Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin (Rainbow)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Rainbow: Criminal Seven of Compound Two Cell Six

Japanese: RAINBOW 二舎六房の七人

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 26

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Apr 7, 2010 to Sep 29, 2010

Premiered: Spring 2010

Broadcast: Wednesdays at 00:59 (JST)

Producers: VAP, Nippon Television Network

Licensors: Funimation, Discotek Media

Studios: Madhouse

Source: Manga

Genres: Drama, Suspense

Themes: Delinquents, Historical

Demographic: Seinen

Duration: 22 min. per ep.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 8.47¹ (scored by 154,280 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #143²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #571

Members: 387,796

Favorites: 8,344

Available At

Official Site

Resources

AniDB

ANN

Synopsis

Japan, 1955: Mario Minakami has just arrived at Shounan Special Reform School along with five other teenagers who have been arrested on serious criminal charges. All assigned to the same cell, they meet older inmate Rokurouta Sakuragi—a former boxer—with whom they establish a close bond. Under his guidance, and with the promise that they will meet again on the outside after serving their sentences, the delinquents begin to view their hopeless situation in a better light.

The seven cellmates struggle together against the brutal suffering and humiliation inflicted upon them by Ishihara, a sadistic guard with a grudge on Rokurouta, and Gisuke Sasaki, a doctor who takes pleasure in violating boys. Facing such hellish conditions, the seven inmates must scrape together all the strength they have to survive until their sentences are up; but even if they do, just what kind of lives are waiting for them on the other side?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

FUNimation Entertainment simulcasted Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin in North America, but didn't give it a physical release due to poor streaming numbers. It is no longer streaming via FUNimation.

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Related Anime

Adaptation:

Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Sakuragi, Rokurouta

Main

Koyama, Rikiya
Japanese

Minakami, Mario

Main

Oguri, Shun
Japanese

Maeda, Noboru

Main

Park, Romi
Japanese

Yokosuka, Jou

Main

Hasome, Tatsuya
Japanese

Nomoto, Ryuuji

Main

Fujiwara, Keiji
Japanese

Tooyama, Tadayoshi

Main

Kuroda, Takaya
Japanese

Matsuura, Mansaku

Main

Waki, Tomohiro
Japanese

Ishihara

Supporting

Ishii, Kouji
Japanese

Koike, Setsuko

Supporting

Kanjiya, Shihori
Japanese

Lilly

Supporting

Yamagata, Kaori
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Tamura, Manabu

Producer

Koujina, Hiroshi

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Mima, Masafumi

Sound Director

Yajima, Tetsuo

Episode Director, Storyboard

Edit

Opening Theme

"We're not alone" by coldrain

Edit

Ending Theme

"A FAR-OFF DISTANCE" by Galneryus

Reviews

Oct 18, 2023

JKrauser

Recommended

"We are just the trash of society, and if we don't risk our lives for every chance we get, we'll become nothing more than sore losers."

This anime's harsh realism first breaks your heart into pieces, then stomps on it, and finally repairs it and gives it back better.
Rainbow: Nisha Rokubo no Shichinin takes us to the 1950s. In a defeated Japan that suffered heavy losses due to the Second World War and atomic bombs, a group of young people from different backgrounds come together in a reformatory. Although these young people were not inherently bad, the current situation in Japan and the conditions they ... lived in pushed them to commit crimes, and they were sent to Shounan Special Reform School to serve their sentences. Although it looks like a simple reformatory from the outside, life inside is very different. As in the opening song of the anime, "Sunlight was the only thing that felt right before I came here", there is not much inside that can make you feel good, and right and wrong are determined by certain people. When six young prisoners are thrown into their cells, they meet another partner in fate named Sakuragi Rokurouta, and this young man becomes their only hope in life.

The anime is divided into two parts in itsef, and I can say that the first part is simply perfect. The young people's resistance against the cruel and sadistic guardian Ishihara and Doctor Gisuke Sasaki, a pedophile boy-lover pervert, despite his statements saying stuff like "we should treat children well" and their dreams of being free again, touches the heart of the audience. The second part of the series covers the life of young people outside, which I cannot say is bad by any means, but the story that took place inside the reformatory was on a completely different level. But throughout the anime, the bond shared by these 7 people and their hold on to life together is displayed at an almost perfect level. Rainbow: Nisha Rokubo no Shichinin is not actually an anime with a deep plot or breaking points. It has a simple story, but it is handled so well that while watching it, you can empathize with the young people as you can more or less put yourself in their shoes, and after a while, the group's struggle for survival becomes your own struggle for life.

Adapted from an award-winning manga, the series has a fitting finale as it was adapted into an anime after the manga ended. Madhouse has once again demonstrated its capabilities with Rainbow. The violence and sexuality used, combined with the scenes decorated with watercolor-like drawings and magnificent animations, made a great contribution to the overall tone of the anime in terms of impressiveness and so on. The quality of the music should not be overlooked either. The song I quoted from, called "We're Not Alone" by the band Coldrain, who also sings English songs, is simply amazing. Rainbow: Nisha Rokubo no Shichinin, as I said, is a simple anime in terms of story, but it is one of the best in terms of execution. Although the pace slows down a bit in the second part of the series, the journey of seven friends towards hope and life is definitely worth watching.

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Mar 26, 2023

Gr8TasteInAnime

Mixed Feelings

Different. But not for everyone. For some it can be a 10/10, some will not like it. See some trailers, or/and more detailed reviews.
As a person who likes light, calming anime, but also gory ones when they are super deep, like (tokyo ghoul): I did not enjoy most of rainbow. I did love the first episodes, despite their sorrow. It shows a perspective in life, teenage jail, that you don't see everyday, which was an experience I welcomed. But as it continued, it seemed like it mostly aimed on giving harsh feelings and making the whole experience non enjoyable. Not because of the ...

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Jul 2, 2023

whiteflame55

Not Recommended

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a show on which I so dramatically disagree with the ratings on MAL and AniList, but here we are. This one was frustrating guys. Not sure why it’s above an 8 with most audiences. There’s a MAL review that I thought captured it pretty well, though: it’s a shonen cast and story set in a seinen world of pain and misery, which leads to a lot of cognitive dissonance as hyper-motivated boys (who are largely stereotypes) face down more realistic villains.

I'm having trouble deciding on a score because there was so much wrong with the first half ...

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Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin

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Sakuragi, Rokurouta

Minakami, Mario

Maeda, Noboru

Yokosuka, Jou

Nomoto, Ryuuji

Tooyama, Tadayoshi

Matsuura, Mansaku

Ishihara

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Lilly

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Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

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Resources

Synopsis

Background

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Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

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Ending Theme

Reviews

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