we're finally notdotq anymore

Holy shit holy shit I’m actually posting what is this. A grand mystery. Don’t expect this to be a regular thing or anything. Also, blame ghostlightning. Damn old man. All inspiring and shit.

Actually, blame Mohiro Kitoh. Over the last week, I marathon-read his two main finished manga, Bokurano and Narutaru . They were both fucking awesome.

(I feel like I should preface by saying that I have not seen the anime of either, nor do I particularly intend to. However, Uninstall is a genius OP, as I’m sure you all know, and made fantastic background music to read Bokurano to. And, you know, to write this post to. And to do anything to, really. That song is amazing.)

(Second preface: this post will contain some spoilers for both series, but I’ll try to keep it light, and steer clear of any major game-changing spoilers.)

Bokurano and Narutaru both deal with death in a major way. Each explores and handles one side of death, leaving the other mostly ignored. From a thematic perspective, the two are perfect complements, and are best understood in the context of the other.

First, Bokurano. For those of you unfamiliar with it, Bokurano is the story of fifteen kids, mostly seventh graders, who find themselves the chosen pilots of a massive robot to fight other giant robots and save the world. Sounds generic enough, except for the catch. Each kid pilots the robot once, in turn… and then dies. Furthermore, each pilot knows when they’re going to have their turn next, but not when the fight will happen. So the manga consists of a series of character studies, of how each child deals with and prepares for their own imminent death.

Their thoughts cover a wide range, from terror to sadness to pride at their chance to save the world. Each is a complex character, with a fleshed-out backstory and a thoroughly believable psychological makeup. Most chapters are narrated by the character in question, as they try to seek some closure in the time they have left, or escape their inevitable fate, or somesuch. The unifying factor is that in every case, their struggles are internal. They do not seek help, or discuss their plans with others, or anything else like that. More than that, the vast majority of the stories deal with purely internal problems. How does the person themself deal with their own death? They do not think beyond their own end, as to how their actions will affect others. A handful of the characters break this trend, making preparations for their siblings and loved ones for after they are gone, but even they do it for internal reasons. Near the end of the story, we have a series of vignettes revisiting the families of the children, and how they coped after their deaths, but these are fairly short and secondary. Bokurano is, first and foremost, the story of how people deal with their own deaths.

Narutaru is the inverse of that. Again, a brief summary for those unfamiliar. Teens bond with magic baby dragons with really cool powers. As one would expect, they use them to do things like murder their classmates, rape people they had crushes on, and attempt to destabilize the government. Don’t be fooled by the cutesy-friendly mahou shojo / pet monster feel given by the first few chapters; Narutaru rapidly descends into a psychological bloodbath that reads like the bastard love child of Tomino and Anno.

In Narutaru, death is brutal and sudden. It happens with almost no warning, and no celebration. Whereas characters in Bokurano spend long chapters monologuing and philosophizing about their own deaths, Narutaru characters are simply there one panel and gone the next. Death in Narutaru is not about the character who died, but rather those left behind by their death. Early on, the first villain is killed rather viciously by the main character. Most series would simply move on. Yay, we won! Not Narutaru. The police mount an investigation. The main character is haunted by the boy’s face on the news for the next week, and, worse, learns that his death meant he wasn’t around to care for his ailing mother, who died without his help.

Things like this continue to happen throughout the story, as every death has extreme consequences on the surviving characters. When people die, their relatives and loved ones become relevant. Funerals are held. People are arrested and forced into psychological instutions, as one would expect. Deaths in Narutaru have aftershocks that shake the entire rest of the story, and ripple through the psyches of everyone left behind.

In this way, Bokurano and Narutaru form a duality. Each deals with one side of death–Bokurano the internal, and Narutaru the external. The two themes are complementary and work together beautifully. Death is prepared for in Bokurano. We see it coming, but then, after it has happened, that story is over, and the death all but forgotten. Death is sudden in Narutaru, but followed up. Every death is the beginning of a story, not the end, as the story focuses on those left behind it. In a way, one cannot truly understand either manga without the other.

Final ratings:

Bokurano: 10/10

Narutaru: 8.5/10

Strongly recommend both to anyone who likes psychological… anything.

Next up on my reading list… Five Star Stories, courtesy of ghostlightning. Don’t expect me to write anything about it, though, unless I get particularly inspired.

.lolikappa