Blue Submarine No. 6

Original Title: 青の6号
Romanized: Ao no Roku-go
Literal: Blue Number 6

Plot Synopsis

In the near future, the situation isn't so far from Waterworld--sea level has risen, drowning what were once the major cities of the world. Humanity is now at war with the Zorndyke--a race of water dwelling creatures with powerful war machines. But humanity is fighting back with high tech submarines and aquatic assault craft. At the forefront of the fleet is Blue 6 and her crew.

As the story beings, we meet Mayumi Kino, a young and talented pilot. Blue 6 is preparing to do battle, but they're missing a vital element--Tetsu Hayami, a master pilot who now hires out his skills as a freelance salvager. Hayami has no intention of rejoining the military, but when the Zorndyke suddenly attack, he might get pressed into service anyway...

Quick Review

Rating: 3.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2005-01-25

Blue Submarine No. 6 is a historically interesting series, marking both an early success in computer-heavy anime production and Gonzo's first foray into anime, but it merits recognition based purely on its own merits. The misleadingly simple start to the story eventually leads into a solid war drama with no clear right or wrong, and the small cast of well-developed characters play it out effectively, and though the short runtime leaves it feeling a bit underdeveloped at times, the non-action scenes are never rushed. The plentiful action is almost completely computer-generated undersea combat, and is fast, smooth, and exciting, with a great deal of effort put into creative touches, from odd camera angles to handheld camera-style action. The solid if unremarkable acting in both Japanese and English are complimented by a rich soundscape (particularly evident in the 5.1 channel Japanese), though the jazz soundtrack feels out of place.

In all, this is a solid, unusual series--it has good action and plenty of it, creative visuals and settings, interesting characters, and a more-than-it-seems, thought provoking (if a little formulaic) story.

US DVD Review

The original 4-disc set was Bandai's first DVD effort, and I was quite pleased with the discs, though buying each OAV individually (like the poor anime fan in Japan is forced to do) seems like usury in the US. It has since been superseded by a reasonably priced 3-disc set that includes the whole series and an entire disc of new bonus material: interviews, loads of information, illustrations, trailers, and info and video from the Playstation game. Video and audio-wise, I assume the re-release is similar, which is a very good thing.

Even though they're only OAVs, they have full Dolby 5.1 Japanese audio tracks (the English is only stereo), and fine ones at that. A bit too fine at times--I mentioned the dialogue problems above--but the sound effects are crystal clear and well separated.

Better yet, the video is among best of any anime DVD, more so at the time the series was originally released. This probably comes from the fact that even the cel art was computer colored and composited, making it very clean, but I was really impressed. The flat colors are smooth as silk, the computer stuff looked perfect, and the lines looked like they'd been cut with a razor. I even turned off all the lights and got close to make sure I wasn't missing some compression artifacts, but they're just not there. On close examination, some gradients show a little bit of banding, but even subtle gradients in very dark scenes (a classic DVD encoding pitfall) are crisp and smooth. Bandai, you've done good.

My other (very minor) annoyance was that the first three discs didn't include the Japanese cast (odd, since the default settings are Japanese with subtitles on), although though at least they left the Japanese credits intact, and the first disc does have the sub cast written on an insert. The last one replaces the Japanese credits with a complete English translation, including the actors in both languages.

That's about all there is on the discs other than a few trailers for other upcoming Bandai DVDs and a chapter index, but the final disc does include a fairly thorough interview with the production crew with some really interesting comments (it was funny to note that the producer was the only one promoting this as a new chapter in the history of animation, which in ways it actually is).

Though not all of their later releases quite lived up to this one, this was the start of a beautiful friendship betwixt Bandai and the Digital Disc.

Content Guide

Bandai rated it 13 and up, and about right due to some violent content and some near-human nudity.

Violence: 2 - The violence isn't graphic at all, but there's a lot of action and some exploding boats, as well as some large dying sea creatures.

Nudity: 2 - Completely non-erotic, but a humanoid enemy pilot is unclothed onscreen for a while.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - Nothing.

Language: 1 - Not much.

Notes and Trivia

Blue Submarine No. 6 is (apparently) based on a sci-fi comic series from the '60s by Satoru Ozawa about invaders from Mercury, but it shares little with the original story.

The first non-video-game work of the now-popular animation studio Gonzo.

Availability

Available in the US from Bandai on a 3-disc "Special Edition" hybrid DVD set. Originally available on 4 hybrid DVDs or 4 subtitled or dubbed VHS volumes.

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