No.6 is over and now it is time to review this show and wonder if it was really that great.
Animation & Art
While I liked the artistic side of No.6, I felt like the animations and the art in general were not as great as it could have been. Now I’m not saying the anime was ugly, but it felt kind of ordinary in term of animation and art. Maybe the art style was simply not my cup of tea, but even if there were many beautiful scenes, they were beautiful in spirit and story more than in visual beauty. The show was focused more on character and story than on the beauty of the world. If anything there was a bigger focus on how ugly the world really was, so I guess it was to be expected that the show would not look like a masterpiece out of the Louvre.
Rating 7/10
Characters
The characters in this show were simply amazing. No matter what kind of character we love most, there was one that would be perfect for our taste. My favourite character was without a doubt Nezumi, yes even if I said it was Safu all along, I lied. Nezumi had a rich background, an interesting story and personality. He was fun to follow around, you could see the different layer of his personality. He was also, along with Sion, the character who changed the most during the show. In the beginning he knew nothing but hatred towards everyone, but Sion slowly restored his broken heart, while at the same time Sion pure soul became tainted by Nezumi’s presence.
Some people loves to see bad person redeem themselves, but I like for one love to see saints become monsters. So I was a little disappointed that Sion never really felt too low. Yes he is not the angel of purity that he was before, but now he still loves people and have a kind heart. It is a little disappointing. Maybe if there is a second season or if this season lasted longer we could have witness Sion become evil and Nezumi would cry in a corner for ages. But I don’t believe there will be a second season, since for me the story of No.6 is pretty much over.
The last character that I really liked of this show was Safu, but she was such an awesome character that it seems she had no right to have a decent ending. She was an intelligent, straightforward, extraordinary waifu material girl. You really need a yaoi to see a decent female character, it is kind of lame.
In the end, the character had not enough time to develop to their fullest potential, but they were all amazing in their own unique way.
Rating 9/10
Original Sound Track & Opening/Closing theme:
The introduction was a bit weird to me, but it was nonetheless original, it had this innocent feel to it, while the ending was sad and nostalgic. But even with those diverse theme and song that really matched the story, it was nothing extraordinary. They were good, but nothing more than that. They felt ordinary if anything. I don’t have any special memories of the soundtrack of the anime. Then again, I rarely remember any.
Rating: 7/10
Story
The story for this show was good, but it failed on multiple points. There were too many things going on for an anime that span only 11 episodes and tries to develop the characters at the same time, so the ending felt quite rushed and there are many things that are still left unanswered. It was kind of boring that every single problem in the story were solved in the last 10 minutes of the last episode. There was so many things going on, they had to save Safu, they wanted to break down the wall of No.6, they had to find a cure for the parasite bees, they had to unveil the secret behind No.6 and its organizations, some people were organizing a revolt inside the city, Elyurias was resurrected. Everything was solved in that last 10 minutes, hell Sion was even brought back to life. There was enough content for another complete season, so I have some trouble to understand why they made everything end so quickly.
This doesn’t mean that everything in the show was shit, on the contrary everything until the last episode felt well-paced and the development was constant and intriguing. My only complaint really lies with the rushed ending of the show, so many good story were wasted for a quick finale.
Rating 8/10
Overall Entertainment Value
I feel like the show had the potential to be much more than it ended up to be, the characters were some of the best of this season, the story had many potential outcomes and still had a lot to be talked about. The yaoi part might have scared some people, but in the end the romance was just beautiful and cute and not overly gay to the point where heterosexual would feel uneasy. Anyway Sion was such a girl in spirit that I never realized it was a yaoi.
There was not that much action in the show during the middle, but even without action there was still much character and story development so it never felt like the show had weaker episodes, they were all equally fun to watch. Therefore the show was overall really fun to follow.
Rating: 8/10
Conclusion
The show had a great story and great characters, but it died too soon. The simple fact that there were only 11 episodes killed any chance for this show to capitalize on its great story and characters. You had a great time watching the episode one by one, but the last episode left a big gap. Even if on a per episode basis the show was excellent, the complete deal simply doesn’t cut it to be part of the greatest show of all time. No.6 was without a doubt a great show from this summer, but I don’t expect anyone to remember it in a couple of years. It ended up to be just a regular good show, but it died before achieving any kind of epic status.
I don’t regret watching the show, but I would not recommend it to someone, there are already a lot of great show out there that No.6 simply cannot compare to.
Final Rating: 8/10
ZeroG signing off