No. 6
Encyclopedia
No. 6 is a nine-volume novel series written by Atsuko Asano
and published by Kodansha
between October 2003 and June 2011. A manga
adaptation drawn by Hinoki Kino began serialization in the March 2011 issue of Kodansha's Aria
magazine. A TV anime series adaptation by Bones
began airing in Japan in July 2011.
s causes its victims to age rapidly. Shion's co-worker is one of the victims and Shion is arrested on suspicion of murder. While Shion is being transported to the Correctional Institute, Nezumi appears and rescues him. Shion begins to find out the hidden truth behind the Ideal City No.6.
Shion is an intelligent individual who was on his way to going into the Special Curriculum for gifted students where he planned to specialize in Ecology, until his fateful encounter with Nezumi on his twelfth birthday. Although he knew Nezumi was a wanted fugitive he cared for the bullet wound in his arm, fed him, and allowed him to stay overnight in his room. After the following police investigation he and his mother were forced to move away from Chronos to Lost Town. He was stripped of his rights to the Special Curriculum because of his poor judgment skills in taking in a known fugitive (Nezumi), and his status in their caste-based society was lowered.
Four years later, Shion gets a job in a office for safety in a park where he controls Waste Management Robots. The job pays for tuition for his schooling, where he plans to go into the trades. A man dies of suspicious causes in the park and later his coworker dies of the same causes. Shion witnesses his coworker age rapidly and a bee emerge from his neck. Shion is then arrested on suspicion of murder. Nezumi saves him and he is forced to leave NO.6. Shion nearly dies himself when he is infected with a killer-bee, but Nezumi saves him a second time, though Shion is left with white hair and scars that look like a red snake curling from his ankle to his neck. After this, Shion decides to try to create a cure for people infected with the killer bees in NO.6, but is hindered by lack of resources and Nezumi's reluctance. He is polite and idealistic, and refuses to give up on saving the people of NO. 6.
He works for InuKashi cleaning her dogs, and is childhood friends with Safu.
Nezumi is a a young man, who lives outside of NO.6 in The West Block. As a child he was followed by the police,wounded, and by chance ended up staying at Shion's house where he is shocked that another human being could extend a kind hand when knowing there is no reward. He runs off the next morning.
Four years later, he saves Shion from a police car and takes him with him to his home because he feels indebted to Shion for taking him in on their first meeting. He hates the City of NO.6 with an intense passion and is trying to figure out a way to destroy it.
He is well known as an actor/actress under the nickname Eve and is very talented in singing and acting, and dancing. His home is filled to the brim with books most of which are classic literature and plays by Shakespeare, but also books on religion and scientific journals. He often quotes these books on the spot (specifically Macbeth and Faust). He also knows how to deal with weapons and knows how to fight and has very honed 'street smarts'. He is a cynical boy with a dark past.
His hate for NO.6 extends from his village being destroyed and him being one of the sole survivors.
One of the residents of the West Block outside of NO. 6. Inukashi (lit. 'DogKeeper') is a brash, and often dangerous individual who spends her time either renting out her many dogs as heaters during the winter or collecting items to sell from a contact within NO. 6's correctional facility. She has a very violent, volatile relationship with Nezumi but Nezumi still often goes to her to gather information - for a price. She cares about her dogs very much as was raised by a dog who she called her "mother" before it passed away. While InuKashi looks like a girl, there are hints that she maybe in fact a boy but the series keep her real gender ambiguous.
Shion's childhood friend and a fellow resident of NO. 6. Like Shion, she's a child genius - her expertise is the human brain and to a degree, psychology. Also like Sion, Safu begins to show doubt about the utopia that is No. 6. She went abroad to study in NO.5 and asked Shion to have sex with her, which Shion refused saying he always thought of her as a friend, and to wait two years for him. She was taken into custody later in the story and is being experimented on somehow.
Shion's mother. With Shion, she was sent to live down in Lost Town where she opened up a bakery. She and Nezumi contact one another through strips of paper brought by mice. She is believed to be involved in the creation of NO.6 somehow.
One of the residents of West Block. He runs a prostitution service which allows him a life of luxury in comparison to other residents. At one point, he wrote articles regarding NO. 6.
He really likes Eve, Nezumi's stage persona yet is less charitable towards Nezumi himself, given Nezumi's disdain shown to him.
He tries to be a parental substitute to Shion who he has a soft spot for given that he's still attached to his Mother, Karan, a former love interest.
