No.6

Had so much potential but was wasted. When I saw the first episode I fell in love with the characters and became very interested in the story. I was so glad this wasn't one of those animes where you had to watch up until episode 4 or 5 before something good happens. It started right out with some action and character development. Watching the next batch of episodes had me hooked because there was so many things going on with Shion and Nezumi, both apart and together, plus the background of No. 6 and how it got the way it is. The horrible acts committed bythem et al. I thought I was in for a good treat. And on top of it all, the two male characters were falling in love, not just some boy love teasers some animes throw out to bait Yaoi fans into watching. I've always wanted to watch an action anime where the male leads fall for each other but it isn't a drama or romance show. Mirage of Blaze is the only other anime I can think of that was action and yaoi. So I was on cloud nine. However, somewhere along the way the show lost focus and had no idea what it was going to do with the characters or the No.6 city itself. It begins to trip and falter and just does not know how to pick itself up. The characters essentially become cardboard cut outs and just placed in scenes and seem to not really do anything. For example, Shion and Nezumi seem to have conflict about their viewpoints on how No. 6 should be handled with people dying. Nezumi wishes to destroy the city while Shion wants to save the people. Yet neither character does anything about it. Then the writers tried to focus on the female character (I forgot her name) the girl who was in love with Shion. But they have no idea what to even do with her by this point, it's just her walking around thinking about Shion, then when she decides to do something she gets taken. So I'm thinking, fine, I guess this will cause Shion to act and maybe cause some tension between he and Nezumi. And they do act by going to save her. Meanwhile, the story takes a whole new focus on these forest people and alluding to the girl and Nezumi having a connection. But this goes NO WHERE! The connection between Shion's mother being one of the creators of No.6 goes NO WHERE The Radical group who wants to take down No. 6 from the inside, goes NO WHERE Finding out why or how No.6 turned out the way it did, goes NO WHERE I tried to figure out what was happening here with this show that started out so good and the only thing I got is that the show lacked a human villain. When you have a city or institution as the villain, having a personification of the city would help. After all who is behind the city? Who is the one giving the orders for these terrible acts to take place? Sure Nezumi and Shion are fighting against the city, but who is the one they have to beat? Who does the radical group have to go after to free themselves of No.6? No one?? So yeah, the writers try to solve this glaring issue by making the girl who loves Shion into a magical forest goddess that they have to beat. *eye roll* Then at the ending when everything seems so bleak the girl transforms into a large magical bee and destroys the city walls with bee tornado for Shion because having him do it himself would take more episodes than they were willing to write. She also grants instant life with her LGBT rainbow powers then float away with her magical bees. Yes an action Scifi post apocalyptic anime transforms into a fantasy magical anime at the end. *headache* By this time I am just watching for Shion and Nezumi's love story. But I'm given NOTHING but a second kiss on the lips and the characters deciding to part ways for unexplained reasons. Honestly, I would had been better off just watching the first episode and just using my own imagination to come up with what happens.

The story of no. 6 is set in a post apocalyptic earth, where humans are divided into 6 cities, and the one that is focused on is number 6, hence the title. So far, so good right? We have a story that occurs outside of a high school for once. Throw a few dystopian elements in, and it immediately looks like something worth watching. Not to mention, no. 6 is animated by studio Bones, the people behind FMA: Brotherhood. So why do I not enjoy this nearly as much as similar animes? Let"s take a closer look. Story: 7/10 Just a fair warning, this is not an animefor people who cannot stand shounen ai. Not that it's a vital piece to the story or anything, but there are still some moments that might turn you off if you don't enjoy that kind of romance. So here's the story. Sion, our protagonist, was a young, promising student. On the night of his 12th birthday, he met a fleeing fugitive, Nezumi. Despite knowing that he would be punished by the law, hid and helped him escape. Four years later, after witnessing a strange event at work, he was taken away by the police and was rescued by Nezumi and the two of them ran to the outside world that the walls of no. 6 was trying to hide from its inhabitants. After putting so much of drama in the opening episodes of the show, you would think that the creators would then try to maintain the audience's attention right? Wrong. The remainder of No.6 is then used to explain side characters that you would never care about, raises conflicts that would just disappear not to ever return. Maybe it's because of how short this series is, but that does not cover up for the fact that there are many episodes that just waste time building up to a good development, and then completely forgets about it next week. I've find myself wanting to drop no. 6 because of that. It is not until near the end of the show when things are finally explained and the plot moves on. However, by the time that happens, we're already on the last few episodes and there's no room left to truly establish a good motive or villain. Art: 8/10 Although the character design is not very outstanding, Studio Bones does do a very good job of animating No. 6. The few actions scenes are worth watching and they do make the show a lot more enjoyable. Of course, this is not FMA, but it is fun looking at Nezumi beating the crap out of some random grunt. Sound: 5/10 Music is perhaps No. 6 worst aspect. The op and ed are fine, and I rather enjoyed them, but the BGM is bad to say the least and some tracks just simply fails to deliver a good moment. That is not very annoying in through out most of the anime since nothing really happens, but when things really heat up later on, don't expect shivers to run down your spine because of the epic music. Character: 8/10 As I mentions before, the side characters of this show are not very interesting. Although No.6 does try to give the audience something to relate to them, there's not very much to grasp onto as they are only given a few minutes of back story at best before being thrown into the plot device closet again. Where the show really shines is the interaction between Nezumi and Sion and that's what made me stick around. I'm not going to reveal a lot of it here since I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but I'm going to say that through their interactions, they grow a lot together and character development is always very appreciated in my book. Enjoyment: 7/10 This show was recommended to me by a friend who was praising it a lot, and I could see why. Does that mean I enjoy it as much as she did? Unfortunately no. Despite having potential, No. 6 just falls short of many other brethren of the same genre, and the music did not help a lot either. Overall: 7/10 If you don't watch a lot of anime in the scifi or dystopia genre, you might find No.6 a refreshing deviation from your typical high school anime. It has a decent plot, and overall solid leads. However, if you're the type that could talk about Ergo Proxy, Psycho Pass, etc. for days on end, this title might be a bit lack luster for you. Despite that however, No. 6 does manage to pull itself through in the end. Is it an anime that you must watch before you kick the bucket? No. But is it a good way to spend a boring Saturday afternoon? Yes.

