Anime/No. 6

I don't think she was drowning. It probably has something to do with the...well, I guess "experiment" she's going to be a part of.

Re: strikethrough - Nope, that's definitely a kiss. I know some people were worried Bones wouldn't keep it in...but it looks like they are.

Welp, it may be an episode or two too late, but things are starting to move again.

"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."

@Tumbril: Teasing the fangirls is more fun than pleasing them

Finally catch up with the episodes. I have to agree with the complaints about the changes in the anime compared with the novels. It's still fun though.

And the show slowly inches toward some kind of plot.

And the subtext becomes text.

"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."

Oh darn, this series started out really great, with a lot of nice hype and the novel translations (w/ funny commentary), but now I'm finding myself care less and less. Fangirl baiting is fine, but I feel like this show focusing way to much on shiptease and way to little on what made the original books so great — that is to say, the complex interactions between the main characters, cleverly crafted dialogue, the ACTUAL PLOT... just, yeah.

Also, Good Haro has given up TL-ing the novels. I shall dearly miss her snark in the fandom.

My stupidity knows no bounds. Why do I do such things, why?!

No more translation of the books? I'm sad (or should learn Japanese)

I want more dystopia stuff...

We finally discover one of the big secrets of No. 6: It's run by a totalitarian government! Shock!

^ Bu... bu... there's no... that's unbelievable!

'twas brillig.

What? C'mon, total Ass Pull there. I mean, where's the foreshadowing? *

edited 25th Aug '11 4:01:00 PM by Gilphon

"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."

Princess Tutu crossover.

...It's...it's perfect!

Tumblr here.

Oh good lord, that does work waaaaay too well. XD Whoever came up with that wins the internets.

If it has a plot then I have something to say about it!

I like how this show tries to keep morality on both sides as ambiguous as possible, but we've known from the start No.6 regularly uses and sacrifices people to sustain itself.

^They didn't even try. At their worst the people in the West District are bitter, cynical jerks.

Also, please let the next episode have Giant Naked Safu.

So, with every passing episode I have less idea what Dogkeeper's gender is.

My current theory is that we're looking at a girl in disguise, but it could just as easily be a boy in disguise, or perhaps either one, not disguised at all.

"Canada Day is over, and now begins the endless dark of the Canada Night."

Wait, were we supposed to think of Inugashi as anything but a girl until Sion hinted she might not be?

So, I made the Giant List of Questions No. 6 Has To Answer Within Two More Episodes. I came up with 21 bits of the story that need answering (or at least strong hints to their potential answer, or partial answers, or something) by the time the show ends. I'm hoping that at least half of these will be answered, but honestly I'd be impressed if the show managed to even answer five of them.

Questions No. 6 needs to answer:

• Why No. 6 has a totalitarian government
• Why nobody in the city is capable of figuring out the above
• Why Karan was able to leave the No. 6 project
• Why Sion and Safu were so quickly caught by the authorities after complaining about No. 6 while Karan and Yoming haven't had anything bad happen to them
• Why No. 5 doesn't seem to be as evil as No. 6
• What the hell Elyurias is
• Why Safu can connect with Elyurias
• Why Safu and Nezumi can connect with each other
• Why the parasite bees were created
• Why the bees are being loosed now
• What's in the honeycomb
• Why the citizens have been taught to revere the honeycomb whenever it makes noise
• What the Holy Day involves
• Why No. 6 attacked the West District before the Holy Day even though they had no reason to suspect an attack, and while they still utilized the WD for prostitution
• Why No. 6 didn't wipe out the WD sooner
• Assuming that everyone dropped into the correctional facility dies immediately, why didn't the No. 6 soldiers just kill them while still in the WD
• Why the Correctional Facility is so impenetrable, yet so incompetent a janitor can sneak goods from it to the WD
• Why Nezumi took so long to tell Sion anything about No. 6 even after he said he would
• Why the guys in that one cave don't just tell everyone in the WD (or even No. 5 or the other cities) what's actually going on with No. 6
• Why, if No. 6 is so obsessive about efficiency to the point of killing old ladies who can't work, it allows people to do pointless things like bake pies instead of just making the entire city Miniluv
• What Sion figured out about Inugashi when he hugged her

Anything else that needs to be answered?

Some of those have already been answered already actually (and I'm not trying to be snarky here, some of these are theories of mine):

1. Easiest form of government to completely control the populace

2. No connection to the outside world (No.5 was anime original)->no other governments to compare it to->no way of knowing that No.6 is messed up.

3. Assuming it was earlier enough in the project that she didn't know any of the secret details so they didn't need to kill her.

