Ao no 6-gou

Yet another anime I remember watching during my Toonami days. I remember not liking it very much when I was younger, due to the dark plot. But I've recently rewatched it again (years later) and I must say, this was a kickass anime. I was rewarded with a great plot, jazzy music, excellent animation, and a good moral lesson. The story itself had a pretty interesting and original twist on the End of the World genre of movies. With the theme's of man vs nature and such (it does this much better then The Happening, but that isn't very hard to do). I only wish that they'd have made a few more episodes. I'd really have liked to have seen the plot deepen somewhat, which we didn't get the chance to see with just 4 episodes. The animation was great, at least the hand drawn portion. It flows very nicely and the colors are vibrant. The drawn stuff has aged very well... the CGI not so much. They added quite a bit of CGI, which probably looked cool 10 years ago. But now you can CLEARLY see the age. This can be an eye sore at times. The soundtrack was quite interesting. You'd think that something like this would have an epic orchestra score. But instead, the soundtrack consists of a group of jazz tracks. The jazz actually fits very well with the anime, who would've thought... The characters aren't very complex save for Zorndyke, who ends up being a very complex and deep character. Other than him, the other characters remain 2 dimensional. Hayami is your standard antihero, Kino is your standard annoying female counter part, and Verg (who is actually my favorite) is your standard bad guy, up until the end where we see a completely different side to the monster shark captain. Once again, I blame the lack of episodes for this. We're just not given time to watch these characters develop at all. Overall, this is a pretty good anime from beginning to end. It has and uses some very interesting idea's, some elements work (the concept and story) while others don't (the CGI). I recommend this to any action/apocalypses junkies.

Title: Blue Submarine No. 6 Manga, Live-Action Movie, Anime: Blue Submarine No. 6 was originally a manga created by Satoru Ozawa. It ran in Shonen Sunday, and stands at three collected volumes. It has yet to be licensed Stateside. In 2005, a live-action movie was announced by Gonzo studios, with Masahiro Ohkura directing. There's no more info about the movie after this, so your guess is as good as mine as to whether or not it's actually still happening. Blue Submarine No. 6 is a four episode OVA that was produced by Gonzo (famous for their work on Gankutsuou and Bokurano) and directed by Mahiro Maeda (famous for directing Gankutsuou and the Second Renaissance segments of the Animatrix). It was released in Japan in 1998, and came Stateside in 2000 courtesy of Bandai Entertainment, and was released one episode (which ran about a half hour) a disc, and the final disc was released on October 3rd, 2000. It also aired on Toonami starting on November 6th, 2000 in the 6:00 block. Story: In the near future, the seas have risen to flood most of the world, and what few areas of land remain are attacked and/or destroyed by sea-living hybrids created by a scientist named Zorndyke. In order to stay alive, humanity relies on the crews of submarines known at the Blue Submarines. The story focuses on Blue Submarine No 6, and a jaded ex-submariner named Hayami, who is asked to come back and help the crew defeat Zorndyke and his hybrids. Sound like every other post-apocalyptic anime you've seen? Well, it is like most other post-apocalyptic anime out there, except that it takes place mostly in the sea. For the most part, the plot isn't anything particularly stellar, not to mention subplots that are bought in out of nowhere and kind of made of WTF. The characters are not particularly well-developed, even for having only four half-hour episodes to do it in. The characters have basic traits established, and that's how they stay for the entirety of the series. One of the problems I have is the "romance" between Hayami and the female lead, Kino, who's a whiny little bitch who suddenly does a 180 about how she feels about Hayami in the third episode. The one exception to all of this is Zorndyke, who comes in in the second episode, and is probably the best well-developed plot line and character of the whole thing. He's initially painted as the ZOMG EVIL SCIENTIST, but as the OVA goes on he gets enough development that you're left with this moral ambiguity about him that you see in shows like Code Geass and Death Note. Art: The blend that Gonzo does of 2D and 3D art here is absolutely stunning, especially for the ocean scenes. They're also particularly creative in their designs for the hybrids, which is a nice touch. The overall color scheme is based on various shades of blue and grey and green, because hey, we're in the ocean. Normal character designs aren't anything particularly special, but hey, it works. Music: The music for this series is all jazz-bassed, as is the ED (no OP), and all in all, I really like it. ...Nothing more I can say about it, really. Seiyuu: Again, no seiyuu that I recognize/love to death, but all in all, a pretty good job. Props especially to Mutio's seiyuu, who could convey what she wanted to get across with the character without using actual words (most of her dialogue was humming or random sea animal-esque noises). Length: I think they could've stood to add two more episodes and made it a six-episode OVA, which would've given it a bit more time to breathe, in terms of plot and characters. Overall: A pretty decent OVA with a plot and characters that don't stand out much, except for one character, pretty art and music, and awesome hybrid designs that deserved an episode or two more. Story: 7/10 Art: 9/10 Music: 9/10 Seiyuu 8/10 Length: 7/10 Overall: 40/50; 80% (B-)

