Manga / Bokurano

Saving the world is hard. Saving yourself is even harder. (Top: Koyemshi. Bottom row, left to right: Kirie, Chizu, Moji, Kako, Kodama, Kanji, Waku, Yoko, Kana, Jun, Komoda, Anko, Nakama, Daichi, and Maki.)

"I have no choice but to act as a warrior who knows no fear."

—from Uninstall, the opening theme

Bokurano (literally, "Ours") is a seinen mecha manga written by Mohiro Kitoh, the creator of the infamous Mons Deconstruction Shadow Star, which was serialized in Monthly Ikki from 2003 to 2009. It is essentially about a group of middle-school children who are contracted into a "game" where they pilot a Humongous Mecha which they call Zearth in order to save their world from destruction. The anime adaptation began airing in the spring season of 2007 and ran for 24 episodes. There is also a five-volume light novel series called Bokurano: Alternative, which, as its title suggests, is an Alternate Continuity take on the manga's storyline that places the characters in somewhat different circumstances. This series has been described as "like Evangelion, but even more depressing", so enter at your own risk.

Viz Media has published an English translation of the manga as Bokurano: Ours on its defunct IKKI website, as well the entire series in print from 2010 to 2014. For the anime, Discotek Media released a subtitle-only complete series DVD on March 23, 2015. An American Live-Action Adaptation was announced in May 2019, with Charlie Craig (writer of The 100) set to executive produce. However, nothing has been heard of it since, and it may have been cancelled.

Compare The Moon, a 70s manga from which this series draws heavy inspiration - to the extent of Zearth ("The Earth") being named after The Moon In-Universe in the Japanese version by someone who hadn't read the full story, as well as both having a character named Dung Beetle.

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Provides Examples Of:

• 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The mechs. Makes them look creepy and ominous as hell, though.
• Adaptation Expansion: The anime expands on the aftermath of the first battle, showing the immediate reaction to Waku's death, the rest of the cast being questioned (as opposed to only Moji in the manga) and Waku's funeral.
• Adaptational Heroism: Chizu. While she is trying to kill her teacher and former lover in both versions (but is unable to go through with it due to her sister protecting him), she's far less callous about causing collateral damage in the anime.
• Adaptational Villainy: Koyemshi is a villain in the anime, and is killed by Youko to stop him from forcing Kana to pilot. In the manga, he is simply a part of the system and even though he isn't always upfront about some important information, he tries to stop Jun from opening his enemy's core, which allowed the pilot to warp to somewhere in his world, forcing Jun to kill literally everyone on that earth to save his own since he had no idea where the pilot could be.
• Adults Are Useless: Kako's turn to pilot (manga only): Tanaka does nothing to prevent Kako's beating to Kirie, or his death at the hands of Chizuru. When Chizu starts killing the men who raped her, and many innocent people in the process, Tanaka's attempt to talk her down fails, and neither she nor Seki are armed, prompting Chizu to tell them that they can't threaten her.
• Alliterative Name: Zearth is frequently referred to as the Kuroi Kaiju/Black Behemoth by the media and bystanders early on in the series.
• Alternate Continuity: Both the anime (which expands on certain plot points, has very different characterization for Koyemshi and has a different ending, among many other differences) and the novel series (which has a different roster of pilots in the first place).
• Alternate Universe: Each of the enemy robots represents an alternate Earth. Zearth is sometimes forced to fight in other dimensions, as well.
• And You Thought It Was a Game: The children are drafted into piloting Zearth on the pretext of "playing a game". As the plot goes on, they start to realize how high the stakes are.
• Anyone Can Die: This is demonstrated early on when the first character to get a significant amount of development dies fairly quickly, and the characters aren't safe even outside the robot battles.
• Apocalypse How: An alternate universe is destroyed after every battle.
• Apocalypse Wow: In the anime, we see a universe being destroyed. First the Earth is consumed by an exploding sun, then every star in the universe blinks out of existence.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Each of the robots has a hidden core that must be found and destroyed. The cockpit.
• Author Tract:
  • In the manga, Kana Ushiro, Jun Ushiro, and Yousuke Kirie each spend time lecturing the reader that people should care more about everyone else in the world, even if they aren't the "main characters" of a story.
  • Several characters spend time away from the plot condemning the United States, portraying it as a country that only cares about being powerful. It's noted in Kanji's arc of the manga that they're one of the only countries that isn't cooperating with Japan.
• Awful Truth: The prospect of defeating the enemy was a lot easier when you didn't know doing so would kill you. And when you thought the enemies were aliens instead of alternate dimensional humans. And that you killed 10 billion people every time one of you “won”.
• Bad Boss: Kodama's father actually slaps one of his employees for going to consult him when a business partner asked to negotiate the terms of an agreement, saying that he should have closed the deal at the original terms.
