No. 6

I am still giving this anime 5 stars, even though it isn't perfect. But with characters and visuals so captivating, I will overlook any shortcomings! Despite what you may have read, this is primarily a sci-fi action anime. It's a dystopian futuristic society, the usual Brave New World / 1984, "Big Brother is watching you" story. An ideal society by appearances, but which molds its inhabitants into obedient and submissive subjects. Let me address the yaoi concerns. It isn't yaoi. Yaoi is stereotyped fan-service, geared toward a female audience, and lacking in depth, or realism of the characters. This story... it's the true meaning of affection and care. There is an undertone of shounen-ai, but it's very mild and chaste. It shouldn't make anyone uncomfortable, unless you have a dirty mind. It's bewitching. The protagonists developed the purest, most spontaneous, and convincing relationship I have possibly ever watched in ANY anime. So beautiful, so magical. I rarely enjoy watching more than 2 or 3 episodes of a show per day. With No.6, I couldn't stop. Without realizing, my Sunday afternoon was gone and I had finished the series. My only complaint is that for those of us who haven't read the manga or novels yet, the plot was not developed as coherently and deeply as the series should have deserved. Its potential was wasted, unfortunately. Overall though, I've loved No.6, I'm off to rewatching it for round 2, and reading the manga!

I found out about No. 6 because of a recommendation I received based on the fact that I enjoyed an anime called Fractale—and it turns out the recommendation is more apt than I could have imagined. Basically, Fractale was a fantastic show that was extremely hindered by its short length. Similarly, No. 6 is a show that is held back (though not nearly as much as Fractale was) by its 11-episode count, despite being a really well-made show in all regards. No. 6 tells a really great story. It’s got everything that one could want from a well-developed anime. The story is thrilling and thought-provoking, the characters are well-rounded and developed, the setting is well-established, the acting is superb, the animation is gorgeous when it needs to be, and the music is fitting (though not particularly memorable). HOWEVER, the story is not nearly as fulfilling as it should be. It’s strange, because the ending is, in theory, a very satisfying one. The problem is that the pacing of the show starts bucking forward in the final two episodes. It’s as if the creators spent so much time establishing their world that they realized too late that they were almost out of episodes, so they had to rush in the final stretch to get everything wrapped up. Put very simply, the show needed more episodes. The tragic part, though, is that it didn’t need many more episodes. Two more episodes would have been enough to tell the same story at a much more easily digestible pace, which makes it a damn shame that the show didn’t get the usual 13-episode run that most animes do. I have really grown to love the story of No. 6, which makes it all the more painful that the show didn’t get the breathing room it needed to end off as well as it could have. Overall, the story explores themes of Orwellian-style dystopia, loyalty, spirituality, sticking to one’s convictions, and how the world is not black-and-white. Each individual component works well with all the others, and the story remains captivating by lending fair perspective to everyone involved. There are no “good” guys and no “bad” guys—just a lot of different people who think they are righteous, with varying levels of inner-humanity. So, even though the story is centered around an evil, oppressive government, it’s important to remember that even the evil government was built by well-meaning, forward-thinking individuals. As for characters, I thoroughly enjoyed the web of relationships that was built around Sion, Safu, Rat (Nezumi), Karan (Sion’s mother), Dogkeeper, and Rikiga. It was all very believable and tangible. Each character had a certain depth as a result of the fact that all of their character traits were either illustrated or hinted at in a way that makes viewers connect the dots on their own. What’s more is that the show never dwells on any particular character interaction; so, much like real life, it’s up to the viewer to decide which interactions are the defining moments of each character. Some of the dynamic between the two male main character seems romantic, but the yaoi (or shounen ai, if you prefer) undertones feel incredibly natural and fitting for the story being told, which is a cool bonus for the show to offer, since male-male attraction in anime is rarely ever done in a way that doesn’t feel forced and shoehorned-in as a bout of unnecessary fanservice. The bottom line is that No. 6 is a very worthwhile and well-developed story with much thought-provoking commentary to be had, many wonderfully-realized characters to be experienced, and a lot of high production-value to be seen and heard. Even though the ending is a bit confusing because of its rushed pacing, No. 6 is still a very good anime. I only wish it had two more episodes, and that’s the only reason I’m rating it 4/5 instead of 5/5.

This anime did what no other anime has done for me. I watched this anime not thinking or knowing that there would be any romantic subtext of any kind. I was surprised pleasantly to learn that one of the more overlooked, or stereotyped, communities received a new iconic story of excellent, non-gimmicky, writing. The story was well thought out and intricate. The characters were spectacular. The romantic subtext just kinda happened to be the case, it occurred without much focus on it, which ironically made it more powerful to me. It was a natural part of the character development rather than the purpose of it. And their connections are about deeper things than "uguuu that person is so cute" which seems to run rampant through similar works. There's no forced gender parallel that you see with things like sekai ichi hatsukoi (no obvious big spoon/little spoon gimmick). In fact there isn't even a cliched questionably aggressive power dynamic. There aren't any overglamorized, flower-mongering, or glitter coated men with large hands, and massive lips & eyes. Without all those tell-tale signs, I didn't see it coming. I'll admit, I had hoped something would happen, but I was actually a bit shocked when something actually did. Much like we tend to dodge the issue, I believe both of the involved characters did the same. That gave the story poignance and subtlety, as well as it let me actually identify with the characters in an anime for once in my fan-service assaulted life. The romantic subtext was somewhat second string in this anime, but what drew my focus was how genuine it felt. The authenticity got me. I had seen quite a number of superficial quirks strung together and labelled romance in other animes, but not this one. This one used simple kindness, innocent and relatively undeniable, and made from that a complex set of exchanges that formed the relationship. Not the superficial variety built on gimmicky blushes and insecurity, but one that made me believe the relationship could work out long-term. As a gay guy, I needed to see that. I needed to believe that could happen. It's like some deep longing from my childhood that I had long since given up on was suddenly fulfilled in such a simple way. The fact that this came in the form of an anime makes watching it all the more priceless to me. Whomever wrote this anime is unaware of the effect that writing it had on me, but I'm grateful all the same. They have done a service for me that I can never forget. Thank you.

I'm currently reading the manga and told myself I wouldn't watch the anime but I couldn't resist and I'm glad that I didn't. The anime was fantastic and somewhat follows what I've read in the manga so far. My only complaint about this series would be the ending. I and I know many others felt it was a bit rushed seeing as they crammed so much info (and lack there of) in only 11 episodes when it really could have used more to draw out the story and give more explanations especially to those who haven't read the novels or the manga. Other than that, I thought it was a beautiful anime visually, musically and vocally with the voice acting on point.