I dont generally do reviews but nows as good of a time as any to start, that being said this is my first review and you may find it a little odd in comparison to most however i'll just keep doing them in my own 'brainless' way. Story: The story, which i'm not going to any detail about, is border-line amazing though it doesn't seem very "whole". I say amazing because I've never really seen anything quite like it, that is to say it is quite unique and quite creative. However it does seem to have a lot of holes, much seems to go unexplained. Because of the very short four episode life span of this anime the story does proceed along at a very fast rate, this may explain my feeling of the story not being very "whole" Art: The art was one of my favorite parts about this anime, everything is very nicely put together and anything non-human was quite creatively put together. The only thing that bugged me quite a bit was the use of quite a bit of CGI (which i cannot stand in my anime). Aside from the CGI (if your into that kinda thing, isn't even a problem) the over-all "art" of this anime is great. Sound: Music track is win, Voice's are win, Sound Effects are win, over-all the "sound" section is win. That is to say there are no voice's i hated and only one that bugged me. (shark-boy's voice bugged me a little) Characters: This is a section this anime really suffers in, and over all the sections it gets my lowest score. I say this because the character development in this story is damn near non existent. We can blame this on the whole "I'm a very short anime i have to get right to the point thing" but even for an anime of this length the lack of character development is horrible. New characters are not introduced, they merely start existing when the plot seems to need them, half of which don't even seem to have names. By the end i had trouble even remembering who the two main characters of the story where. despite these aspects of terrible "character-isms" the main characters are very like-able, even if you don't fully remember their names.... Overall this is an enjoyable little anime, generally i skip any anime with more then 2 minutes of CGI (grawr i hate that stuff) but for some reason this anime just really kept my attention. don't go into expecting any character development or any of that but its a nice anime to just sit down and watch if your bored. Verdict: Brainless Approves 8/10 This was very poorly written. brainless reviews his review as 2/10 - brainless 12/9/14

What is it I love about Blue Submarine 6... Well, I remember, vaguely, watching it in instalments, back during those beautiful 6 months when I was 6 and we had free Cable, on Toonami. At yes, along side those hours watching Gundamn Wing and Chris Colorado, there was this odd little show about a Blue Submarine and some odd Animal men. Back then, I wasn't so crazy on it, but that was mostly because I could never work out what order the episodes went in. I had this vague idea I might be watching them out of sync, or perhaps that I missed one. Now of course, its 14 years on and I've got the series. And Damn do I love it. Blue Sub 6 does not, really, stand out in any particular category. No numerical store I could give it would really do justice to how Much I really Like it. The Animation is smooth, beautiful, but its not remarkable in any way. The Story isn't perfectly original, but its good and it has some wonderful little details. Frankly, the characters don't stand out at all for me. But somehow, all put together, its a truly enthralling thing to watch. There's a noticeable lack of Romance, although I think there's something implied between Mutio and Tetsu. And perhaps Tetsu and Mayumi too. The Scenes of underwater combat are stylish, well done, and fairly believable, but the far enough between that you can't call this a "Battle Anime". The Scenes with the animal men are...Strange, but present a rather interesting view of them. Very human, yet clearly not. The Music is rather nice too, some wonderfully appropriate Jazz tunes in there. Rather reminds me of Big O in that respect. but I can't say it stands out in this regard either In fact, all in all, my reason for loving this series cannot be found in any particular aspect of it. Its, so to speak, in the completion rather than the components.

