As I watch the second episode of No.6, I’m struck by just how perfect the first episode really was.
It had the touch and feel of a well-crafted, science fiction short story. I remember reading a Ray Bradbury tale about a classroom on Venus — I think the story is called “All Summer In a Day” — and in this particular story, the sun only appears once every few years for Venusians. A young girl has recently moved to Venus and, as a result, she has seen the sun whereas her classmates have not. She tries to tell them about the experience, but out of jealousy or spite, they don’t believe her. In fact, as the rain clouds above Venus are about to clear for a rare and magical moment, her classmates trap her in a closet. The sun comes and goes over a span of a couple hours and the children, now remembering the trapped girl, realize the shame in what they’ve done. The story ends thus and we are told no more and no less.
Essentially, I feel the same way about the first episode of No.6. A young boy lives in a sterile world and dreams of freedom. One night, he encounters a wild card: a boy on the lam. As soon as they could share a genuine moment of human connection, the friend is gone the following day like a lark in a storm. Do we need to know more about No.6’s world and characters? Not necessarily and maybe it would’ve be better if we don’t. Unfortunately, the show must go on, and here we are.
A four year time lapse occurs and Shion has since been relegated to “Lost Town,” the non-privileged sector of No.6. Whereas Safu is preparing herself to study abroad, Shion is merely a park supervisor. His life still seems relatively normal — as normal as life can be in a society like No.6 — but also mundane. Well, until the cracks begin to appear again; it is no coincidence then that Nezumi makes a sudden reappearance in Shion’s life.
Whatever’s the case, I think it’s safe to say that between the first and second episode, any hint of subtlety flew out the window along with that raging storm. I’ll list and detail some of what I mean:
• The oddity in Safu’s innocent kiss from the first episode has been replaced with her brazen request for Shion’s sperm. She wants to sleep with Shion before she leaves for No.5.
• We don’t merely see scanners quietly keep tabs on the citizens. As Shion comes and goes from his place of employment, a computer interface literally exhorts him to pledge his loyalty to the city. Likewise, Shion’s co-worker voices extreme opposition to any idea of defying the city’s authority.
• Nezumi re-introduces himself to Shion literally through a rat. Sure, he’s probably making light of his name (it’s likely not his real name anyway), but still…
This episode, however, was not without some neat touches. At Shion’s job, big brother watches over parkgoers through robots resembling cute animals, i.e. penguins, giraffes, elephants, etc.
Of course, this is a blatant example of No.6 stalking its citizens, but the utilization of cuteness is what interests me. Cuteness disarms and makes us vulnerable. The robots are utilized for a sinister purpose, but no one’s the wiser because they look cute. This is no different from how authority will sometimes utilize a cute mascot to soften its image to the population.
A military recruitment poster.
The most interesting story development in this week’s episode is a bizarre disease (if it’s even a disease) afflicting random people in No.6. They suddenly age rapidly until they resemble a lifeless husk. A bee then emerges from the victims’ necks.
What does this signify? Are the citizens of the city nothing more than worker bees, mindless and disposable? Spots begin to appear on Shion’s neck as he makes his escape from the city with Nezumi — is this strange, aging disease a way for No.6 to keep its thumb on its citizens? Considering how Shion’s hair has no color in the OP, it’s safe to say we’ll soon see the illness wreak havoc on the young man. In a way, this is a cleansing and rebirth for Shion. First, he discards his old identity (the identification number programmed into his electronic bracelet). Then, some disease will allow him to shed his old image (even if it only changes his hair color).
But really, is an alternative life with Nezumi much better? Nezumi has also been keeping an eye on Shion although he casually deflects the accusation when questioned. When Shion naturally complains about his worries — what will he do now? where will he go? — Nezumi also uses threat to get Shion’s compliance. Nezumi doesn’t directly threaten his friend with harm, but it is still a threat nonetheless.
When Nezumi finally unveils “the real world” to Shion, the soundtrack is something akin to what one would hear in an alien movie: dissonant, warped pitches and menacing, uneven percussion. Shion’s reaction is suitably one of bewilderment and astonishment. The sky is a harsh shade of red as if we’re on another planet, but one of the scenes before Shion’s eyes looks like nothing more than a shanty town. Everything else resembles industrial ruin. Is this what privilege life does to a person? Is Shion (for now) literally incapable of processing the new world he sees before him?