• Batman Gambit: Used both ways in Moji's battle in the anime. His opponent first tricks him with a fake weak spot so that it can get into a good position for a pincer attack. Moji uses one in turn to discern the location of the enemy's weak spot, which also reveals that the enemy mecha are piloted by humans.
• Beam Spam: Zearth and the enemies can do this at will, In the last battle of the manga, Zearth BeamSpams an entire planet, as the enemy pilot fled the mech, and the only way to win is by killing him.
• Black Comedy: Near the end after Youko is assassinated, Koyemshi who is Youko's brother from another dimension asks Jun if Koyemshi's face looks sad. The next panel is just Koyemshi's normal face with the same plastered on grin. Jun tells him he has the same dumb look as usual. All this while Koyemshi is grieving his sister's death.
• Book Ends:
  • Kokopelli tricks the children into piloting by asking them if they want to play a game. In the manga's end, Koyemshi, now acting as the new Kokopelli to a new group of kids in another universe, sternly warns them that what they will be doing is no game.
  • The last battle in the manga ends with the same quote that opens both the manga and the anime.
  • In the anime, near the beginning, Kodama tortures a crab with a firecracker and rationalizes his action by saying that people eat meat. Toward the end of the anime, one of Daiichi's younger brothers is seen doing the same and uses the same words to justify his actions.
• Breather Episode: Most of the penultimate volume, we revisit every previous pilot's story arcs and not a single mecha appears. It even has Romantic Comedy elements! To lull you into a false sense of security for when one of the main characters get assassinated.
• Call-Back:
  • The final pilot in the anime thinks back to everyone else's battles, such as when he's looking for inspiration on tactics to use.
  • In the manga, the penultimate volume is entirely about revisiting the families, friends and story arcs of the previous pilots.
• Cassandra Truth: After the fake Zearth pilot gives an interview on live TV, it ends up ruining the plan to go public about Zearth, especially since, while the former is lying, no one would believe the actual report, especially if the reporter's daughter was one of the people involved.
• Cast from Lifespan: Operating Zearth (or any of the other enemy robots, for the matter), drains the pilot's life force, killing them after they win.
• Caught with Your Pants Down:
  • In the manga only, it's implied that Koyemshi catches Anko like this at one point. She's none too happy about it.
  • Possibly a subversion. Anko has much the same reaction when Koyemshi interrupts one of her idol cosplay fantasy sessions, so it's likely he was trying to be misunderstood when talking about that.
  • A less ambiguous example happens in the manga during Mako's battle. The girl who bullies Mako is having sex with a guy inside a hotel room within the fight area, and Mako asks Koyemshi to rescue the couple before any of them get a chance to get dressed (so they end up naked first in the cockpit, where all the pilot children are), then inside a van on which said girl's mother is leaving the battle area. Given that the fight had not even started, is pretty much given that Mako did it on purpose.
• Central Theme: What do you do with the little time left in your life?
• Children Are Innocent: In the manga, Moji qualifies for sure, planning to use Zearth to kill his suffering due to a heart disease best friend, so he could get the girl. Fortunately, he changes his mind. Being a Mohiro Kitoh work, though, this is subverted for other characters, particularly in the cases of Kodama who shamelessly revels in violence, as well as Kako, and Chizu.
• Coitus Uninterruptus: Manga only, as described in Caught with Your Pants Down, when Nakama sees one of her bullies having sex with a guy in an apartment. That room must have had some good sound insulation and bad personnel. They didn't notice the danger until part of the building came down, uncovering them.
• Coming of Age Story: The kids learn to carry out the responsibility they had unwittingly accepted with courage and dignity. And then they all die.
• Cool Big Sis:
  • Captain Tanaka, although older than most examples, fills this role for the female pilots in the anime.
  • Maki possibly sees herself as this for Kana and even openly states that she wished she had a little sister just like her.
• Cool Chair: Each pilot has their own personal chair in the cockpit that represents some part of themselves.
• Cool Plane: The Type 88 Light Fighter used by the Japanese Air Self Defense Force. During Kana's battle, Tanaka uses one to destroy the drone fighters of the enemy's world. There is also the more advanced Type 96 Fighter, which is used at one point to drop a nuclear bomb on one of the enemy mechs.
• Cosmic Horror Story:
  • It's a multiverse where at least 32767 out of every 32768 timelines are regularly destroyed. Possibly for a good reason, certainly by other humans, but who cares? This qualifies.
  • The opening theme makes this very clear. "It came from beyond the extreme reaches of our reality, (and) it came to laugh at our naive existences."
• Crapsack World: To put it in perspective, Warhammer 40K is orders of magnitude more optimistic and cheerful. At least in 40K, if worst comes to worst, only the Milky Way would be destroyed. In Bokurano an unknown, potentially infinite number of universes are constantly destroyed by alternate versions of themselves.
