Bokutachi no Remake | First Impressions

Man, I can say this, as a matter of fact, I’ve already fallen in love with this anime. There’s just something about it that I adore. Bokutachi no Remake reminds me a lot of ReLIFE because, in both anime, the main protagonists get sent back in time to redo/re-experience things they never got to do. In Bokutachi no Remake’s case, we follow Kyouya as he mysteriously travels ten years in the past. He was once again allowed to choose, go to art school, or go to a regular university because it would be easier; this time, instead of picking the latter, he chose art school. Bokutachi no Remake also reminds me of Sakura-sou no Pet na Kanojo because many students live together, each one of them adding their own little quirk to an already exciting household.

Hashiba Kyouya is a 28-year-old game developer. With his company going bankrupt, and him losing his job, he returns to his hometown. Looking at the success of creators of his age, he finds himself regretting his life decisions as he lay distressed on his bed. As Kyouya wakes up, he discovers that he has traveled ten years back to the time before he entered college. Will he be able to finally make things right?
This is a story about a failed person who is given a second opportunity to follow his dreams.

“This is a story about a failed person who is given a second opportunity to follow his dreams” this one sentence is what sums up Bokutachi no Remake, and I love it. Something that really appealed to me about the whole story was that we have Kyouya, a 28-year-old, questioning his life and his decisions in the present time. What if I had gone to art school? What if I hadn’t have picked the easy way out? What if I had believed in myself? How would life have turned out differently? These are all valid questions, and I am sure we’ve asked ourselves these questions at one point or another. Another “what if” that is also asked is the following: “What if I had the opportunity to correct all my wrongs and do everything I convinced myself not to because I didn’t believe in myself.” Unfortunately, we cannot time travel to do that; however, Bokutachi no Remake explores all this with Kyouya, and I love that. Thus, we’re able to relate to this journey on a personal level. Nothing about this show is over the top; nothing about the episodes I’ve seen has been hyper exaggerated. Apart from travelling back in time, everything about this anime feels very typical, and as mentioned, it’s a mix between Sakura-sou no Pet na Kanojo and ReLIFE.

I am equally as impressed with the other characters (Shinoaki, Nanaka, Ekio and Tsurayuki). They all have their own little quirks that make them unique. However, there is something each one of them shares, and that’s ambition. They all have this drive to perfect their craft. Since we know who each one of them become in the ‘pre-time travel’ setting, the fact that we get to see them before they became successful, and before Shinoaki, Nanaka, Tsurayuki are known as the ‘Platinum Generation’; is exciting. The mere fact that we get to see these characters deciding what they want to do before they truly discover what drives and motivates them is something I really do love. We already know the end result, so now we get to see every event and every choice they make that will ultimately bring them to where they are in the ‘present’ day. It’s like one of those stories where you already know the ending, so the story itself is everything leaning up to the end.

The only thing that I have questions about is how this anime will end. Since this is a remake for Kyouya, will his life choices, his new lease on life drastically alter the lives of the eventual ‘Platinum Generation’?. Will Kyouya’s second chance negatively affect the other characters in the future? More importantly, when he does eventually go back to the ‘present’ day, will the choices he re-did ten years prior change the life he had before time travelling? Will it end up being all a dream? I mean, he did teleport back in time when he fell asleep, so it could be that he’s dreaming about all the choices he would have made, the encounters he would have, and the life he would have lived had he gone to art school, to begin with. Who knows! Only time will tell, and that’s exciting.

Anyway, now that I’ve explained what about the story I loved. I would also like to mention briefly that I enjoy the OP and ED. “Koko kara Saki wa Uta ni Naranai (ここから先は歌にならない)” by Poppin’Party and “Kanousei (可能性)” by Argonavis are both headbangers, and I could listen to both songs on repeat for a good week before I get bored of listening to them. So, in my opinion, Bokutachi no Remake probably has one of the best OP and ED songs and is certainly up there for best art for this season. While the art style feels pretty standard and clean, something that really sticks out is the characters’ eyes. The eyes are the best part of the character design because of how cool they look. You can definitely find yourself staring at them for a long time because they look so neat.

Anyway, my first impressions of the anime were fantastic. I especially loved that the first episode was 40+ minutes. It gave you everything and a little backstory to the character (Kyouya) and the situation he found himself in. Without a doubt, I think that Bokutachi no Remake will be one of the best anime to air this year and will undoubtedly be one of my favourite anime if it holds up and finishes the way I hope it does. The only real problem I have with the anime is that it’s only twelve episodes long. Anyway, 8/10, A. Great anime thus far.