What do we see when we look at a third world country through our first world lenses? Does the real become unreal?
Stray Observations
• Nezumi and Shion follow a rat and descends through a waste disposal facility to emerge into the real world.
Alice went down the rabbit hole to emerge in a fantasy world. Or you could look at it another way: Andy Dufresne literally crawled through shit to attain his freedom. Luckily, the path to the outside is a little roomier in No.6.
• Shion tries to make friendly small talk with Safu, but she seems incapable of participating in such basic forms of human interaction. She detects his lack of jealousy and thus calls Shion a liar.
Still, even after four years, it’s safe to say she still has a thing for him. With that in mind, why hasn’t she seen him in (her own words) “ages?”
• Life in “Lost Town” still seems pretty cushy, all things considered.
Living quarters are a little cramped, but nothing out of the ordinary for anyone who’s ever lived in big cities like Tokyo. On the other hand, if the bunk bed means Shion has been sharing the room with his own mother, that’s just cruel.
• Thanks to the episodic format, I find this guy’s introduction to the story rather out of place:
I’m sure we’ll find out more about him in the episodes to come, but still, he serves almost no purpose in this week’s episode other than enjoying Shion’s mom’s delicious muffins.
• Speaking of things that could be taken the wrong way…
Nezumi: Hell, you’d be too embarrassed to take off your clothes with a lover.
Shion: Th-that’s none of your business. Have you even seen me naked?
Nezumi: What if I said that I have?
• Nezumi’s rat is unusually fast and smart for such a small rodent. It first helps the two young men by running in the opposite direction with Shion’s bracelet in its mouth (to distract the authorities attempting to track Shion’s whereabouts). Then it magically reappears in the waste disposal facility when Nezumi whistles for it.
Yeah, that’s a little weird. I’m going to pretend instead that Nezumi is some amazing rat whisperer and he has the entire rat population of No.6 under his control. This is more amusing anyway.
• Just as a humorous aside on the BL subtext that everyone’s complaining about… not that there’s anything wrong with homosexuality, but No.6 is pretty tame in this regard. Good Lord, try reading A Separate Peace.
“But really, is an alternative life with Nezumi much better?”
I think you didn’t get it, but there’s not alternative for Shion, because in No 6 he was going to be killed. Nezumi isn’t offering him a new life, but just a chance to stay alive.
The point is that I’m questioning Nezumi’s intentions, not that I think life on the outside with Nezumi is literally the same as going to the correctional prison in No.6.
Nothing too deep this week, isn’t a nice-and-self-contained arc like ep1, mainly just set-up for the rest of the story. Stray thoughts:
When discussing “worker bees” don’t forget about the hexagonal motif on the structure @ the center of the city (and also in the opening, etc.).
As noted Safu’s demand for sperm is an obvious callback to her “scientific” language in ep 1, and seems included to establish “same old Safu, 4 years later”. It’s problematic, though, b/c we haven’t really seen enough of elite life in No. 6 to know if that’s normal for elite life in No. 6, she’s just a weirdo, or what gives, so it’s overall a little off (even factoring in that it should seem off).
Also: there’s some subtlety in the dialog that may be getting lost in translation; it’s all *truly* subtle stuff I assume is carried over from the source novels (eg: in this episode three different words for “reality” are used, one each for Shion, Safu, and Nezumi, with the nuance in word choice lining up with their respective character traits). Nothing I spotted like that is really super-interesting or adds much that’s new, but I might’ve missed something.
Ah yes, good call.
Yeah, I agree with what you’re saying. I will also add that young Shion reacted to Safu’s kiss quite nonchalantly, but even a request for sex flustered the guy enough to blush (par for the course in anime). As such, if I had to guess, I’m going to bet the general elite populace in No.6 don’t typically go around directly asking for sex from acquaintances.
If that’s true, that’s a shame. I would like to get the whole experience, but I understand very little Japanese. Honestly, I should learn the language, but I’m bad enough with English nor did the brief forays into Spanish in high school amounted to much.
Yeah, mine’s honestly not good enough anymore for me to get the full experience, either. If you do decide to pick it up the available educational materials have gotten way better in recent years, enough to make me jealous of those starting out now.