• Crystal Spires and Togas: In the anime, what little we see of the Masterminds is like this.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Machi impersonates Komo in the manga, to give everyone the idea that the impersonated person, one of the few publicly known to be piloting Zearth, is still alive as of the time of the broadcast.
• Dead Star Walking: All of them - the death of every pilot is a foregone conclusion, no matter whether they win or lose. Except for Kana in the anime.
• Death by Adaptation: In the anime, Kako and Chizu die significantly earlier on, due to their arc going before Daichi and Nakama's arcs. Similarly, Anko dies before Komo in the anime, even though the opposite is true in the manga.
• Death by Childbirth: Kana's mother. It's at least one reason why Jun is so abusive towards her.
• A Death in the Limelight: The structure of the entire work; every battle results in the starring pilot's death.
• Deconstruction:
  • When the collateral damage and mass casualties caused by the robot battles are made so alarmingly clear, not to mention the trauma that the pilots go through, you can hardly call this a Super Robot series. It's practically the anti-Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!
  • In particular, this series deconstructs several themes of the Eldoran Trilogy, which started with Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh. Basically, the series states that the idea that cosmic entities granting super robots to schoolkids to protect the earth (as what happens in the Eldoran trilogy) wouldn't equal lighthearted fun ensuing. Or that not all of said schoolkids would use said robots for good ends.
• Department of Redundancy Department: The Viz Media English title is "Bokurano: Ours." The former is intended to be the commonly known title so that fans of the series will recognize it, while the latter explains what the former means in English.
• Destructive Savior: Deconstructed. Zearth causes so much damage that it's commonly referred to as a Kaiju. Thousands of people die in some of the battles. Near the end of the anime, a Japanese government official remarks that Zearth will probably be remembered as a horrific monster that preyed on the world, rather than being the instrument of the world's salvation.
• Detachment Combat: All of Zearth's combat abilities are related to this power, even the lasers it fires are actually particle beams, made from microscopic flakes of armor being launched away at relativistic speeds (and also explaining how it can fire them from any part of its body). More blatantly it has been used to jettison an entire arm to be used as a (kicked) projectile, and in the manga to launch the head and spine upward in order to shoot at an enemy's exposed core. Several pilots have also shortened Zearth's lower arms this way, to make them less cumbersome in close quarters combat.
• Developing Doomed Characters: The vast majority of the main cast will die, but all of them get some form of development and background before they do.
• Diabolus ex Machina: There's Machi's death by random assassin before she can pilot Zearth for the final battle.
• Dirty Coward: In the anime Koyemshi is revealed as a particularly nasty one, the reason why he ended up in his robot body was because he was desperate to do anything to avoid dying, but didn't see this as part of the deal.
  • Kako. In the anime, he tries to flee becoming Zearth's pilot, and ends up being killed when the building he's in collapses. In the manga, he stands by and hopes that the military will kill the enemy for him, and when that doesn't happen, he runs away, trampling over houses and people, until Kirie ends up causing him to have a Freak Out and Chizu stabs him in the neck.
• Disappeared Dad: Daiichi's father. He eventually comes back. It turns out he was helping a friend.
• Downer Ending:
  • In the manga, all the kids die. While our earth is safe (for now at least), Zearth goes on to another alternate Earth to repeat the process, with a new Kokopelli (the former Koyemshi) and a new Koyemshi (Sasami).
  • In the anime, it's a tiiiiiiny bit happier. Ushiro goes in a blaze of glory as the last pilot, the Earth's out of the game too, Zearth completely disappears, and nobody helps continue the Game. We get a small "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue where Kana leads a normal life and tells Daiichi's siblings what happened to him and the other kids.
• Driven to Suicide: Some of the enemy pilots, such as Kirie's first opponent in the anime.
• Dwindling Party: This is further emphasized with the eyecatcher of each episode. As the series progresses, the number of voices dwindle until just Kana's and Ushiro's voices are left. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8fm29FrNgQ
• Dying Alone: Ushiro in the anime. Someone has to die last, after all. Machi also qualifies after saying goodbye to Ushiro and Kana before teleporting out, doubling as Snow Means Death.
• Dynamic Entry: In the anime, Ushiro does this to ten-year-old Kana. More specifically, he runs down a flight of stairs and kicks her in the chest.
• Eagleland: In both the anime and manga, the United States is a rival power rather than a close-knit ally of Japan. Bokurano's Japan lacks the same self-defense policies of Real Life, which limit Japan's military forces and provides for security arrangements with America. Japan also has nuclear weapons in the manga. Neither the anime nor manga portray America as being much like either flavor, however.
