Bokurano ep04 - Strong （ 強さ）
A human life’s worth is merely chosen and those that are being discarded.

Flashbacks of the kids joining the game and Waku fighting the enemy, Kodaka spoke of human lives that are constantly being created, only to be discarded soon after and Waku is one of them. As a chosen one for Zearth, he has a seal on his arm , while on the lift, someone noticed the seal on this hand. His dad is some chief director and Kodaka heard his dad quarreling with his brother, Shinichi over the mountain that was being levelled by the laser beams that was deflected by an alien’s armor in the fight between Waku’s Zearth and it. Kodaka’s dad wants to build a golf course over the mountain while his brother is against it as many people had died there and believes that a golf course to be built there will only incur the wrath of the people living there. His dad was seen as a ruthless, stingy realtor who only thinks of winning and earning money and that was the reason why his brother hated him. Kodaka in fact admires his dad for all this as believes he is the chosen to live in this harsh society. Back at home, while he sits on his dad’s chair, he realizes that he was being warped to the interiors of Zearth. The other kids were there as well and realizes that he is the next pilot. Earlier on, the kids were discussing on Jun, his actions towards his sister was simply unbearable and they are angry over there. Kodaka does not think so and in fact admires him as he has the direct experience with death. The girls were pretty scared of what he said.  Another flashback on Kodaka being a little boy who uses an air gun to shoot at a cat, his brother scolded him not to be curel to living things, his father in fact told him that it is natural for a boy’s nature.

The scene changes to a room where government officials are having a conference on the recent alien appearances and starts accusing if its China or USA who is behind all those. Regardless of that, one of the officials mentioned that he has something to confirm first and on his list, were the photos of the 15kids that disappeared during each alien appeareance. Back to Kodaka in his room, the alien has already warped into the human’s dimension and stays motionless while Zearth is on the other side. The battle is starting to begin.

The kids find themselves inside Zearth again and Kodaka is the pilot, the dung beetle appears again. Kodaka moves Zearth recklessly around the city, destroying buildings and killing many while the enemy was in fact doing the opposite, it moves around carefully, trying not to destroy any buildings instead. The kids tells Kodaka to be careful but he does not give a damn to it and in fact believes he is saving the Earth’s population and a small sacrifice is nothing to it. The alien is of the shape of a….. hmm…(cant really think of an animal)..the closest reference i have is mayb some hermit crab/ animal with a shell kind of creature . Anyway, it fires out its tentacle and tightens on Zearth’s right arm.

More tentacles were fired out from the alien’s shell towards Zearth, Kodaka starts to lose his cool and with a tug, he trips but Kodaka’s uses the momentum from tripping and hurls the alien up and it falls as well. Zearth falls as well as he was already tripping and Kodaka realizes that below him, he saw his father’s car. Of course, his dad was killed instantly as Zearth crushes on it. Kodaka loses his cool totally and went on a fanatic craze and brutally strikes at the alien with its arms, ripping off its armor madly to find the core.

The core was crushed but Kodaka remains in a delirum and keeps mumbling about his father, as he walks to the center of the kids, he collapsed suddenly, dead with his eyes wide open. The kids were shocked. Moji walks over to him and confirms he is indeed dead. The dung beetle gave a laugh and wonders if it had mentioned to them before - Zearth moves by consuming the lifeforce of its pilot hence death is for sure after every battle.

Very good explaination on Kodaka’s background and how he grew up to be the person he is. His father was the main reason for what he is and he loves his father. Questionable parts in this episode like the kids are able to warp themselves inside of Zearth from their favourite chair and also on the careful movement about alien in the city. The first thing that came to my mind was the invader is Zearth and the aliens on the other hand are the protectors and the mysterious Kokopelli who appeared is the mastermind in maniplulating those children to control Zearth to kill off the Earth’s defenders. (lol) Sounds a little absurd but ya…it is still logical in some sense. What can explain the careful movement of the alien while Zearth moves around recklessly. Who could be the next pilot ? 2 kids dead and we are left with 12. The kids’ fate are sealed for their deaths are for certian, arent they ?