One of the standouts in the new anime season has been Bokutachi no Remake, aka BokuRema or Remake Our Lives!, an interesting series about getting a second chance to re-make our life choices. Our hero chose the safe route in life but it leads him to a “bad end” with all his dreams for the future in ashes. What would he do differently if he could do it all again? Let’s find out!
Bokutachi no Remake is an Anime about Second Chances
“Once time passes, it never comes back. There are no second chances in life. I’ve always believed that. But right now what I’m experiencing is the world of ten years ago that I’ve been dying to go back to.”
When Kyouya Hashiba was choosing a university, he went with a safe no-nonsense school instead of the art school he’d also been accepted to, believing that playing it safe was smarter than pursuing his silly dream of becoming a game designer. When he gets the chance to develop games he takes it but things don’t work out and his company goes bankrupt. If only he had believed in himself enough to choose the art school instead, and make himself into a proper creator… just like the legendary group of professional creators known as the “Platinum Generation”: scenario writer Kyouichi Kawagoe, illustrator ShiroAki, and legendary vocalist N@NA.
Imagine his surprise when he wakes up to find himself transported back to 2006. Now he can remake his life, and choose properly this time! He enters art school and (since this is anime) finds himself living in a semi-harem of cute girls at Share House Kitayama, making friends and re-starting his university life. To his surprise, his former boss is his senpai in film class, and his housemates are… well, you can watch the anime to find out.
An Anime about Becoming a Creator
BokuRema is based on a series of novels by Nachi Kio that incorporates many autobiographical elements of the creator’s life, though not, presumably, time-slipping ten years into the past. He attended the prestigious Osaka University of Arts, where the anime is set. He’s had an extremely long and interesting career, writing scenarios for visual novels like Aokana: Four Rhythms Across the Blue, doing illustrations and doujinshi for various games and anime projects, working as a designer, and finally becoming a light novel writer. Every character of the anime is based on an aspect of himself, and the real “Platinum Generation” of legendary creators he aspired to imitate in university included his university senpai Hideaki Anno and film director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri.
Are you watching #BokutachinoRemake #BokuRema? It’s a great anime about traveling back in time and getting a second chance at becoming a famous anime/game creator. I loved this scene about the realities of succeeding in this difficult world. pic.twitter.com/5qMBuzWZ9d
— Peter Payne (@JListPeter) July 21, 2021
Nachi Kio has a message for would-be creators hoping to enter the anime/game industry. People naturally have basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter that are a lot more important than buying anime Blu-rays or the latest eroge title. “Entertainment only becomes important once you’ve got your basic needs met. In other words, it’s low-priority, a waste. And all of you have come to university to learn to make these things. That goes well beyond eccentricity…and into stupidity.”
What kind of fool would go to an art school in order to become a creator, when things like anime and games aren’t required for people to live? However, if you’re good enough at “being a fool,” sometimes you can create something that people will love enough to give you money for. If you’re going to be a fool and try to create something, work so hard at it that you reach the highest level imaginable, and then you’ll have achieved something meaningful. That’s the message of Bokutachi no Remake.
Anime Similar to BokuRema
Bokutachi no Remake is a fun series about a man’s journey to discover the person he could become, given a second chance, with lots of great characters for us to enjoy. In its obsessive approach to defining what it is to create anime and games, it’s similar to other series like Saenai Kanojo no Sodatekata. In its exploration of what we would all do if we were given a second chance to go re-live our past, it’s similar to another gem of a show, ReLife, which I can’t recommend highly enough.
Thanks for reading this review of the new Bokutachi no Remake anime! What other shows are you enjoying this season? Tell us below, or let us know on Twitter!
We love finding new anime figures for you to browse on the site, and this week we’ve gotten in tons of new offerings. Not only gorgeous figures that would look great on your desk or figure shelf…but sexy “cast off” figures, with clothing you can remove. What a time to be alive! Browse our newest anime figures here!