  • In the anime, American involvement is subtle and rarely mentioned. Several government characters express distrust for the United States, but the U.S. (and China) aids the Japanese government with its surveillance satellites and, though initially reluctant to vote for the usage of them in the United Nations, sends direct aid through its unmanned combat weapons (alongside other countries) towards the end of the anime.
  • In the manga, America is portrayed as a rival that's actually more threatening to Japan than China, to the point that the U.S. and Japan have a Cold War-esque relationship. Most characters regard the U.S. with suspicion and comment that America is "stuck in its superpower state of mind." Several times, there's worries that the United States might use Zearth's battles as an excuse to invade Japan—especially when a person claims in a news interview that he is a Zearth pilot, that Zearth is a Japanese superweapon, and that Japan plans to conquer the world. The Americans never actually do anything antagonistic, however.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Despite the anime's general mood, some characters manage to pull off a Bittersweet Ending to their arcs.
  • Daiichi spends his remaining time with his siblings to its fullest, then stalls his battle until he can be sure they've evacuated, and forcibly carries his opponent to an evacuated area once he can't stall any longer. Finally, he manages to stop the enemy from harming the amusement park he promised to take his siblings to. Subverted later on when his siblings think he left them and become bitter, then there's a Double Subversion when Kana explains the truth and helps them get over said bitterness.
  • Moji succeeds in donating his heart to his fatally-ill friend, who was also his rival in a love triangle. In the final chapters, the girl is shown as considering Moji's heart in his friends body as a legitimate presence and pretty much counting it as a Marry Them All
  • Ushiro, as the peak of his Character Development in the anime, refuses to recruit pilots in other worlds in exchange for keeping his life. Instead, he helps Youko to kill Koyemshi, saves Kana from entering the contract, fights for 30 hours straight and wins the last battle, and destroys Zearth as he dies. Kana and Earth survive, and the Masterminds are denied a pawn for furthering the battles.
• The End of the World as We Know It: The mecha battles are fought with their pilots' home universes at stake.
• Establishing Series Moment: Waku's death. That's when we know for sure that this isn't a fun Super Robot show about beating up the evil invaders.
• "Everybody Dies" Ending: To the point where it feels like Kitoh has managed to out-Tomino Tomino himself. The estimated death count at the series conclusion is about 328 trillion human lives. Of course, being that an entire Universe is destroyed each time, it's actually higher if you consider the possibility of life on other planets. Which puts the overall death count higher than that in Tomino's notorious Space Runaway Ideon.
• Face Death with Dignity
  • Komo in both versions. In the manga, her opponent, having been won over by her performance, leaves and allows her father to shoot him, thereby allowing Komo to win.
  • Subverted with Kana in the manga. While she'd reasoned that her death wouldn't be any more tragic in the grand scheme of things than that of one of the many children who die every day, she has an emotional breakdown in her final moments.
  • After Maki's opponent is defeated, the pilot in charge simply stares calmly as Maki has him at her mercy.
• Failure Is the Only Option: In effect as the adults try to find a way to release the kids from their contract.
• Faint in Shock: Takami "Komo" Komoda faints after learning that she and the other pilots are doomed to die after their battles. Komo's mother also faints after learning that her daughter will be next to fight and die.
• First-Episode Twist: After you pilot Zearth once, you die.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: In the anime, as Chizu is about to die, she leans back in her chair and puts her hands on her stomach. In the next scene, Kirie infers that Chizu is pregnant.
• Foreshadowing: Lots of it; since the very begining. The chairs in the cockpit are a nice source of this, at least in the manga.
• Gecko Ending: The anime ends very differently than the manga, although it was approved by Mohiro Kitoh. Most of the characters' storylines after Maki's turn to battle end very differently, and the biggest difference to the outcome is that Kana survives.
• Generation Xerox: Jun and Kana's relationship is similar to Machi and Koyemshi's, with the latter being the youngest member of the group (although unlike Kana, Machi notes that she was the only person her brother treated decently in the manga). And in the manga the effects are nearly the same.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Anko's burned off legs, Machi's face when she's shot, the scene of Tanaka's suicide, well, dying in an other manner than due to the loss of life energy is rarely shown. Kako's death in the anime. Instead of being killed by Chizu, he was crushed by the debris of the aquarium's wreckage caused by a missile, and when he's transported into Zearth, you only see a bloody arm sticking out of the wreckage that came with it. Also, you never actually see his body get crushed, though you see the wreckage fall on him..
• Hard Truth Aesop:
  • Kirie gets one from Misumi before his fight, as the first person to fight with the knowledge that by winning, he destroys someone else's universe. No matter what people say, everyone is not equal. Some people will always be more important to someone than everyone else, and when it comes time to decide between who lives and who doesn't, people will always choose the one who's more important to them.
