List of Bokurano robots

In the manga/anime series Bokurano, a group of teenagers unwillingly assume the task of piloting a giant mecha, named "Zearth" by them, in a series of battles against robots piloted by humans from parallel dimensions. When a robot is defeated, its pilots' dimension and every lifeform on it is extinguished. To escape this fate, Zearth's pilots must fight and defeat 15 enemy robots without a single loss, but each pilot can control it only once, as the robots are powered by the user's life force, and he/she dies soon after a battle is completed.

Common Traits

The robots featured in Bokurano all share similar traits as well as differences;

Size: The most obvious trait is their surprisingly large size, each roughly 500 meters (around 1,640 feet) tall. Considering the average size of mecha and monsters featured in Japanese productions, these robots are unbelievably huge.

Armor: Each of the robots featured are covered in thousands of layers of armor that makes conventional weaponry useless in regard to both offense and defense. It was estimated by the JSDF that Zearth could destroy the entire American military in approximately 48 hours.

Lasers: It seems that every surface of the robots bodies are capable of firing lasers of incredible power (enough to destroy a mountain with a single volley). However, the lasers are insufficient in damaging any of the robots until they have had their armor stripped off.

Faces: Each robot has a panel somewhere on there face with fourteen illuminated slits. With the death of each pilot, a slit darkens so it is possible to tell how many pilots are left by counting the number of glowing lights.

Cockpit: The pilots seats are always within a bulb-shaped cockpit. Destroying this is the goal of each bout, most specifically killing the current pilot. The pilots of the robot have their individual seats, reflecting their personalities.

List of Robots

Zearth

This is the robot assigned to the main children. It is a large black humanoid-type with incredibly long arms and legs. It appears to have the greatest physical strength of all the robots currently featured as well as thicker armor. It has proven to be more than sufficient at tearing other robots apart with its bare "hands". It also has the ability to jettison any part of its body at will, a function that has come in handy on more than one occasion. Lastly it seems to have the ability to know the location of any human on earth. It should be noted that when Kokopelli was the pilot, the layout of slits on Zearth's face was different, and only one light in the center was lit.

Arachne

This was the first robot opponent featured in the series and was fought by Kokopelli to demonstrate how one pilots Zearth. It resembled an off-white spider with six thick limbs and its face-plate positioned in front of its torso. Its main weapon was a large electrical discharge that while looking impressive was grossly insufficient in damaging Zearth. It then attempted to close the gap between them and attack with its front limbs but it was quickly overpowered and ripped in half. It tried to jump away with what few limbs it had but it was caught and its cockpit was torn out and destroyed. A comment made by Dung Beetle implies that this battle didn't count towards the fourteen required victories.

Bayonet

This was the children's first solo battle, with Takashi Waku as the pilot. Bayonet was a long sword-shaped robot with three edges and a short claw-like appendage at the bottom of each edge. Its face-plate was along one of its sides. Bayonet's method of attack was simple. It would hurl itself at Zearth at great speed hoping to impale it and win the battle. Lasers were unable to hurt it and it was too fast to hit. It managed to rip Zearth's right arm off with ease. As it passed by, Kunihiko Moji noticed a hole in the back of it between its three appendages and recommended Waku aim for that. Waku kicked Zearth's severed arm into Bayonet's opening during its next pass. This destroyed its cockpit instantly, and won the battle.

In the anime series, Bayonet's form was changed to look like a giant mantis with several arms which enveloped Zearth with the objective of crushing its body. Just like in the manga, Waku used his soccer skills to his advantage when Moji identified the weak point of the enemy and he, with Zearth's arms immobilized, managed to hit it by using just its knees, tearing apart the enemy robot and destroying its cockpit at the same time.

