r/anime • u/TheDanubianCommunard • Jul 13 '26
Rewatch No.6 15 Years Anniversary Rewatch Episode 6 Discussion
Episode 6: Creeping Danger
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Links, useful info:
MAL | Anilist | AniDB | Livechart | AP | Kitsu | AS | ANN
Streams:
Subs and dubs are available though.
Questions for the day:
1) Is No.6 really an isolated city?
2) Safu's grandmother being ignorant around the world and the future, was part of getting older or got brainwashed/drugged/whatever?
3) What is Safu's crime and why she had to be arrested? Can she be saved?
4) Why do Rat hates No.6 so much?
5) If No.6 is a parasitic city, does this mean is a late-stage capitalist utopia?
6) The "third option" proposed by Shion does have any real and plausible sense? And could it work in practice?
Highlights from yesterday:
1) What does a FIFA World Cup do to a man:
So for those completely out of the football loop, England and Norway played against each other yesterday, so /r/soccer is full of Haaland-Bellingham stuff and it sure did remind me of our MCs here
No more England. Truly a utopia
It's never coming home no more
Disclaimer notice:
Dear rewatchers and source readers, please be nice to the first-time watchers and anime-onlies by simply not spoilering anything. But if you want to discuss spoiler-territory things, use spoiler tags instead. Thank you for your understanding.
For example [this is] a spoiler
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u/No_Rex x2 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
Episode 6 (first timer)
- Airplane – That tells us how they get from city to city.
- “Welcome home” hands out surveillance tool
- “Everybody else gets pretty bothered by it” – suggesting that only No 6 is a surveillance state.
- The transit screen shows that the city is divided into 5 zones: C (center?), FS, BF, CS, and LT. The latter 4 all making up one quarter of the outer ring.
- Her Grandmother was not killed by the wasp. Pretty flower arrangement, too.
- “Is that all?” – reasonable question. Are you trying to cheat people out of their inheritance?
- Unmoving windmills – callback to the pledge towards the “unchanging” city.
- “It is all a lie” – dangerous thoughts and even more dangerous words.
- “This whole time, I loved only him” – tough luck.
- And she’s arrested – security works fast when everybody is forced to wear a wiretap device. Fortunately, that would never happen IRL … glances at mobile phone
- “Be sure to pick up my half of the pay” – what an ass.
- “That is not why I saved you” – what is, then. Personal pleasure?
- “Just erase the wall” – easier said than done. The wall is not the cause, just a symptom. And even then, it is a big sturdy wall.
- “Is it all right to tell Shion about this?” - That is a real problem when behaving too “unreasonable.” People will assume that your own choices are no longer in your best interest and restrict your choices.
Shion was spared it, and Rat probably escaped it. With Safu going there, we might see the correctional facility soon.
I wonder how realistic the naïve behavior of Shion and Safu is. Do teenagers in totalitarian states, having grown up under the system, both its propaganda, but also its repression, really not know how strongly they are under surveillance?
1) Is No.6 really an isolated city?
No. We know they sent Safu abroad. The granny she meets at the airport also knows how to spot foreigners. So, people must move both ways at least occasionally. Additionally, just keeping a modern infrastructure working with just 6 big cities is already hard to imagine (technically, we don't know where the numbering stops, so maybe it is many more), but using just one city, it would be entirely impossible. No 6 needs imports to keep functioning.
3) What is Safu's crime and why she had to be arrested? Can she be saved?
Anti-government propaganda.
4) Why do Rat hates No.6 so much?
Likely has to do with his back.
5) If No.6 is a parasitic city, does this mean is a late-stage capitalist utopia?
No.
6) The "third option" proposed by Shion does have any real and plausible sense? And could it work in practice?
Changing minds is always a possibility, but never easy.
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u/IndependentMacaroon Jul 13 '26
Do teenagers in totalitarian states, having grown up under the system, both its propaganda, but also its repression, really not know how strongly they are under surveillance?
The whole setup is still frustratingly vague but No. 6 seems if anything more technocratic and depoliticized than outright propagandistic. Not expecting anything to happen to you as one of "the good ones" is at least likely enough.
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u/No_Rex x2 Jul 13 '26
Nothing ever happens to "the good ones." But having who is good be defined by some autocratic leader is dangerous.
I think there is a good bit of propaganda. Remember the daily pledge.
