No.6 – 11 Review

Talk about stating the obvious

Episode 11

So this episode wraps up the series and boy was this episode a roller coaster ride.

With the show having only one episode to tie up all lose ends, it decided to give itself a bigger challenge and tie up all the loose ends in half an episode instead (I am not kidding, they tried to answer all the questions in half an episode). Amazing right? Except for the fact that it rushed and somewhat unsatisfying, but this was always going to be the case.

Note: Will add the screencaps later in the day due to lack of time. I did not expect the post to end up being this long.
(One has to work to feed one’s self, sadly love doesn’t pay the bills. =P) 
I have uploaded images and went nuts on them. =)

Episode Summary

Shion, Safu and Nezumi finally have their fateful meeting. (Sadly, it is not a romantic catchup. One could do so much with such a scene and it would have been funny)

Elyurius has now merge with Safu and they are one. Elyurius then explains the situation of No.6 and the past as well as the current happenings with regards to the bees and forest people. Apparently, No.6 has been trying to find a way to restore the land surrounding them and their main tool for doing it all was a computer (I think it is a computer) called ‘Mother’ and Elyurius. Apparently, the No.6 has been experimenting with its citizens (bee attacks) and Elyurius simply decided to give them what they asked for. (An still confused as to what exactly it was that she did)

Elyurius then instructs Nezumi to destroy mother and free Elyurius but Shion decides that he wanted to do it instead. This causes a fight over who gets to destroy the computer. (I liked this scene as we get to see Nezumi desperately trying to keep Shion from turning into a different person and losing his innocence). The computer gets blown up and they fail to save Safu (who did not want to be saved as she is no longer Safu but rather Elyurius). This causes Shion to get all angry and blame Nezumi by saying that it was all in Nezumi’s plan to destroy the correctional facility and that he never cared about Safu’s safety.

Nezumi plays the part of the bad guy and admits to it but before he could say much more, he jumps infront of a gunman to protect Shion and gets shot. Shion then tries to save Nezumi and a flashback between the first episode and now occurs (I like that flashback).

Nezumi is saved and Shion tries to dragged Nezumi down the escape hatch but right before they make it down, Shion gets shot and dies.

Inukashi and Rikigai then sees Shion and Nezumi and brings them to an isolated area. After an emotional moment, Rikigai and Inukashi leaves and Nezumi stays behind with Shion and sings to him. Elyurius appears and saves Shion and then dissappears. Shion is revived and they make it out of the correctional facility.

We are shown No.6 with the walls having been broken down (Shion’s dreams did come true) and the reactions of people to that change. (I would have liked that part to have been developed in more detail, but oh well…)

Nezumi and Shion stand in a barren area overlooking the horizon and the broken walls of No.6 and Nezumi kisses Shion before bidding Shion farewell and reassures Shion that everything will be fine. Nezumi disappears from the screen and Shion says that they would meet again some day.

The episode ends with the dog carrying the baby from episode 8/9 to Shion (probably as a symbol of the start of a new life).

This scene made Nezumi look like he lost his leg.

Review

I, being a girl, ended up in tears at one point during the episode. (No prizes for the people who guess at which point I cried)

I have to say, I was pulling my hair out at one point saying “NO!! This can’t happen” and at that point in time, I forgot about the problems with the beginning of the episode. (When one is emotional, one fails to think properly) Sadly, after I finally started to appreciate the death of Shion, the animators just couldn’t resisting going down the usual “revival” path of bringing him back to life. I am happy that he is alive and well, but I honestly did not see much of a point in him being dead in the first place. That being said, I did not see the point in many things.

So lets start from the beginning of the episode.

If you had blinked at the start of the episode, chances are, you missed out on something. It was essentially a huge montage of everything that was happening at that moment in No.6. From bees killing people to the random scenes of Shion’s mother cowering in fear to the execution of Yoming’s plan. Simply said, it was a huge mess:

• What was the point of Karan and the girl? Was it simply to ensure that Karan continues to remain top of mind and prove that the animators did not forget about her existence? Because honestly, that psychic child was odd. (I call her psychic for predicting the impending doom)
• What exactly was Yoming’s plan? His team looked pretty tiny and pointless in my opinion. It just looked like all he was going to do was to reveal the top secret documents regarding No.6. I quite liked the development of Yoming and organisation when he first appeared, but now, it looked like what could have developed into something better, ended up as a simple “oh by the way… here’s Yoming” sort of mention
• The attack of the killer bees. So it gets explained that it was all Elyurius’ doing. My problem is not that but the issue of why only certain people were dying and why the number of deaths seemed so small.

Next part would be the Elyurius/Final Encounter part:

• Elyurius and Safu. This was a headache. What I am assuming the show is saying is that Elyurius picked Safu (she did faint and saw Elyurius before getting captured and placed in the correctional facility) and the correctional facility so happened to have captured a golden egg like Safu and then they planted Elyurius within her. That was… expected and unsatisfying. I was hoping for a more detailed explanation or a more out-of-the-box development
• All we get is a brief CliffNotes version of the whole situation and are expected to accept it. =\ What were the exact plans of No.6? What were the experiments that No.6 did meant to prove or do? How does that relate to their main objective?
• The Mother. =_=” Now that was a big convenience. Blowing up mother means that everything else self-destructs. Who needs to bother with the whole correctional facility when just one thing does the trick. That was quite dumb. But before that issue…
• Where did the bomb that Nezumi have come from? And why bother with the talk about how Nezumi being the forest people is the only one who can blow the place up. Its a bomb, last I saw, it was not a DNA encoded bomb.

