Ranked #69

Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin

Rainbow : Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin - after watching episodes of this anime, one word kept coming to my mind. "Beautiful". This anime shows how beautiful friendship can be. Acts of selflessness, sacrificing oneself to help another, returning to that one special place - It's all present in Rainbow. It's a good mix of emotion, struggle and drama. Rainbow is one superb anime, regrettably, it's buried deep within the other numerous popular titles out there and I'm glad I found it(more like stumbled upon).


Story? Rainbow focuses on seven teenagers who are found guilty of committing crimes and are sent to a Disciplinary school/Reformatory. In reality, it was Hellhole for them because they received very harsh treatment by some of the authorities to the point where they got thrashed by a group of hired thugs and received a lot of unnecessary punishment, though not all of the main characters suffered the same exact punishment. The story takes place in 1955, a decade after the end of the Second World War. During that time, Japan in it's state, still rebuilding its cities after the war and corruption is common.


Speaking of plot, it can be rather predictable sometimes. Characters' "motives" are predictable as ever too. What's very common in anime are that you can tell who's evil and who's not; Especially, when one of those anime characters who always had their eyes shut, suddenly they open their eyes and with a wide silly grin across their face obviously tells you that they are up to no good. It often shows that their intentions are usually bad too. But even with that, with lots of edge-of-seat action scenes, plenty of sorrowful moments, plot twists and memorable acts of friendship - Rainbow's overall storyline is top notch.


Character? Rainbow have a nice cast of main characters each with an interesting backstory. The seven protagonists of cell six each have their own unique personalities. Also, Character development is good. For example, Mario Minakami. In the start, He was weak and sometimes talks big but with help in the later episodes, he becomes a badass. The MCs are initially hostile towards each other but soon after they start helping out they quickly become friends. My favourite character in the series is Sakuragi Rokurouta: a young man with a boxing talent. He's also the oldest, strongest and acts as the leader out of the seven. With all that, Sakuragi Rokurouta is a man worth respecting.


Sound? The Opening theme is extremely good because I like these kind of songs: the Rock/Metal genre. Opening theme "We're not alone", sung in English by Japanese Band Coldrain was epic. Not only that the opening theme was awesome, but its also very fitting for the anime. The ending theme, wasn't entirely great, still I don't think its too bad. Also, whenever one of the protagonists gets serious, a distinct background music kicks in. Voice acting was brilliant but I find the English voice overs of the American characters sound a little weird.


Art/Visuals? The overall visuals passable. I think the dark/gloomy art style and colors really does suit the anime. However, Viewers who constantly had been watching anime with bright visuals might find Rainbow's visuals repulsive. Amusingly, all the evil characters in the series look so hideous. Characters' hair colours are natural; colours that naturally exist in real life: black, dark brown, blonde, etc. No, I don't hate the colorful hair that exist in anime, but the natural hair colors gives a more realistic feel.


Conclusion? Rainbow is an anime with an inspiring story and have many likeable characters. However, some people may find Rainbow's art style unappealing, but even you don't like that, you should at least give it a try. But for fans of thriller/Drama or anyone looking for a good anime of its genre, it's a must watch.
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After finishing episode 1 of this series, a deep breath was taken. I was so engrossed that apparently I had forgotten to breathe while I was watching.

After finishing episode 26, I finally exhaled. This series was a rush of nonstop emotion all the way throw and never faltered for a second. Everything I said here over a half a year ago holds completely true and I can't flaunt my glowing recommendation for this series enough.

Rainbow is definitely one of the best things Japan has put out in a long time, and not in an ironic "Oh, Japan!" flashy comedy/campy/ridiculous way. It's a serious story. So serious that the first episode starts off with a disclaimer about explicit content. Think about that for a second. In a medium like anime where there's blood, tits and who knows that else in so many shows, what are they warning you about? Real stuff, that's what. Unlike Lucy ripping the head off some moe girl in Elfen Lied, Rainbow is constantly presented as a brutal, depressing series where the violent content is required to present the story in a proper way.

But don't be put off because it sounds too depressing or even boring(I don't know how anyone could think this, personally), because Rainbow is also a story of true bro-ship. Like Gungrave before it, Rainbow will be bleak. It will be depressing. But through all that, a heartwarming tale of friendship will shine. A tale that's under the perpetual threat of being crushed by the blackened circumstances around it, and that's what will keep you engrossed.

The animation is terrific, as expected of Madhouse by this point. This includes the great still art that pops in during narrated scenes, as seen by the series' title art to the left. The whole episode, and most likely a good portion of the series was depicted with very few colors other than shades of grey and dark blue. Any bright things on screen are bright things in the eyes of the story, like the sunshine outside or the end of a lit cigarette shared between the beaten characters. This was a very fine touch and does nothing but add to the heavy atmosphere of the series.

The audio and the animation work beautifully in tandem, with the music bringing scenes to life by boosting the dank atmosphere. The opening by Coldrain is especially great, bringing a badass touch to the show. Similarly, the voices are gruff and work very well with the rest of the presentation.



The above was stated after watching episode 1, and now that the series is over I think it's time to address these issues. Firstly, Rainbow finished excellently. It did not, however, cover the entire 22 volumes of story and instead opted to stop around volume 12 or so. This is no reason to not watch the series, as the stopping point they chose was pretty tactfully chosen and very satisfying. When it comes to negativrs, Rainbow suffered from two things at certain points: Pacing and over-emotion. Even if you haven't read the manga, there's a good chance you'll notice that certain parts, mostly in the second half, seem rushed or like they crammed too many chapters into an episode and that makes it seem like the story skips around a little too much. It's not a big deal at all and very rarely detracts from anything, but it's a factor you'll probably notice. One of the bigger factors that may not sit well with some is that the series can come off as a little too over-dramatized or sappy at points. Sometimes the manly guitar solos and power ballads work incredibly well and you'll be clenching your teeth with streaming down your cheeks, and other times it doesn't work too well. That's something that'll vary a lot from person to person though. The final thing that bothered me was that one of the characters never gets an episode or arc devoted to him, which is pretty unsettling considering the other six boys got the spotlight multiple times. That was the main casualty of thelong manga->short anime transition, but what can you do?

In closing, Rainbow's definitely in the top 10, maybe even top 5 shows of the year 2010. Not watching it should be a crime.

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