely because of this, but I think objectively speaking, the story is probably a sound one. The ending is also left wide open, either leaving ample room for a sequel and/or resulting to extreme frustration.
I had to get used to the animation style in this anime as it almost looked like it was done in watercolor or something similar. It had a more washed-out feeling than the crisp animation I’m used to. Maybe I’m biased by being used to the more crisp animation, but it just looked like something you’d see 10 years ago or something.
Overall, this was a decent series, and if you like conflicted romances, you’ll probably like it. However, I’m not sure the audience that will enjoy this series expands much outside the hardcore romance fans.
First Watched: April 2007
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: No
