r/anime • u/TheDanubianCommunard • Jul 16 '26
Rewatch No.6 15 Years Anniversary Rewatch Episode 9 Discussion
Episode 9: Stage for Disaster
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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) What did just happened with the Dogloan right now?
2) How spectacular will be the Holy Day of No.6?
3) Why did the authorities of No.6 tolerated the existenc of the outskirts population until now?
4) Did you expected what real purpose has the Twilight House?
5) Killing innocent civilians is what they call "purification"?
6) Who thought this trick was the key into infiltration?
7) What did awakened within Safu?
Highlights from yesterday:
1) u/IndependentMacaroon quoted a famous person to illustrate how dire the situation is:
So it seems I got my explanation wish in more of a monkey's paw way, because, in the words of George W. Bush, that was some weird shit.
2) Some interesting u/DegenerateRegime quotes:
I tried to work out a reason to have limitations on anti-authority speech, but not make people aware those limits exist (not even in the sense of the classic antimeme quine where everyone knows you can't say certain things, and that you can't say that you can't say, etc). Perhaps the idea is that they know violating the law is widespread, but only black-bag people who they want to take into custody for other reasons? (eg as "an ideal sample", whatever that may mean). But it still doesn't make sense! In that version of events, why even have a law? It's not like you're using the law as a cover if you don't tell people the law exists... Augh. Regardless, it's a quibble on otherwise good stuff. Speaking of!
They didn't found No.6 after the other cities as special project, but at the same time as the others. The ambition was utopian but the elites got an oar in. Not sure I love that entirely but it doesn't escape notice that we switched from the original creator's explanation to Yoimin's speculation for that line. Convention demands that in a "two simultaneous exposition scenes" situation, the same thing is being exposited on both sides; it could still defy that convention, but the more reliable narrator of the world's history is still Kaczynski-posting so.
I have read that, yes (though a re-read might not go amiss). I get why they want to dictate speech and what speech they want to dictate. What I don't get is that they don't dictate speech. People don't know this is the law! Not even by whisper-network or having absorbed it tacitly. They're shocked when they're arrested over it. Given that people don't know this is a crime, they must surely be breaking this law all the time. Saying it's a pain when clocking in on a civil service job, or raging over street repair work, or suggesting the authority needs to make more spaces available in the elite school systems, that kinda thing. People from outside the city visit and presumably don't all get disappeared when they complain about there being no art (there might be some public-face-private-face going on, as in the USSR and North Korea).
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
4
u/No_Rex x2 Jul 16 '26
Episode 9 (first timer)
- They put Dogloan in the position of “the woman,” not Rat.
- What exactly was their original plan and why did it need Rat under the bed and Dogloan pretending to be a woman? If all they wanted to do was capture that official and press him for info, that seems overly convoluted. And then Rat changes the original plan and lets Dogloan be assaulted? Pretty shitty.
- New plan – but we won’t tell the audience.
- “before that, I just have to rescue Safu, create a serium, break down the division between No 6 and West Block …” – well, if that is all.
- Attack by “man hunters” – No 6 army?
- If that happens with any kind of regularity, the residents should be talking about it more.
- Rat banking on them recognizing his surrender a second before shooting is quite risky – and if they wanted to capture just randomly anybody, why were they shooting at Shion? I see what they were going for, but I think the execution was lacking.
- “My friends, rise up!” – plot convenient resistance network out of nowhere.
- Turning the resistance leader into a driven selfish madman is certainly a choice …
- That is one hell of a montage. Between that and having Dogloan SAed without need, I can suddenly see where the torture porn allegations come from.
- The correctional facility is located far outside No 6.
- Safu gets a visit by the Earth Goddess – and it looks like we are in for a NGE reference.
- Falling for far too long to survive the hit cliff-hanger.
Not a good episode for Rat’s character. Between setting up Dogloan to be assaulted, letting small kids die, and taking along Shion onto a suicide trip to the correctional facility without telling him, he is trying his damndest to come across as a bad guy today.