. Nine tankōbon
volumes were published by Kodansha
between October 10, 2003 and June 14, 2011. Kodansha began publishing bunkobon
versions of the novels on October 13, 2006; as of August 12, 2009, five bunkobon volumes have been released.
adaptation drawn by Hinoki Kino began serialization in the March 2011 issue of Kodansha
's shōjo manga magazine Aria
.
TV series adaptation produced by Bones
and directed by Kenji Nagasaki began airing in Japan on Fuji TV's noitaminA
programming block on July 8, 2011. The anime's opening theme is "Spell" by Lama and the ending theme is by Aimer. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime. It is currently streaming on Crunchyroll
and the Anime Network's Online Player and will be released on home video next year. In Japanese Nezumi means Rat.
Atsuko Asano (writer)
is a Japanese writer. She wrote the children's novel series Telepathy Shōjo Ran and the manga series The Manzai Comics. She started writing the children's novels when she was in college. She graduated from Aoyama Gakuin college and majored in literature...
and published by Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
between October 2003 and June 2011. A manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
adaptation drawn by Hinoki Kino began serialization in the March 2011 issue of Kodansha's Aria
Aria (magazine)
Aria is a Japanese monthly shōjo manga magazine published by Kodansha. In April 2010 an announcement was made about plans for a new magazine; its first issue was published on July 28, 2010. The magazine is released in size B5 paper...
magazine. A TV anime series adaptation by Bones
Bones (studio)
is a Japanese anime studio. It has produced numerous series, including RahXephon, Wolf's Rain, Scrapped Princess, Eureka Seven, Angelic Layer, Darker than Black, Soul Eater, Ouran High School Host Club and two adaptions of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga along with Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto and...
began airing in Japan in July 2011.
Plot
The story takes place in an ideal city known as "No. 6". Shion, a boy raised in the elite and privileged environment of his home, gives shelter to another boy, who only gives his name as 'Nezumi' (Meaning mouse or Rat) on the former's 12th birthday. After spending a rainy night with his new friend, Shion discovers the next morning that Nezumi has disappeared without a trace. Four years later, Shion experiences a spate of incidents around him in which a deadly infection by parasitic beeBee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...
s causes its victims to age rapidly. Shion's co-worker is one of the victims and Shion is arrested on suspicion of murder. While Shion is being transported to the Correctional Institute, Nezumi appears and rescues him. Shion begins to find out the hidden truth behind the Ideal City No.6.
Characters
Shion is an intelligent individual who was on his way to going into the Special Curriculum for gifted students where he planned to specialize in Ecology, until his fateful encounter with Nezumi on his twelfth birthday. Although he knew Nezumi was a wanted fugitive he cared for the bullet wound in his arm, fed him, and allowed him to stay overnight in his room. After the following police investigation he and his mother were forced to move away from Chronos to Lost Town. He was stripped of his rights to the Special Curriculum because of his poor judgment skills in taking in a known fugitive (Nezumi), and his status in their caste-based society was lowered.
Four years later, Shion gets a job in a office for safety in a park where he controls Waste Management Robots. The job pays for tuition for his schooling, where he plans to go into the trades. A man dies of suspicious causes in the park and later his coworker dies of the same causes. Shion witnesses his coworker age rapidly and a bee emerge from his neck. Shion is then arrested on suspicion of murder. Nezumi saves him and he is forced to leave NO.6. Shion nearly dies himself when he is infected with a killer-bee, but Nezumi saves him a second time, though Shion is left with white hair and scars that look like a red snake curling from his ankle to his neck. After this, Shion decides to try to create a cure for people infected with the killer bees in NO.6, but is hindered by lack of resources and Nezumi's reluctance. He is polite and idealistic, and refuses to give up on saving the people of NO. 6.
He works for InuKashi cleaning her dogs, and is childhood friends with Safu.
Nezumi is a a young man, who lives outside of NO.6 in The West Block. As a child he was followed by the police,wounded, and by chance ended up staying at Shion's house where he is shocked that another human being could extend a kind hand when knowing there is no reward. He runs off the next morning.
Four years later, he saves Shion from a police car and takes him with him to his home because he feels indebted to Shion for taking him in on their first meeting. He hates the City of NO.6 with an intense passion and is trying to figure out a way to destroy it.
He is well known as an actor/actress under the nickname Eve and is very talented in singing and acting, and dancing. His home is filled to the brim with books most of which are classic literature and plays by Shakespeare, but also books on religion and scientific journals. He often quotes these books on the spot (specifically Macbeth and Faust). He also knows how to deal with weapons and knows how to fight and has very honed 'street smarts'. He is a cynical boy with a dark past.