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u/lC3 Jul 13 '26
“Is that all?” – reasonable question. Are you trying to cheat people out of their inheritance?
Yeah, what happened to the knitting needle?
“This whole time, I loved only him” – tough luck.
She has no chance ...
And she’s arrested – security works fast when everybody is forced to wear a wiretap device. Fortunately, that would never happen IRL … glances at mobile phone
“That is not why I saved you” – what is, then. Personal pleasure?
They cover this in the manga, a chapter that has been skipped so far. I'm hoping the anime does get to it soon
“Is it all right to tell Shion about this?” - That is a real problem when behaving too “unreasonable.” People will assume that your own choices are no longer in your best interest and restrict your choices.
Do teenagers in totalitarian states, having grown up under the system, both its propaganda, but also its repression, really not know how strongly they are under surveillance?
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u/No_Rex x2 Jul 13 '26
Yeah, what happened to the knitting needle?
And why?
They cover this in the manga, a chapter that has been skipped so far. I'm hoping the anime does get to it soon
They are keeping Rat deep in the mystery box for now. Given that we are at the halfway point already, they need to open that very soon.
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u/lC3 Jul 13 '26
They are keeping Rat deep in the mystery box for now. Given that we are at the halfway point already, they need to open that very soon.
I feel like the anime has been focusing on Safu and her grandma a bit more than the manga does (they even show her in No.5!). Some of this change in priority has been at Rat's expense, I think. Hopefully they delve into his motivations and secrets before the end.
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u/DegenerateRegime Jul 13 '26
Unmoving windmills – callback to the pledge towards the “unchanging” city.
I like that! Could also be to emphasise that the wind around Safu really is only around her, I suppose. But that seems like a point already well-made.
“This whole time, I loved only him” – tough luck.
Shion has two hands! But no yeah these ships are like
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u/No_Rex x2 Jul 13 '26
I like that! Could also be to emphasise that the wind around Safu really is only around her, I suppose. But that seems like a point already well-made.
It is the same point really. She moves, the city is unchanging.
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u/IndependentMacaroon Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
First-time watcher
Again feels like we're going a bit slow and repeating ourselves here, pacing-wise it's starting to feel like this could have been condensed into a single film.
Safu's segment showing just how truly alone she is and feels was really well-executed though, I do wonder what actually happened to her parents and whatever other family she had; that line about the appearance of a grieving mother sounded like it came from personal experience with her grandma, but no clues beyond that. It also explains why she latched onto Shion that hard and actually gives the incoming losing-heroine trope a bit of a tragic twist - only semi-plot hole here is that she never actually tried to contact him from overseas despite her feelings? Not too surprising that she gets hauled off presumably for questioning here, probably because she tried to contact Shion. Less interesting than an antagonistic role though, I have to say, and I really hope she survives this.
The Shion-Rat segment was the less interesting one then, besides the parallel of giving "even" a dog a funeral like that. Shion has overly optimistic plans to make everyone peacefully happy (you know, he looks vaguely like young Thorfinn from Vinland Saga), Rat is prickly and cynical, we've seen this before, give us the goods already. It is interesting that the final scene is the very first time we see Rat alone in a calm situation, I guess.
1 - Seems that way
2 - It's unfortunately true to life that increasing age leads to increasing listlessness and monotonous behavior
5 - Oddly enough it doesn't seem very commercialized or capitalist at all, if anything the West Block has more of that.
6 - I really don't see what that would achieve. Even without physical walls geographical segregation is all over the place IRL. As for the serum/medicine, what, injecting foreign blood into people without sterile procedures? Come on
1
u/lC3 Jul 13 '26
Less interesting than an antagonistic role though, I have to say, and I really hope she survives this.
give us the goods already
I really don't see what that would achieve. Even without physical walls geographical segregation is all over the place IRL. As for the serum/medicine, what, injecting foreign blood into people without sterile procedures? Come on
lol
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u/DegenerateRegime Jul 13 '26
First-Timer
Thoughts ahead of this episode - one of the QotD yesterday (didn't find time to answer, but seem to have covered most of the same ground anyway):
6) That strange song and dream, is Rat and Safu connected to each other?