It's a lot like the Evangelion Rebuild 3.0. There's very little plot or character depth, just a post-apocalyptic excuse for action sequences and overall surface-level childish morality questions of: war is bad? bigotry is bad? The antagonist is effectively just a Posadist Hitler 2d cutout spouting hypocritical nonsense, throwing away the only opportunity the anime allows itself to have any depth in it: One of the only other actual characters is effectively mute and goes nowhere while the other antag is just a mentally deficient manchild soldier who can barely talk. You'll note the main character Hayami goes through an immediate character 180 after his 1st scene which immediately makes no sense. Everything about this show is surface-level and thrown together nonsense. And the art is a ton of CG that while technically cutting edge at the time still looked bad way back then and now. 2/10 (where 5/10 is average)

STORY SECTION Post-apocalyptic world, animal-like mutants, a submarine out to save what’s left of humanity by an insane scientist, and some more typical elements, packed in only 2 hours. The main theme of the story is hardly original. The pace of the story is almost predictable. The conclusion is on the other hand promising but fails to wrap the story smoothly or even to make sense. You almost feel like the scriptwriters were not given enough time and ended the story in a rush, unfulfilling way. The scenario clearly needed more episodes and development in order to run smoothly and to make sense. As it is, it feels like a lot of fuss happened for no reason and the conclusion will leave you more frustrated rather than satisfied. It had potential for greatness, thanks to all the talking about humanity’s greed and ecology. It didn’t make use of it though and thus the story is half good. A typical GONZO mistake. Very good visuals and promising stories that are always ruined by their apathy at keeping the pace of a series as good as it begins. CHARACTER SECTION - As it is, the only character with interest is the “evil” scientist, who wants to wipe out humanity. He has a good reason for what he is doing and is not a typical bad to the bone villain. - The only thing the rest of the characters do is fighting for or against him, instead of having personality and goals of their own. There is supposed to be some personal drama around the leading man and woman but given the short duration of the series, it will feel uninteresting. All the whining and crying of the shark-like leader and the renegade female mutant feel more like pointless torture time, rather than reason for acting as they do. None of the characters has much coloring or development because of the duration. Most seem to have something interesting to show but nothing of such is shown in the end. As soon as their development begins, we see the ending credits. - Even the scientist is not that great, as his plan is not given enough time to be explained. I mean, destroying humanity and most of the world just to replace sentient life with a race of warlike animals? How will that help the planet? Duh! ART SECTION - This is amongst the first anime that managed to mix 2D and 3D without making it look utterly stupid. There is a huge amount of details and colors given to almost everything, making the optical department a sight of sore eyes. - Realism in motion is quite good, although casual viewers will probably dislike the way 3D objects move and the mannerism of the characters. They both look weird and not natural, something that was expected for an early CGI work. But it’s not like GONZO learned from its mistakes and improved later on. - Anyway, the animation takes some time to get used to but it eventually becomes bearable. The 3D doesn’t always look ok next to the 2D but if we think this is GONZO we are talking about, we must give them a credit for taking animation in anime to a whole new level with this title. Really; just check how lame all previous attempts were. Hell, just check how uninteresting most upcoming 3D anime were. - Other than that, the character designs were way too generic and simplistic to the point you cared more about the backgrounds and the action than about them. This tends to make them less interesting than the theme of the story. SOUND SECTION - Jazz for humans and tribal ouga bouga drum music for mutants, almost made it sound like a strategy game with themed factions. Voice acting was decent, although the voice synk for the mutants feels more like dubbing than actually listening to what they say with groans and barks in their native language. Beyond all that, the context in the dialogues is mostly philosophical and scientific and you get a kick out of paying attention to what they say. ENJOYMENT SECTION The aesthetics are better than the story and the characters put together. It all comes down to a silly ecology theme of value your planet and recycle or the shark boogiemen will eat you. The Blue Submarine is sinking in term of enjoyment and you won’t remember it for something particular.

I shall preface this review by letting you, the reader, know that I have not reviewed a show before. It is something I have always wanted to start. There is no time like the present, so let us begin. Blue Submarine is a fresh spin on a post-apocalyptic man vs the world story. I believe the true strength of the anime lies in it's unique story in a seemingly oversaturated market (granted it was made 20 years ago as of this write-up) while it's true weakness is it's inability to do anything tangible with it in a 4 episode setting It is of this reviewers belief that this OVA would have perhaps been formatted better as a movie or a longer series. My largest pet peeve was the character and their progression or rather I should say lack thereof. The main characters felt hollow and only serving as a placeholder of sorts for the character they COULD become. Abysmal. The sound was that of the funky fresh jazz variety that seems to be a beloved attribute of 90s anime sci-fi, of which I will not complain. It gives a particular vibe that can trigger nostalgia in the older anime peruser, myself having been a young viewer of Toonami, often sneaking up late to watch shows such as Dragon Ball, Gundam and the like. The last item I will touch on are the visuals. For the show being 20 years old, the art is impressive in 1080p. It looks as good or better than some currently airing anime, but... There is one tiny part of the visuals that didn't quite hold up so we'll, and that's the CGI. Watching it now in 2019 it feels like watching science mystery theatre 3000, it's that comical. But for the era, I'm sure it was well done. Well, that's it. I'm sure that this review will likely go unnoticed as the show is not popular and rarely discussed, but I wanted an opportunity to try to write something up. If you do happen to read this, please leave me feedback on how to improve upon my reviews. Thankee-sai.