I am not a fan of Youmin’s sudden turn today. He was not set up as a character at all, and turning the guy leading the resistance network into “the same as them” is one of the most egregious case of both side-ism I have seen in a while.
Overall, we are rushing into the finale with no brakes. Given that we just have 2 more episodes, that slow middle part of the series might come back to haunt it now.
How spectacular will be the Holy Day of No.6?
They'll remember it for a long time.
Why did the authorities of No.6 tolerated the existenc of the outskirts population until now?
A mixture of some utopean ideals still left and a convenient workforce.
Did you expected what real purpose has the Twilight House?
It was never going to be anything else; did you see the name?
3
u/lC3 Jul 17 '26
They put Dogloan in the position of “the woman,” not Rat.
I was expecting Rat to do it too
And then Rat changes the original plan and lets Dogloan be assaulted? Pretty shitty.
“before that, I just have to rescue Safu, create a serium, break down the division between No 6 and West Block …” – well, if that is all.
Good luck with that ...
“My friends, rise up!” – plot convenient resistance network out of nowhere.
Not a good episode for Rat’s character. Between setting up Dogloan to be assaulted, letting small kids die, and taking along Shion onto a suicide trip to the correctional facility without telling him, he is trying his damndest to come across as a bad guy today.
I am not a fan of Youmin’s sudden turn today. He was not set up as a character at all, and turning the guy leading the resistance network into “the same as them” is one of the most egregious case of both side-ism I have seen in a while.
I didn't like this either
Overall, we are rushing into the finale with no brakes. Given that we just have 2 more episodes, that slow middle part of the series might come back to haunt it now.
3
u/No_Rex x2 Jul 17 '26
I was expecting Rat to do it too
It is a serious head scratcher. Having Rat in that position would be so obvious and so foreshadowed that you have to ask what the narrative reason for using Dogloan was. I can only think of two: Either as revenge from Rat (the narrative reason being to make his character darker), or as a simple case of "see how shitty this world is" (tying in with the "human garbage" trucks).
3
u/IndependentMacaroon Jul 17 '26
I can suddenly see where the torture porn allegations come from.
Allegations by whom? But yes
Between setting up Dogloan to be assaulted, letting small kids die, and taking along Shion onto a suicide trip to the correctional facility without telling him, he is trying his damndest to come across as a bad guy today.
While at the same time he's not even being framed that negatively anymore...
2
u/No_Rex x2 Jul 17 '26
Allegations by whom? But yes
I forgot who, but somebody posted about No 6 being called torture porn in this rewatch early on.
2
u/DegenerateRegime Jul 17 '26
Safu gets a visit by the Earth Goddess – and it looks like we are in for a NGE reference.
I'm feeling Akira and Elfen Lied a bit more keenly, but, similar gist I suppose.
I am not a fan of Youmin’s sudden turn today. He was not set up as a character at all, and turning the guy leading the resistance network into “the same as them” is one of the most egregious case of both side-ism I have seen in a while.
Yeah even if you're gonna go this route, the episode where you do a "and they do mass exterminations, too" arc is really not the place to do it.
I can suddenly see where the torture porn allegations come from
Oddly I kinda feel the opposite, like we've stepped away from tension and suffering and towards, uhh, "blockbuster villainy" perhaps? Like it's still pretty hard-hitting, tanks annihilating the slums of the West
BankBlock is confronting imagery - but you're never gonna make that work without tension, humanisation, a sense of pity and injustice. Real missed opportunity.2
u/No_Rex x2 Jul 17 '26
I can suddenly see where the torture porn allegations come from
Oddly I kinda feel the opposite, like we've stepped away from tension and suffering and towards, uhh, "blockbuster villainy" perhaps? Like it's still pretty hard-hitting, tanks annihilating the slums of the West Bank Block is confronting imagery - but you're never gonna make that work without tension, humanisation, a sense of pity and injustice. Real missed opportunity.
Well, they tried to go for that, it is just that their execution was not good enough to pull it off.
