Rainbow - Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin

[seanos]

Around 10 years after World War II, a group of delinquents are sent to the Shounan Special Reform School to learn how to cope with the atrocities and unfairness they encounter there. A student who has already been residing there when the teens arrived acts as a mentor, teaching them about friendship and guiding them through difficulties.

(Based on Abe George and Kakizaki Masasumi's Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin manga.)

Links: AnimeNewsNetwork AniDB

First Episode by FroZen (Frostii & Saizen)



First episode really impressed me, looks like one of the three new series which I'll be anticipating each week (Other being Senko no Night Raid and Hakuouki) - though I reckon this series is probably best new one this season.

Quite dark, and interesting themes, though first episode went relatively slow (little happened, very much introduction to the characters, and how they got to be in the situation they're in).
I like the artwork, wasn't surprised to see Madhouse in the end credits, fairly typical of their work.
The voicecast is also impressive, immediately recognised a few voices, and when went searching surprised to see so many well known names.

[animus]

I love these dark, grimey, visceral, yet very real types of anime.

So far, this is by far my favorite series this season. And I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Buffalobiian]

So far, this is by far my favorite series this season. And I'm very much looking forward to the rest of the series.

Same, and that was unexpected too.

The realism in this show starkly contrasts with almost everything else out there at the moment, and just leaves you with the message: "This is dead serious".

The doctor was seemingly nice, but the way he says "don't harm the children" only make it sound like they're his guinea pigs. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that turned out to be the case.

[Buffalobiian]

A 350MB re-encoded version of the original 680MG file:

Commie - Episode 02 re-encode

If someone knows of why the original was so bloated, please enlighten me.






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Ugly people are ugly. You just take one look at them and you know you will hate them for life, be it the warden, orphanage director or "Dad". I love this show.

[seanos]

Episode 02 (FroZen)

[seanos]

Episode centred on Jo[ue]'s background.
Good episode overall, get the feeling the series will concentrate on one character per episode early on to develop the characters.
Very curious to see where the story will eventually lead.

[kenren]

The fact that the police officers watched Joe getting pot smashed on the head by that bitch really pissed me off. I was hoping Jou's younger sister would stab that bitch in the end but I guess that won't be the case

[Buffalobiian]

The fact that the police officers watched Joe getting pot smashed on the head by that bitch really pissed me off. I was hoping Jou's younger sister would stab that bitch in the end but I guess that won't be the case

If anything, Joe's sister's the one getting stabbed.

[Buffalobiian]

Frozen - Episode 03




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I couldn't quite get into this one like I could the previous episode,mainly because I can't sympathise with Baremoto. From an objective point of view I can see his actions as being influenced by his past "betrayals", but subjectively I just think of him as dumb for being manipulated like that.

The eyes were great. There's eyes for "I want to kill you", eyes for "There's no key, see!", and eyes for "what....how did it turn out like this".

The same "Why would you go so far" contrasted the warden and An-chan really well. It tells you exactly what sort of person they are.

And to finish off - stupid cliffhanger.

[animus]

Episode 4 - FroZen

[Buffalobiian]

If the warden wanted to kill them all so badly, it makes me wonder why he only tried beating the shit out of Baremoto without wrestling for the key. You can't honestly get tired from hitting someone (with a batten no less) before they're tired from being hit by you right?

It's good to know that you at least have a cute and kind nurse in a shithole place like that. I would seriously consider injuring myself on a regular basis to spend some time in that ward .

The doctor would probably creep me out though. He's not "out there" -bad, but you know he's no An-chan.

-talking about An-chan, I doubt there was a way for law enforcers to go about prosecuting him into prison unless he insisted he killed his dad. While his guilt may have made him own up to it, how well does the idea of leaving him mum alone sit with him?

[Yukimura]

I think if you are tough enough and the person beating you is not especially strong or in shape it would be possible to simply outlast their beating as long as you protect vitals like your head and have a strong enough tolerance for pain. The guard doesn't seem to have displayed the strength to break bones with his swings so the damage he's inflicting, while likely quite painful in the short term, wouldn't necessarily be debilitating once he got tired of swinging and gave up.

It was good to see Baremoto realizing he was a part of the crew as well but I can only wonder what the next trial the gang will be put through will be.

[masamuneehs]

i've been anticipating this show for some time. wanted to have a few episodes on hand to watch

unfortunately, i downloaded Commie's version. full of typos, poor timing, several omitted or gleefully mistranslated lines.

i could not even finish the first episode, which i was quite enjoying (and jesus biian, it's so clear that the doctor is sexually abusing the prisoners...), because Commie's version was so awful.

i'll be sticking to Frostii / Zen

[Buffalobiian]

I was sure he thought shoving rods up people's asses was more than just his "job", but beyond that I had trouble figuring out what's going on in that head of his. He's not nearly as open about his desires as the warden.