Cancer

This robot was Kodama's opponent. It was large and round with two drill-like legs along its back that would burrow into the ground and steady it, and a claw-like appendage in the front to balance it and keep it upright. Cancer's face-plate was near the top of its body. There were several ports along its body that it would fire tentacles from to ensnare Zearth and smash it against the ground. During one of these strikes, Kodama was sent crashing down on his father's car killing him instantly. In retaliation, Kodama using knowledge of construction equipment dug Zearth's foot into the ground to steady it, then took hold of one of Cancer's tentacles with both hands and pulled with enough force to extract Cancer from its safe distance and drag it towards Zearth who then shoved both of its arms into separate tentacle-ports and ripped Cancer open length-wise. Kodama then removed its cockpit and fired lasers through it at close range.

Drum

Drum was unique among the other robots in that he was shaped like a giant layered cylinder. Its face-plate was in the center of its right side. During the battle against Daiichi it would roll towards him with great force, hoping to grind down Zearth's armor. At first, Zearth was powerless to stop it, so Daiichi picked it up so it could no longer spin. This plan failed as it proved it could rotate against any given surface. Daiichi then used all his will-power to tighten his grip to the point that Drum was incapacitated. Then, he carried it over to the bay and away from civilians. When Drum was dropped on its side it attempted to spin again, but Zearth shoved its arm under one of its plates at opposite to its rotation, using Drum's attack against it and tearing it apart.

Enigma

This was the first humanoid-type opponent that the contractees encountered, and had a heavy build and large armored fists. Its face-plate was on its "head". Unlike all previous opponents, Enigma took a step back and refused to move until all civilians in the area had sufficient time to evacuate and Nakama time to save one of her classmates. Once this was complete Enigma rushed Zearth and landed several armor-shattering punches which seemed to have been accompanied by some kind of electrical pulse. At first Nakama was unable to hit Enigma because Zearth's reach was far too long for close-quarters combat, but she discovered that Zearth was capable of detaching its parts and used this function to shorten its reach, allowing Zearth to attack in close range and beat Enigma into defeat.

Fig

Fig was a large bulb-shaped robot, with three barbed limbs positioned around its main body like a tripod and a long stem-like neck that had its face-plate attached to the top. Its sole method of attack was retracting its limbs shut around its main body, launching into the air and coming down on its opponent like a wrecking-ball. Kako was at first instructed to evacuate the city while the JSDF attacked, launching several missiles from two aircraft carriers and a squadron of jets. However, this proved useless when Fig revealed to be undamaged by this assault, and retaliated destroying the fighter squadron and aircraft carriers instantly. Kako panicked and ran from the fight at full speed until Chizu killed him and took his place as the pilot. She managed to get in close to Fig after weathering several blows and shoved one of Zearth's arms into Fig's main body, firing all of the arms lasers from within thus ending the battle.

Gonta

Gonta was unique in that it had its cockpit fully exposed atop its main body which was shaped like two wide limb-like structures underneath the ring-like main structure. At first Zearth attempted to finish the battle quickly via laser fire, but several protective plates arrayed around the cockpit extended to defend it. Its method of attack was frighteningly efficient. It used its cockpit as a lure so that Zearth would get in close, then hurled itself into the air and came down on Zearth so that the two structures were pressing down tightly on either side of Zearth's body, pinning its arms and leaving it defenseless. Gonta's main body would then twist downward, grinding away Zearth from above while the two structures on either side continued to tighten with every twist. Moji, who was the current pilot, came up with the plan to eject Zearth's head so that it was launched into the air above Gonta and rained down laser fire upon Gonta's lightly armored cockpit before the defense-plates could rise. This plan was only partly successful as the cockpit was ruptured but the enemy pilot had not been killed. When all seemed lost, a JSDF fighter pilot flew his plane into the opening killing both himself and Gonta's pilot. It had no visible face-plate.

