Title: No. 6
Genre: Adventure, Sci-fi
Rating: 4.0/10
Summary: Sion is a bright teenager living a comfortable and promising life inside No. 6, one of this six remaining city-states created by The Babylon Treaty after the last great war devastated the world. On the rainy evening of his twelfth birthday, he meets a savvy adolescent who calls himself "Nezumi" (Rat) and is desperately trying to runaway from the authorities. For helping a fugitive of the state, Sion is stripped of all his privileges. Four years later, they meet once again. For better or for worse, Sion is about to unravel the secrets guarded deep inside No. 6.
Review: How the mighty (ok halfway-decent) anime come falling. This was one of my biggest disappointments for the Summer season because of the expectations I had for it. It wasn’t the boy love, lack of characters, or strange story pacing, I didn’t even mind the completely unexplained robotic rats; it was the absolutely horrendous ending. The series has a great story to run with and was doing a very good job keeping the fight between No. 6 and the inhabitants of the Wastelands interesting. When I learned that the series was so short I had my doubts of how it was going to end. It seemed like it was just getting started around episode eight, then they tell me that it is going to end in eleven. I have no idea what they were thinking, but this was probably one of the most poorly played out stories in the Summer season.
The art style for
No. 6 wasn’t that bad. They had a lot of good scenes and character models. The characters look completely different from one another in terms of facial structure, clothing, and hair style. They did a good job showing the huge difference between the Wastelands and No. 6. The inhabitants in No. 6 were all dressed well with nicely combed hair. Even inside the city it was always bright and filled with lush green and beautiful flowers. It really did look like a utopia and a paradise for anyone looking from the outside in. They had a lot of great scenes, though much of it was reused. The broken down apartment where Rat and Sion stayed, or the dark bakery where Sion’s mother lived. I feel that with such a vast world the audience was introduced to they could have explored a little more. The overall art wasn’t too great though. It was pretty obvious that their focus wasn’t on art, but then I beg the question what was their focus? It sure as heck wasn’t story because that was a big flop.
The story is where
No. 6 utterly failed. At the very beginning they anime pulls you in with a unique story of a young boy meeting an unlikely friend. Due to certain circumstances the boy is then banished from his home and under constant surveillance. The sketchy No. 6 got more suspicious when he started to work for the security bureau. Which brings up another question, why did they hire him into a place with access to their facility’s security system when he has a felony record? It seems pretty obvious that you shouldn’t hire him into a government office when he has housed someone who was a considered a threat to the government. I suppose they were taking the phrase “keep your friends close and your enemies closer” a little too literally. Despite that small detail I continued to watch only to be more and more disappointed each episode. It seemed like each episode just moved them further away from an actual plot. It felt more like random sub-plots than anything substantial. It turned into a train wreck of an anime. The boy love wasn’t that bad, but completely random in my opinion. They never explained Sion’s fascination with Rat yet he was all over him like butter on bread. Rat wasn’t much different. His I-don’t-care attitude was so fake it hurt. They didn’t even try to make it seem like didn’t care, not even to the other characters in the anime. It was painted on his face “I love Sion and all his man parts” since the beginning. A small side plot to an already breaking main plot. So why exactly was the story so horrible for No. 6? It made absolutely no sense. It went from wanting to break down No.6 to some weird mix of magic and science. Magic, I mind you, which was never explained and completely blindsided you in the final episode. I still don’t even know if it was magic. If it was then what the hell? If it wasn’t then what the hell? If they planned to leave this much to the imagination they might as well have not made a series. Probably the only tolerable characters were Sion’s mother and Inukashi (Dog Keeper). Sion’s mother was tolerable because she had almost no screen time so she didn’t have a chance to be disliked. Inukashi was just a boss because she looked out for numero uno. Also she could control dogs. That’s just an added bonus. I couldn’t believe how bad the characters were for this series. If I didn’t dislike their character designs it was probably because they didn’t give me enough time with them. There is only so much whining or fake emotions I can take. Their last attempts at character development in the final episode ended poorly just like everything else. “Let’s make him MORE emo than he already was, then revert him back to his old self as if nothing happened”. If the creators weren’t thinking that then I don’t know how they managed to screw up so bad that it ended up BEING that bad. Such a good plot device crumbled away, truly a sad story.
The soundtrack for
No. 6 was at least decent. The opening wasn’t bad, and I liked the cute robotic beat. However, it was nothing compared to the ending. I really enjoyed the ending because I’m just a huge fan of the piano. And pretty much any song with a piano is hard to disappoint me. And I’ll admit Aimer has a beautiful singing voice. The melancholy lyrics match perfectly with her voice. “I wish we could have met with the feelings we eventually developed”.
Final statements: Not worth watching the least. A complete
avoid watch because of the horribly done story and characters. The only thing I would say that came out of this anime was the ending Aimer – Rokutosei no Yoru. At least check that out if you can.
