Ao no 6-gou

This is another anime i have to add to the good potential but not good enough execution. Well not that much badly executed but not having time to execute the story. First of all I really love the soundtrack of this, i still listen to it after months of watching the movie. But lets go to the important stuff, the elephant in the room its the visuals of the cgi shit, and they are ps2 like which makes sense giving the fact Gonzo made cinematics for videogames before doing this, but even with the crappy cgi in today's standards I still think it has good action even with the bad CGI (edit, it actually looks decent if watched in a small screen from a certain distance). The thing got me hooked from start to finish, its a really good concept for a story but the thing couldn't shine at all because it only had little less than 2 hours to express the whole thing, not saying something like that isn't possible because there are movies that are 2 hours and cover the whole manga of a serie, right?, its not that easy, this 4 ovas suffer because of not being able to develop the world or the characters enough, i would have loved to see more in depth explanation of the characters for example one of them that was involved in the start of this war, the technology, they had a lot of things to show but little time to show them so the whole thing its just lacking. Don't let this negative things I said about it let you thing its a bad anime, I personally like it and think it could bring way more juice than it did, but its good for what it is, not outstanding but just good. But this is personally one of my favorite obscure anime tbh, idk why I've grown attached to this anime this much, maybe for someone else its just another weird experimental set of ovas from the 2000s and 90s but for me its special in a way I can't describe.

What can be said about Blue Submarine no. 6? I'm sure it would appeal to people that want your run of the mill world peace anime. You know, war is hell and all. Yeah we get it, blah blah blah. We need to learn to co-exist, yada yada yada. You've seen it a million times before. What really stands out is the animation quality. It's beautiful, minus the CGI battles with the ships. Very fluid and really nice shading. I also loved the character designs. The MC, the heroine and all of the furry and fish people were really, really good. Other than that, there isn't much to write home about. It's very solid in it's message and the voice acting is really good, just not for me I suppose. Overall, I'll give it a 6/10. Worth a watch if you're a liberal.

This has to be one of my original favorites, back when Toonami was the shit. Right off the bat, I dubbed Mutio as my favorite character, because I was very into non-human characters. Since I saw it right around the time I started listening to Gorillaz, I initially thought that Hayami looked a little like Murdoc, or Murdoc looked a little like Hayami. Either way... It took me forever to get my hands on the complete DVD set, but it was well worth the wait. The story and artwork captivated me completely.