5. No.5 was anime original, apparently Safu didn't even have time to study abroad before her grandmother "died" in the novels

9. Should be explained soon, I've seen it explained in the novels already

10. See above

11. Pretty sure it's just the central government office

12. I don't remember them being taught to "revere" the noise made by the honeycomb, I thought Sion was supposed to be strange because he did like listening to it

13. Well you've already seen part of what Holy Day involves...

14. This is one where I had questions when I read the translations as well but someone explained it for me, No.6 attacks WD either every year or some years to try and keep the population down. Still doesn't make tons of sense (such as why they still have buildings standing every year/why Nezumi was the only one expecting it) but I think that's the explanation I got (and who knows, maybe it was unusually violent this year)

15. If they ever need cheap labor/lab rats it's an easy place to get them? Too much effort to completely wipe it out? People would come back anyway so it's easier to have them all in one place so No.6 can keep an eye on them? Those are my theories anyway, that whole thing hasn't really been explained well yet.

16. I got the impression that some of them were supposed to survive that for, um, some purpose (the scene is a bit different in the novels/seemed like it was easier to survive then)

17. Janitor puts stuff into backpack, swipes ID/hand print/retinal scan/gets in the door the normal way and no one ever checks the bag since no one has tried to destroy the place from the inside before? Most places only beef up security after an attack and, if No.6 is really young, that's probably never happened before.

18. Because that's just how Nezumi is, he's more protective of Sion than he likes to admit and would rather avoid direct confrontation with him if possible.

19. Either people wouldn't believe him/even if they did no one would be able to do anything/word would get back to No.6 and they would come to kill him/he doesn't care what's going on in the world right now and just wants to be left alone?

20. Because they don't want people to know just how crazy the city really is, they give the citizens a degree/illusion of freedom, just enough so they don't go searching to see what's really going on (with people like Yoming occasionally popping up anyway)

21. If y'all really want to know, in the novels it says something along the lines of "he felt two lumps on her chest" so Sion realized that Dog Keeper has boobs and must be a girl, he probably hadn't even thought about Dog Keeper's gender before.

edited 4th Sep '11 2:25:19 PM by wanderingdreamer

If it has a plot then I have something to say about it!

I think Funnyguts' point is that as a stand-alone work, the anime needs to answer those questions. Telling viewers to read the novels means the adaptation doesn't work so well. For question 12, in the first episode, one or two people removed their hats and stopped what they were doing when the Moon Drop "cried" and it has not been said why yet.

Having just now learned that No. 5 was anime original, I'm extremely puzzled by why they thought it would be a good idea to introduce even more stuff into an adaptation that's shrinking several full length books down into 11 episodes...

Tumblr here.

Ahh, I had forgotten about that actually but I assumed it was similar to how everyone worshiped Ford in Brave New World ie, the government creates a false religion for the people to believe in help keep them complacent. And I was trying to not say that people needed read the novels to understand this, what I was trying to say (and apologies that it wasn't clear) was that some of those points have been addressed in the novels so I believe that they will be addressed in the last few episodes.

And if you think that's bad about No.5, basically all of episode five was anime original. Nezumi does collapse (but not on stage) and later dance with Sion but that's all that came from the novels. I think the pacing has gotten better as the show goes along but with a show this short you really have to be on the ball from the first episode.

edited 5th Sep '11 9:04:46 AM by wanderingdreamer

If it has a plot then I have something to say about it!

Being a dork for responding to old comments, but Tumbril, that crossover pic was just perfect

And I'm up to speed with another translator, so if any of you guys are interested, here's the link for English No.6 novels up to vol. 3. [http://9th-ave.blogspot.com/]

Good Haro is still translating a bunch of other light novels though, including Mawaru Penguin Drum, and a new series called Schnelling Bullet, I think. Both worth checking out if you like light novels in general.

I think someone else already posted a link, but there's a Livejournaler who's doing novel summaries and snippets up to vol. 7, currently. Lovely link down below. [http://hiriajuu.livejournal.com/]

And that's quite enough for tonight. Good night, all.

edited 7th Sep '11 9:55:58 PM by saltyavocado

My stupidity knows no bounds. Why do I do such things, why?!

Most of my previous questions still stand after the new episode. The only one that doesn't is what Sion found out when he hugged Inugashi, since it's now obvious even within the show that she's a girl pretending to be a boy. However, this now brings in the question of why her gender matters to the plot or her character.

Also, new questions: Apparently you need an ID chip or something to get in without the entire correctional facility instantly knowing where you are. What happened with the four infiltrators? I could imagine Rikiga having one, but not the other three. As for the dead bodies, why don't they get dropped into an incinerator, instead of letting them pile up for some lucky bastard to climb up to the top and into the facility.

Petty question: Why are there only seven guards and why do they all suck at their job?

So uh, those scientists on the ground when they reached Safu...did she KO them or was it something else that I just missed?

I get the feeling I'm going to be disappointed by the final episode, since I just don't think they're going to be able to answer all the questions I have in 24 minutes—though I guess that's what happens when you try to compress 9 novels into 5 hours.

Tumblr here.