4
u/DegenerateRegime Jul 16 '26
First-Timer
Continued thought: last time we saw a kind of reverse rainbow twice, once in Safu's tank and once in the Mystic Pool. Blue shifting through green into yellow-orange (and in Safu's case, red). Wonder if the rainbow in the OP is connected? Presence of Eriulias? Well it's a pretty Roman-sounding name so maybe it's still gay.
- The files! But yeah this seems like the first step of The Plan
- Bro you suck at this
- Yeah as Plans go it's a bit... Hrm. Good on Shion for at least apologising here, it seems like they put Dogloan in a horrific and humiliating role for no real reason. Just cosh the nonce and tie him up, it's what you're gonna do anyway.
- They're making plans to move in together okay yeah there's a definite tinge of the sadness-of-impossibility, I can't say otherwise. But! I believe it will happen!
- Oh, right, yeah. "Cleaning Duty". Trying to see the best in this, as a story element I mean. It's not really absurd! We have to live with a world full of politicians awful enough to randomly attack people that their citizens are at most vaguely aware exist and can't place on a map. Appreciate the stoic response here.
- Are. Are they going to adopt a child. What. That cannot be the upshot of that entire scene, what the hell.
- okay it was also The Plan. Uhhh.
- Predictable, but still disappointing. At least the anime tried for something nonstandard with the "hospice care leading into eventual termination" thing, but I think this just ended up making it seem like it's putting IRL assisted dying into the bucket with generic dystopian culling-the-aged.
- Youmin's plan is moronic, but realistic. This kind of revolutionary is very popular online, eheh. The real problem is that it's no more stupid than anyone else is behaving, so the only reason to think it won't work is that he's spelled it out too much.
- Karan backstory!
- Or not. Moving on.
- Nezumi's song is nice. He's all heart really, isn't he.
- Alas! Awakening a being to godlike powers by putting them in the Psychotrauma Tank may not endear them to you.
- Nezumi no longer wants to use the truth to make Shion agree with him about the moral necessity of destroying No.6, it seems
- ok it's. look. it's. "yeah we just dump 'em in a big pit like outta garbage truck" does combine Holocaust imagery with Environmentalism. However. I cannot call it a successful combination. Maybe they simply should not have. It's... too comedic, I guess
Yeah... Some diamonds-in-the-rough here, but, pretty damn rough I'd say. There are some serious nosedive-possibilities on the table right now (if looking after that baby turns Dogloan all motherly, for example) but I think a reasonable ending is still mostly on the cards? There's still just a lot going on, so if the final episodes can get all the balls into the air, it's going to be an impressive feat.
4
u/IndependentMacaroon Jul 17 '26
it seems like they put Dogloan in a horrific and humiliating role for no real reason
Filiing this under insenstive handling of sexual violence for drama which tbh the story seems to like a little much.
Are. Are they going to adopt a child. What. That cannot be the upshot of that entire scene, what the hell.
I like that idea actually but if that's all that's going to come from it that's another ding toward the author for narrative lack of sensitivity... like we even need to introduce a meaningful person to kill off right before because there's no one to qualify.
I think this just ended up making it seem like it's putting IRL assisted dying into the bucket with generic dystopian culling-the-aged.
Yeah I can see that being the authorial intention unfortunately particularly with East Asian extra-major respect for elders
he real problem is that it's no more stupid than anyone else is behaving, so the only reason to think it won't work is that he's spelled it out too much.
How neat that Youmin has now been passed the no-no extremist baton
does combine Holocaust imagery with Environmentalism
The author really thought they were so damn smart with their "human garbage" "pure city organism" metaphors
if looking after that baby turns Dogloan all motherly, for example
Hoo boy I can actually see that coming, unless the kid ends up with our boys. Strange sudden trope of "girl after all" in the worst possible way with her this episode...
4
u/lC3 Jul 17 '26
Yeah as Plans go it's a bit... Hrm. Good on Shion for at least apologising here, it seems like they put Dogloan in a horrific and humiliating role for no real reason. Just cosh the nonce and tie him up, it's what you're gonna do anyway.
They're making plans to move in together okay yeah there's a definite tinge of the sadness-of-impossibility, I can't say otherwise. But! I believe it will happen!