It’s uncommon in the world of anime to find shows that run less than 10 episode seasons, and that is most likely due to the fact that it’s hard to tell a good story with fewer episodes. Blue Submarine took on that challenge by only having four episodes for its series. With only four episodes, did Blue Submarine achieve something few anime can pull off? Let's find out. Since there are a limited amount of episodes, Blue Submarine has no choice but to be fast-paced; which I think they handle very well. Blue Submarine was unique and the premise is something that you’d be hard-pressed to find a copy of. Sadly, the story was just too simple and left viewers wanting a little more in return from spending their time watching the show. The show’s concept was unfortunately too ambitious and needed perhaps a standard 12 episode season in order to fully flesh out concepts such as the fish mutants Dr. Zorndyke created. The story being bareboned meant that the characters would have to have uplifted the show. The main character Hayami had decent development that’s nothing unique, a standard emo protagonist. Hayami has a major regret and he learns to overcome it, which was nice to see, but Mutio, his sidekick, never grew as a character herself. She never changed and just stayed the loud-mouthed sidekick the whole time. The best character in the show was the villain, Dr. Zorndyke. While he didn’t have much screen time, his motivation for why he flooded the earth was something I really related to since I practice Taoism. One of Taoism’s beliefs is that there is no difference between animals and men, we are all animals. Dr. Zorndyke flooded the earth because he was tired of seeing the way humans treated the planet, such as pollution. This made him a character I will never forget. Blue Submarine Six was one of the pioneers in anime to use CGI, and it shows. The show didn’t age well at all; the CGI looks like Playstation 2 graphics. The worst part is that they tried to use CGI whenever possible, which made the scenes unwatchable and hard to get through. This is a shame, because the actual art style is pretty to look at, but it was drowned out by the constant use of the CGI. The show had a balance of 90% CGI and 10% standard art. The voice acting, on the other hand, was really good for a dub in the early 2000’s. I found some of the tracks in the show were actually good, and it helped add to the dark and helpless emotions in scenes. Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy my time watching this show. It was a struggle to get through it, and there weren’t even that many episodes to get through. If you are looking for a dystopian future-themed anime to watch, this isn’t the show for you. Story: 5/10 Art: 1/10 Sound: 7/10 Character: 4/10 Enjoyment: 1/10 Overall: 2/10

Ao no Rokugo (Blue Submarine No.6) Out of 100 Nobles watching… 86 were impressed! 5 were judging the CG despite the time it was from 5 wanted more explanation and plot 4 were not okay with certain tidbits of fish on fish violence Ao no Rokugo is a 4-episode OVA released in October of 1998. It was an adaptation of a manga the same name written in the late 60’s and covers some interesting themes having been made not far from Japan’s post WWII reconstruction and rapidly changing government structure at the dawn of the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. The anime was certainly dated and I can only imagine what the manga looks like, but what’s presented in around 2 hours or so is a pretty interesting post-apocalyptic action anime. Initial disclaimer I have to present for every one of THESE sorts of anime. I’m pre-disposed to liking this one. It’s a postapocalyptic Waterworld filled with furries. I cannot be held entirely accountable for my objectivity with these sorts of setting so if you watch this anime and hate it, I could totally be wrong. What immediately stood out to me in this series after bracing for the impact of the 90’s CG (which yes DOES get a pretty hefty pass because it was hip at the time) was the sound design. I was really blown away immediately from the first scene at the quality of the sounds in this show. Seagulls chirping behind a character would sound perfectly echoed in the distant top left of my hearing. Characters talking on a submarine echoed appropriately. Sounds underwater, electrical work, layered voices, and more were all very impressive in the version I watched. The soundtrack was also very impressive ranging from energetic jazzy music for every battle sequence to somber siren’s calls from the hybrid mer-people. Something about terrible 90’s CG that had a lot of budget behind it was also oddly palatable compared to cheap CG slapped on modern anime. I can’t explain that. The character designs here were varied wildly and the human and hybrids were both all wildly different in design. You really got a feeling that “humanities last fleet made of every nation” was being show to us. Characterization in the show was decent. No character had too much of a background to speak of so we had to grow attached to them through their actions in the present. The protagonist Tetsu Hayami was a pretty solid no nonsense badass and his relationship with our two kind-of love interests Mayumi and Mutio was captivating enough. I felt like the OVA’s were clearly rushed for time and can’t help but wonder if more is given to the readers of the original manga in this regard. The antagonists of the series are presented in an unconventional way in some senses and you could tell the creators were trying to present a scenario where the viewer may not agree with the villains, but they could certainly empathize with them. Pretty good viewing experience, I would certainly recommend given the required time investment. (SLIGHT SPOILER BELOW FOR WARNING PURPOSES) P.S. In all of Japanese media for some reason fish girls can never catch a break. The heck is that about? Mermaids deserve happy endings too. Bad things happening to cute girls really put a bad taste in my mouth and if I’m being legitimately honest pretty much all deducted nobles are really knocked for that reason.

