This is a pretty bouncy song and colorful opening, which I guess goes pretty well with the show. I like it anyway.
No. 6 – Episode 6
Safu returns to No. 6 after her grandmother’s death, but things immediately don’t seem right to her. She tries to contact Shion but is told he’s been de-registered due the murder charge against him, which she doesn’t believe in a second. She goes to visit Shion’s mother to find out where Shion is. Safu then decides to go to Shion but is arrested en route.
Safu knows something isn't right...with Shion's sperm
So right off the bat in this episode we get some additional evidence that No. 6 isn’t quite like the other cities. First, Safu’s prohibited, for some reason, from bringing a book about Picasso into the city. Why exactly is that? One wouldn’t think there wasn’t much objectionable about it at all, unless the city thinks the subject matter might create an image of humanity that isn’t ideal, which we have seen evidence of before. Also, it’s suggested that no one in the other cities wear the identification bracelets.
Safu is clearly uneasy about being in No. 6 from the start, but she becomes increasingly alarmed when she gets her grandmother’s personal items back, when the other knitting stick isn’t included and the scarf is free of her grandmother’s scent, and then again when her bracelet tells her that Shion is suspected of murder.
I think the question here now is: why did the police arrest Safu? Was her grandmother’s death all a ploy to get her back to No. 6? Or was she arrested for trying to contact Shion? Or did they eavesdrop on her conversation with Shion’s mother and arrest her for daring to question the city (clearly No. 6 is willing to go to great length to silence people who may dare criticize them, even in private). It seems increasingly likely that her mother didn’t die the peaceful death that was described, which is kind of what I suspected last episode.
We actually don’t see much of Shion and Nezumi this time, but Nezumi is still warning Shion to give up on No. 6 while Shion, even while realizing that there is something wrong with No. 6, doesn’t think everyone living there should have to pay the price for it. Nezumi derides his idea of “tearing down the walls” as a fantasy, but he clearly seems to have made him think. Nezumi still refuses to tell Shion why he hates No. 6, and he clearly wants Shion to serve some purpose eventually. I suspect he’ll either eventually tell Shion about Safu, or he’ll find out some other way.
Usagi Drop – Episode 6
It’s time for Rin to start elementary school, which she attends with Kouki. To commemorate this, Rin and Daikichi plant a loquat tree outside their house after Daikichi tells her about he and his sister getting trees when they were born. That makes them wonder if Souichi planted a tree for Rin. Daikichi asks Masako and sure enough, he did. When Daikichi finds it, it’s a fragrant olive tree, just as his tree is.
It's time for that most awful of awfuls..that most terrifying of terrors! SCHOOL!
So Rin starts elementary school, but we don’t really see any interactions at the school, at least yet. However, we get to see more Kouki and his friendship with Rin. And of course he acts like a typical boy and Rin has the typical female frustrations about it.
This episode kind had more to do with the idea of Rin growing up. She and Daikichi talked about the planting of trees and growing up with the tree and so forth. However, Rin seemed to get depressed over the fact that she didn’t know whether she had a tree from birth, which upset Daikichi as well, because he hated bringing up the topic and then seeing Rin get down because of it. And this, of course, led to another merry meeting between Daikichi and Masako.
Otherwise, there really wasn’t much going on. I expect we’ll see Rin’s and Kouki’s friendship grow (and we may end up seeing them get into some trouble eventually, thanks to Kouki), and hopefully we’ll see some of her interactions at school as well.
Nabari no Ou – Episodes 4 – 6
The Iga and Fuma both decide to gather the five books of forbidden techniques from the five villages. Iga wants them to find a way to transfer the Shinrabanshou from Miharu to someone else while the Fuma want them to find a way to eliminate the Shinrabanshou altogether. Meanwhile, Yoite wants to use Miharu for his own purposes.
The indifferent twins
So Yoite basically implants a part of his ki into Miharu and his friends, so that whenever he dies, they’ll all die too, in order to blackmail Miharu into learning how to use the The Shinrabanshou and grant his wish (which is to have never been born). Somehow by the end of the series, I have a feeling that Yoite will change his mind about his wish, and Miharu will probably find somewhat to save him from his fate from using the Kira.
Meanwhile, I’m growing increasingly suspicious of Kotarou, as his methods seem pretty ruthless and we don’t seem to know much about them still. I wouldn’t be shocked if he intends to use the five books to try to get the Shinrabanshou himself, and perhaps even already knows that there is no way to eliminate it. Of course, doing that would put Raimei in the difficult position of either betraying Miharu or betraying her village.
Nabari no Ou – Episodes 1 – 3
Next on my list of “previously aired anime that I’m just now watching” list (I need to come up with a more succinct name for that) is Nabari no Ou. This has kind of always been on my to-watch list but I had never gotten around to actually watching it (obviously). I have pretty high expectations for this series, so I hope they’ll be met.
Interestingly Uninterested
So from what I can tell so far, Miharu has this thing inside him called the Shinrabanshou which, unleashed, would basically allow him to do anything. It’s also apparently corrupting enough to take over his personality, though it hasn’t yet. Along for the ride we have Kouichi, who can manipulate the wind, Raimei, who is a samurai and doesn’t seem to use shinobi powers, and Tobari, who is the oldest, most powerful, and most knowledgeable of all of them, and also appears to have been present when Miharu used his powers when he was little.
From what I can gather, Miharu’s indifference appears to be a sort of self-defense mechanism against the Shinrabanshou that he isn’t really consciously aware of. It seems like the Shinrabanshou feeds off of it’s host’s desires, of which Miharu has few to none due to his indifference to near everything (though that appears to be changing somewhat now). Various factions want the Shinrabanshou for themselves to become the most powerful Shinobi
As for writing style and acting, this has been a pretty good show so far. It can be a bit quirky, but in a good way, and Miharu’s sarcasm and mischievousness I can definitely give a thumbs-up to. The being attacked my enemies thing is OK for now, though hopefully they’ll do more than sit around and be attacked for the whole series.