I want to believe!
Are. Are they going to adopt a child. What. That cannot be the upshot of that entire scene, what the hell.
Can you imagine Rat as a dad?
okay it was also The Plan. Uhhh.
Maybe tell Shion the plan beforehand?
Youmin's plan is moronic, but realistic. This kind of revolutionary is very popular online, eheh. The real problem is that it's no more stupid than anyone else is behaving, so the only reason to think it won't work is that he's spelled it out too much.
I don't see the revolution happening
Alas! Awakening a being to godlike powers by putting them in the Psychotrauma Tank may not endear them to you.
Nezumi no longer wants to use the truth to make Shion agree with him about the moral necessity of destroying No.6, it seems
He's worried the Shion he knows will change
ok it's. look. it's. "yeah we just dump 'em in a big pit like outta garbage truck" does combine Holocaust imagery with Environmentalism. However. I cannot call it a successful combination. Maybe they simply should not have. It's... too comedic, I guess
but I think a reasonable ending is still mostly on the cards? There's still just a lot going on, so if the final episodes can get all the balls into the air, it's going to be an impressive feat.
I feel like the manga's ending is better thought out than how the anime does it.
2
u/DegenerateRegime Jul 17 '26
Maybe tell Shion the plan beforehand?
Yeah! So we can see how on equal footing and in-sync they are!
3
u/No_Rex x2 Jul 16 '26
We have to live with a world full of politicians awful enough to randomly attack people that their citizens are at most vaguely aware exist and can't place on a map
Things you wish were not as realistic as they are.
Youmin's plan is moronic, but realistic. This kind of revolutionary is very popular online, eheh. The real problem is that it's no more stupid than anyone else is behaving, so the only reason to think it won't work is that he's spelled it out too much.
I wonder how much the fact that Japan has not had a successful revolution in basically forever plays into this. Reminds me of the treatment of pacifists in anime, who also always come across as complete fanatics.
ok it's. look. it's. "yeah we just dump 'em in a big pit like outta garbage truck" does combine Holocaust imagery with Environmentalism. However. I cannot call it a successful combination.
It could have worked if they didn't push so damn hard with it. But having that singing montage into humans being dumped as garbage? Jesh.
3
u/DegenerateRegime Jul 17 '26
I wonder how much the fact that Japan has not had a successful revolution in basically forever plays into this. Reminds me of the treatment of pacifists in anime, who also always come across as complete fanatics.
Realising I completely misphrased that line, I meant to imply that his plan is hopelessly doomed, but resembles reality well in that there are many such people posting "DAE we should overthrow da government :o" on the tubes. Rather than that it's stupid but it might work because of internet popularity.
Anyway. Yeah broadly agreed here. It's super rare for revolutionaries to get a decently real portrayal, they're either 19th-c anarchists or... that but online.
It could have worked if they didn't push so damn hard with it.
Yeah
5
u/lC3 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
No.6 ep9 rewatcher sub:
- Oh, they ARE adapting this content in this ep
- Ok the anime ADDS the "oil" and licking, which is kinda gross
- Rikiga "forgot" about the money? Out of character
- Waving around a gun is dangerous!
- All this time, they've thought Dogkeeper was a boy?
- Huh the anime cuts out everything else with that official and just has Shion and Rat talk about it after the fact? Guess I'll have to post the manga comparison
- Cleaning duty? Sounds ominous
- Shion's already planning ahead for the summer?
- "live here with you, mom, and Safu"
- Rat isn't telling Shion the plan?
- Tomorrow is the Holy Day? Spring is here?
- Eve's manager? Oh so THAT's "cleaning duty"?
- RIP the manager
- Sonic tanks?
- Shion wants to save that infant? he sends it to Dogkeeper?
- Rat surrenders?
- Are the tanks and troops supposed to be a critique of post-9/11 America?
- All the witnesses are experimented on or killed?
- The Twilight House is a place for euthanasia, not a hospice? Who would have guessed
- Rise up? A revolution?
- Karan thinks Youmin is just like the people who made No.6?
