Bokurano is a Shounen science fiction manga, with the title meaning “OURS“. It surrounds a group of middle-school students and their task to fight against the invaders and to save Earth. They need to pilot a robot, named “Zearth“, who would then help them fight the invaders off.

Yes, it’s a Shounen manga, and yes, it may sound cheesy in terms of the whole “Let’s go save the world!” thing. But this manga is actually quite dark and mature, because the boys know that they need to die one by one in order to protect the Earth.

Once a member dies, the next boy hears a ring and only has a few days before his death to complete his task (i.e. before Zearth the robot shows up). The most important thing is that, in order to save Earth, every boy must succeed as a pilot, or else, every living thing on Earth, will die…

Intense eh? But every manga becomes a little different when it turns into anime, let’s see what happened with Bokurano.

The anime version is much faster paced, because it attempts to fit 11 volumes of the manga into 24 episodes for the anime. It skims over a lot of the details, such as the character’s pasts and personal thoughts.

Despite the skipping of the details, the anime was actually able to capture the best moments of the manga, with minimal boring parts. The manga, however, was a little content-heavy. Some parts were a little slow, but the manga really focused on the character’s personalities and the dread they faced in their encounters.

So if you are just looking for something to kill time, the anime would be a very good choice because the plot is exciting and doesn’t take too much time. But, if you are a loyal Bokurano fan who is passionate about every single aspect of the manga, the manga version is definitely the right one for you. After all, even the manga’s creator believed that readers should avoid watching the anime!

Would you guys give this manga a try?