It’s episode No. 6 of No. 6. Over halfway done and it doesn’t seem like we’ve gotten that far…

I will say that this episode was an improvement just for the fact that Safu came back, so we spent less time on Nezumi mounting Shion this week. The episode also did a good job of showing the cracks in the walls of No. 6. The grandmother’s coffin at the twilight home, the man assuring Safu of how her grandmother died happily, and the return of a box with only the grandmother’s glasses did a good job of indicating that something wasn’t quite right in town. It wasn’t exactly subtle, but one step at a time. We also confirmed that No. 6 is the only one of the cities that is so draconian— Safu can’t even bring in her Picasso art book, and it seems to be the only city where they wear the bracelets. I am curious how these cities view the suffering of the population outside of No. 6, and whether they have similar issues.

Safu is not the smartest chip on the block, and after searching to discover that Shion is accused of murder (that search alone probably put her on the no-fly list) she has to go and visit Shion’s mother and ask. Shion’s mother is smart enough not to say anything, but Safu doesn’t realize the house has been bugged since they moved in. Then Safu gets kidnapped, and Shion’s mother sends a message to Nezumi. This part kind of surprised me: I had a low opinion of Nezumi, and assumed his struggle would be over whether to do anything at all about the kidnapping. He seems to want all the inhabitants of No. 6 to die, so Safu could be step one. But I got the impression that he does intend to help Safu- he was about to tell Shion, and then stopped and destroyed the paper out of concern for paper. But I get the feeling he still plans to do something on his own. An enemy of an enemy is a friend, I guess.

I think I may have finally been able to put my finger on what bothers me so much about this show: it’s the dialogue. It’s just too well thought out and over-dramatized. It doesn’t sound like the characters are having a conversation. It sounds like they’re reading out the lines from a play that they memorized. This has the effect of making the characters’ interaction feel superficial and downright corny. This comes out even more strongly in the BL scenes, when what’s going on is corny enough as it is. The character that suffers least from this is the dog woman: her spontaneity rescues her from an impression of superficiality, even if some of her lines are a bit too in-your-face philosophical. No. 6 tries  to be intelligent by having the characters quote Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde, and argue about philosophy: this makes it come across as pretentious. Compare No.  approach to Mawaru Penguindrum, which involves stalkers, delusions, penguins, magical hats and slapstick comedy. Which of the two shows is more intelligent and witty?

I’ll put out posts on Usagi Drop and Steins; Gate eventually- hopefully tomorrow. Penguindrum isn’t airing this week.

This episode was a step in the right direction. Safu made her return, and we discovered a bit more about the disease and its apparent spread.

The main reason I felt things were improved, however, was because Shion and Nezumi weren’t together much. This isn’t the best of signs. Alone, each of them is tolerable, even if they aren’t the best characters. But when they’re together… The scenes where Shion was with the dog woman and his mother’s friend were pretty decent, until Shion heard about the bee disease spreading and started screaming about how he had to tell Shion right this second or the world would end. People miss their significant other when they’re apart, but the extent Shion takes this to is simply ridiculous. And then after he rushes over to the theater, Shion decides he shouldn’t go in because Nezumi told him not to. I don’t care what you do, Shion, just don’t waste my time titillating.

I will admit that the dancing scene was nice though (at least in terms of animation). Some very nice scenery. Shion’s confession afterward and the hitting of Nezumi’s weak point… ugh. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as the fiasco at the theater.

Interestingly, Shion is already becoming more popular than Nezumi due to his less abashed charity. He’s already closer to the dog woman and the neighborhood children than Nezumi ever was. For those who are wondering, the story Shion read to the children was Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince, and the show has already referenced it several times. My simplistic interpretation: Shion is the prince, who has already lost his ruby / hair, and Rat is the Swallow. Who will the reed be?

The other event of note is Safu’s return. I had kind of assumed that all of No. 6 was as frank about sex and reproduction as Safu, but this appears to be incorrect. She’s an oddball even in the cities. It seemed that the creators were trying to show how Safu changed a lot since she left, with her classmates claiming the only thing that hadn’t changed about her was her frankness regarding reproduction. I can’t really see how she’s changed at all though. She seems exactly the same to me. Perhaps she’s a bit more pretentious?

The other thing is that vision. Why did both Safu and Nezumi see the same thing? The only thing they appear to have in common is that they both know Shion, who happened to be in the vision. Perhaps not only did the bees affect him, but he affected the bees? My suspicion is still that the bees are a censorship tool used by the city— everyone so far has become ill after voicing some rebellious ideas. Hard to say though.

With Safu coming back next week to say goodbye to her grandmother fight off her love rivals, I’m optimistic that things will improve. My patience is gradually wearing thing with No. 6, however.

We’re exploring all kinds of family structures today, aren’t we?

My reaction to this episode. ^

The thing is, I generally enjoy No. 6 when Shion and Nezumi aren’t together. But when they are, it’s a complete disaster. It’s like they copy-pasted their personalities out of the frickin’ yaoi fangirl manual. They’re both handsome bishounen. Nezumi is the seme and the one who wears the pants. Shion is weak and emotional and all that.