Blue Submarine No. 6 got quite a bit of exposure on Toonami years ago, hence how I became familiar with this 1998 OVA series from Gonzo. While I did have interest in wanting to see what all the fuss was about, I was also a bit hesitant to acquire this for my collection considering Gonzo's rep for the quality of their works being all over the place and making it hard to recommend them as a studio for consistently good quality works considering for as excellent quality works they can make like Gankutsuou and Bokurano, they've also made stinkers like Witchblade and Zaion: I Wish You Were Here. In the case of Blue Submarine No. 6, the series felt like wasted potential to me. The series depicts a post-apocalyptic future where most of the Earth has been flooded and humanity is at war with a army of mutant sea creatures given sentience by a rogue human scientist. The main focus of the anime is on a young man named Hayami Tatsu who is recruited by the submarine forces of Blue No. 6 to aid in humanity's efforts against the creatures. He strangely seems indifferent at wanting to contribute to the cause as he is acting pacifistic, but the series explores why he acts as he does as it progresses. This makes him the most well-developed character of the series and a major highlight for me, though that's not saying much as I'll cover later in the review. The animation for Blue Submarine No. 6 is probably some of the most impressive I've seen for a 1990s anime thanks to its nice mix of CG animation and traditional hand-drawn animation, possibly rivaling the quality I seen with the excellent animation work for Macross Plus. While the CG animation looks rough in detail compared to more modern implementations of the technology, it still features nicely rendered designs of sunken buildings and the various submarines in action throughout the OVA's run. Animation was very fluid in this series as well, as characters moved about at a natural pace, sea creatures swam convincingly fast in the water and submarine battles were nice on the eyes as the CG animation produced air bubble effects for the use of said submarines and any torpedoes they fired in the heat of battle. Character designs were reasonably detailed, though human designs were a bit on the plain side. However, some of the character designs for the sentient sea creatures were quite unique and original for an anime series, particularly designs for Verg and Mutio. Getting all praises out of the way though, Blue Submarine No. 6's quality suffers quite a bit thanks to its pacing. The series immediately throws you into its action and rushes through its events at a very quick pace. This, combined with the limited run time and episode count of the OVA, greatly limits any opportunities for world building and fleshing out of plot and characters, as only Hayami and Mutio get any real fleshing out or development. Mostly every other character is tacked on with a character archetype and we get little to no details revealed about them. The anime seemed like it was trying to express some sort of moral lesson about how man's excesses to the environment could lead to the future of Blue Submarine No. 6 without any coexistence between man and nature, as seen with Zorndyke's monologues and Hayami's actions. Yet without any reasonable fleshing out or world building, the effectiveness of expressing this lesson is greatly crippled. But perhaps the worst feature to this OVA would be its choice of soundtrack. Consisting entirely of upbeat jazz pieces, the musical tracks are totally out of place for the series and are more obnoxious on the ears than enjoyable for me, possibly rivaling the annoyance I had with the synthesized techno-rock soundtrack used for Geneshaft. Overall while visually pleasing and having some promising elements to its storytelling, Blue Submarine No.6 is another anime that I felt had wasted potential thanks to its limited run time greatly limiting what focus could be given to characters and its world, hence adding another subpar work to Gonzo's rep for the varying quality of their works that I've seen.