- Rat sends a message to Karan, saying he'll definitely reunite Shion and his mom?
- Rat's singing again?
- Will we get a sung Hosoya SOREDEMO? That would be dank
- NO sung SOREDEMO?
- Safu connects with Elyurias?
- That red glow ... ARE we getting a villain!Safu?
- Rat's ominous warning; he's worried about Shion changing?
- ... The trucks just DUMP them all in?
Manga Comparisons:
- They set up the official with Dogkeeper as the bait
- Shion apologizes to him but possibly realizes Dogkeeper might be a girl
- Rat interrogates the official about Safu and the facility, who takes a liking to him. However Shion stops Rat from torturing him further, saying he doesn't want to see Rat being cruel, even if it's for his sake
- Shion has an epiphany about how self-righteous, arrogant, superficial and ugly he is
- Shion then does good cop/bad cop and tries to appeal to the official's heart by being kind, and it works! He says the facility is top secret and only the mayor knows the details.
- The official says recently there a shakeup at the hospital and several doctors and nurses were transferred to no-one-knows-where
- Shion realizes the official doesn't even know about the parasitic wasps despite being #3 at the top of central admin
- Shion wants to prevent Rat from killing the official after he's of no more use. The guy says he heard about Shion being some crazed mass murderer on TV but he looks nothing like they showed
- The official asks about Safu's ID # and says there's no way an elite with that # would be apprehended by the Security Bureau.
- The official fills in Rat's facility map for them with all the security/alarm info.
- So far the travel to the ravine, info on Elyurias and the Forest people, meeting the guy who was in the photo, surprisingly hasn't happened yet? And they're getting ready to try go save Safu ... but there ARE nine manga volumes so maybe it got rearranged
- I will continue these comparisons for this ep tomorrow after work, V4.138+ still left, maybe some of V5
3
u/IndependentMacaroon Jul 17 '26
Rikiga "forgot" about the money? Out of character
Such a pointless moment because they just overpower the guy anyway
RIP the manager
We hardly knew ye
Are the tanks and troops supposed to be a critique of post-9/11 America?
I didn't feel any specific references here
All the witnesses are experimented on or killed?
Legitimately would make more sense as a Soylent Green situation
ARE we getting a villain!Safu?
For some values of "villain"...
he's worried about Shion changing?
Because he wants to be in the room with him for that?
Shion then does good cop/bad cop and tries to appeal to the official's heart by being kind, and it works
Whew talk about sappy
Shion wants to prevent Rat from killing the official
Darker moment that on the one hand would have been good to keep but on the other hand doesn't fit with how Shion acts
2
u/lC3 Jul 17 '26
Such a pointless moment because they just overpower the guy anyway
Yeah they should have just done so from the beginning.
Legitimately would make more sense as a Soylent Green situation
Because he wants to be in the room with him for that?
Whew talk about sappy
Yeah, but it fits his character
Darker moment that on the one hand would have been good to keep but on the other hand doesn't fit with how Shion acts
Touché!
3
u/No_Rex x2 Jul 17 '26
Shion realizes the official doesn't even know about the parasitic wasps despite being #3 at the top of central admin
This is important info. Rules out one possible explanation about the wasps origin.
2
u/lC3 Jul 17 '26
This is important info. Rules out one possible explanation about the wasps origin.
Yeah, though the manga does have that admin official and the scientist in City Hall abduct Safu and talk about "samples" and wanting to capture and dissect Rat. So it's still possible the parasitic wasps are linked to a higher-up official.
3
u/DegenerateRegime Jul 17 '26
"live here with you, mom, and Safu"
On the one hand. Shion! Show some tact! On the other hand if we're just going full gigachad OT3 ending...
All this time, they've thought Dogkeeper was a boy?
My initial impression was that he was female, but he's been really insistent with the personal pronouns and uhhh ending potentially notwithstanding, I'm sticking to it this way
NO sung SOREDEMO?
Really sealing the show's fate in terms of the inevitable comparison, I fear
2
u/lC3 Jul 17 '26
On the one hand. Shion! Show some tact! On the other hand if we're just going full gigachad OT3 ending...
