No. 6: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

No. 6: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Daydream believer.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 14, 2012

There’s an interesting dichotomy in James Hilton’s Lost Horizon where some residents of Shangri-La are perfectly content in their self-described Utopia, while others are desperate to get out into the big, bad, wide “real” world. Strangely, that same dichotomy also is part and parcel of the gaggle of newcomers to Shangri-La who make up the central focus of Lost Horizon, probably none more so than the hero of the novel, Richard Conway, whose indecision about whether or not to stay in the hidden Tibetan paradise serves as the major internal conflict of the piece. For some reason, there’s a seemingly genetic tendency in humans not to accept perfection when it’s handed to them on a veritable plate. No. 6, a fitfully interesting anime culled from a popular novel series (and of course the required subsequent manga), turns that idea slightly on its head by positing a supposed Utopia which is really rotten to the core. While most of this culture’s citizenry is duped into believing all is, to paraphrase Voltaire’s Candide (including the intended irony in Voltaire’s postulation), “the best of all possible worlds”, Sion, the hero of the story, slowly begins to figure out that things are not exactly as they appear. (It should be noted that the name is transliterated in the subtitles as "Sion", though it's pronounced with an "Sh" sound and several other sources transliterate the name as "Shion".) Part of Sion’s awakening is due to repercussions he faces after harboring a wanted fugitive named Nezumi (nicknamed Rat), a slightly older boy who plants the first doubts in Sion’s mind about the ostensible wonderfulness of the district, the so-called No. 6 of the series’ title, in which Sion has led a fairly privileged life. What ensues is a fairly labyrinthine conspiracy thriller where all sorts of shenanigans are uncovered and Sion is forced to reassess everything he thought he knew about not just his life, but the very society in which he was being raised.

Japanese animes have long flirted with dystopian future societies, but one of the interesting things about No. 6 is how this particular series actually arrives at its dystopian vision. From the look of the opening moments at least, Sion and his mother are indeed living in a gorgeous paradise full of beautiful greenery and shimmering high rise buildings. The opening scenes, set in a school where Sion has been identified as a gifted student, are perfectly idyllic. As lessons drone on, Sion begins daydreaming and some evocative CGI effects make the wind blown trees seem to almost come alive around him, and suddenly he’s floating in midair. The daydream has a somewhat grotesque conclusion as various body parts crumble and fall off of him, a pointed foreshadowing of one element of a conspiracy which will come to light over the ensuing episodes.

Things quickly turn darker, both figuratively and literally, as No. 6 is whipped by a typhoon and Sion, celebrating his twelfth birthday with female classmate Safu, scurries home before the brunt of the storm actually hits. In a kind of bizarre analogue to Cabaret’s heroine Sally Bowles running down next to the train to scream loudly as it passes, Sion steps outside on his bedroom deck and utters a manic yell as the storm moves in. As he reenters his bedroom, he’s viciously assaulted by Rat, whom we’ve already seen escaping from some sort of lockup facility (in fact the opening prelude of No. 6 is rather reminiscent of the beginning of Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom, where that show’s lead character Zwei finds himself imprisoned in a mysterious cell).

Sion doesn’t shirk from Rat’s initial attack and in fact helps Rat, who is badly wounded, get bandaged up. The two from an unlikely friendship (are there just slight hints of homoeroticism when they hold hands in bed?), but Rat has disappeared by the time the next morning dawns. Unfortunately, Rat has been implanted with a chip due to his fugitive status, which has allowed the police of No.6 to arrive at Sion’s home and accuse him of having harbored a criminal. That in turn exiles Sion and his mother from the supposedly halcyon environment of No. 6 to an outlying area where Sion must forsake his dreams of studying in an accelerated course for gifted students, and instead is relegated to a menial janitorial position.

These opening episodes start off well enough, if awfully slowly at times, setting up the basic idea that something is a little off in this supposed Utopia. Once Sion is exiled, things take a decidedly melodramatic turn (not necessarily for the better) a few years later, when he discovers a dead body and then witnesses a coworker undergoing a metamorphosis that may indeed remind those familiar with Lost Horizon of a central conceit in that enterprise. That metamorphosis ends up getting Sion in even more trouble with the authorities. At that point Rat reenters the picture and the series is off into its focal element of uncovering a nasty dose of reality underpinning the shiny façade of No. 6 that has kept its citizens more or less hypnotized from the district’s supposed perfect beauty.

No. 6 falters in its execution as it proceeds along, never really clarifying why the government is so evil while at the same time simply delivering at least one major piece of revelatory information as if it explains everything, which it in fact does not. That leaves the main interest in the series to be filled by the rather odd interrelationship between Sion and Rat (and to a lesser extent a couple of supporting characters, including Safu, who becomes something of a “damsel in distress” in one of the series’ major plot arcs). In this regard, No. 6 is somewhat more successful, if only because both Sion and Rat are rather peculiar types to begin with. Sion is naïve while at the same time being quite brilliant, while Rat is kind of a “street punk”, even thuggish at times. Rat’s curt one liners offer some decent contrast to the more verbose musings of Sion. This Odd Couple pairing may in fact be the most compelling reason to watch No. 6, which is otherwise too disjointed and badly developed to ever pack much punch.

No. 6: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I'm strangely torn in my reaction to No. 6's AVC encoded 1080p transfer (in 1.78:1), presented courtesy of Sentai Filmworks. While everything about this presentation is excellent, and is also augmented by some very effective CGI, I couldn't help but wonder why this series is so startlingly bland at times. The palette here exploits a number of rather pallid tones, from grays to beiges, with the result being that nothing looks excessively vivid in many segments. There are some very nice moments at dusk or dawn that feature a more robust palette, but the designers of the series were going for something obviously intended to be more neutral, and some viewers may not find that to their liking. (To be fair, if taken as a whole, the series definitely offers a lot of colorful moments, but they seem to pale—no pun intended—in comparison to the less robust segments.) The character animations are okay, with Rat being the best, with his shock of hair and glowering, menacing visage. Once Sion has undergone something of a metamorphosis himself, his character design also becomes notably more distinctive, but even here things look awfully generic most of the time. Line detail is sharp and well detailed and overall there's nothing really to complain about here, other than what were obviously intentional design choices.

No. 6: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

No. 6: The Complete Collection features lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mixes in both the original Japanese language and an English dub. As has tended to be the case more and more lately, the English dub is noticeably more aggressive, not just in terms of overall amplitude but perhaps even more importantly in terms of low end. Dialogue is cleanly presented in both mixes, though the English voice cast is a bit more hyperbolic in its delivery than the Japanese cast is. Fidelity is excellent in both mixes and dynamic range is varied and wide.

No. 6: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Japanese Promos (HD; 1:38)


• Clean Opening Animation (HD; 1:32)


• Clean Closing Animation (HD; 1;32)


• Commentaries are offered for each episode, in Japanese with English subtitles. These tend to be pretty scene specific affairs until the final episode, where some interesting information is imparted about why and how the anime's finale parts from the manga and novel versions of the story.

No. 6: Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

No. 6 starts out promisingly enough, though even in the early going it's a strangely slow, low key affair that never really wants to play things to the figurative second balcony. Once the secrets of No. 6 start spilling out, old X Files fans may have a bit of déjà vu with regard to the mutant bees that buzzed around several episodes of that old series, while anime fans may well be reminded of any number of other properties which includes dystopian future states that are controlled by computer intelligences. The series would have done better to have elevated the thriller aspect, because as it stands, it's mostly the relationship between Sion and Rat that provides most of the interest. This is one of those middling series that may well appeal to some fans, while leaving others stone cold.