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僕等がいた [Bokura ga Ita] #2

Érase una vez nosotros, Vol. 2

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Bokura Ga Ita is a Japanese romance manga, centering around the high school life of freshman girl, Nanami Takahashi.

200 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2003

14 people are currently reading
346 people want to read

About the author

Yuuki Obata

42 books84 followers
Yuuki Obata (小畑友紀) is a Japanese mangaka.
She won a Shogakukan Award for New Mangaka category in 1998 through her first creation, "Rain Drops".

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5 stars
572 (40%)
4 stars
414 (29%)
3 stars
331 (23%)
2 stars
69 (4%)
1 star
26 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
Profile Image for Fugo Feedback.
5,084 reviews172 followers
July 3, 2025
Muy linda serie desde lo emotivo y los personajes, aunque el dibujo era medio básico. Creo que nunca la terminé de leer pero cuando le toque veo si hago relectura integral o retomo donde me quedé.
Profile Image for Delanie Dooms.
596 reviews
September 20, 2024
Improvement from vol. 1.

We are tasked with understanding the developing love between Nana and Yano. Yano's baggage is one that is characterized by a sense of longing--a clinging relation--with some attempt at keeping his emotions 'real'. This leads him into places such as this: Reiterating the word "cop-out" (also used in vol. 1 about emotions--that time about blaming oneself, precisely because it means you can forgive personal failure), this time relating itself to wishing someone dead, and his insistence that in order to fully appreciate this sentiment one would need use torture (viz., that we are senseless in death, thereby our feelings in life are the only thing which contain meaning; to wish someone dead is meaningless if it is aimed at harming a person, a cop-out). His feelings are intimately tied with distrust and with a perverse loss.

Nana, however, is still a people-pleaser. She cannot really seem to grasp what Yano is, but she is markedly different from the other, dead Nana--at least in one way. When we ask the question "what it means to be happy", one Nana (dead) says that it is like cocoa in a cold day, the contrast with her previous abusive partner evident (her first attempts at answering literally meaning, more-or-less, freedom from pain rather than attainment of pleasure). Nana the living, however, states it is like a meat bun; it is, in as sense, a heartfelt warmth, not warmth that warms the world outside. Yano with this answer and his interactions with her begins to care about her--to feel a sense of other-love which he hasn't felt much in this story, no matter how so-called polite he is. The question which she answers--and which she must face, which she must own--is how to love, to find a beloved. Her reaction to Yano's threat--his torture--is to imply that she should have her fingers broken; that is to say, his angst over the death and confusion of the dead Nana's demise are used by Nana the living to create a flip on his perspective. It is precisely her desire to be there for him--forever--that reiterates this point from a mirror'd perspective--instead of pain, even his torturous avowal of hatred for so-called betrayers is clarified by Nana's desire.

The artist direction of this book is also fairly fantastic. Focus on eyes and particularly the focus on people is very, very important; we lapse into lack of detail, only to run full throttle into failed descriptions of face. This focus couples brilliantly with the notion of love we find--the notion of love which begins the book with longing for another, separated because of summer break and, of course, via death--and with the expression of interior feelings (especially Nana's confusion, joy, sadness, and love) which are ultimately what this book is about (there isn't a plot which we can fall back upon when something is so-called boring, so-called uninteresting; there is only the psychology of our characters).

There is a marked dealignment with the setting. These characters are children--Nana is 15 years old--but the story, especially the flashbacks, contain strong emotional cords and aren't as childish as one would think they'd be. Can we imagine the dead Nana's sickening abusive boyfriend being so young? Perhaps. But the way to understand him from that perspective is as a set-piece, for where are his parents? teachers? community? Those things that create him? It doesn't seem as believable to be contextless as a child so young than if he were much older, if they all were much older. Who even is the living Nana's mother?
Profile Image for CharlyyGentlePhoenix.
780 reviews4 followers
November 22, 2024
Bon, comme vous avez étés nombreux à me le réclamer, voilà le T2. Je vous le dis tout de suite, ce n’est absolument pas féministe, au contraire. Début des années 2000… Pour moi c’est un bémol. Après chacun voit midi à sa porte.

Il y a une grande beauté dans cette histoire d’amour. Je pense qu’elle serait mieux avec de la musiques et des images vidéos. En anime, quoi!

C’est sûr dans le couple c’est Yano qui tire tout la couverture sur lui.

Yano se comporte mal avec Nana mais celle-ci lui pardonne sans problème.

Nana est mis en avant seulement dans le but de mettre Yano en lumière.

Une pointe d’humour.

On retrouve la dévotion des femmes sujettes à leurs sentiments du pré-féminisme. « Le monde entier venait de changer » …

Moi par exemple je suis tombé amoureux une bonne dizaine de fois mais je n’ai jamais tenu un couple plus d’un an. Attendre la bonne personne ou tout simplement aimer son célibat? Télé la question…

Des « jamais je ne trahirais » trop fébriles pour ne pas imaginer le contraire.

Phoenix

++
Profile Image for Katt Hansen.
3,844 reviews108 followers
October 21, 2017
This series seems to be improving as it moves along. My biggest complaint is that it's almost impossible to identify when there are flashbacks, so it takes me a minute to figure out when we're in the past. But once I figured things out, things definitely became clearer.

The biggest trouble I have is keeping Nana and Nanami straight. One is dead, the other is...very much alive and falling for a boy with too much baggage for a girl like her to go near. But in the end, of course she will. He was definitely a threatening presence in book 1 - in this volume we don't see it, which makes me wonder how much of that is lurking beneath the surface - or is he working through those problems?

