Sunday, May 13, 2012

Anime/Manga Review: No. 6

 Manga Ongoing | 11 Episodes | 2011 | PG | 8/10

*drumroll* It's the first ever combined review! Yay!


First off, a quick summary. No. 6 (pronounced "number six") is a series that is about a boy named Shion who lives in a utopia where everything is perfect and, being one of the especially intelligent people, he is allowed to reap all of the benefits of living there - a large home, security, education, basically anything he could possibly ever need. Until, one day his whole life changes when a bleeding boy named Nezumi (meaning "rat" in Japanese - quite a motif throughout the series) comes into his room and tries to strangle him.

Suddenly, Shion and his mother are stripped of their life in the high class neighborhood of No. 6 and are moved down to where the normal people reside which, mind you, still isn't all that bad. Four years later, Shion runs into Nezumi again after the government attempts to take Shion. Now, he must live in the awful "West Block", waiting for whatever it is they need to do. 





***

Story: (9/10) Personally, I must say that I am already a big fan of utopia/dystopia stories and No. 6 did not disappoint. One thing I would like to say about this though, is that there is a very obvious (yet still subtle) boys love thing going on. They develop a wonderful relationship throughout the show, but it's not in-your-face like some things (including Black Butler) tend to be. Basically they have more important things to be thinking about than love - like trying to destroy No. 6, but you still get a couple of kisses thrown in there to please.
Since this was only 11 episodes (and the manga follows the same story as the anime) they had to fit a lot of story into a short amount of time. The anime did a better job of covering background information, but personally I enjoyed the manga much more because there was more character development. The story was unique, however I would not say completely original as the cliche of a utopia-turned-dystopia is used far too often, but nevertheless it was quite enjoyable and easy to follow, though not all of my questions were answered. Throughout the story though, you just begin to really love these main characters and want them to stay together.

Art: (7/10) There was nothing spectacular about the art of No. 6, but I have to say that I much preferred the art in the manga. To me, Shion just looked so childish in the anime that it was hard to even imagine him doing the crazy and mature things that he did. I liked that Nezumi looked like such a unique character, though at one point I did mistake him for a girl. There were some nice backgrounds, but nothing special overall.

Music: (7/10) To be honest, I didn't really notice the music in No. 6 all that much. I spent all of the opening sequence trying to figure out where I'd heard a song like that before, but I loved the first half of the ending song. It sounded so wonderful! Throughout the series, one song keeps coming back and I must say that I enjoyed that, though I didn't really get what it had to do with the story. Nonetheless it was enjoyable!

Voices: (--/10) Once again I'm going to have to pass on judging the voices because I really cannot tell the difference in Japanese voices. Overall I think the actors did a wonderful job though. The voices fit with the characters and men were men and women were women. Very pleasant to listen to.

Similarity: (9/10) The anime and manga were very alike in some ways, and totally different in others. Sometimes there would be a scene in one that was not included in the other, or roles were reversed and things like that. However, simply judging the similarities of the story, I wouldn't worry about it. Watch it or read it, you're still going to get the same story.

Overall: (8/10) I really enjoyed every aspect of No. 6. The character development was just enough to leave me satisfied and the story was interesting. I didn't like the end, simply because I didn't like how it ended (warning: it's a tear-jerker), but overall I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to watch a show that is show and interesting and will catch your attention with unique characters and plot.

***

On a semi-related side note, I'd also have to mention how wonderful this fandom is. They're all very nice people at least as far as I've met.

Once again, thank you for stopping by!
Otaku R!

0 comments:

Post a Comment