We Were There

僕等がいた (Bokura ga Ita)

7.2(103,228)

MAL Score

Ranked #3498

Popularity #1178

Drama
Romance
Love Polygon

Episodes: 26
Duration: 25 min per ep
Aired: Jul 4, 2006 to Dec 26, 2006
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Starting her first year of high school with hopes of making plenty of friends, Nanami Takahashi meets the quiet Yuri Yamamoto and soon hears about a well-known classmate, Motoharu Yano. Yuri wants nothing to do with him due to his past relationship with her older sister, Nana, and Nanami is initially put off by his attitude as well. Still, as Nanami and Yano spend more time together, her impressions shift into genuine affection, and the two decide to date.

Their relationship, however, is complicated by what came before. Yano struggles to fully open up after losing Nana in a car accident the previous year—an event made even harder to face because she died while she was with one of her ex-boyfriends. With Nana’s memory lingering between them, Nanami and Yano try to hold on through misunderstandings and heartbreak, testing what their feelings can endure.

Otaku Consensus

Otaku Consensus: Bokura ga Ita endures less because of visual polish than because Akitarou Daichi and Mamiko Ikeda turn a familiar shoujo love polygon into an unusually bruising character study, with reviews repeatedly singling out pacing, foreshadowing, and the cast’s emotional development as the hook. Its 7.23 MAL score and 68/100 AniList score reflect a respected rather than universally beloved romance: the common complaint is Artland’s plain, sometimes heavily criticized animation, while the strongest praise says the writing and direction make that limitation secondary.

Why You Should Watch

Bokura ga Ita is for viewers who want shoujo romance without the safety rails: confessions matter, but the real drama is how teenagers learn to negotiate jealousy, memory, pride, and half-truths before they have the language for any of it. If Say I Love You gives you the appeal of intimacy slowly earned and Orange gives you adolescent regret with a heavier ache, this sits in the rawer middle: less polished, more conversational, and willing to let insecurity make its characters frustrating. The 26-episode run is a major asset, allowing moods to curdle over time instead of resolving every fight on schedule. Watch it when you want a school romance that treats “first love” as formative damage as much as sweetness, backed by understated music rather than glossy spectacle.

Key Characters

N
Nanami Takahashi
Nanami stands out as a shoujo heroine whose optimism is not naivety but a pressure point, making her reactions to romance feel emotionally specific rather than decorative.
M
Motoharu Yano
Yano is the series’ most divisive draw: charming enough to explain his popularity, guarded enough to make every warm moment feel unstable.
Y
Yuri Yamamoto
Yuri gives the romance its sharper edge, functioning less as a simple rival than as someone whose silence and resentment change how the audience reads everyone else.
N
Nana
Nana’s importance is structural as much as emotional, turning the show’s love polygon into a story about memory, comparison, and the unfair weight of the past.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
The 26-episode length lets the relationship drama breathe in a way many one-cour shoujo adaptations cannot; reviews specifically point to the pacing and foreshadowing as strengths, while noting that the opening stretch can feel slow.
2
Akitarou Daichi is credited as both director and storyboard artist, giving the series a strong authorial hand in how scenes are framed and emotionally timed rather than relying only on dialogue.
3
Mamiko Ikeda handled series composition and script duties, which helps explain why the anime is often discussed for character continuity and gradual emotional escalation rather than isolated romantic set pieces.
4
Artland’s animation is the production’s most common weak point in viewer commentary, but that roughness has become part of the show’s reputation: even negative visual appraisals often separate the look from the strength of the drama.
5
The sound team is unusually visible in the credits for a grounded romance: Kazuya Tanaka served as sound director, Seiji Mutou and Jun Abe handled music, and Nozomi Sasaki is credited for theme song performance.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Bokura ga Ita aired across the second half of 2006, running from July 4 to December 26 and finishing its 26-episode broadcast within the same calendar year.
Fun fact 2: Yuuki Obata is credited as the original creator, while the anime’s core adaptation control sat with Akitarou Daichi on direction and Mamiko Ikeda on composition and scripts.
Fun fact 3: The series’ database identity is overwhelmingly shoujo: AniList tags it as Shoujo at 96% and Female Protagonist at 93%, with Love Triangle at 80% and Coming of Age at 74%.
Fun fact 4: Despite its modest aggregate scores, the show has maintained visibility: MAL lists it at popularity rank #1178 with over 103,000 votes, and AniList records 408 favorites.
Fun fact 5: The lower-weight AniList Transgender tag at 33% is an unusual cataloging detail for a 2006 school romance, showing that viewers have flagged elements beyond the standard drama-romance taxonomy.