Arachne II

Arachne II marked the first battle on an enemy earth. Maki was the chosen pilot for this battle. Arachne II is so named because of its eerie resemblance to the first robot encountered. Both had spider-like limbs, as well as similar color, shape, and location of its face-plate. However, the similarities were limited to its appearance. When Zearth approached it to initiate battle, Arachne II fell back on two spindly limbs coming out of the back of its torso, aligned its larger limbs around its middle, and began to spin like a top, using its bladed limbs like a buzz-saw. At first, Zearth was unable to approach without experiencing damage, but Maki got an idea from looking at a scale model of Zearth, and had Zearth fall backwards onto its arms, and crab-walk under Arachne II's spin, using the thick armor of its knees to block the strikes, and when close enough, use the momentum of the blades spin against the sudden obstruction of Zearth's knees to break themselves off, leaving Arachne II defenseless. Maki then ripped it open, and out of curiosity ripped open the enemy cockpit revealing the pilots within. This answered many questions for the contractees, and Maki asked them not to look as she killed the enemy pilots with direct laser fire.

Enigma II

Enigma II was another robot fought off-world. It resembled a skinnier version of Enigma with its arms attached to its hips, and spike-like hands. Kirie was set to do battle with it, but before doing so he requested to be teleported to outside Zearth on top of its hand, so that he might show his opponent who he was. He was surprised when Enigma II reciprocated and teleported its pilot out too. For a moment both stared at each other, then the enemy pilot revealed several scars along her wrist and teleported back. Kirie returned to the cockpit claiming he had found the resolve to do battle and the fight commenced. The bout wasn't detailed in the manga, but as the kids' world was not destroyed at that time, and no one had to replace Kirie, that implies he managed to win the battle by himself.

Humbug

Humbug was another humanoid-type with a heavier build and segmented limbs. The contractees were alarmed to find that it had only two lights left on its face-plate, implying it has won many more battles than Zearth. During combat Humbug remained inert while Zearth tore it apart, but soon the reason for its many victories became apparent. The removed pieces lifted up around Zearth attached to thin, sharp wires which slid inside of Zearth under its armor aiming directly for its cockpit. One piece managed to get all the way to the pilot, Komo before Humbug's pilot lost his will to continue and fled the battle. Had he not, the battle would have been decided in Humbug's favor.

Insect

Insect was a robot shaped like a mechanical cross between a bat and a butterfly. Its face-plate was directly between its two jagged wings. Attached to the tail end of its main body was a one hundred meter long nail, with several other back-up nails positioned along its "spine". When Anko piloted Zearth against it, Insect displayed incredible speed and agility along with its terrible method of attack. It would sneak around Zearth's defenses and impale it with the nail aiming directly for the cockpit. This nail would then secrete a dangerous solvent. It would continue to dodge and strike, impaling Zearth over and over again. When hitting it proved impossible, Anko tried to simply wait until Insect ran out of nails, however, this proved to be a flawed strategy when Insect quickly regenerated a whole new set. Its next attack was so close that solvent spilled into the cockpit and nearly killed Machi, but Anko managed to push her away in time, losing her legs as a result. She then started to pull Insect's nails out and try to attack it with them but it still out maneuvered her. Then Anko managed to trick it when she used one of her dance moves involving throwing the nail in the air, twisting around, grabbing it and driving it into Insect's midsection. The force of this strike knocked Insect to the ground, and Zearth quickly pinned it, and pulled out its cockpit destroying it with close-range laser fire.

Javelin

At first, it appears as a cylinder shaped structure with the cockpit visible on its back. after firing small needles that acted as markers at Zearth, it quickly changed its position to Hawaii, thousands of kilometers away and started to fire projectiles guided by the markers. Kanji tried at best to use Zearth's armors and parts to shield its cockpit from the enemy's shots, but after a failed nuclear attack on the cockpit, Seki offered himself to become a guide for a full attack of Zearth's lasers. The plan succeeded, and by his sacrifice, Javelin was defeated when Kanji's resistance was already at its limit.

ee also

*Bokurano
*List of Bokurano characters
*List of Bokurano episodes

References

*For names of the robots, see cite book |title= Bokurano |last= Kitoh |first= Mohiro |authorlink= Mohiro Kitoh |coauthors= |year= |publisher= |location= |isbn= |volume= 6 |pages= 197-200