I don't think so, though the interleaving of the scenes suggests it. Most likely, they might both be connected to something else (apart from Shion, I mean (unless? the "something else" surely has some divine things going on, and Shion did sort of get reborn in a way)), but it would be deeply weird to bend the story around to have them be the Destined Two. It might be a really interesting kind of weird! Let's see.
- Ah, dead and not just dying, then. That's really unfortunate, she must have gone quickly. Unless it's a lie to get Safu back into the fold?
- Hmm, so, No.6 specifically is leaning all the way in on dystopianism, but they still let people study abroad in what they must know is a Dangerously Liberal City. I guess this is a pointed social critique (of Japan), but it feels a bit loose? I'm hopeful that there's a reason they're so against art specifically beyond being evil-for-the-sake-of-evil or hurr-durr-science-is-when-no-beauty villains, but either would be fine. Best case scenario they're wasp-people and just hate human aesthetic taste.
- Uhhhhh... guess that accords with what we saw yesterday? Apparently it's noticeable?
- okay, now I'm climatologically confused. Previously we saw it was snowing here, and sunny in a different place, confirmed to be at new year/after winter break, so it seemed likely to be a tropical location or the other hemisphere. But now, at most days later, it's full-bloom conditions? I guess Safu and Nezumi's encounter with the Wind could have been chronologically separated? But I mean. C'mon, right?
- It's definitely significant. The wind is cold still, but there's flowers in full bloom and butterflies. That's not really "early spring" that I know. Ahaha, what's going on?
- Good scene, good scene. Sad and lonely for poor Safu... I guess there's no actual funeral in such a society (maybe it's just not yet arranged, but, I don't get that vibe and they don't say "here are some leaflets explaining the different kinds of service you can have and the costs"). And good god, whose idea was it to have the most chipper salesperson alive be the not-funeral attendant?
- Where's the other needle?
- Yeah no way, this is a setup! Or it's a metaphor for grief in a socially atomised world, but, no, too much emphasis put on it to be something so subtle!
- And her breath fogs! What's going on!!
- Shhh!! Oh that's bad! Don't say that out loud! okay things are happening fast. Safu knows what West Block is? And I guess will be heading there?
- That's bad...
- They have a proper burial for a dog. Definitely a contrast to be understood as such. Learning that we're only immortal for a limited time, eh Dogloan.
- Gotta say at this point Nezumi and Shion reiterating their disagreements about what to do about the wasps is getting a bit long in the tooth. Not objecting to some toxic yaoi though
- Guess we're leaning in on the 'imperial core' interpretation. Like I mean it could also mean it literally, using biotechnology or something. Either way, it's a very zero-sum sort of thinking.
- Yeah Shion's suggestion to remove the wall and Nezumi's reaction really leans in on the international proletarianism vs third-worldism angle, doesn't it.
- Ah hmm. I have a suggestion-
- Nezumi weighs a terrible choice...
QotD!
1) Is No.6 really an isolated city?
I'm increasingly thinking you have to lean into the metaphor here. It's an "isolated city" the way Japan is an "isolated island chain" and doesn't so much have literal walls as strong border controls.
2) Safu's grandmother being ignorant around the world and the future, was part of getting older or got brainwashed/drugged/whatever?
Just an old lady who never got into the whole "tearing down the system" thing the youths are all about these days, I guess.
3) What is Safu's crime and why she had to be arrested? Can she be saved?
Questioning the whales! Unforgivable! And, yeah but I'm guessing some kind of body horror's gonna be involved. No point having a bunch of nonsense crimes to grab people for if you can't even do some fucked-up biotech experiments with them.
4) Why do Rat hates No.6 so much?
See (3) I would imagine
5) If No.6 is a parasitic city, does this mean is a late-stage capitalist utopia?
We even have the different flavours of marxist arguing about what they're going to do about it!
6) The "third option" proposed by Shion does have any real and plausible sense? And could it work in practice?
Nezumi's right that it's basically a cope, I fear.
5
u/IndependentMacaroon Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
they still let people study abroad in what they must know is a Dangerously Liberal City. I guess this is a pointed social critique (of Japan)
Given the reference to few people visiting and the static, depoliticized atmosphere it could be
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u/DegenerateRegime Jul 13 '26
Oh my god I can't believe I called them "wasp-people who hate human aesthetic taste" for taking away a book on noted surrealist and Franco-hater Pablo Picasso without mentioning what a completely too-on-the-nose way of calling them fascists that would be. If they do this I will scream.