My problem isn’t that they’re gay: two of my favorite shows are Hourou Musuko and Simoun, which explore issues of gender. No. 6 has more ridiculous and rigid conceptions of gender than the perceived 1950’s suburban America (just different genders). For crying out loud, they even had a scene where Shion is a stay at home wife, cooking and waiting for his husband to come home from work. Nezumi gets home, takes off his coat, and goes to bed, taking out his anger on his wife.

It gets even worse when combined with the corny acting. Nezumi’s favorite activity is grabbing Shion’s collar and pushing him against the wall. Shion is so naive he doesn’t realize the woman kissing him is a whore. Then Nezumi steals an indirect kiss from Shion using the same prositute. Later, Shion gasps upon hearing that Nezumi would have women lining up for him if he became a prostitute, and then attempts to murder the person who said it (jealousy?). He then starts crying because the guy “said all those mean things” and Nezumi isn’t angry. I just wanted to strangle Shion at this point. I honestly think that Rin from Usagi Drop has a higher level of maturity.

Let’s look at some other brilliant quotes from Shion. “I want to know more about you!” “I find myself drawn to you.” And describing Nezumi: “His voice carries away their souls / Like the wind carries away a flower’s petals.” Gah!!! Could this get any cornier? (don’t answer that: I’m sure it could)

This show can be good when it focuses on the sci-fi aspects and doesn’t have Shion and Nezumi together. The only scenes I enjoyed this episode were the ones with the dog renter. I did laugh at Shion naming the rats as well.

The preview for next week indicates that our semen-seeking friend will return, so perhaps we can dare to hope that the episode will resemble the first episode more than it resembles a yaoi doujinshi.

So the BL hints are becoming more and more obvious to the point where it’s hard to deny. Brushing hands, patting heads, looking into each other’s eyes, stripping in front of one another, and mounting each other in bed are just the tip of the iceberg.

No. 6 is also getting too overdramatic for my tastes. You don’t need to grab his neck for everything. I get that Nezumi hates No. 6, but give it a rest already. Shion almost died and just woke up from a three day nap, and you’re strangling him already? Nezumi wants everyone in No. 6 to die. Overthrowing the government is one thing, but declaring Shion his enemy if he tries to stop everyone from dying in a plague?

In spite of Nezumi’s strong rhetoric, however, he does communicate with Shion’s mother and feign concern for his love rival. So clearly there is a bit of posturing going on.

I’m still keeping my hopes up that No. 6 will turn out well. I don’t mind the BL that much, as long as it stays on this level. Things were probably worse in this episode because the only characters, for the most part, were Shion and Nezumi. With the dog girl and some butler guy looking to show up in the next episode, I think things will pick up.

The scene with the bee was pretty good, mounting jokes aside. There was an appropriate intensity to it, even if Nezumi’s reaction wasn’t the most believable. Everyone already knew from the OP that Shion’s hair would turn white, so the effect of that transformation was muted however. I’m not sure why he was so upset over it, he definitely looks cooler now.

The robotic mice are awesome. I hope we can see more of them. They seem more like cyborgs than robots though. But if No. 6 has technology like that, then everyone is screwed. I can’t help but wonder if the bees are the creation of No. 6. As Nezumi so astutely pointed out, Shion and his friend were rogue elements in the city, and Shion was targeted for assassination. He and his friend also became infected with the bees. Coincidence? Regardless, I’m fairly confident that defeating No. 6 won’t be as easy as Nezumi suggests.

Girls in the future are quite straightforward.

So this will be the second show I’m picking up this season, after Usagi Drop, mainly because I love the dystopian sci-fi setting in No. 6. Hopefully No. 6 will make better use of its setting than its predecessors Fractale and [C] did. The creators seem to have an idea of where they’re headed, so my hopes are high.

In this episode, we jump two years into the future to see what happens after Shion harbors the runaway Nezumi. He is found out in short order by the Ministry of Peace, and both him and his mother are exiled to Lost Town. Shion meets his girlfriend again, who still wants to have his baby, but he puts her off. Nezumi gets jealous and draws Shion away with his rat.

Shion finds a dead, aged body in the park and reports it, but is met with a mysterious coverup. Then, as Shion mentions that the city is hiding something, his friend has the same thing happen and dies, and a bee comes out of the wound. Shion is arrested for treason, but Rat frees him, and they escape together through the sewers. Shion appears to have marks on his throat in the area where the bee left his friend.

The setting continues to be great, and it is only expanding as they go outside the wall. There are still plenty of questions left, and the creators haven’t played all their cards yet. I’m looking forward to finding out more about the city. What is Lost Town, and what is the truth behind the cities? The plot is also good: the creators seem to know where they’re heading.

On the negative side, it looks to me like this show is headed for some yaoi content. I can take some, and it doesn’t seem like it should be that bad. Another issue is that the two male characters suffer from bishoujo syndrome. They don’t seem to have too much of a personality and are too perfect. Shion’s previously unstoppable curiosity appears to have been beaten into compliance by the government.