Ranked #4356

Norageki!

Story: 6/10
Well, the story has potential, but wasn’t explained well. I was rather confused at the end, so I had to watch it again. It had a lot of symbolism and references to the game of roulette. Even the prisoners are actually named after roulette slots (R,N,V stands for red, black and green… in French). It has a few plot twists, which will keep you entertained, though.

Characters: 4/10
The characters lack names and personalities. They only reveal small pieces of their background story, which wasn’t enough to care much for them.

Animation: 7/10
The characters looked a bit awkward and their movements appeared a bit stiff. At first I couldn’t realize it, but they were created with cel-shaded animation. Hand-draw and classic 3D were also used at some points, which was… confusing for my eyes. However, the backgrounds were detailed and futuristic.

Sound: 5/10
The cat sounds were totally fake (but funny). The music wasn’t that bad, but didn’t seem to fit with the story at some points. The voice acting was decent, but I have seen/heard better.

Enjoyment: 6/10
It was a good short story, which will leave you wondering. The ending didn’t make much sense, but is kind of poetic and symbolic.
--SPOILER WARNING--
The boy was most probably a government spy and knew the cat was carrying a virus. Thanks to him the humanity ends up infected in the end. It is a roulette game where the bets are human lives.
--END OF SPOILERS--

Overall: 6/10
It is a short animation with some good ideas. I suggest you give it a try, but there are better sci-fi animes out there.
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Five Numbers is an anime version of the kind of short story we used to get in Science Fiction anthology magazines - a group of people tossed together in an unfamiliar and/or hostile environment trying to figure out where they are, why they are there, and how the hell they are going to get somewhere else. There is little time to get to know characters and every nuance counts. And there's the problem. Five Numbers is a good story but all the nuances and titillating hints miss the mark just enough to make you feel there could have/should have been something more.

It's single biggest flaw is character design and the animation of human movement. Stiff, awkward, and generally unattractive. I think perhaps it is so distracting that you just can't develop any kind of feeling for the characters. All the background art and mechanicals were quite lovely, though.
I didn't pay much attention to the sound so it must have been o.k. I did find the ending song fun and wonderfully ironic.

Again, I'll say it isn't a bad story and if you stay as hungry for something passably close to hard science fiction as I do, you will find it a good way to spend less than an hour. read more