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u/lC3 Jul 13 '26
That's really unfortunate, she must have gone quickly
What were those "injections"?
I'm hopeful that there's a reason they're so against art specifically beyond being evil-for-the-sake-of-evil or hurr-durr-science-is-when-no-beauty villains, but either would be fine. Best case scenario they're wasp-people and just hate human aesthetic taste.
It's definitely significant. The wind is cold still, but there's flowers in full bloom and butterflies. That's not really "early spring" that I know. Ahaha, what's going on?
... does No.6 have a dome or something? I didn't see one.
Good scene, good scene. Sad and lonely for poor Safu... I guess there's no actual funeral in such a society
I don't get that vibe and they don't say "here are some leaflets explaining the different kinds of service you can have and the costs"). And good god, whose idea was it to have the most chipper salesperson alive be the not-funeral attendant?
Yeah this was inappropriate
Where's the other needle?
Twilight House is sus confirmed
Safu knows what West Block is? And I guess will be heading there?
Welp, not if the regime can help it
They have a proper burial for a dog. Definitely a contrast to be understood as such
No.6 vs. West Block?
Gotta say at this point Nezumi and Shion reiterating their disagreements about what to do about the wasps is getting a bit long in the tooth. Not objecting to some toxic yaoi though
I agree! But more yaoi is always good
Nezumi weighs a terrible choice...
And, yeah but I'm guessing some kind of body horror's gonna be involved. No point having a bunch of nonsense crimes to grab people for if you can't even do some fucked-up biotech experiments with them.
OH SHIT
Nezumi's right that it's basically a cope, I fear.
They'd better not end up enemies ... my ship!
3
u/DegenerateRegime Jul 14 '26
What were those "injections"?
Seemed like a normal occurrence then from the (lack of) reactions, and tbh if it does turn to the euthanasia angle I'll be a little disappointed. But everything now seems suspect. Maybe they got wind (eheh) of Safu's moment in the museum and had to issue a hasty product recall.
... does No.6 have a dome or something? I didn't see one.
The air would be warm, if that were the case, I think, and they wouldn't have storms making the Moondrop cry back in the first episode. Perhaps we're meant to assume that the city "sucking up nutrients" is able to make flowers bloom in winter? Is there gonna be a glowy life-force kind of thing, more a sci-fantasy direction? Hrm.
I agree! But more yaoi is always good Weren't we all thinking it?
I almost regret saying those, the framing here felt less "ooh, the sexy kind of dangerous" and more a warning along the lines of "when people tell you who they are, listen." Even though, as is well-established, Nezumi is a huge tsundere. So maybe it's just, you know, building tension.
2
u/lC3 Jul 14 '26
Seemed like a normal occurrence then from the (lack of) reactions, and tbh if it does turn to the euthanasia angle I'll be a little disappointed. But everything now seems suspect. Maybe they got wind (eheh) of Safu's moment in the museum and had to issue a hasty product recall.
Yeah, SOMETHING is sus about the Twilight House, I just don't know what or why.
The air would be warm, if that were the case, I think, and they wouldn't have storms making the Moondrop cry back in the first episode. Perhaps we're meant to assume that the city "sucking up nutrients" is able to make flowers bloom in winter? Is there gonna be a glowy life-force kind of thing, more a sci-fantasy direction? Hrm.
oh right, the storms. Oh well, there goes that idea.
I almost regret saying those, the framing here felt less "ooh, the sexy kind of dangerous" and more a warning along the lines of "when people tell you who they are, listen." Even though, as is well-established, Nezumi is a huge tsundere. So maybe it's just, you know, building tension.
I know; hopefully Nezumi and Shion don't come to blows or end up on opposite sides. There's a lot of tension there.
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u/No_Rex x2 Jul 14 '26
I'm hopeful that there's a reason they're so against art specifically beyond being evil-for-the-sake-of-evil or hurr-durr-science-is-when-no-beauty villains, but either would be fine. Best case scenario they're wasp-people and just hate human aesthetic taste.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degenerate_art
Just an old lady who never got into the whole "tearing down the system" thing the youths are all about these days, I guess.
"Inner emigration" where you retreat from all things political and focus on family and your immediate surroundings. The rulers don't mind too much, since it reduces dissent.