  • And also it's impossible to live without taking life from someone else, be they animal, plant or human. Plenty have already died just to ensure your continued existence.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • While the "heroic" part is questionable in his case, Kodama has one in both the manga and anime when he inadvertantly kills his own father in battle.
  • Anko has one in the anime when not only Youko is outed as The Mole, but Koyemshi picks her as the next pilot.
  • Kana in the manga can't bear to attack the enemy robot when it grabs Tanaka. Until Tanaka empties the clip of her pistol at the enemy, save for one bullet, which she uses on herself. Then Kana goes berserk and tears the enemy apart.
  • Ushiro has another in the manga, to the point of throwing up. They get better, though.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In the manga, Seki bravely sacrifices himself by allowing himself to be used as a target so Kanji can hit and destroy Javelin from a massive distance away.
  • Koyemshi sorta pulls this in the manga, when he becomes not only the new Kokopelli in another universe, but he voluntarily takes the place of first Zearth pilot in that round.
  • In the anime, Youko, after killing her brother/Koyemshi, sets herself up as the second to last pilot.
• Hero Insurance: Subverted, although the government takes steps to protect the pilots as part of the Masquerade. Machi, however, is fatally shot just before her turn to pilot in the manga, and the fake Zearth pilot is killed almost immediately after making his claim on live TV, since no one knows that he's not telling the truth.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: The Zearth kids. When it's revealed that they are the pilots, it doesn't take long for assassins to start appearing. In the anime, the kids' identities are protected much better, but Zearth is still seen by the general public as a monster.
• Hikikomori: Kirie's cousin Kazuko. After she was unable to go through with a suicide pact with her friend (it's unclear what drove them to that point), she stopped leaving the house and became a shell of the person Kirie remembers. She appears to be showing some signs of recovery int he ending.
• Hot for Student: Chizuru falls in love with Hatagai, who takes advantage of her feelings, and eventually moves on to his next mark, one of her classmates.
• Hooker with a Heart of Gold: Miko Nakurai is a "good parent and decent woman despite her profession" version.
• Humongous Mecha: Really humongous. Zearth is half a kilometre tall.
• Hypocrite: One particular Alpha Bitch bullied Mako at any given opportunity, because she hates Mako for her mother’s past profession as a hooker. To her, this automatically made Mako a whore and constantly ridicule her with Slut-Shaming by insinuating she must sleep around a lot. Right before a battle, Mako discovers that same bully in the middle of love-making. Mako is rightfully furious and reveals her bully and lover out in the open. So for the bully, it’s justified to hate Mako because she assumed Mako had experience with sleeping around, but it’s justified for her to enjoy sex? Small wonder Mako gives the bully a Bitch Slap.
• Identical Stranger: A bit more complicated case, as Alternate Universes are involved, as Ushiro sees someone who looks like Machi and has her name. That said, Koyemshi notes that it's extremely unlikely to see a counterpart of another person from your universe.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Each chapter of the manga is named after the current pilot and whatever number chapter they've been pilot for. It starts with Kokopelli and ends with Koyemshi. Probably one of the few series where the chapter titles themselves are spoilers.
• Ignored Enemy: Kako and Chizu's opponent. After becoming the pilot, she marches off to kill Hatagai while ignoring the giant robot that's trying to kill her.
• In-Series Nickname: A good portion of the pilots go by one among their group of friends. They even make one up for the fake pilot, Junji "Katari" Karita.
• Jerkass: Kodaka, Kako (though he is more pathetic than anything else), and Jun, though he gets better. To make up, Koyemshi becomes a total dick in the anime, though he isn't exactly a saint in the manga (he gets a little better there, too). OTOH, Hatagai had to be toned down in the anime... and still remained a Jerkass.
• Jerkass Gods: The creators of the robots and the whole "pruning" cycle in general. So little is revealed about them that we don't know if they have a "good reason" for what they're doing or not, but the fact that they've set things up to siphon the life force of any Earth that tries to reverse-engineer the robots suggests that it's all for their own benefit.
• Karma Houdini: Hatagai Morihiro seduces Honda Chizuru, has sexual intercourse with her, takes pictures of the act and then uses them to blackmail her into allowing his friends to gang rape her. He ends up becoming the private secretary of a high-ranked member of Japan's ministry of education, and it is implied that he had done the same thing with other children before Chizuru and will continue to do so.
• Kid Hero: Deconstructed, naturally; the consequences of giving the position of "defender of Earth" to untrained, immature children are explored in a variety of ways.
• Killed Off for Real: Once someone pilots, they die at the end of the battle, should they win or lose, and nothing can help them.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall:
  • In the manga, several people compare the plot to that of an in-universe manga which is also about kids piloting a giant robot. At the end of that manga, the kids all die and Earth is destroyed.
  • Later on in the manga, Captain Seki sings the anime's first ending theme before he dies. People in-universe recognize it as an anime theme.
