Anime: No.6

No. 6 starts as the tale of a dystopian society. Everything looks idyllic on the surface while a horror hides in the shadows and the characters try to cope with it. Yet a few episodes later, all that is trashed for a done-to-death stereotypical gay relationship between the main two characters. Boy, were the fans trolled or what… Most were lured into the show for its very atmospheric and captivating world, all thanks to its very high production values. I mean just look how they drew those trees! You want to hug them!

The core theme is also interesting, as it has to do with a weird insect that turns its victims to mummies, and the authorities doing their best to hide its existence and even imprison eye witnesses as anarchists. It seemed like such an interesting premise at first.

And then WHAM the premise ends up being nothing but a background decoration and the whole plot becomes nothing more than gay romance. It is an 11 episode series with an apparent complicating setting and cast, yet most of them were nothing more than a slow paced and uneventful bonding between the two main characters. It’s not about action, or horror, or mystery; it is just weak romantic drama.

Although I sound homophobic, the high scores and hype the series had at first came from the sci-fi and mystery fans; NOT the shounen-ai fans. In fact, the anime wouldn’t be half as famous or initially praised if we knew right away about that element. That is why there was a 70% drop of viewership midway, once they realized they were being trolled.

Not me though, just looking at the production teams I was almost certain right away that the show would be a fail. BONES is notorious as the studio that doesn’t know how to storyboard, while NotanimA uses the timeslot aimed at middle aged women who are into that sort of shit.

Anyways, the problem is not just the premise being a joke; there is also very little plot in it. The first two episodes focused on getting to know the setting and the main two characters, with the rest existing for growing their friendship stronger, rather than showing how this crisis can be overcome. It’s as if the main conflict doesn’t even matter and instead of dealing with a threat that can wipe out humanity, we instead get unexciting slice of life.

Furthermore, not even the chemistry between the two heroes is enough to compensate for the lack of everything else, since it’s fairly stereotypical, with nothing worth remembering them for. A dorky meek high school kid with a heart of gold and an anti-hero of sorts wrongfully accused by the authorities. What are even sillier is how the relationship is the most distinctive aspect of them instead of their personalities. Because they are THAT generic.

There are a few secondary characters too, like a dog-breeder who keeps giving these weird moral speeches about humans and animals not being that different, a thing that has fooled many to still believe the show is about the meaning of life and not your more that typical gay crap. The female schoolmate on the other hand tries to find the truth behind the bug attacks. Effectively she is doing everything the main characters should be doing. And the funniest part is that she does all that because she wants to save humanity but because she has the hots for one of them, although the guy is gay.

The final nail in the coffin are the final episodes which desperately try to become a sci-fi thriller, only to fail miserably because by now most viewers either dropped it or lost interest, while the ones still watching are all fujoshis. And look at that, genocides, and shootings, and weird queen bees happen in the finale, in a very quick succession and without first managing to make the viewer care about them. And hey, they somehow survive and found hope to continue living! Who cares; you rushed the whole thing.

In conclusion, it’s a very bad series, with an awful plot, bad directing, uninteresting characters, lousy finale, and lots of trolling that fools you into thinking it’s going to be a serious story.