No.6

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.