• Life Energy: Zearth is powered by the life force of the current pilot.
• Love Triangle: Moji, Nagi, and Tsubasa. They'd enjoyed a Two Guys and a Girl friendship while growing up, until Moji and Nagi "noticed Tsubasa was a girl"
• Luke, I Am Your Father:
  • Ushiro, Captain Tanaka is your mother. Too bad she is dying in front of your eyes right now. In the anime, he doesn't find out until after she dies.
• Mama Bear: Do not, repeat, do NOT be mean to Kana in front of Maki. And never hit on Mako in the presence of her mother Miko.
• Mark of the Beast: In the anime version, a mark appears somewhere on the body of the next one to pilot Zearth.
• Masquerade: Both subverted and played straight; the government finds out about the pilots, but the public's mostly kept in the dark.
• Mercy Kill: Koyemshi does this to Machi in the manga. After being shot in the head, Machi's comatose, and as such, in no condition to pilot Zearth. Koyemshi insists on killing her so that Ushiro can take her spot as a pilot when the next battle happens.
• A Million Is a Statistic: Discussed, deconstructed, and used as a major source of drama, particularly in the manga. Tens of thousands of people die as collateral damage from Zearth's battles and tens of billions as enemy casualties, and every character has their own take on it. Some pilots ignore civilian casualties and only pay attention to their own plight, some stall the battle and risk losing to give civilians time to evacuate, some get Heroic BSODs... it goes on. Especially heartbreaking in the last battle in the manga: Jun has to murder the population of an entire planet in order to win. He insists on killing each person individually, to make it as painless as possible, but that doesn't make it any easier for him.
• Misaimed Fandom: In-universe. During Maki's arc, her father starts gushing over a Zearth model kit he bought. His family calls him out on this.
• Monster of the Week: Deconstructed. The knowledge that a new enemy is guaranteed to appear periodically, combined with the lack of knowledge of the exact time, causes the pilots anxiety over the fact that they could be called into a life-ending fight for the sake of the Earth at any time.
• Mood Whiplash: At the start of Anko's arc in the manga, she angsts about her father's constant absences, and her inability to find a reason to fight. She then decides to indulge in Idol Singer cosplay fantasies, but then Koyemshi comes in, providing a fairly comic interruption, until Anko then reflects on how she wanted to become an idol to see her father on television, and worries about whether she can win, as well as whether anyone will remember her once she's gone.
• The Multiverse: The alien invaders are actually humans from alternate Earths fighting for their own Earth's existence, same as the main characters.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Kokopelli whispers "I'm sorry" just after the true game begins. He had every reason to. Defied in the last chapter in the manga when the former Koyemshi, after taking the previous "Kokopelli's" role and tricking a new group of people into the same fate, asks them "Happy, right?".
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: In the manga, when Ushiro and Machi visit the former pilots' families, everyone takes it easy on Kako, despite the fact that he was really screwed up, though to be fair, only the audience was truly aware of how much. Also happens when they visit the fake pilot's family, even telling lies to make his younger brother feel better.
• No Antagonist: Essentially. There's the Enemy Pilots, but they're in the exact same boat as the protagonists. There's Dung Beetle (Koyemshi), but it's implied he's just following orders. There's America, but aside from plenty of posturing, they never do anything and actually need Japan's help at one point. There is the Masterminds, nebulous beings who started the game and created Zearth. The manga never talks about them long enough to get to know what they want or if they even truly exist, but the anime implies they're outright villains.
• Nobody Poops: Averted on two occasions in the manga. During Kanji's battle, which lasts 34 hours, he relieves himself in the gaps between parrying the missiles that Javelin fires at Zearth. During the final battle, which lasts a similar amount of time, Ushiro is told to go to the bathroom in a spare nook of Zearth.
• Nuke 'em:
  • During one of the battles in the manga, an enemy mecha sets up shop in Hawaii, causing massive casualties. The American military is powerless to stop it, just as the Japanese military was. Thus, the American government requests that the Japanese nuke Oahu Island. The irony is not lost on anyone.
  • In the anime, worldwide governments lift bans on nuclear weapons in response to the mecha, and every explosive the military has gets thrown at both combatants in a late battle. The surrounding landscape is set on fire. The pilots just feel a little warmer.
• Older Than They Look: The assassin who shoots Machi looks like a young boy no older than the protagonists, but Koyemshi says that he's "a grown man. Pushing 40."
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Kokopelli or "Gara-sensei", actually named Garaku and Koyemshi/"Dung Beetle" who is revealed to be human by the end, and while the anime gives him the name Shirou Machi, this contradicts something said in the Manga, where his name is left a mystery. In the latter's case his japanese name "Koemushi" can also probably be translated as "Voice Bug", which fits part of his job of explaining the rules of the "game" making this a case of Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep". In addition, none of the robots have actual names that we know of. "Zearth" was given by the kids, while in the manga several enemy robots get code names.
