Review of We Were There
As a person that adores slice of life, romance and the like, "Bokura ga Ita" is a title that is both appalling and atrocious for the genres that it represents. To start off, the series utilises very dated graphics and art which would be a major turn off for most audiences unless perhaps you watched it during the time of release but even then there were far superior styles and animations making this one look pretty tragic in comparison. That said, I'll try to be subjective instead of merely blasting the series. This is a 26 episode anime which could've been concluded in 4, andwithout giving too much away allow me to discuss what you can expect from the narrative. The flow of the story utilises a reverse format to build its characters, meaning you can expect early progression/attraction, which will eventually pave the way for unnecessary drama and misunderstandings to occur. It will then lead to a vastly disinteresting followup that is both uninspired and somewhat frustrating. (Bonus points for adding drama here I suppose.)
Watching this, felt both mentally taxing and physically painful because it made me realise that this is the epitome of a slice of life and romance that causes people to stereotype the genre and hate on it.
That being said, the story itself revolves around the main cast that is supposedly 'in love' and it doesn't go well which you can expect in most romance animes because if there isn't any conflict and or struggles in-between there isn't much to go on about regarding the narrative. But the series does it in such a roundabout way that you just can't help but feel somewhat insulted. Also, the art and music did the series no favours although they took the cutesy approach it just didn't work and at certain points somewhat annoying. Don't get me wrong, I adore cutesy romance but this one was just really way off target.
Needless to say, the series held the ability to pull my attention to its comedy tier work that is bundled together with some pretty juvenile romance focus (which happens to be the main theme of the series). Although the start of the series was somewhat impactful it jumped the gun and avoided the build-up and sought to achieve something that most romance titles would call "an accomplished romance arc" by missing the necessary steps to build it properly the narrative and its characters felt very fragmented. So, instead of creating something meaningful the story just centres around the idea of what if and what could be.
Needless to say, I didn't enjoy this show at all, I had to take breaks in between every 2-3 episodes which is usually a very bad sign as I tend to binge everything in one go for most animes.
However, there were some elements that would've worked out differently had it been executed well. Such as past trauma, lingering attachments, potential rivals and areas of conflict but because the direction of the narrative was so poorly managed neither of the potential areas of focus was able to shine. Which in turn, caused the characters to be bland and unlikeable. I don't usually hate on the voice actors but in this case, the more I heard them speak the more I started disliking them.
Being an anime that centres around drama there sure is plenty that came about "Conveniently" and being a romance anime, whatever romance it had felt uninspired and bland.
Perhaps, this is pretty close to real-life relationships and perhaps a good depiction of reality.
It is just not for me.
In conclusion,
You will like this if
- You want to see a back and forth between the love interests
- Super slow progression that makes you wonder where they are going
- Overly dramatic moments
You will dislike this if
- You hate slow progression and somewhat indecisive characters
- Dated graphics
- Unnecessary drama.