The best way to describe No.6 is inconsistent and not thought out. Let’s start with the bigger stuff I didn’t like.
First of all, the plot takes a break of the mysteries surrounding the gated city to give us an introduction to the outside world and further develop the characters. This by itself is no problem at all but for my taste the main drive of this series – the gated city No.6 – was too underdeveloped this time, it was too subtle and too much in the background. This episode delivered some additional information and hints but they were far from being connected and didn’t do anything to increase my interest to learn the truth. I also believe to remember that Nezumi wanted to reveal the truth behind the city last week. This week was basically the same. Nezumi never seemed to want to give any explanation whatsoever and this time again only said he will sometime in the future tell Shion everything.
As far as I connected everything No. 6 seems to hint that the whole mystery surrounding the city is far more personal than we expected at first. Shion’s mom seems to be connected to some important people called Organization X and because of that she must know something or at least be suspicious of something.
But there’s one thing I didn’t get though, and this is where all the little inconsistencies start to kick in. It’s revealed that the uber-pimp of this week once was a journalist, trying to dig out some suspicious information regarding the city. Does that mean he was once a journalist from the gated city? If yes, how could he start to dig without being taken out immediately and how was he able to get that close to a seemingly important organization? The city itself also doesn’t have to have that much of a security here as seemingly people can get in and out as they want.
And then are inconsistencies in the outside world. Firstly, who would build a city, where the industry is located right next to a wall, meaning that the pollution can only flow into the city? I’m also not quite sure whether or not this is a post-apocalyptic world. Sure, it’s run down but other than that the people seem to have almost everything needed. Like cars, or guns. Or electricity which is proved during the night shots of the city. That again makes me wonder why so many people don’t have electricity. The industry in the background also hints at least to some production and technological abilities which make me wonder why they won’t try to improve their own situation. Other than that there’s the prostitute who’s the most dazzling inconsistency this week. When you closely examine her, you’ll notice that she wears quite fancy clothes. Where did she get them and from whom? And who produced that stuff?
Overall, this week lacked the same kind of development as the second episode where the plot was lightning fast. As I wrote last week I gave this series another chance to redeem itself. This week indeed was an improvement but didn’t really reach any level I’d call redeeming. So despite some meta level ideas the episode seems to juggle with (check out Moe Sucks for a detailed analysis) I won’t continue to blog No. 6. The excitement is gone.
No. 6: Dropped.