‘‘Today, today!’ each day I have waited for you and now they say you are strewn with the shells of Ishi River.’ Some time has passed since the great flooding occurred. At the hands of the once respected scientist Dr. Jung Zorndyke, the costal regions of Earth were swallowed by the sea leading to the loss of over a billion lives. After the floods came the ships, manned by mutated animal hybrids also created by Zorndyke and who are seemingly hellbent on killing as many people as possible. In an effort to counter these attacks, humanity lays its hopes upon the Blue Fleet and its state of the art submarines, being the only things that can safely traverse the endless oceans and strike back against the invading beasts. Aboard Blue Submarine No. 6, former pilot and now-full time nihilist Tetsu Hayami finds himself at an impasse regarding both the state of the world and of his own life; something that will prove even more complicated when he and his co-pilot Mayumi Kino encounter one of Zorndyke’s creations in the flesh. Acting as both a loose adaption of a 1967 manga of the same name by Satoru Ozawa (creator of another submarine centric series: Submarine 707) and as the debut work for Studio Gonzo, Blue Submarine No. 6 is an odd beast. In Japan, it’s practically been forgotten and only serves as a footnote in its production company’s history. In the States however, it gained a devoted cult following after airing heavily edited on the Toonami block where its (for the time) state of the art CG ships and action scenes thrilled whoever tuned-in to see it. As such, Blue Sub has kept a reputation as something of a low-key classic amongst anime fans that grew up in the early 2000s, but is it a show that can still stand on its own two feet today? At just 4 episodes of 30 minutes each (minus the finale which is 40), Blue Sub is concise and straight to the point. Stacked together, the whole thing is around 140 minutes, give or take, which means it can be easily breezed through in an afternoon. Because of that, it doesn’t particularly mess around with its story meaning there’s very little moments of actual downtime. Despite that, the show does not feel rushed or hectic and things progress at a steady pace without feeling lethargic either. On the flip side though, this does mean that some parts of the setting end up feeling a little undercooked in regards to the scope of the world and one or two story beats, but we’ll get to that. Our main character is Tetsu Hayami, a former submarine pilot who left the Blue Fleet after a particular incident and who now spends his days as a freelance diver, picking up whatever objects he’s ordered to off the seabed. He’s jaded, pessimistic and a bit of a dry asshole, though he does have his moments of selflessness and his growth from detached drifter who believes the world is doomed into a man who is determined to help change things for the better is handled well, especially given the brief runtime. Opposite him is Mayumi Kino, a hot headed young pilot who is hellbent on avenging the deaths of her family in the floods. Unlike Hayami, she’s a bit of a static character and doesn’t develop much throughout the run but she’s still fairly enjoyable to watch anyway and she provides a good counterpoint to Hayami. The Red to his Blue, so to speak. On the hybrid side is Mutio, one of Zorndyke’s experimental life forms who Hayami and Kino encounter in the first episode. Being a fish person, she is unable to speak properly and can only communicate in grunts and growls, meaning it’s up to the animation team to convey her emotions purely through the artwork, of which they do a very admirable job. Because of this (and her distinctive design), she’s one of the more memorable characters in the OVA despite only having maybe two words of actual dialogue, tops. There’s also secondary antagonist Verg, a psychotic man-shark who commands the mysterious Phantom Ship and who desperately wants his father Zorndyke’s approval and affection. He’s a completely ridiculous character with a crazy voice who frequently devolves into screaming tantrums when he doesn’t get his way, but he surprisingly winds up delivering some of the more poignant and emotional scenes, which you wouldn’t really expect from this kind of individual. The rest of the Blue Six crew mostly serve to fill up the background of some shots and lack any kind of character whatsoever outside of a few personality traits. The exceptions being Tokuhiro Iga, the well meaning and friendly captain of the craft and his vice chief Yuri Majakofski, a stony faced and cold man who holds a notable disdain for Hayami. The standout of the crew, albeit for the wrong reasons is Huang Mei-Ling, a 10 year old girl who works on the sub’s sonar systems and is implied to have some kind of ESP which allows her to ‘hear the songs’ of Zorndyke’s creations. None of this is really expanded upon or explained much, leaving me to question just what was the point to begin with, especially when it has next to no impact on the story. Of course the main selling point for the anime at the time was its state of the art, cutting edge CGI vehicles and machinery. The submarines of Blue Fleet and the bio-ships of the Hybrids are both rendered in glorious 1998 CG and it’s aged about as well as you could expect. While the ships themselves look fine enough, it’s with things such as fighter jets and the Hybrids’ Whale Aircraft Carriers (or whatever the hell they are) where the animation begins to show its age. There are also moments where the ocean is computer rendered instead of actually drawn which makes several scenes look like PSX FMVs. It’s understandable given the era and the power of the tech at the time, but in HD on modern setups, it doesn’t look anywhere near as good as it once did. Despite this, the animation itself is fluid and energetic with plenty of dynamic movement and cool shots to even things out. Action scenes are directed decently well, which is impressive given the limitations of having a majority of the combat take place underwater. On the human side, characters are expressive and lively, though there are some cases where the animators seem to overcompensate when it comes to facial movement (particularly with Kino who looks like she’s got a nervous twitch in some scenes because of it). Character design is done by Range Murata, who would later gain wider recognition with his work on Last Exile. While the designs for the human cast aren’t anything to write home about (with the exception of Blue Fleet scientist Dr. Morinami who looks downright freakish), the real fun comes from the Hybrid side, which features an array of strange looking beasts from gigantic, muscly shark-men, a race of nymph-like fish-women to a village of feline tribespeople in the finale. It’s always interesting to see what bizarre creatures will appear next and it makes the scenes set aboard the Hybrids’ Phantom Ship all the more intriguing, given the wide array of unique faces in the background of each shot. This even extends to their fighter crafts which are often ramshackle yet totally alien in appearance, helping give the setting an appropriately apocalyptic feel. Now despite the lean pacing, there are some side plots that add little to the overall story and feel undercooked and underdeveloped. As mentioned prior, there’s the case of Huang whose ESP abilities go unexplained and underdeveloped. There’s also a side plot invoking Hayami’s friend and former co-pilot Katsuma, whose story I won’t be going into too much detail with due to spoilers, so I’ll just say that despite his side-arc getting some form of pay-off, the character and his circumstances as a whole feel like a massive missed opportunity which could’ve been used to much greater effect than what it was in the show. I’m aware some of these ideas get expanded upon in the two tie-in video games released around the same time, and while this does create the impression of an expa…

