No. 6 01-02: Boyzone Apocalypse

Ok, this show likes to keep its cards close to its chest, but I think I can fairly describe the situation as follows:

Welcome to the future, a world in which the gap between the haves and the have-nots has widened into a fearsome rift.  In cities like No. 6, everything is as clean as Singapore (in fact, No. 6 is essentially Singapore with clunky robots).  Outside No. 6, environmental calamities take place one after another.  The malnutrition has made boys’ testosterone levels drop dramatically, to the point that they look exactly like girls.  The smog is so bad the boys’ hair has turned ash gray and their throats are so sore they speak like 30-year old men.

Yes, the future is horrible…or awesome, depending on your tastes.

Listen, we don’t need to debate whether this has BL undertones or not.  This is BL period.  If you’re still somehow unconvinced, then allow me to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C

I rest my case.  [Even the names are suggestive → Sion goes from No. 6 (six is for sex) to Lost Town (lust town).  And her friend is called Safu, possibly shorthand for Sappho]

So the question is: is this worth watching?

Well, one odd thing for me about No. 6 is that it really doesn’t seem that mysterious.  I mean, obviously the show is set up as some sort of mystery.  We have this futuristic world, we don’t get told what it’s all about, and we’re meant to slowly find out.  But what there’s to find out?  Basically, the elite is lording it over the rest of the planet.  They live in awesome bubble-cities while the rest festers.  If you belong to the system and you start to ask questions, you get booted.  Every standard trope of a “dystopia beneath the utopia” has been covered.  Why are all those people growing old and dying, you ask.  Well, it’s either an elite virus, or some sort of organism produced by the Earth to avenge themselves on the rapacious techno-humans.  Do we care?  Has the show made us care?

I like the art, I think it’s very pretty.  The writers seem to have put some thought into this work.  I guess I’ll stick around for a couple of more episodes to see if this show starts to develop some more personality.

~ by Haloed Bane on July 15, 2011.