• Only the Leads Get a Happy Ending: Arguably inverted. All the main characters die (although Kana survives in the anime), but their world survives. Kirie discusses the concept with Tanaka, as well as his belief that any ending in which many nameless characters die but the hero gets a happy ending is an Esoteric Happy Ending in his opinion.
• Otaku: Maki and her father are both big fans of manga and the military.
• Overtook the Manga: It kinda had to, considering the manga didn't wrap up until two years later.
• Page-Turn Surprise: Near the end of the eighth volume, Kanji, having just fought and died, wonders which of the three possible candidates will be next to pilot. He's fairly certain it can't be any of those three, but then is horrified as the realization hits him. On the next page, Kana Ushiro says "I've been called."
• Plucky Girl: Considering that Koyemshi thought she was going to have a horrible (and incredibly amusing) breakdown, Anko proves herself to be one of these, and won her fight relatively quickly, managing to die in peace as well. In the manga, she's able to continue fighting against one of the more difficult opponents even after her legs get burned off by acid.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: To operate during a fight, Zearth needs the power from a human life each time. In fact, in the manga it is hinted that the younger the person, the more powerful Zearth becomes.
• Really Dead Montage: This is nearly the entire series, usually only giving focus and backstory to each character when it's their turn to fight and die.
• Reporting Names: In the manga, the enemy robots are given codenames based on their order of appearance, in alphabetical order. For example, Kokopelli's opponent is called "Arachne," Waku's is called "Bayonet," Kodama's is called "Cancer", and so forth. The ones in away games don't seem to be counted.
• The Runaway: Played for wonderful Dramatic Irony in the first ending, which is a sweet song about a mother protecting her child from the outside world since the kid is too young to run off on their own.
• Sacrificial Lamb: Waku, although he lasts until the second episode (fifth manga chapter). Also Kokopelli, although the kids don't know he's dead until later.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • The pilots eventually realize that defeating an enemy means that they have to condemn an entire parallel Earth to death — but they'll condemn their Earth if they fail.
  • Things get even more sadistic for a certain character in the final arc of the manga. Jun Ushiro, the last kid remaining, is fighting an 'away' battle and nearly wins ... but because he falls for a trap, the enemy pilot teleports away. Since he then has no way to track down his target, his only hope of saving his own world is to personally kill every person on the alternate Earth until he kills the pilot. And He Does. Ouch.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Kokopelli has these in the opening. It doesn't hurt that he's levitating the Earth above his hand. When that scene comes up in the anime itself, it turns out to be a subversion: he has no power over the show's events at all. And the glasses are fake anyway.
• Scenery Gorn: The series doesn't shy away from the collateral damage caused by Zearth's battles.
• Science Is Bad: In the anime, some scientists, including Kanji's mother, get the idea of researching Zearth and reverse-engineering its technology, ending up making some unconscionable decisions in the process. Though the argument against what they're doing is more because they're researching Zearth purely for their own profit, and not researching a way to rescue the kids from their fate. Kanji's mother changes her mind on that once she realizes that her own son is among the pilots. It's a moot point in the end, as the Masterminds have set a trap for anyone who tries to reverse-engineer the robots, so the kids are forced to annihilate the research facilities to save the Earth from yet another threat.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Jun and Kana Ushiro. There's a great deal of contrast between a fairly rude and cold kid who bullies his younger sister and one of the nicest and most innocent cast members.
• Slasher Smile: The Koyemshis often appear to be wearing one.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: A particularly intriguing case. The inmediate reaction of a lot of people (specially that only have read the premise/synopsis) would be: "Who loaded down the cynicism side with all these corpses?!". However, if you see beyond the darkest aspects of the story, a bright beam of optimism becomes apparent. After all, most characters face their ends bravely and cause positive changes in the lives of those left behind. Word of God himself clarifies that in spite of the tragedy and devastation, the core messages he wanted to convey were more on the hopeful end of things.
• Smug Snake:
  • Hatagai, who's' exceptionally manipulative and blames his victims for his own actions. Letting him go alive and well had to be intended purely to piss off the audience.
  • In the anime Koyemshi also qualifies, which made watching the scene in which his sister Machi methodically shoots holes in his body more than delightful.
• Snow Means Death:
  • In the anime, Machi teleports out of Zearth and dies with snow falling around her in her final moments.
  • In the manga, Kanji dies on top of the Ascension Towers, with snow falling. He lampshades this in his last thoughts.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Kana and Seki in the anime. Kanji's mother commited suicide long before the events of the manga, however she is alive and shown in the anime.
• Starfish Robots: The mecha piloted by the main cast is humanoid, albeit with some arthropod-like features, but their opponents include such things as "Bayonet", a colossal flying spike; "Drum", a massive cylinder that can gain traction on anything; and "Gunter", a floating vice/metalgrinder.