I suspect the same of No. 6’s elites, but it did come comes pretty quickly after the discussion of her grandmother’s fate, which seemed a little off to me. Might’ve misjudged that part though.
The inadequacy of the learning aid never really bothered me so much as my brain always wanders when it comes to rote memorization, which is largely foreign language education as a whole. I only picked up English by reading a lot as a kid, but somehow, I don’t think I have the luxury to read children’s books in Japanese.
Speaking of the grandmother, if we’re going to expand on the world of No.6, may as well show us what the Twilight House entails. You can always tell a lot about a society by how it treats its old folks.
I think they’ll be doing just that in the next episode, judging from a brief appearance of the grandmother during the preview (http://twitpic.com/5qttun).
Yeah, I usually skip previews to avoid going into the next episode with preconceptions.
I also thought that little rat was too convenient, but yeah: maybe Nezumi and his whistling are like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which would fit in his role of leading Shion away. The whole inner-city/outside-world dichotomy just reminded me a bit of “Soukyuu no Fafner” though, because they also have an advanced society isolated from the rest of civilization.
And by the way, the first episode *could* probably be considered a sort of short story, since it seems to only serve as a prologue for the rest of the show.
I’m afraid I haven’t seen this anime. Do you think it’s worth taking a look at?
Oh trust me, if the rest of the series turns out to be a stinker, I’ll just pretend that only the first episode ever existed. For what it’s worth, I still have No.6 pegged as the best show so far this season and I don’t understand the “IT’S THE NEXT FRACTALE” comments. They are so different in tone and style that I can’t help but think the comparison is lazy and shallow.
I remember Fafner being rather polished and intriguing when I started watching it half a decade ago, and there were even some traits from it that I recognized much later in Gundam 00, but in the end it was really just another Evangelion clone. Although right now I think it’s having a bit of a resurgence in popularity due to a recent film sequel and another one being planned.
I’ll read up a little more on it, but the fact that Xebec produced the anime doesn’t give me much hope.
I think you’d appreciate more something like Fantastic Children if you haven’t seen that yet, which I bring up mostly because I saw both around the same time.
“maybe Nezumi and his whistling are like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, which would fit in his role of leading Shion away”
That’s an interesting catch! If that’s true, what will happen to Shion? Will the “bee disease” claim his life in the end? The Pied Piper does symbolize children’s death by plague. Ah, but I guess it’s too early to speculate, I doubt they’d take it that far anyway.
Shion, at the very least, won’t die until the series over anyhow. Still, did anyone catch how long No.6 was going to be?
It’s noitaminA, so it should be 11. ANN says the same (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=12399&page=25).
Ah, pretty short. Either the series will be taut or it’ll try to accomplish too much in a short period of time. noitaminA hasn’t really lived up to the hype for me though.
“Then it magically reappears in the waste disposal facility when Nezumi whistles for it.”
Simple, Nezumi has more than one rat. I don’t know how many rats he has, but each one of them is used for a different purpose.
Yes, I do believe I said something akin to that. Thanks for reading.
Good Lord, try reading A Separate Peace.
*giggles like a 12 year old girl*
Yeah this episode’s sudden loss of subtlety here which was one of the reasons the first episode worked so well. But at the same time it also emphasizes how differently Shion sees the city now that he’s an adult and devoid of his privileges.
I don’t know what to make of the ‘bee disease’ yet but it definitely reflects the nature of No.6 and the people who live in it. Everyone has a certain task and placed in a category.
This show could go either way, but so far so good.
No.6 doesn’t quite have its men chained up as sex drones yet for some matriarch, but maybe! The yaoi brothers fight against the machine to express their true love against the femdom of No.6!
So here’s a superficial connection I made. The dome in No. 6 looks sort of like a beehive/honeycomb and…yeah that’s about it. Not much of a connection, really.
I thought there was one moment where we saw some of the subtlety of Safu’s unrequited love of Sion. Like the innocent kiss in the first episode, the uncertain phone call she made and her inability to tell him *something* was uncharacteristic of otherwise scientific and blunt Safu. Though it also was a bit of an eyerolling anime trope but still to me it was shades of the kiss in the first ep.
Well, as you said, shades of the kiss in the first episode. Unfortunately, the whole “fuck me” bit also overshadows it.