Blue Submarine No. 6 is one of the archetypal gems of the Toonami era. The atmosphere, sound design, and plot truly embody the essence of that time, heavy with a sense of discovery that only a limitless medium like anime can fully realize. Even beyond that association, this show stands on its own as something forlorn, complicated, and artful, while not losing any of the kinetic action which also defines a huge part of its identity. Beginning with the story, the viewer is met with a post-apocalyptic world, inundated by an ocean full of sentient hybrid monsters, the work of a mad scientist, which the rest of the world now coordinates against. The story retains the original flavor of the 1967 manga it was adapted from, right down to the premise, including mechs and mad scientists. However, it also synthesizes deeper philosophical and conceptual influences from the late 90s enough that it can be counted as something completely distinct. It is this balance which makes the story so refreshing, even decades removed from its initial release. The pacing is phenomenal for such a short run, and the dialogue is masterfully written, invoking the full weight of people facing the very end of the world. However, for all its strengths, it's not perfect. The message of the tale gets muddled towards the end, and though it might be understandable given the runtime, it still feels as though they didn't know exactly how to end it. It seems to wrestle with itself, even though such wrestling is ultimately unnecessary. The overall message of Zorndyke's twisted idealism being evil is, on the face of it, true. To conclude otherwise is to dig a little too deep, while being simultaneously pretentious and shallow. The major flaw is that, even if the story doesn't really conclude this, it allows enough ambiguity for such arguments to gain a foothold. This is still the case, even when the hybrid creations of Zorndyke are occasionally sympathetic, specifically with regards to Mutio. Though, even with that fact in mind, it was still cruel of Zorndyke to thrust them into a world of constant war. It is clear they love him, yet he treats them as little more than tools, despite what he says to the contrary. Speaking of things which aren't perfect, I now must speak on the art, this anime's strongest aspect. This claim might seem contradictory, but it isn't. The art direction as a whole is bold and unique, and all of the traditional animation is crisp, warm, and smoother than many anime of the modern day. Everything from the cinematography to the fight choreography leaves a lasting impression, in a way which few shows of any era manage to accomplish in any kind of enduring fashion. Now, it's plain to see that the CG isn't very good at all. It doesn't hold up, and I doubt it impressed on anything other than a technical level back in 1998 either. However, I still don't think it detracted from the show, and here's why- it was brave and well-placed at the same time. To include such heavy use of CG made them trailblazers, and to put so much of it underwater, where smooth lines and flat, curved edges look more natural, made them prudent innovators. While at first it felt kind of galling, I quickly got used to it, and it only served to highlight just how gorgeous the rest of the animation really is. Meanwhile, the sound design's crowning jewel is this jazzy, smooth composition, reminiscent of Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, fitting right in with the auditory landscape which defined that golden age of Toonami which so many of us are so familiar with. It's complex, contemplative, and alive with a sensitivity to any given scene and its context. On a dime it can turn from this dreamy, acoustic track to a gripping score which shudders with panic and dread at a mile a minute. The rest of the sound is also excellent, with fully realized sounds of life and one of the best dubs I've ever heard. The emotion in their voices bleed through the speakers, feeling immersive and arresting throughout. However, special attention must be paid to the sound of breath. The way Blue Submarine No. 6 utilizes the sound of breath is utterly unique. It sounds as though the voice actors are actually being punched, or cut, or surprised, and on and on. It is raw and vivid, and adds so much to the voice acting that I didn't know it could. It's a small thing, but it adds yet another piece to the monumental achievement of this show's overall sound design. The characters are also quite strong, feeling warm and human in a lot of ways which are hard to achieve in such a short time, even managing to do so with those who aren't strictly human to begin with. The ways these characters interact is both excitingly grand, and unmistakably desperate. Real, three dimensional human relationships, poignant with pain and conflict abound. Of them, my favorite characters are the longsuffering badass and secretly idealistic Hayami, and the despicable genius Zorndyke, with the blood of billions on his hands. I like Hayami because he feels like a great fit for the world in which he finds himself, with a monumental grit that doesn't just amount to instant plot armor. Meanwhile, for as much as I hate Zorndyke, it cannot be denied that he is a multifaceted, compelling villain. It goes to show than no matter how eloquent or well-meaning someone is, they can still be horribly, monstrously, wrong. Overall, Blue Submarine No. 6 is an excellent anime, not only archetypal of the era in which it was produced, but also enduringly compelling and, at the end of the day, cool as hell. Definite recommend.

