Bokura ga Ita 03

The show continues to deliver feelings and emotional complexities. And this week, we get to see what Yano and the first Nana were like together -- and what kind of person she was. She liked bad boys. Not "bad" like Yano, but actually cruel to her.

But this show is about Nanami. She loves Yano, a troubled boy with a sad past. He is attracted to her anyway, and is gradually won over and steps down from his macho pose. In the process, she moves from reticence to forthrightness and learns that she can bring happiness to another person. But all this takes time and delightful angst.




Fansubs appear to be on the way. Ureshii's website says this is an active project for them, and they have a translator. As for Chinese subs, there are already five each for episodes one and two.

detailed summary
It's summer vacation. Nanami is totally bored because she doesn't have a chance to see Yano. There are a couple of great scenes of her lying around the house. But Japanese classes go back to school for a few days during the summer, and one is coming up. She arrives all happy at school, expecting to see Yano, but he isn't there. He sends a message to a friend asking him to get someone to stand in for him as class vice-president. Nanami is not just sad, she's angry and shows it.

Nanami is back home, dozing sadly on the couch (with a baseball game on TV) when she gets a call from her friend Mizu-chin (voiced by Shimizu Kaori) inviting her to go with a group of friends to a festival. She hesitates over whether she has a yukata to wear, but when Mizu-chin says they're inviting some boys, including Yano, Nanami is all over it.

When she arrives at the festival, her charmingly ugly friends say how cute she looks in it. The boys think so, too. When she hears that Yano isn't coming, Nanami is devastated, but keeps up a good front, supported by a rain of compliments.

She sees Yano's good friend Takeuchi and says hello. He tells her Yano isn't coming, and she vainly tries to deny that's what she's interested in. Later he comes over and tells her he tried to call him, but he wasn't answering. He says Yano is depressed about the first Nana and her death, and suggests that it would be good to have someone genki like Nanami near him. It surprises her. As he is leaving, he turns and says: "The yukata looks cute."

Then we see her at Yano's front gate, hesitating over whether to ring the bell. Yano calls out from an upper window: "Stalker!" She rings the bell to be let in and he refuses, so she angrily rings it over and over again. His mother (?) comes out and Nanami is embarrassed. Then we see the two of them in Yano's room.




So what did you come for? asks Yano. She goes on about worrying that he might be ill, then comes right out and asks him why he didn't come to school that day. He admits it was because he was thinking about dead Nana, because it's summer, and says he won't come to any of the summer school days. She gets upset and he tells her to eat the snack his mother put out for her. She blusters back, then agrees to eat it, and he laughs. She's pleased that his mood seems to have lifted.

She asks to look at a photo album she sees on the shelf. She notices there are no pics of dead Nana. He passes her a photo. They are both sitting on his bed and he says she's pretty careless: does she realize she's on a boy's bed? He moves toward her and she recoils from him and falls off. Her odd scream as she recoils is great. His mother comes in and they laugh it off. In the end, he tells her he has no photos of dead Nana.

As she's just closing the door behind her, he thanks her for coming. She comes back in and passionately tells him that even if the person he really loves is gone, someone loves him and he doesn't have to feel alone, that she is always watching him, that she will protect him always. And then she rushes away.

At the next summer school day, she is surprised to find Yano there. As class president and vice-president, they are given happi coats to wear. He says she looks good in a yukata. It turns out that Takeuchi took a cell-phone photo of her at the festival and sent it to him, and he shows it to her on his phone. She is so happy she has to cover her face with her hands.

He says she shouldn't have said she was watching him and would protect him. Those are what a guy should say. She bashes him on the head. He says her saying those things actually made him happy, and asks to borrow her chest to lean on, which he does. She awkwardly embraces him and we are all in seventh heaven.

After that, however, nothing seems to have changed between them. But after class another day, he is lying there asleep across a couple of chairs, using her school-bag as a pillow. She waits for him to awaken, wondering what he's dreaming about. He dreams of his time with dead Nana....




He first really saw her when he was with some friends at a restaurant and saw her with her boyfriend. The boyfriend got angry and knocked over a water-glass and left. She came over to borrow money from Yano and his friends, whom she knew to be classmates of her younger sister. Yano sees a bruise on her arm and she says her boyfriend gets angry, like a child. They criticise the departed boyfriend, but she says she knows he's bad, but he's cool. The seiyuu for dead Nana is another newcomer, and her voice is very uneven and really annoyed even me until I got somewhat used to it.

Next, Yano saw her waiting for the boyfriend quite late on a cold day, outside a convenience store. He took her a hot drink and talked, to the point that she confided in him and cried. She knew the boyfriend wouldn't come. They talk and talk on several occasions. He eventually suggests they seek happiness together. As they sit together with hot drinks one day, she says she finally knows what happiness is: hot cocoa on a cold day.

On graduation day, they sit alone in the balcony of the gym after everyone's gone. She loosens her collar and invites him over, to neck or something more.... They go to the sea together. Then they are on his bed, about to get together, and she says "not today." He notices a bruise on her arm as she is going to make coffee and asks if she has seen her former boyfriend. She says "just a bit" and he hits her.

Next, Yano goes to confront the boyfriend and gets beaten up for his troubles. Nana is appreciative and kisses him. He gets her to promise never to betray him. Then we see him, at home on a hot summer day, receiving the phone call to tell him that she has been with her old boyriend in a car and there was an accodent....

The he wakes up in the classroom, to the sound of Nanami giggling over a manga. He asks why she didn't leave, and she says it was because he was sleeping on her bag and she didn't want to wake him because it looked like he was having a happy dream. He asks her what happiness is, and she says it's things that make you feel good, like steamed meat buns or hot drinks on a cold day. He gets up and says let's go get some steamed buns. As she's following, she says to herself this is the first time she has ever prayed for someone else's happiness.

In the preview of episode 4, she says how she can't really understand him. Then we see him saying to someone, presumably Nanami, that he'll only say it once, so listen carefully, that he loves her, and putting a ring on her index finger.