Luci Christian speaking at Anime Evolution 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This review contains spoilers; please skip if you don't want certain plot elements spoiled.
I finally finished the dystopian Science Fiction anime known simply as No.6, which stands for the sixth of the last known urban human settlements after a great cataclysmic war destroyed our world as we know it. It was founded by a cadre of idealistic scientists hoping to create a brave new world, but they end up siring a quietly fascist totalitarian nightmare where dissent is crushed out quickly and quietly with minimal fuss. The main protagonists are Shion and escaped forrest denizen "Rat". This anime strikes brave new ground with some rather overt homosexual overtones and chemistry between the two main male protagonists. "Rat" is a desperate refugee from No.6's Correctional Facility. Shion saves him from being recaptured by the authorities. "Rat" later repays this favor when Shion's natural curiosity causes him to run afoul of the authorities in No.6 and is facing imminent incarceration and possible execution. It seems "disappearing" undesirables is a common modus operandi for the civil authorities who rule No.6 from behind closed doors. Their methods are mysterious and involve such strange tools as "parasitic bees". A wayward citizen will be suddenly struck by a seeming illness and age to death on the spot and fall over dead. From the body will emerge a single parasitic bee. Shion himself very nearly becomes a victim but the aging process is arrested and he escapes with merely prematurely white/grey hair and unsightly liver spots on his face and neck. Otherwise he is quite youthful. "Rat" rescues him and takes him outside the dangerous confines of No.6 to the wild country where the last of free humanity eke out a rough and tumble living away from the totalitarian utopias like No.6; No.6 functions like the Borg of Star Trek, determined to either re-assimilate or kill these wayward former citizens.
Shion's childhood friend Safu, voiced by Hilary Haag in the English dub, has fallen in love with Shion. Awkward and abrupt, she bluntly tells Shion she "wants his sperm", which leaves Shion almost speechless. Not long after Shion's departure from No.6, Safu falls under the suspicion of the authorities of No.6 because of her longtime association with the fugitive Shion.
"Rat" makes a living part time as a stage actor, where he gladly takes on female roles and identifies himself as "Eve" in the playbills of his productions. He is mutual friends with a gruff young teenager who prefers to call himself(?) by his(?) title, "Dogkeeper". This character's gender is kept ambivalent. "Dogkeeper" has long hair and a pretty face but has the mannerisms and speech of a young teen boy.
It is only much later in the series that Shion discovers by accident that "Dogkeeper" (voiced by Luci Christian) is a growing teen woman. She's entering a developmental growth spurt, and Shion notices "Dogkeeper's" pert breasts pressed up against him. The character design shift after this reveal is subtle but palpable. We begin to notice her curving hips and developing breasts, though she keeps pretending in public to be male, presumably to ward off or diminish the danger of being raped in this Mad-Max like barren wasteland of a human settlement outside the megacities like No.6. One of "Dogkeeper's" dogs rescues a baby from a No.6 external military operation and while the baby is fussy in the hands of a man, Rikiga (力河 (リキガ )?), the former journalist, the baby coos softly in "Dogkeeper's" hands and calls her "Mama". The baby feels comforted being held by a (young) woman. "Dogkeeper" is struck dumb by this at first then realize the baby's behavior might be a dead giveaway to her true gender and she puts the child back down onto a nearby bed. These scenes helped endear "Dogkeeper" to me as a character. I cared about her part in the struggle and very much wanted this young woman to survive (she does).
The ending was a bit cliched Deus Ex Machina, but I suppose it can be forgiven; Shion's seemingly naive pipe-dream for peace comes to pass in reality, and soon "Rat", Shion, and Shion's mother really will live together in peace in harmony in a world where the wall separating No.6 and the rest of humanity has been torn down. Safu becomes central to the final act, in a moment of tragic sacrifice. "Rat" gives Shion a final kiss and the story comes to a close.
The opening credits song is very catchy and has been on my iphone for quite some time. I own this series on DVD from Sentai Filmworks. I did have one playback issue with the final 3 episodes watching the DVDs on my PS3. When I reached Episode 9, the DVD choked on me. I ended up having to remove the DVD from the PS3 and finish watching these last 3 episodes via my PC instead, without any further playback problems. I don't think this is a QC error on Sentai's part, but rather a bug in the PS3 that also existed in the PS2, namely that certain DVDs just simply wouldn't play properly in them and would need to be viewed in a stand alone DVD player or Blu-Ray player or else watched via the DVD-ROM drive of a desktop PC. It was a little annoying, since I use my PS3 to watch a great deal of my anime on physical media, usually with no issue.
Anyway, No.6 is a very competent, entertaining piece of dystopian Sci Fi and the BL/Yaoi elements are quite subtle and downplayed. I frankly was a little disappointed just how restrained the anime stayed on this score past the 4th episode. I would've welcomed more overtly romantic longings, jealousy, lust, and general homoeroticism between the two male protagonists, but considering that Japan is actually behind the United States with respect to progressive attitudes towards homosexuality, perhaps that's expecting too much from this anime. It's definitely pushing at and interrogating native Japanese taboos, and that can only be a good thing. "Dogkeeper" and her gender politics of survival are also compelling and add to what makes this anime a quality product.
I would recommend owning No.6, or at least renting it or checking it out via Anime Network. As much as I liked the dub performances, though, there's so much singing (left in native Japanese, thank goodness) that I have to wonder if sub-only might've been the better call with this story. Maybe. But only Luci Christian could make "Dogkeeper" such a compelling character for me personally.