You'll never convince me that the CG in this "looked good" at the time. It may have looked bleeding edge, and people may have liked that for technical reasons, but I can't believe they thought this looked particularly amazing. I feel similarly now that it's germane to say Blue Submarine No. 6's heavy blend of 2D and 3D was ahead of "its time." We're at a point now where sometimes and increasingly, the blend of 2D and 3D can look good—you could say some degree of it is even standard. But I don't think it actually makes a show look better, as in: if this was entirely 2D animation, it would look better. It would be at least equivalent. All investment in this style deliberately ignores that fact, and we're stuck with all these overengineered shots that look more masturbatory than impressive. Bah. Story was fine. It had devolved into poor philosophizing by the end.

Have you ever thought "Oh man, Waterworld was an interesting movie. I wonder what'd it'd be like if Japan made a cartoon?" Well look no farther because Blue Submarine No. 6 is that. But, you know, not at all really. First off, the character and creature designs are spot-on. The world Blue Submarine presents the viewer with is at once visually interesting and begging to be explored. Everyone looks and sounds very distinct and at no point (despite the relatively short amount of time I had to get to know everyone) did I ever confuse a character with another. I was initially ready for a tropey cast that really seemed like they were copy/pasted right out of an anime database. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that everyone develops over the course of the meager four episodes in a most pleasant way. No one is really how you initially expect them to be. As I watched the anime I couldn't help but want to know more about the history that led to the Earth we see here, but if you think the anime is going to give you answers OH NO, it's not. Hehehe. Get it? It's like the title. I did a bit there. Hope you caught it. But no, really, you aren't told nearly enough about this fascinating alternate reality for it to really sink in. The humans are fighting hybrid creatures, but why? When were they made? How were they made? Why did the villain feel like creating human/animals hybrids was the best course of actions? Why did he (SPOILERS) transform that one human prisoner into a hybrid creature? Was it just for kicks? The villain's character is sorely underdeveloped, especially compared to the protagonists, and I didn't feel like he effectively justified himself to the viewer. And fine, okay, a villain certainly doesn't have to be justified. But the anime really seems like it WANTS you to understand him. They really go far to say "Hey, he's not THAT bad. Just delusional!" Sorry, but killing over 10 billion people and attempting to destroy humanity completely is pretty evil by most standards and I'm not biting. The writers could have really gone in an interesting directions by playing up how justified he feels against how atrocious his acts really are, but instead the earnest attempt to make him sympathetic when his actions are so destructive is just really bizarre and off-putting. The main side villain is also totally uninteresting, despite his design (Did I mention the creature designs are all amazing? Because they are.) Story-wise, everything is really straightforward and while the anime starts out as if you're going to be slowly revealing the past of each character, the ultimate reveals are all pretty disappointing in all honesty. This anime is also LOADED with terrible CGI. And man, OH MAN, is it terrible. I saw the amazingly drawn characters and thought "Alright, this looks great!" But then the first of many terribly CGI'd fight scenes begins. This is definitely where the OH NO of Ao No. 6 Gou comes from. The fights would actually be very interesting if they were just animated in 2D. But with so much terrible CGI saturating the anime, from the water to the splash effects awkwardly places over 2D characters to the ships and other creatures, it almost becomes hard to enjoy what would be very interesting visuals. I say "almost" because the soundtrack is terrific. I mean, it's really good. Energetic jazz spliced with sparsely used enigmatic and otherworldly tracks. Not on the level of Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo or any of the other legendary anime soundtracks, but still fantastic and it makes sitting through even the worst-looking CGI a pleasure. So do I recommend it? I mean... kind of? It was good. I liked it. It's no Akira but it's still an interesting post-apocalyptic story with some cool visuals and moments with a great soundtrack. Nothing fantastic, but worth looking into.

