Sion is a bright teenager living a comfortable and promising life inside No 6, one of this six remaining city-states created by The Babylon Treaty after the last great war devastated the world. On the rainy evening of his twelfth birthday, he meets a savvy adolescent who calls himself Nezumi and is desperately trying to runaway from the authorities... "Nezumi" is Japanese for "Rat". The subtitles translate it, but in the spirit of Angel Beats! and the Angel / Tenshi debate, I'm leaving it be. Seems strange to me to translate names. No. 6 is one of those nations where, if you play by the rules, life is just wonderful, with the state providing for your every need. Sion, unfortunately, quickly finds out just what happens when you tread on the wrong toes, first by helping Nezumi, and then by later expressing his doubts about the honesty of the city's government - which brings an almost Stasi-esque response down on him. Utopia, it isn't, and the clear hints that All Is Not Well in paradise are intriguing. Sion's rather strange relationship with Safu, a childhood friend who's clearly in love with him but who has a rather clinical way of expressing it, is also curious - to her, a kiss is "expressing a desire for future reproduction", and when she later invites him to have sex with her, it's by coldly declaring that she wants his sperm. Strange girl. Sion, though, seems to be rather more enamoured with Nezumi, so those who like to stay away from BL content may want to take note - there are clearly some sort of fireworks going on between the two boys, in a way that they're going to have to deal with at some point. THE GOOD: Interesting setting, good conspiracy seems to be building under the surface; relationships between the characters are also curious and seem to be a key part of the story. THE BAD: Sion is, to put it mildy, naive in the extreme, and unless he cottons on fairly quickly to that he's going to be a walking plot point and bringer of disaster. Nezumi's interest in him is almost stalker-level, with no real explanation as to why. A lot on online commenting I've seen on No. 6 has picked up on the BL aspect. I'm no fan of BL for BL's sake (hello, Junjou Romantica and its ilk, but if it's just part of a greater story then I've got no problem with it, and that seems to be the case here. Put that aside, and there's plenty else here to keep the attention. Looking forward to seeing more.
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