I'm split on how to feel about BLUE SUBMARINE NO. 6. There's a lot to like about it. The premise and inundated setting are unique. The character designs are great. An all-star lineup of animators, graced by the likes of Kōji Morimoto and Toshiyuki Inoue among others, put in some good work. Mahiro Maeda's direction is appropriately reserved, distant, and atmospheric for what is an otherwise ludicrous story. Sounds like a home run, right? But this is Gonzo we are dealing with. BLUE SUBMARINE is the studio's first production and essentially serves as their mission statement. Ergo, all that aforementioned good work is buried under mountains of ugly and poorly aged CG animation. Looking back at some early opinions on the show, I noticed a lot of praised aimed at the underwater battles. I can't fathom why. They're total eyesores and often confusing. The show only ever occasionally finds moments of haunting tranquility between the bombast. And while there's enough time here to give some flesh to the two leads and the antagonists, this is clearly a show that could have benefited with a few more episodes. It's still an interesting albeit polarizing experiment.

I wanted to like this, and like many others discovered this through a gif of the gills on twitter. But im sorry it just wasn't good, the bewildering CGI is so completely horribly distracting I can't focus on anything else. This anime is about the last remaining humans fighting a losing war against mermaids, who randomly started killing everyone to take the land back for the sea to claim. Our main characters are two soldiers, one of which has come out of retirement despite saying he wouldnt. It was hard to even understand what the heroes were fighting against because the philosophy of the villain was baffling. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention well enough? Also felt pretty much nothing for the characters sorry. The designs of everyone was great though, especially the fish and creature people. That goblin shark dog guy's armor? very fun.

Introduction: An anime series called Blue Submarine No. 6 captured my attention with its engaging plot and gorgeous artwork. This four-episode post-apocalyptic science fiction OVA (Original Video Animation), directed by Mahiro Maeda, was released in 1998. Blue Submarine No. 6 is a unique entry in the anime genre because to its blend of compelling characters, strong action, and deep concepts. Animations and Visuals: Blue Submarine No. 6's animations and graphics are certainly a visual feast. Astonishing underwater scenes and agile character movements are produced by the series' seamless blending of classic 2D animation and computer-generated images. With beautifully drawn landscapes and finely built mechanical creations, the attention to detail is extraordinary. Particularly remarkable are the aquatic settings, which have a hypnotic fusion of vivid hues and heartbreakingly lovely sceneries. By bringing the world of Blue Submarine No. 6 to life, the animation transports viewers to a stunningly realistic dystopian future. Characters: The ensemble of characters in Blue Submarine No. 6 is diverse, with each having special goals and challenges. Tetsu Hayami, the protagonist, is a capable pilot caught in the crossfire of rival forces. His growth throughout the series is fascinating as he battles internal demons and learns what genuine heroism is all about. The mysterious Dr. Zorndyke and his disciples, who question accepted ideas of good and evil, are equally remarkable. The voice acting brings each character to life, giving their stories depth and passion, while the character designs are distinctive and unforgettable. Stories and Themes: Blue Submarine No. 6 is a compelling story that explores difficult subjects. The series investigates the effects of human behavior on the environment as well as the precarious harmony between technology and nature. It explores themes of atonement, sacrifice, and the resiliency of the human spirit while simultaneously challenging the morality of war and the lust for power. The narrative is compelling and strikes an excellent mix between action and reflection, making viewers think about the effects of their own behavior and the situation of the world. Sounds and Music: Blue Submarine No. 6's sound design improves the experience by transporting spectators to the ocean's depths. The sound effects are authentic and give the action moments more weight, from the rumble of the submarines to the roar of the aquatic monsters. The THRILL's musical score wonderfully accompanies the actions on film, enhancing the suspense and creating a spectrum of emotions. The pleasant and memorable opening and closing themes further improve the entire aural experience. Conclusion: For anime fans looking for an exciting and thought-provoking experience, Blue Submarine No. 6 is a must-watch. It achieves an ideal mix between action and reflection because to its spectacular sights, compelling characters, and challenging issues. The show makes a lasting impression by encouraging viewers to think about the effects of their choices and how vulnerable our planet is. The anime classics should include Blue Submarine No. 6, which is a timeless masterpiece.