*I know technically this isn't a movie, it's actually a 4 episode long OVA, but all the episodes together add up to about 2 hours so I'm just going to refer to it as a movie. What I like about this movie: I love Sci-Fi so when I heard the premise for this movie I was immediately interested; with a mad scientist, mutant fish-people, and a post-apocalypse war, the premise for this movie really is awesome. Also, the designs for some of the fish-people characters is cool and I do love some of the weapons and technology they have in the movie like how the fish-people use whales like living submarines. What I don't like about this movie: First, let me address the elephant in the room, the animation. I understand this movie came out in 1998 when CGI was still a new thing and studios were just beginning to experiment with it, but this movie tries to mix cel animation with CGI and it just comes out looking like a big mess. For example, the character animation looks good, but the background animation, which is CGI, looks awful. It doesn't even look like the characters are interacting with their environment in anyway, it's almost 2 different movies. Next, the movie's villain is awful. I never understand a single thing Dr. Zorndyke says and throughout the movie he tries to explain his motivation, but he just makes me more confused. For example, Zorndyke says he created the fish-people with the hope that humanity and them could learn to co-exist, but if that's true then why did he order the fish-people to destroy humanity? Overall: The people that made this movie had some good creative ideas, but their execution and their mixed animation really stopped this movie from being great.

Kind of a 'non-anime' anime with a Cowboy Bebop-like feel. Not the most unique story but still interesting, the characters are fine but could've been developed a little more. Great animation, the kind you don't really see too much of any more, lots of detail and extra movement added to facial expressions and stuff like that. CGI is dated but still works. Short series, never felt bored while watching, and no bullshit "next time on blah blah". Watch the subbed version, some of the dubbed voices are really good but most are kind of lacking and take you out of it. Highly recommend if your looking for something different from the norm.

Fear of the unknown. I initially came to this anime in search of something with great animation, and although i did receive what I came for, it was not all I got. Story Not expecting much of a story, I move into this with small expectations. Little did I know the story is very deep with many morals. Although the structure is flawed with plot holes, it is easily overlooked with the very well transmitted moral. Art First, It must be taken into consideration that this was aired 1998-2000. The art/animation was beautiful in this. The style was fairly old due to the airing date, but that quality was well beyond most anime of this time. The animation creates a favorable atmosphere that allows those who prefer modern animation to enjoy and become indulged in the anime. Sound The sound in this was somewhat unique. There was a lot of jazz which was nice to hear for once after a long time. There was no opening theme and an ending theme that was nothing special. The sound during the anime was not well done and did not fit the situations well. Despite the fact that the music by itself is nice, the usage of the music is not well done. Character The characters in this show are not anything special. There is not much character development in the anime and their backgrounds are not well explained. As far as enjoyment goes, I can highly recommend this if you would like a nice moral and some outstanding art, but would definitely ask you to refrain from watching it if you are expecting to get to know the characters.

An anime that has a VERY GOOD mix with almost fluently 3-D graphics from that time(1998)and one of my favorites, the story is interesting, so as some of the charac. past and what they do now! for me the 1st time seeing this was very special mostly because the underwater submarine battles are so well done, it kept me going so there was not much to me to bored about! JUST VERY WELL DONE

Let my ratings speak for themselves. It is a masterpiece. Beware though that there's a certain maturity level needed to well appreciate it. If you're looking for an upbeat anime look elsewhere; if you are however, looking for a darker/gloomier/sadder series, look no further.

Unlike several of the other people who have reviewed this series, I did not get to see it when I watched Toonami as a kid. I guess I was too busy watching Outlaw Star and Tenchi Muyo. Maybe it is fortunate that I did not get to see it then, as I think I enjoyed it more now than I would have back then. I'm not going to tell much about the storyline beyond the synopsis because there isn't too much more to tell without spoiling the whole thing. I will say though that the story and several characters are extremely deep considering the time constraints of 4 episodes. There is a lot there beneath the surface of the character interactions and the dialogue. Unless you can infer at least some of those points, you may find yourself scratching your head at times at the plot holes. Characterization is simultaneously the strongest and weakest link in the series. Some of the characters are archetypal in part because they find themselves in stereotypical situations for anime. Others are archetypal simply because there isn't the time to devote to fleshing them out. You find out a lot about Zorndyke despite his short amount of screentime because his motivations for sparking the genocide of humankind are one of the major driving points. The art has definitely held up well for the age of the series. The animation itself is great and consistent. While some have criticized the CGI, I have certainly seen worse CGI in much more recent series. It is clear that they tried to get the most out of what they had for the times. The underwater explosions, physics, and structures also appear to be quite accurate from my largely uneducated point of view. Not surprising I guess, seeing as I believe I saw the MSDF and the National Oceanic and Technology Center in the credits.

i thought blue sub no.6 was quite exciting. I watched in on cartonn network as a kid and was taken aback by the beauty of the scenery. The peaceful quite ocean can remind us of what we are starting to lose and what will become of it.