And yeah, FroZen's good. (I liked how they translated Undercoverd's name so we actually know what it means, but I still like calling him Baremoto because it sounds kind of cool. Hypocritically, I prefer Soldier over "Heitai")

[masamuneehs]

and oh my god. this thing has a great seiyuu cast.

Romi Paku and Keiji Fujiwara (Turtle and Uncovered. Romi Paku seems to keep getting these kinds of characters, but it's nice to see Fujiwara on the good guy's side for a change) Koyama Rikiya always does a good "benevolent leader" (he was Hakuoro)

and, good god in heaven, speaking of Ishihara (the guard with the big lips). When I heard his voice it seemed to ring a bell, but when he starts shouting and going all high-pitched psycho. Where did they dig that guy up from? I haven't heard him in any anime in the past five years or more... (he played one of my favorite bad guys of all time in Now and Then, Here and There)

[seanos]

Episode 05 - FroZen

[Buffalobiian]

In recent memory, no other anime has gotten me this pumped. Sakuragi snapping at the end was just one brilliant surge of rage. Seriously, that guy's been building a giant dam to hold everything back, and those guys just put a crack in it.

Don't expect to live.

The guitar soundtrack complimented it perfectly.

If only An-chan could foresee all this and stayed in hospital instead.

[The Heretic Azazel]

Frozen - 06

What a bad ass series this is. Those guys in Sakuragi's cell should have known when he meant business that they weren't going to win a fight with him, but to get their asses handed to them so bad that they would tell Ishihara that Sakuragi wasn't responsible must have been pretty embarrassing.

Why was Turtle hurt so bad when he sneaked the food to Sakuragi? I imagine that's what he was going to look like after the guards found him, but if they had beat him before, he probably wouldn't have been able to fool them and run off.

So Sakuragi has two weeks left. Ishihara is never going to let him out alive. Up until this episode it has been all about humiliating Sakuragi to the point that he kills himself like Hinagi. It's now that we see Ishihara's starting to lose it because Sakuragi won't break. However the prison doesn't appear to have any problems covering up "accidents" so unless Kumagai intervenes I really don't see our beloved An-chan getting out of that place with his life.

[masamuneehs]

Kumagai is gonna be the guy to make this work out somehow.

but, no, Sakuragi isn't making it out. i've never been surer of anything in a very long time of watching anime. King Hamdo does not back down when he wants somebody dead. (i also love that he's doing this strictly for money, no nonsensical bad guy motivation, just cash). The pedo doctor is being way too relaxed about this whole thing.

i love that this show is fairly brutal. it was getting a little annoying with the "We'll stick by each other to the end dattebayo!" cheer earlier on. i enjoyed the last two episodes quite a bit.

[Buffalobiian]

Frozen - 06

What a bad ass series this is. Those guys in Sakuragi's cell should have known when he meant business that they weren't going to win a fight with him, but to get their asses handed to them so bad that they would tell Ishihara that Sakuragi wasn't responsible must have been pretty embarrassing.

I was guessing An-chan let them survive on the basis that they don't say anything. I really can't say if he was seriously going to kill them, but to the mob, they must have thought every breath would be their last, the way they were getting smashed. I can just imagine them yelling "Don't kill me. I won't tell anyone. Just don't kill me!!"

Why was Turtle hurt so bad when he sneaked the food to Sakuragi? I imagine that's what he was going to look like after the guards found him, but if they had beat him before, he probably wouldn't have been able to fool them and run off.

That part perplexed me as well. I'm guessing it was all necessary to get the food to An-chan. It can't be that easy to maneuver in a compound undetected, and from memory An-chan's held in a separate compound to them all together (Compound 1-8 vs 2-6). Compound 1 might have been a place where they deal out all the punishment, so the only way Turtle was going to get there was break some rules, get escorted and escape somehow.

So Sakuragi has two weeks left. Ishihara is never going to let him out alive. Up until this episode it has been all about humiliating Sakuragi to the point that he kills himself like Hinagi. It's now that we see Ishihara's starting to lose it because Sakuragi won't break. However the prison doesn't appear to have any problems covering up "accidents" so unless Kumagai intervenes I really don't see our beloved An-chan getting out of that place with his life.

I never expected An-chan to make it out alive. Watching the OP every week, I only see the six near the tree, and the scenes with An-chan had a very "memory" feel to them like he's no longer around (in the future). So with that thinking in mind, this episode actually gave me some hope that he might actually make it out alive.

edit: Frozen - Episode 06 (mkv version)