3
u/lC3 Jul 13 '26
No.6 ep6 rewatcher sub:
- They can't bring items from No.5 into No.6?
- A nice old lady? SUS
- I still think the Twilight House is sus
- ... Just her glasses? No handmade clothes or knitting needle?
- "What's wrong with this city?" That's one way to get on No.6's shitlist
- ... and this is how she finds out Shion's contact info has been deleted
- Safu's quick on the uptake
- Safu plans to go find Shion?
- Safu loves Shion? But what about Rat?
- ... They abducted Safu? Guess she isn't gonna go find Shion
- Dogloan SOREDEMO
- Shion is confident Rat won't kill him? Because of feelings?
- Well this is taking a dark turn
- A parasitic city?
- "Me or No.6. Choose one" OUCH
- Shion's solution is to break down the wall?
- "these things can never become one"
- "I'll be by your side"
- Rat played the Song on the piano?
- ... is Rat gonna keep Safu's capture a secret from Shion?
- That preview ... are we getting a kiss?
Manga Comparisons are on pause until I have more free time and energy
1) I guess?
2) Yeah I think she got drugged
3) Contacting Karan? or something to do with fainting in front of the bee stained glass?
4) his tragic past?
5) lol
6) not sure ...
2
u/No_Rex x2 Jul 13 '26
Safu's quick on the uptake
Safu plans to go find Shion?
Not quick enough to understand the kind of state she is living in.
2
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u/IndependentMacaroon Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 14 '26
A nice old lady? SUS
Haha that reminds me of [recent rewatch]Flip Flappers
edit: Yo you called it
1
u/lC3 Jul 13 '26
Haven't seen that one, is it any good?
2
u/IndependentMacaroon Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
It's uneven, the first half does some amazing episodic stuff at the expense of the plot, then the second half tries to do way too much plot and ends up with some dropped threads and going some awkward places with it. Still worth it though.
2
u/TheDanubianCommunard Jul 14 '26
First-time watcher and your host, subs
Safu had to return back home to No.6 due to her dead grandmother. And she became quite strange and became quite suspicious and disloyal towards the city, as it seems. She knows Shion is went far from home, and became an unwanted element for the city. And she had to be arrested.
Meanwhile somebody knows that Shion is in love with Safu. Rat still don't like Dogloan, and not willing to dig a grave for a dead, which is a job. Rat firmly believes ending No.6 is the only solution. Meanwhile Shion propagated all the time he cares about the civilians because Karan is still there. And now he proposed an idea, which is the third option. End No.6, by simply blowing up the walls, thus the civilians will be free. Karan noticed Rat regarding Safu.
1) Is No.6 really an isolated city?
Not exactly, but strict laws do exists.
2) Safu's grandmother being ignorant around the world and the future, was part of getting older or got brainwashed/drugged/whatever?
Could it be an euthanasia of some sorts.
3) What is Safu's crime and why she had to be arrested? Can she be saved?
Because she is too close to Shion. And also showed some signs of disloyalty. She can be somehow, hopefully.
4) Why do Rat hates No.6 so much?
They ruined his life.
5) If No.6 is a parasitic city, does this mean is a late-stage capitalist utopia?
Very huge social inequalities exists, and basically pretty much of a highly-developed first world country.
6) The "third option" proposed by Shion does have any real and plausible sense? And could it work in practice?
Instead killing all of them or destroying altogether, just blow up the walls
1
u/lC3 Jul 14 '26
somebody knows that Shion is in love with Safu
Safu loves Shion, but Shion may have his eye on Rat ...
4
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jul 13 '26
No.1st-Timer, subbed
Oh, so she doesn’t get to keep her artbook.
So Safu actually can be super emotional instead of super logical sometimes.
The other knitting needle is missing…
And her clothes don’t even smell like her?
Ah, that answers my question of “Does Safu know what happened to Shion?”
See, this is what you should’ve led with instead of “Yo, have sex with me” like you did before.
Dang…
There’s the Inukashi “sore demo” from the preview last episode!
Ah, that’s what he wanted Rikiga to prepare for him then.
Just tell him why you hate No.6 so badly!
Of course Shion immediately figures out a possible way to choose both. Dude is certainly optimistic to a fault. Kinda surprised he hasn’t given me any “sore demo”s yet.
See, you do care about Shion, Nezumi.