• Suicide by Cop: Komo's opponent in the manga lets himself be shot by her father after hearing her recital.
• The Stars Are Going Out: How the destruction of a losing universe is depicted.
• Team Mom: Maki kind of fills this role too. She seems to be the first one to comfort any of her fellow pilots when they have a breakdown.
  • Captain Misumi Tanaka is willing to listen to and provide support for the pilots, and even says she thinks of them as if they're her own children. One of them, Jun Ushiro, actually is her long-lost child.
• Teen Pregnancy:
  • Chizu is an extremely unpleasant case. Especially when you consider it all went down in the first semester of 7th year, meaning she was more a Tween than a Teen at the time.
  • Jun's real mother, Misumi Tanaka, is said to have had Jun when she was fairly young in the manga.
• Thematic Theme Tune: "Uninstall." (I have no choice but to act as a warrior who knows no fear.)
• There Can Be Only One: Only one Earth out of 32767 can survive. And even on the surviving Earth, all but one pilot will die.
• There Are No Therapists: Just because you're going to die if you fight, doesn't mean we'll give you somebody to whine about it to. The closest they get to providing this service is Tanaka expressing a desire that the pilots not be locked up or forced to fight, so they don't break down like Kako did. In the manga, Tanaka has a talk with Kirie after he wonders whether winning is worthwhile if it means the death of the entire opposing universe. Kirie ultimately summons the will to fight when his turn comes.
• Title Drop: Parodied at the end of chapter 55 of the manga. One of the characters mentions "ours", and the other character asks them what that's supposed to mean, and they admit they don't really know why they said that. In the anime, the title tends to work itself into important conversations, though given the title literally translates to "ours", that's not hard to do.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Maki and Komo. The former is a short-haired Bokukko Otaku who dresses in a boyish manner and sometimes wishes she'd been born a boy. The latter is a long-haired Ojou who plays the piano, wears dresses and is significantly more girly overall.
• Trailers Always Spoil:
  • The preview for Episode 8 shows Chizu's pilot mark disappearing, something that happens between when a pilot wins their battle and when they die. Not all that huge a spoiler, though, considering that by now the premise of the series is pretty obvious.
  • The preview for Episode 23 shows the pilot mark appearing on Machi's face.
• Two Guys and a Girl: Moji, Nagi, and Tsubasa. In the anime, they're fellow orphans, while in the manga, they grew up near each other.
• Wham Episode:
  • The end of Machi's arc in the manga. The reader has just become accustomed to the characters dying once they pilot the robot, when the author has someone shoot her in the head.
  • The end of Maki's arc is one of the biggest in both versions, revealing that Zearth's opponents are from alternate Earths.
  • The end of Kirie's arc in the anime. Kirie outs Machi as The Mole, and someone comes forward to claim that the Zearth Report is a hoax, thereby derailing the protagonists' efforts.
  • At the end of Chizu's arc, the pilots, as well as the viewer, learns that one of them isn't in the contract.
• Who's Your Daddy?: Implied that Mako's "client" may be, although her mother quickly shoots it down.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Some of the kids are shown to be - especially Moji and Kirie - but God, the youngest of them, little Kana-chan, takes it up to the new levels. Accepting a constant abuse of her brother and preventing people around them from interfering, because she knows he's angry at their dead mother for her absence, and by taking it out against his younger sister, he's in reality treating her as somewhat of the mother figure? Not even being Jun's blood-sister, but hiding it from him in order to make him feel secure, she devotes herself to finding his real mother. In the manga, while she's about to die while piloting Zearth, it remains her biggest concern - because Jun's gonna need support after she's gone. And she is ten.
• Worst News Judgment Ever: A newscaster saying that, despite the fact that a behemoth appeared nearby and many of the aquarium animals were lost, the dolphins probably escaped to the ocean. Much to everyone's relief. The behemoth appearance was also responsible for the deaths of thousands but hey, dolphins are symbolic.
• Xanatos Gambit: The Zearth Program in the anime. Reverse-engineering it is the only way anybody can come up with to Take a Third Option regarding the game, but the Masterminds thought of that and designed the program to drain the energy from any planet that tries to make use of it.
• Yakuza: In the anime, some of them show up, since Team Mom Tanaka was previously married to a mid-ranked Yakuza boss named Ichirou who was murdered some years ago. They mainly play a role in protecting and looking after the kids... in particular Jun Ushiro, who is the son of Ichirou and Misumi, though he doesn't know it at first.
• You Can't Fight Fate: There's ultimately no way out of the contract for the pilots, or any way to avoid their fate when their turn comes up.

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Warning: Watching Bokurano may cause depression. Proceed with caution.