His hate for NO.6 extends from his village being destroyed and him being one of the sole survivors.
One of the residents of the West Block outside of NO. 6. Inukashi (lit. 'DogKeeper') is a brash, and often dangerous individual who spends her time either renting out her many dogs as heaters during the winter or collecting items to sell from a contact within NO. 6's correctional facility. She has a very violent, volatile relationship with Nezumi but Nezumi still often goes to her to gather information - for a price. She cares about her dogs very much as was raised by a dog who she called her "mother" before it passed away. While InuKashi looks like a girl, there are hints that she maybe in fact a boy but the series keep her real gender ambiguous.
Shion's childhood friend and a fellow resident of NO. 6. Like Shion, she's a child genius - her expertise is the human brain and to a degree, psychology. Also like Sion, Safu begins to show doubt about the utopia that is No. 6. She went abroad to study in NO.5 and asked Shion to have sex with her, which Shion refused saying he always thought of her as a friend, and to wait two years for him. She was taken into custody later in the story and is being experimented on somehow.
Shion's mother. With Shion, she was sent to live down in Lost Town where she opened up a bakery. She and Nezumi contact one another through strips of paper brought by mice. She is believed to be involved in the creation of NO.6 somehow.
One of the residents of West Block. He runs a prostitution service which allows him a life of luxury in comparison to other residents. At one point, he wrote articles regarding NO. 6.
He really likes Eve, Nezumi's stage persona yet is less charitable towards Nezumi himself, given Nezumi's disdain shown to him.
He tries to be a parental substitute to Shion who he has a soft spot for given that he's still attached to his Mother, Karan, a former love interest.
Novels
No. 6 began as a novel series written by Atsuko AsanoAtsuko Asano (writer)
is a Japanese writer. She wrote the children's novel series Telepathy Shōjo Ran and the manga series The Manzai Comics. She started writing the children's novels when she was in college. She graduated from Aoyama Gakuin college and majored in literature...
. Nine tankōbon
Tankobon
, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...
volumes were published by Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
between October 10, 2003 and June 14, 2011. Kodansha began publishing bunkobon
Bunkobon
In Japan, bunkobon are small-format paperback books, designed to be affordable and portable.The great majority of bunkobon are A6 in size...
versions of the novels on October 13, 2006; as of August 12, 2009, five bunkobon volumes have been released.
Manga
A mangaManga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
adaptation drawn by Hinoki Kino began serialization in the March 2011 issue of Kodansha
Kodansha
, the largest Japanese publisher, produces the manga magazines Nakayoshi, Afternoon, Evening, and Weekly Shonen Magazine, as well as more literary magazines such as Gunzō, Shūkan Gendai, and the Japanese dictionary Nihongo Daijiten. The company has its headquarters in Bunkyō, Tokyo...
's shōjo manga magazine Aria
Aria (magazine)
Aria is a Japanese monthly shōjo manga magazine published by Kodansha. In April 2010 an announcement was made about plans for a new magazine; its first issue was published on July 28, 2010. The magazine is released in size B5 paper...
.
Anime
An animeAnime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
TV series adaptation produced by Bones
Bones (studio)
is a Japanese anime studio. It has produced numerous series, including RahXephon, Wolf's Rain, Scrapped Princess, Eureka Seven, Angelic Layer, Darker than Black, Soul Eater, Ouran High School Host Club and two adaptions of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga along with Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto and...
and directed by Kenji Nagasaki began airing in Japan on Fuji TV's noitaminA
Noitamina
– "Animation" written backwards – is a Fuji Television programming block, devoted to anime, originally broadcast each Thursday night from 24:45 to 25:15 . It was launched with the intention of expanding the target audience beyond the typical young male demographic...
programming block on July 8, 2011. The anime's opening theme is "Spell" by Lama and the ending theme is by Aimer. Sentai Filmworks has licensed the anime. It is currently streaming on Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll
Crunchyroll is an American website and international online community focused on streaming East Asian media including anime, manga, drama, music, electronic entertainment, and auto racing content...
and the Anime Network's Online Player and will be released on home video next year. In Japanese Nezumi means Rat.
| No. | Title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
External links
- Official website
- No. 6 at AniplexAniplex, formerly known as Sony Pictures Entertainment Visual Works Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment Visual Works Inc., is a Japanese anime and music production and distribution enterprise owned by Sony Music Entertainment Japan and established in January 1997...