Bokurano: Ours, Vol. 1 (1) Paperback – February 16, 2010

There have been many different variations on the common theme of kids piloting huge robots in manga, anime and other media, but few have tried to take a realistic look at what happens when you give kids a devastatingly powerful machine and with it, the responsibility to save their world.The story begins when 15 students of a nature school, most of whom are from different schools and different walks of life, meet a strange man named Kokkopelli in an island cave, and are recruited to take part in what is ostensibly a game of piloting a large robot against the enemies. If you've heard of the series, you'll likely know that it's not at all what it seems, but the twist is executed well, so I won't spoil it here.The characters are quite well-developed, although at this point, not all of them have focus yet. For example, Waku, the first pilot, seems like a hotheaded and not especially bright young athlete at first glance, but when his thoughts are shown, he turns out to be surprisingly thoughtful, as well as willing to save the world even if no one views him as a hero.The robot battles are done well, and feature a broad range of abilities for each combatant, resulting in some matches being slugfests and others becoming contests in which each side tries to outmaneuver the other. They're also shown quite realistically, as the collateral damage results in thousands of deaths, almost immeasurable property damage and the people being as afraid of our heroes' robot as they are of their enemies.The art is high quality, and fairly realistic. The characters have fairly distinct designs, as do the robots and various pieces of military hardware.All in all, if you're interested in a dark, novel twist on the humongous mecha genre, Bokurano is the perfect place to start

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a group of kids with conflicting personalities must work together to pilot a giant robot and save humanity from extinction. Not exactly the most original set-up, I know. However, Mohiro Kitoh, author of "Shadow Star" (which I've heard is excellent, but have not seen for myself), takes this established manga/anime trope and steers it in a bold new direction, the likes of which I haven't seen since Hideaki Anno decided that all of the "Evangelion" pilots should have emotional complexes.It's not often that I compare a mecha-oriented manga or anime to "Evangelion", but "Bokurano: Ours" is just THAT good. Taking the stereotypes anime fans have come to expect from this sort of thing and turning them right on their head, "Bokurano: Ours" proves near the end of the first volume that this isn't going to be what you thought it was. If you're looking for a black-and-white, triumphant tale of children overcoming their differences in order to fight evil... well, you'd better go pick up the latest big-name shonen manga, because that ain't what's going down here.What IS going down, though, is a brutal examination of the human condition, told through the always-reliable medium of children. Using his characters' simplistic thoughts to serve a greater purpose, Kitoh weaves a tale both light-hearted and bleak, simultaneously uplifting and terrifying... and this is just in the first volume. I have no idea as to what direction the plot will take next, but you can be sure that I'll be following it with bated breath.The focal point here is the plot, but that doesn't by any means mean that the art is half-hearted. Kitoh's art is no frills; no extraneous little details, no lavish backgrounds. However, it's beautiful in it's execution of simplicity. There's no clutter that one would see in other mecha manga, and the characters are realistic yet stylized enough to remind you that you're reading a manga."Bokurano:Ours" is one of the best very series I've read in a while. Paced like a shonen manga but laced with the drama seen in seinen, Kitoh's parable for the cruelty of human beings is one that should not be missed by any purveyor of manga.

Even though this story involves mecha, reminding me of Neon Genesis Evangelion in the battle set-up, it gets you involved with the group of schoolkids who have to pilot the mecha.