Bokurano

I started this a while ago but I just finally finished it after putting it off. For the record this will contan spoilers.

Hmm. Well, it was definitely a good read. At times it was quite depressing. The final battle certainly was quite a depressing way to end it, Ushiro forced to wipe out the entire enemy planet to find and kill the sole enemy pilot who ran... but it was effective. The characters were all interesting but I find that it's very difficult to remember their names, or at least most of them. Some characters stand out more than others (I still remember Kako), but most I just can't remember. I suppose its only natural when dealing with a cast of about fourteen main characters.

There was enough unexpected stuff to keep it interesting. Machi's sudden death at the hands of the stranger caught me off guard, and frustrated me. I'd grown to like her as a character, and especially in that moment, when she was bonding with Ushiro... how terribly unfortunate. Of course for most of the manga I absolutely hated Ushiro, with his constant abuse of his little sister. He won a lot of respect from me after his sister's death though, when he actually started showing some human emotion and when he signed the contact. A fitting final pilot.

Only real flaw is that it gets kind of stale at around the mid-point, not to say necessarily that those characters are less interesting but the manga basically has its routine, and it can really only be repeated so many times before you need something else, regardless how different each character's individual story is. I had to take a break from it, but after the break I was right back into it and ready to plow through to the finish. I'd say it's a good read if you take it like, a couple chapters a week. Not the kind of thing you should read too fast.

I'm happy with it though. It was worth looking into. It wasn't too mech-focused either, which is a personal plus being someone not really into mechs at all. Definitely more a human-driven story. Anyway, if it's ever released in translated physical manga format I'll definitely be picking the series up.