NO.6

NO.6

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
11
RELEASE
September 16, 2011
LENGTH
23 min

DESCRIPTION

In a near future world, after the last great war, most of mankind lives in a handful of city states. There, for the privileged elite, life should be perfect. But for young Shion, the only thing perfect has been the nightmare his life has become since letting a strange boy called Rat spend the night in his apartment.

Banished to the outskirts of the city and stripped of all privileges for helping the mysterious stranger who has since disappeared, Shion now finds himself in even worse danger as his inquiry into a new series of mysterious deaths results in his being arrested on suspicion of murder!

But even as Shion is being sent to the city's Correctional Institute, the long-missing Rat reappears to rescue him! Now on the run, the two young men have only one chance at survival: uncover the mysterious secrets that lie at the sinister heart of No. 6!

(Source: RightStuf)

CAST

Nezumi
Yoshimasa Hosoya
Shion
Yuuki Kaji
Inukashi
Kei Shindou
Safu
Kiyono Yasuno
Karan
Rei Sakuma
Rikiga
Masaki Terasoma
Karan
Megumi Nakajima
Lili
Sumire Morohoshi
Safu's Grandmother
Miyoko Shouji
Youming
Shinichirou Miki
Rico
Yuka Nishigaki
Ann
Ayahi Takagaki
Betty
Chika Fujimura
Yamase
Daisuke Hirakawa
Roy
Kiyotaka Furushima

EPISODES

Dubbed

| | |

RELATED TO NO.6

MANGA ActionNO.6

REVIEWS

Clockwork5000
45/100
No.06 is an ultra condensed anime adaption of an adaption.
Firstly, do I recommend No.06? In a word, no.

With that out of the way, let me explain why this show isn't worth your time with a list:
- Bone simple characters
- Forgettable side characters in general
- Lazy world building
- Weak overarching plot
No.06 takes place in your typical "1984" dystopian future where the government controls every aspect of life. I myself am a sucker for this type of setting with 'A Brave New World' being a particular favorite of mine. Speaking of which, No.06 is basically 'A Brave New World' and '1984' rolled together, but with boy-love thrown into the mix. The main character is a handome male youth named Shion. One day, Shion meets a strange outsider of society named Nezumi who also happens to be a handsome male youth, they instantly bond over their shared youthful handsomeness. Sadly for Shion, Nezumi departs and leaves him with the government's Thought Police on his doorstep.

Several years pass in the story and Shion is now living in a favela outside of the city having been kicked out of the 'utopia'. There is now a unexplained bee plague that has popped up and is now terrorizing random people by rapidly aging them. Shion, having learned of the plague is kidnapped by the Ministry of Love, but is then rescued by Nezumi who has returned. Together the two handsome youthful heroes decide to find the source of the plague against the Ministry of Truth's wishes. Also, it's revealed that Shion has the plague, but doesn't instantly die like everybody else for some reason.

There you have it, a summary of the first two episodes of No.06. No, you did not misread that, two episodes. This entire show is eleven episodes long. Perhaps I should have mentioned that No.06 is based on the light novel series of the same name by Atsuko Asano, which itself totaled nine volumes. Nine volumes, eleven twenty-three minute episodes, that adds up to an entire novel for every twenty-eight minutes of animation. It is no wonder that the characters, plot, and world building are so watered down and poorly executed here. Unfortunately the story goes rapidly downhill with too many characters being introduced and then disappearing immediately afterwards with no explaination or closure with a shoddy crap-shoot ending to cap it all off. If you are familliar with false-utopia sci-fi novels, then you can probably tell how this story will end right from the get-go, it's got all the tropes.

I have to admit, it has been a while since I watched No.06. I seem to remember the environments and backgrounds looking pretty and animation in general being well done. Character designs are above average and are well executed in motion and long-shots as well. Sound is hard to remember, so I'll put that down as forgettable. Overall dispite having a million things happening every episode, you end up forgetting all of it because the characters are paper-thin and the pacing is insane.

Art - 6.5
Sound - 5
Story - 3
Enjoyment - 4.5

Watch 'From the New World' instead. It's got a similar false-utopia setting, but it has its own identity and will keep you hooked from beginning to end.
Continue on AniList
PrinceZariel
40/100
"Did you hear me, Shion? I want your sperm."
Now that I have your attention… let’s talk about No.6, shall we? No.6 is set in a futuristic dystopia where even doing something as little as harboring slight discontent for the government can get you arrested. Due to this authoritarian regime, a society outside of No.6’s walls has begun to strive, its residents being those who were deemed unsavory by those in power. How will these two societies interact? Will there be war? Will the residents of No.6 finally wake up to the truth about their government? This is generally what the show is about. Or, at least it’s what the anime wants you to believe it's about. It’s hard to tell because the show is such a mess. The major problem is its pacing. No.6 is only 11 episodes long and yet it feels like nothing is happening for a majority of those episodes. It basically turns into a slice of life at some point. However, instead of those episodes adding to the plot somehow or deepening the relationship between the characters, they’re kinda there for no reason. Nothing happens in them, the characters repeat the same things over and over again, it’s just filler in an 11 episode series. When the anime is not doing this, the pacing is extremely fast. So much happens in such a short amount of time that it’s hard to keep track of what’s happening. The anime itself seemed to have trouble keeping track as there are several subplots that go absolutely nowhere as if the show completely forgot about them. It doesn’t know how to balance everything that is going on so either certain plot points receive too much attention, to the point where they get repetitive and annoying, or they receive too little attention. Basically, No.6 does not know what it wants to be. Is it an action show? A drama? A romance? A psychological thriller? It tries to be all of these things but doesn’t excel at any of them. The story is so so so promising but it just goes nowhere. (Especially that ending. oof.)

But, I rated this show a 4/10 and not a 1/10 so there must be some positives, right? Correct! I think those positives lie mainly with the characters. Despite their tendency to repeat what they’re saying over and over again like toys, they actually have quite a bit of development. The main 5-ish characters, Nezumi, Shion, Safu, Inukashi, and Rikiga are all pretty interesting. They tend to be what carries your interest throughout the episodes because the plot isn’t pulling its weight. Nezumi and Shion have the most development due to the show revolving around them. It felt like their arc was pretty complete by the end of the show even though I believe the writers could have delved a biiiit deeper into the intricacies of their relationship with each other and, especially, with their relationship to No.6. Safu, Inukashi, and Rikiga are a bit more underdeveloped but they still have arcs. The show just feels like it gets off on shooting itself in the foot because whenever one of those three begins to grow as a person, the show has something happen to stunt their development. The anime has a habit of mentioning something very interesting than completely failing to follow up on it.

The art was nice. This aspect of the show was the other main contributor to the rating. The different landscapes of No.6 and West Block were nice eye candy. There were a lot of details to ogle over in their designs. The character designs were also pretty cool. Each character was unique and memorable.

The music was okay. There were some interesting tracks here and there but most felt pretty bland. The audio mixing was also a little weird in my opinion as the music was a bit on the louder side. It wasn’t anything too distracting but it was definitely noticeable.

So, should you watch No.6? Ehhhh… there’s definitely much better anime you could be spending your time watching. No.6 isn’t the worst thing in the world but it’s nothing special either. The show tries to pull at your heartstrings at the end but it didn’t land the emotional blow it was going for. I cry a lot but still couldn’t force a single tear out. Instead of emotional, the show was rather disappointing. It had so much potential but went nowhere with it.
Continue on AniList