By Mohiro Kitoh
VIZ, 200 pp.
Rating: Older Teen (16+)

A huge staple of Japanese pop culture has always been giant fighting robots or “mecha.” They are all over anime and manga, in the toy stores, and heck, this past summer, a life-size model of the RX-78 Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam was built in Japan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the series. Whether they are used in adult-themed space dramas or Saturday-morning children’s shows, with which they have become widely associated, these sentinels never seem to fail. Whether it is a lone pilot fighting for the survival of his country or some ragtag group of teenagers saving the day yet again, these mechanical giants are modern-day Atlas’s, carrying not only the world on their shoulders but precious cargo inside.

One of the more recent manga stories to use mecha as a distinctive plot point, Bokurano: Ours by Mohiro Kitoh, explores the use of mecha in a darker way than I have ever experienced. The story begins at what appears to be a summer study camp, where fifteen students (eight males and seven females) exploring the beach find a mysterious cave, filled with electrical equipment (no, this isn’t going to be a surprise Batman manga!). There they meet a mysterious man named Kokopelli who solicits them to sign up for a game, one in which they defend the earth using an enormous robot. After “signing up” by touching a wooden plank and announcing their names, the fifteen boys and girls are thrust into not a game, but a real life-or-death battle, and realize there’s more to this game than meets the eye—please excuse the Transformers referenc; I couldn’t resist—when one of the ‘players’ drops dead after winning their first battle.

As you can see, there is much more to this than just your typical “I have a giant robot so let’s fight” formula. I find that in a lot of mecha stories, there is less focus on character development, leaving most (if not all) of the characters feeling very ready-made and hokey. Mohiro Kitoh avoids this temptation with some incredible storytelling. I won’t ruin if for you readers, because I certainly think that it’s worth picking up for yourselves, but you are going to get a plethora of character backgrounds, motivations and development. You’ll love some of them and hate some but you’ll never feel cheated, because you get to know each and every character, almost as if they exist in their own separate worlds.

The art is also a treat for those of you who have read Kitoh before. While the creatures and situations Kitoh creates are very fantastic and goofy-looking at times, his depictions of people and the “real world” settings in which they reside give his work a transcendent sense of realism. I would liken it to how Naoki Urasawa portrays his characters but in a more delicate and unconstrained manner. Even with the monstrous and sometimes amazingly adult world that these kids have to deal with, the art brings the reader back, reminding them that these are teenagers, which in certain circumstances, can make the story intensely interesting or unbearably awkward.

To summarize, I think that Bokurano: Ours is going to have a fair amount of appeal for all readers. It’s more mature storylines are great for readers who are familiar with manga but also act as a wonderful introduction for people just getting into the format. I think that either way you look at it, you can’t miss with this one!

Volume one of Bokurano: Ours is available now.

Review copy provided by the publisher.