Will he be good for her? I really don't know. I'm hoping so, and I'll keep reading, but for now, I don't like the idea of them being together.
Profile Image for Jenny Clark.
3,225 reviews121 followers
January 16, 2019
The art is becoming more sure of itself in this volume. We are seeing a little bit of the padt between Nana San and Yano as well. I'm not sure what exactly happened when they were talking about her bruise. Did he push her or did she walk into the doorway?
I'd like to know what really happened when she got that bruise and when she died. Her ex could have shown up and started threatning her and as for when she died he coukd have forced her to go with him. Theres still so many questions about it all.
Yano continues his creepy factor with saying what he did about breaking every finger.
Hopefully the characters get some depth soon as well.
Profile Image for Emma.
392 reviews33 followers
May 19, 2017
3.5 stars. I'm really interested to find out more about what's going on in Yano's head - he is very hard to read! I'm guessing this is because he is still dealing with the fallout of Nana-san's death. It was interesting to see more of their relationship, like how Nana-san was seeing another man who was abusive.
Profile Image for Diamond Keeling.
114 reviews13 followers
June 29, 2020
Choosing between 3.5 or 4 stars because I really began to hate Yano but also enjoying the story so far.
It's been years since I last read the manga( aka high school). And now I can finally finish the story and sees whether or not I will look forward for more of Yuki Obata's work.
Profile Image for Sara Ghotb.
565 reviews24 followers
December 30, 2022
I'm again falling into the same trap of borrowing two volumes of a random series simultaneously and feeling uncomfortable not finishing them. This is genuinely the worst manga I’ve ever read. This is just not for me.
Profile Image for R.
2,254 reviews6 followers
April 27, 2018
Wonderful! I love this story. So sweet. It brings back memories of falling in love.
Profile Image for Elaine.
434 reviews25 followers
May 15, 2019
The pieces are finally starting to fit together. I really enjoyed this second volume. The main character seems nice and the story seems interesting so far.
46 reviews
July 7, 2022
Kinda didn't like how they ended up together, it was too fast.
Profile Image for ✨bliss ✨.
23 reviews
October 23, 2022
i had a serious mental breakdown after reading this whole series 🥲 harsh reality.
Profile Image for Aly Ruqs K.
17 reviews
July 5, 2023
The covers the author does are amazing! SubhanAllah 😍. Reading with mah cuzzo! I don't remember much since I read it a while ago.
Profile Image for -moonprismpower-.
2,970 reviews15 followers
January 2, 2025
Nanami is so cute but so innocent compared to Yano. Even though they get together in this volume and seem happy, I just feel like there’s a darkness inside Yano…
Profile Image for haven ⋄ f (hiatus).
803 reviews14 followers
April 11, 2020
2.5 (Rated up for the art but I might lower it.)

I thought the crush of the MC was so abusive. He likes her so he's mean to her. Um what???!! Not okay! And the MC was all like *swoons.*

Normally I'm okay with contemp. shojo manga but this one got me so upset.

Profile Image for GoldE.
70 reviews6 followers
read-manga
May 9, 2014
Something about Yamamoto rubs me the wrong way I'm mean i know it sucks her sister died but from the sounds of she didn't even like her sister. She is just the ultimate downer for me and maybe i should have more sympathy for her but i just don't. I don't really relate with any of the characters so far maybe Takeuchi he is very likable. I think this has been a slow read so far hard to really get into but there is something to be said for a casual read easy to pick up and put down. I watched the anime many years ago and also remember it being very slow paced and relaxing just shy of boring. It seems to be very sweet naive clumsy love story.
Profile Image for Bryn.
2,185 reviews37 followers
January 16, 2024
Beautiful, sad, thoughtful -- very much my kind of manga.

Having just reread: wow this has some great moments!

Will I finally finish the 3rd volume this time? We shall see!
Profile Image for Isabel.
63 reviews1 follower
May 24, 2023
Sinceramente empiezo a ver cosas que no me acaban de gustar. Entiendo que a lo largo de la serie esto se "tratará" pero no quita que me ha resultado desagrable.

**SPOILERS DEL TOMO EN SÍ**
En primer lugar, el pasado de Yato con Nana. La relación dependiente de Nana tanto con su ex como con Yato no me ha gustado. El romantizar que ella siga viéndose con el ex, que Yato la pegue y luego se pegue con el ex y encima Nana lo vea "bien" me ha disgustado mucho.

Y luego, en este segundo tomo los protas ya empiezan a salir pero su confesión me ha parecido forzada porque claramente él solo está viendo a la otra "Nana" en la prota. Su relación de dependencia huele a que esto explotará más adelante.
Profile Image for Destiny.
429 reviews57 followers
June 2, 2011
This was a good volume I thought in most respects. Yano had dream about his ex-girlfriend. Thus we learned more about her.
114 reviews
December 27, 2011
Just padding out my 2011 challenge with an easy read from my Christmas haul.

I've seen the anime a few times, so this volume yielded no surprises but there are some very important developments in this volume. Including some important back story so its not one that can be skipped.

Very sweet and fun at the moment but the tears are going to start falling soon.
Profile Image for kuristina- tabreez.
1,013 reviews
May 8, 2013
It's the anniversary of Yano's ex's death, and he spends his time reminiscing in his memories of the days he spent with her.
Yano finds that whenever Nana's around him his guard drops, because of this he begins to avoid her, but he doesn't want to leave her and hurt her. Could this mean he likes her?
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews

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