I read some other reviews and found them a bit short sighted in some areas. If you are the type of person that , like many i know, watch anime in the background while doing other things and just look close when things blow up... dont bother with this one. You will miss details and not get the big picture and small subplots and it will seem boring. Yes not much action in the middle episodes, and yes some characters on a first look might just seem filling. But if you look closer it's not so. This isn't an action anime. It actually addresses manyissues about what is is to be human, how we can evolve or not, how we make our own place in the world and most importantly how we deal and interact with others that come into our lives even for just a few minutes... I also see nothing wrong with the ending, I thought it was magnificent. And i strongly disagree with the comment that Nezumi and Shion had no effect on the outcome. Quite the contrary, in my interpretation what they did and said in the machine room changed what was going to happen and all episodes (how meaningless they seem to some ) build the interactions and feelings of all the characters in that scene, in that moment.

No. 6 is probably one of the most publicised anime of the Summer 2011 season, for this reason only: The two characters are supposedly gaybones for each other. No. 6 is a beautifully animated series by Studio Bones, who also gave us Full Metal Alchemist and Soul Eater. It is based on a series of light novels and should be known for its literary allusions and dystopian undertones. However, though the potential for an intelligent sci-fi anime is there, it is never fully realised. Even in the light novels the plot seems rather dodgy, indecisive on whether it wants to focus on mythology or science as a basisfor the series. As such it is an awkward blend of both, which is similar in its effectiveness as trying to force two like-poles of a magnet together. This is the telling fault line in the foundation of the entire premise, and it is not alone. The stereotypical image of a sci-fi fan, wearing their Star Trek uniform and watching Babylon 5, does not meld well with the idea of romance, let alone boys' love, in general; especially as what romantic interaction there is between the two mains feels wedged in as an afterthought. While the original novels integrated the romance in alongside the development of the plot - making this a case of adaption decay - it is still ultimately these conflicting ideas that weaken the show at its heart. If the series leaned more towards a more mythical slant I believe that what shounen-ai there is would have been melded into the plot a lot more naturally, as historically mythology has never been shy of contraversial pairings between its characters. The plot itself is rather badly adapted overall: this is one if those shows you have to read up on to understand exactly what has happened. Possibly this is a case of the show being compressed so much, but after reading the summary of the last volume (which I can't recommend enough - http://hiriajuu.livejournal.com/7568.html) it seems that Studio Bones apparently, like many of the characters, had a stroke, and decided to make shit up. Overall the gaps are too great for the average viewer to try and guess what's going on, and the composition of the series feels very inconsistent episode to episode. It just left me with a slightly annoyed feeling afterwards. However, if you're a softcore sci-fi fan or hardcore BL nerd with the imagination to fill in the gaps, perhaps this won't be much of an issue for you. Whereas the characters themselves are compelling, in theory, (the dreamy boy genius, exiled tsundere with a ponytail, as well as a journalist-turned-pimp and a dogkeeper whose gender you will spend more time pondering than the actual intricacies of the plot), but in practice the characterisation is inconsistent and at sometimes enough to make you wonder if the characters have had strokes. One minute Nezumi and Sion are getting along fine, the next they're arguing, the next they're...dancing? Though there is the fan emphasis on the shounen-ai elements, if you go into this show on that merit alone, you will be sorely disappointed. Though there are one or two signs of affection between the two male leads, Nezumi and Sion, as a romance it is sorely unfulfilling and as mentioned before, the motivations of the two are unclear at best and agonizingly OOC at worst. The ending, without giving any spoilers, doesn't improve on anything. But not all is terrible about this show. The voice acting is quite good; notably, Sion's seiyuu does a fantastic job at tormented screams of pain. The other character's voices fit them well and I have no qualms here. The saving grace of this series is the animation: it is stunningly pretty. The character designs are unique enough, but it is the backgrounds that are truly beautiful. Especially detailed are the iconic buildings, representing the cold, steeled nature of the city itself. The music used was atmospheric and appropriate for the scene, as were the opening and ending songs, though the ending animation felt rather out-of-place and as the series went on, I began to openly resent its abrupt intrusion into the story. I really enjoyed the croaky vocals of the OP and would probably download it to listen to; the rest, not so much. Many people will watch this series and, much as I did earlier, pontificate on if, why and how shounen-ai /BL/homosexuality belongs in a sci-fi setting. So it is ironic that No. 6's biggest weakness is the same as science fiction's greatest shortcoming. No. 6's biggest defect is not the huge gaps in storytelling nor the compression of source material to fit it into five and a half hours of anime - though these are glaring - but the fact that, ultimately, No. 6 feels cold. As cold the metallic buildings and swathes of blue we see in the very first moments of the opening; as cold as the hearts of the people that run the city. Though the characters were smart, cute, at times funny, I felt no emotional connection to them after the show ended. The question is not, 'can sci-fi be gay too?' but 'can sci-fi cultivate a romance, of any orientation? Can sci-fi make me emphathise with the characters even if there is a complicated plot and futuresque setting?' For No. 6, the answer is no.

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