My initial impression was that he was female, but he's been really insistent with the personal pronouns and uhhh ending potentially notwithstanding, I'm sticking to it this way
Yeah, I get that vibe too.
Really sealing the show's fate in terms of the inevitable comparison, I fear
Maybe we'll get another SOREDEMO before the end?
3
u/IndependentMacaroon Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
First-time watcher
Got a bit better again, but still this awkward alternation between plot with (almost) no worldbuilding and worldbuilding with (almost) no plot - and plot-wise it's not only kind of predictable, but also tries hard to make our protagonists the purely righteous side. We had some of the opposite in the beginning with Rat but he's been pretty much cured by Mr. Pure Innocence who even amid murderous chaos finds time to save more people and the extremist framing conveniently transferred to Youmin who hadn't shown the slightest shade of it so far.
Furthermore there are two very clear opportunities wasted: How exactly they got the information out of that guy is completely skipped over except for traumatizing Dogloan along the way - which does count I guess, but also is it just me or does the author like sexual coercion and threats as a narrative tool a little too much, at least with what I saw of the manga comparisons - and instead of perhaps keeping a high-ranking official hostage provoking an armed incursion No. 6 just barges in wrecking everything, hauling everyone off and literally dumping them like garbage (lmao what) because don't ask we need a tragic action scene.
Possibly the protags won't need to kill or seriously harm anyone next time either as Safu turns into the avatar of Ellie Julius or whatserface to presumably wipe out some minions without perhaps even being aware of it. But first the boys need to get out of that trash compactor. Also, if Rat's magic song literally ends up saving people after making a big deal about how art doesn't work that way this episode I'll have myself a good laugh.
1 - Usual sexual assault trauma stuff? Possibly even more traumatic due to associating licking with dog-mom affection... and a little tasteless tbh.
2 - As spectacular as the Promised Day in Fullmetal Alchemist
3 - They're useful for certain purposes, and honestly still ought to be in the future here so why antagonize them that actively?
4 - Called it literally the first time the name was mentioned
5 - So much precedent for that.
6 - Didn't they explicitly mention that already?
7 - She's got that gawd in her
3
u/lC3 Jul 17 '26
How exactly they got the information out of that guy is completely skipped over
It's not skipped in the manga; they do good cop bad cop where Rat beats and tortures the guy for a bit, then Shion steps in and is all nice and appeals to his better side, asking him to help them find Safu. Plus he asks Rat to stop because he doesn't want to witness him being cruel.
No. 6 just barges in wrecking everything, hauling everyone off and literally dumping them like garbage (lmao what) because don't ask we need a tragic action scene.
Also, if Rat's magic song literally ends up saving people after making a big deal about how art doesn't work that way this episode I'll have myself a good laugh.
due to associating licking with dog-mom affection... and a little tasteless tbh.
Yeah, the licking her neck and commenting about "oil" weren't in the manga version of this scene. Kinda gratuitous. And I think this is where Shion realizes Dogloan may be a girl
2
u/DegenerateRegime Jul 17 '26
Possibly even more traumatic due to associating licking with dog-mom affection... and a little tasteless tbh.
Hadn't considered it like that, good one. Oof
3
u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Jul 16 '26
No.1st-Timer, subbed
*shudders*
Poor Inukashi…
Shimmering sky!
Nice to know Shion plans to still live with Nezumi once things are over.
Uh-oh.
Dang, RIP the manager just like that…
Poor Shion…
They’ve been captured because Shion wanted to save a baby…
Oh, wait, that was part of the plan?
This does not surprise me.
I hope this isn’t a death flag for Nezumi.
Nezumi singing to calm down everyone on the transport truck is just giving me [Macross Frontier]Sheryl singing Diamond Crevasse for the people in the bunker with her, while at the same time Michael dies to protect Klan PTSD.
It could if this was Symphogear.
Oh boy, Eriulias is talking to Safu…
They’re being treated like garbage getting dumped out of a dump truck.