Now with the whole Safu part:

Safu finally confesses her love. I am glad that Shion did not say that he loved her too. I might have smashed my computer if that happened. The whole Safu and Elyurius being one and thus meaning that Safu is no longer Safu sort of makes sense except usually when that concept is executed, the person is generally under the control of the superior being. But in this show, Safu still has control over her thoughts. I kind of felt for Safu at that point. Not knowing is one thing, but knowing have having to accept it as fate is another.

Shion and Nezumi:

So Shion was an ass at one point when he started accusing Nezumi of not caring about Safu. Nezumi was really “sweet” in this episode when he tried to play the role of the bad-guy for Shion. I felt that Nezumi was more in character in this episode than the last. Shion on the other hand was erratic. He kept flicking back and forth between his old self and the new tainted person with a gloom outlook on life. But I really did like the intense moments with Shion and Nezumi. (Not in a BL way) The scene with Shion finally realizing that his idealistic ways were foolish was pretty dramatic and I liked it. The whole death scene between Nezumi and Shion where they took turns to “die” was also really nice. I especially liked the mirroring of the first episode when Shion was operating on Nezumi. I felt that that was a nice touch and a nice way to connect the end with the beginning showing the similarities in situation yet the changes in the people in them.

The Revival Scene:

That was really tacky. The death of Shion was useful in the sense that we got to saw how fragile the friendship of the team was. Despite everything that all of them have been through, when death came around, it was simply everyman for himself. That also showed the contrast in Nezumi actions and how deeply affected he was by Shion’s existence when he chose to say by Shion’s side instead of leaving the way Inukashi and Rikigai did. (That was a touching moment) I am going to be all idealistic and assume that that was what the writers (Novel was the same, or so I assume) had wanted to achieve by having Shion die and then revived by Elyurius.

Now the whole singing bit. That was painful to hear. The song was touching and all but we never got an explanation of how the whole singing works. It felt like that singing will be able to do just about anything. I know that there was a link between Nezumi’s vocals and death with the whole Inukashi scene a few episodes back, but I would still have appreciated a more developed explanation.

This is my favourite still shot out of the whole episode. It looks so grand and lonely.

The Wall Breaks:

Shion’s dream finally comes true and everyone starts to get curious about the other side of the wall like zombies roaming the city. Sadly, Nezumi leaves Shion. Why? I have no clue, perhaps the writers just love to torture us with painful departures. After all, this episode has been constantly toying with our emotions. The return of the baby was another odd thing. Who sent the baby to Shion? Don’t tell me the dog was randomly walking around carrying a baby =_=” That’s just plain odd. I also did not really appreciate the baby being used as a symbol of new life or a symbol of change in the new generation. I felt that that was unnecessary and cliche. The upside to it is that this was another “don’t worry, we did not forget you” moment.

I did like the way they made Nezumi dissapear after the kiss, it was like a David Copperfield moment =_=”. One moment he is there, the next he is gone. That being said, the impact of that scene was even bigger because of how touching the moment was and how much the characters filled the screen, and when they had a zoomed out shot of the broken down city, it brought forth the gloominess and emptiness of the “new beginning”. Nicely done, but this was another nonsensical and unexplained fact. Why did he even leave?

What I am curious about is what No.6 will be like now that the wall is gone. I guess we will never know since it does not seem like that plot would be anything worthy of a sequel.

What really made me emotional was not the death of Shion but Nezumi’s reaction to it. I liked how all of his emotions is portrayed through his eyes while his face remain a calm mask most of the time.

The Intensity:

I really liked the intensity of all the scenes in this episode. I especially liked the scene with Nezumi desperately trying to hold on to the pure Shion, and the changing personality of Shion who looks like he was losing his mind. There were other scenes as well that were great, like the deaths of the characters or when they are desperately trying to save one another. The comradery between the group to the point when things feel apart really showed how some things can’t be changed that easily. The animation was also really nicely done in this episode and contributed to the impactful-ness of some of the scenes.

So here is a list of unanswered questions that I can think off the top of my head. (Feel free to let me know what I missed out and I will add to it):

• Who is Karan?
• I assume that Shion and Karan gets reunited?
• Is Inukashi a girl? We assume so but was never really told.
• Are the bees gone for good? (Did Elyurius take the bees with her?)
• What exactly happened with Elyurius? (Is she just a mystical creature)
• What was the point and explanation behind the singing?
• What is the explanation behind people aging rapidly and dying? How do the bees cause that?
• In episode 10, was Shion controlled by Elyurius or was he really himself when he shot the guard in cold blood?
• Why did Nezumi leave after finally realizing his feelings for Shion?
• Shion’s genius is forgotten. Is he really a genius?
• What happened to No.6?

Episode Rating: 7/10

Overall, I would say that this was a good episode. Despite a how rushed the ending felt the show did a decent job when it came to considering the entertainment value. There were many things that I liked about it including the animation and the atmosphere, and despite its downfalls I thoroughly enjoyed it. Naturally, I would have appreciated if the first half of the episode up until the point Shion died was made into one episode while the part thereafter was made into the finale. Could you image how much more impactful it would have been if an episode ended with Shion getting shot. That way the animators would also have more time to develop the change in No.6 and people’s reactions to the change of the walls being broken down. Don’t you agree?

Now that this series is over, I am going to have to rely on another show filling the gap that is left behind.

A extra freebie screenshot for those BL lovers out there. =) Its the last time we will be seeing Shion and Nezumi afterall. Once again, a sunset sky.

P.S: Nezumi was overly charming in this episode. Sadly, it’s the last time we will be seeing him and Shion.

-ra out!

This is the first series from the Summer Season of anime that I am reviewing to end. T^T (This is also probably the first season in years that I have followed a whole season and review it each week.)

I would like to thank all of you who have been reading the reviews for this series and I hope you look forward to an overall review of this anime when I put it up. =)