No. 6: A masterpiece that leaves the viewer thinking

Written by Little_Wolf-18 on March 14, 2012 at 9:11 AM

An amazing anime which, despite its shortness, manages to touch upon a whole bunch of themes. The ‘bad’ side of society; what happens if you question or don’t question life; the importance of friendship – and that’s just a glimpse of it all. Add your own ideas, and you’ll most certainly be right.

The story is well thought-out and deep with some plot twists. As any mystery anime, it starts off with a whole lot of suspense; secrets unfold throughout the episodes, when “puzzle pieces” are gathered that solve the whole mystery in the end. The ending wraps the whole series up well without any plot holes. For a series of eleven episodes only, “No. 6” is fast-paced but not rushed, and draws the watcher in well. The background is a very serious setup though and might shock people not used to it; it’s not depressing or anything, but don’t expect comedy. This anime is full of words of distrust and sarcasm – the latter which I love it for, I admit.

I could say that “No. 6” has you experience the bad of society, but that doesn’t exactly do the message justice. It shows a look into society and will most certainly leave you thinking about what happens if you question or do not question society, life, and other things. Besides that, it’s one of the rare really touching anime out there.

The characters are well thought-out and realistic, with great character development and dynamics for such a short series. Despite the fact that most of the character cast is full of distrust for each other as everybody struggles for their own survival, you can sympathise with them quite easily, and some characters do open up throughout the story. The protagonist seems like a rather typical wimp at first, but don’t let that drive you away; he does change… and pretty quickly so.

The seiyuus do a brilliant job on this anime, capturing the characters’ personalities and emotions well. The dialogue is fluid and realistic, even if some scenes may give off a certain BL impression. If you’re tolerant towards that, or think you can get over it, though, the dialogue in general is easy to appreciate.

Genre-wise, this story has dystopia (which you might have to like to become another fan of this XD), sci-fi with a certain post-apocalyptic feel, mystery and suspense that will keep you on edge, lots of friendship, a sense of slice of life, and some action, despite it not relying too heavily on fights most of the time. There is no comedy; what comes closest to it is Nezumi’s sarcasm (and damn, I love him for it).

I have to issue a warning here since there is a touch of BL (boys’ love) but this is definitely no romance anime; it’s rather subtle and can easily be interpreted as deep friendship, thus shouldn’t scare anyone away, but if you can’t stand these things you might not be comfortable with the atmosphere or dialogue in some scenes. Consider this when deciding on whether or not to watch… ^^°

On with the review; the animation in “No. 6” is absolute top notch; characters and background both are beautifully designed, as far as ‘beautiful’ is appropriate for that kind of environment. The artwork is generally sharp and detailed with very vivid colours, alternating between bright and dark. The artist isn’t afraid to show blood and destruction, which I highly appreciate; action scenes are fluid, even though this show relies rather on content than on action.

The music is excellently done and quite touching. Do believe me, either the opening or the ending song will get stuck in your ears – in my case it was both. *sweatdrops*

For the entertainment factor, there might not be much comedy in this, but the mystery/suspense factor does certainly leave the viewer on edge. For anyone who likes a well-plotted, complex dystopia/post-apocalyptic mystery-friendship anime, as long as you don’t mind a tiny touch of boys’ love, look no further.