No. 6: Complete Collection – Review

The story takes place in the ideal city “NO.6″ in 2013. Shion was judged as having “highest-ranked intelligence” when he was two years old and was allowed to live in the luxurious area “Cronos”. On his twelfth birthday, he met a beautiful boy called “Nezumi,” who had escaped from a reformatory. Shion protected him, but the Public Security Bureau deprived Shion of all his privileges and expelled him from Cronos to “Lost Town”. Four years after the banishment, a mysterious accident leads Shion to the secret of the city NO.6. Sion’s working for the city in a menial job, but one that causes him to question authority once again as parasites are coming in from somewhere ant killing citizens. It’s not something that he’s allowed to talk about since it questions the status quo, so it doesn’t take long for him to get picked up. But unlike before, Nezumi has been watching him and leaps in to save the day.

If you had blinked at the start of the episode, chances are, you missed out on something. It was essentially a huge montage of everything that was happening at that moment in No.6. From bees killing people to the random scenes of Shion’s mother cowering in fear to the execution of Yoming’s plan. Simply said, it was a huge mess. I knew I was going to like Nezumi from the start, but the surprise for me came when I ended up really liking Shion too! Although, for some reason I only started to like Shion after he was saved from the wasp infection, which somehow instantly made him a more appealing character. The characters are very well defined, and change and grow through all 11 episodes. And even if it may not be on purpose, there’s a lot that point to the story in some ways being an allegory of today’s economic situation — there’s a lot of talk about the elite vs everyone else. Sure, it WAS a mess, but what No. 6 does well it does really well.

At their best and most interesting, the light of Shion and Nezumi’s relationships shines strong. Throughout the years, a number of animes continues to surged within the depths of the media and communication world. We may be astounded by how animes already influenced us on our daily lives. Unique as it goes, No.6 is not an “influential” anime but more on exposition: the showcasing of the booming reality that is quite harried by the corruption of the world. No.6 mirrors the images of the post-modern society (contemporary) which is now a great spectacle of the fast-drifting technological era surmounting the classical practices into a more adept enlightenment. Perhaps, I must give it a 10.0 but it lacks a more comprehensively-packed storyline; the clarity of the real objectives being portrayed by the anime; and the scope of the story, only being centered to stuffed places (as well as people). No sense of adventure that escalates itself to a more positing degree of knowing more ways to unfold the secrets of No.6. There had been No.5, but no lasting information about it. What about the other numbers, 1,2,3,4? Are they just fleeting like a 3 to 4 minute song?

Like another review stated, even while the anime did its best to wring every drop of melodrama from the plot in the finale, I could still find myself moved just a little bit by Shion and Nezumi. It is a fast moving anime that gets to the point fast. There isnt a single episode that will make you uninterested it moves so fast. It is very sweet as the relationship between Shion and Nezumi grows into something very special. This anime is pretty much for just about anyone. The pair have an interesting relationship, even when it is later overshadowed by the plot. For anyone on the fence about this anime series, Japan Cinema gives it our recommendation!