NO.6 06: Secrets

Hey look ... a piano ...

Note: Penguindrum 06 is not going to be airing this week, sadly. A week without penguins is a sad, sad week indeed ... but at least I have another five episodes of Nichijou to watch before I'm caught up!

Okay, at this point I'm terrified of what will become of NO.6, and I mean the show in general not the city, though I'm sure their situation will be just as terrifying. There are only 5 episodes left and the direction of the show is still kind of mixed ... I can see a ton of different directions it could take, but they all seem like they'd need at least 10-15 episodes to balance developing the cast, the plot, and everything in-between. To make things worse, 75% of the posts I read on forums from people who are familiar with the novel say that the pacing isn't fast enough to cover everything the series has to offer. Oh the woes of Noitamina. Well, we'll see what happens.

A "beautiful death"?

Episode 6 was great, once again, and by the end I for some reason felt really depressed, but also somewhat ... moved? Safu's grandmother's death was dismal, but at the same time very revealing. The Twilight House, and I guess all of No.6, is a good example of the cliche saying that sometimes "things that are appealing on the outside are the exact opposite on the inside". You can try to make death seem as glorious as you want (like the Twilight House seems to do), but death is death, and as Dogkeeper said, it doesn't matter if you're a human or a dog, it's same for everyone. Death ... I personally hate talking about it. Also, the way the official acted and the tone in general made it seem like No.6 doesn't really care about death, it's just another part of the system that keeps everything going.

Oh and Safu was freaking awesome this episode! You can tell she's starting to slowly put a lot of things together as she gets more information, and now she even knows that Nezumi (who she had a dream about) is with Shion. She's smart, she's strong, and she speaks her mind, sadly, that got her into a little trouble. Now that she's captured by No.6 officials a lot of different scenarios come to mind, but which way the show will go will be interesting. How it related to the parasite bees, well, it probably doesn't, but who knows!?

Safuuuu, noooo.

Nezumi and Shion were a lot more violent this week, with good reason. The differences between their own motives and morals are clashing more then ever and now their "rivalry" (I guess you could say) is sort of at a boiling point. lame Degrassi reference Watching them resolve those differences will be fun to watch. I have to say, they've become really great characters over the last few weeks, and it's not only them either, the side characters (like Dogkeeper and Karan) have developed nicely.

What I love most about this episode though is the way all the character's are starting to mesh together. With the new conflict of Safu being captured and Nezumi having knowledge of it we can expect a lot of exciting things in the upcoming weeks. I'm thinking Shion will find out someway or another and then realize Nezumi knew all along, but didn't tell him. Just a prediction. ;D

These shots seem closer every episode.

I didn't notice anything particularly captivating about the preview of next week's episode, so it might be another slow one. Ugh, I have such high hopes for this series and I'm hoping I won't be let down. A lot of great series are ruined by episode limits. Maybe, if we're lucky, we'll get a bonus episode or two like fellow Noitamina shows Hourou Musuko and Shiki.

What did you think of the episode? Where do you predict the show is going?

Edit: Also, reached 1000 views! I'm glad people are reading! (or just quickly looking and tabbing out)