Anime — ぼくらの (Bokurano)

I have the series on my Bokurano uninstall disc; but I've not felt inclined to watch the last half dozen episodes -- basically, I gave up at that point where Morita had just about destroyed any possible connection with the manga.

While there were a number of expected "Whoops, can't show that on TV!" changes in the first third of the series, and one was always going to live under the shadow of the manga being incomplete and a "LOL GONZO!" ending, the hostile direction had the paradoxical effect of removing all the pathos from the story and simply rendering the series pathetic.

Daiichi's actions to help let the civilians get to safety before fighting just vanished, due to the reshuffling to get early official intervention; Aiko's poignant newscast was rendered impossible by changing the story around her father; the list goes on...

Those are just the most obvious places where the direction sucked all the power from the story -- and instead gave us comedy yakuza.

As a story, the biggest disappointment of the year. Three thumbs down. But the best OP by miles.