Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin – First Episode Review

Episode Summary: It's ten years after the war, and a group of six young men is led onto a bus headed towards a juvenile reeducation center.  When they arrive, they undergo a cavity search and are lead to their cell, which they share with an older inmate.  The teenagers are being punished for various crimes ranging from violence to petty theft, but they are all clueless youngsters in the eyes of their new cell mate, who mocks them for their childishness and immaturity. Insulted by his words, they attack him, but are held at bay by the man's experienced boxing moves.

While they are all still stinging from their injuries, the sadistic guard in charge of their block punishes their cell mate by brutally beating him, then offering his club to the others as a form of retaliation, an opportunity none of the others takes advantage of.  When the man regains consciousness, he gives his name - Sakuragi Rokurouta - but the others call him An-chan, or "Bro."

Thoughts: It's been quite a while since I've seen any anime that came complete with a content warning (in fact, I think the last time was when watching the first few episodes of Tokyo Tribe 2, which was at least a couple of years ago).   This episode begins with a message regarding the explicit content in the series, and that it was retained for the anime in order to maintain accuracy to the setting and time period. The warning is certainly warranted because, instead of goofy, ridiculous shounen violence a la Fist of the North Star, this series takes a much darker route and chooses to portray not only scenes of violent crime (for now mostly in brief flashes during the theme song) but also the abuses suffered by the characters at the hands of those in positions of authority at the reformatory.  While violence isn't usually something that bothers me that much unless it's very detailed and realistic, the nature of the violent acts in this episode are such that one can't help but feel horrified and sickened by them.  Watching An-chan get beaten to unconsciousness as punishment for fighting is about as painful as it comes, and hearing Cabbage's cries as he's violated during the initial cavity search is heartbreaking to the point of tears.

There are going to be plenty of people who watch all or part of the first episode and draw back in disgust.  For anyone who looks to anime for escapist entertainment and enjoys series with more comedy or fantasy violence, this show is a rude awakening to the darker parts of life that animation is able to portray.  For me, however, entertainment isn't necessarily something that makes me happy or takes me away from the troubles of the world in which I live.  More than anything else, I'm constantly in search of works that make me feel; series which can allow me to experience strong emotions without feeling detectably manipulative are often amongst my favorites. I'm also on the lookout for series which draw from history or are set in times and places which diverge from the norm.  Rainbow is, so far, a good example of the latter; the darker parts of the episode conjure up a vision of post-war Japan that is grittier and less idealistic than other more nostalgic visions of the time period.  Unlike, say, Town of Evening Calm, Country of Cherry Blossoms which takes a horrific event like the aftermath of the atomic bomb and runs it through a lens of nostalgia and melancholy, or Hakaba Kitaro which looks at post-war poverty and government corruption with an attitude of dark humor, Rainbow doesn't hesitate to show the effects of hunger and poverty on people; its cast of characters, though criminals, are all also victims of the impoverished lives the people of that time period lived. 

As for the former, I haven't quite decided how genuine my emotional response has been.  The show seems set up in order to grab viewers by the shirt collar and demand that they shed tears on behalf of the characters, and while I certainly did, there's something that just doesn't feel quite right or natural about it.  My personal opinion is that all entertainment is emotional manipulation to some extent, but it's all a matter of subtlety and degree when it comes to how successful the viewer's experience is.  While this episode is certainly not at the level of some Nicholas Sparks flick, I do feel a little played and that makes me a little cautious about letting myself become fully-invested.  I think one of the main reasons is that the villains of the story seem so, well, villain-ish. The sadistic guard is probably one of the most obvious baddies I've seen lately outside of a series aimed at kids; his pleasure in the pain of the inmates seems really one-note and obvious without much reasoning behind it.  I realize some people are just sick in the head, but to introduce him so dramatically in the first episode seems more like shock value than character development, and creates character relationships that are just too black-and-white for my tastes. The doctor seems less obvious to me, to the point where his stance isn't entirely obvious.  His unnatural calmness and composure coupled with his preoccupation with keeping the guard from harming the "precious children" just reeks of pedophile to me, but that remains to be seen.

The show's content is reflected in its visuals, which are on the dark side and appear to utilize a grain filter.  This isn't so problematic with downloaded video, but after Funimation picked up the series for simulcast I went to watch the first episode at their site and some of the detail in the darker scenes was difficult to make out properly.  The use of the rainbow motif to portray the group of characters as different members of an inseparable group seemed a little cheese-tastic to me, but the other meaning it serves, the ray of light at the end of the tunnel of their stormy confinement, is more inspirational (but still cheesy).

Despite my misgivings, I'm certainly not against watching mediocre series for some standout aspects, and the setting of the story is intriguing enough for me to stand up and take notice.  I'm not deaf to the complaints others have had - one that I've heard frequently is that the voice acting is over-the-top and that the story is based more around "manly-tears" than character development - but I'm willing to give it a chance on the basis that it seems like a series that eschews modern, cutesy anime trends for something that's more likely to knock viewers out of their comfort zone.  Even if it's nothing more than a soap-opera, at the very least it might be an opportunity to reach some cheap catharsis, and I'm certainly not above that.

Pros:

• The show doesn't shy away from portraying the dark underbelly of the time in which it's set.
• It eschews easily-marketable cuteness for fidelity towards the setting.

Cons:

• It sometimes seems as though the show is steering towards cheap, obviously manipulative sentiment rather than earning it through character development.
• The video is difficult to see when streaming from Funimation's site.

Recommended? Yes, tentatively. It's certainly not the show for those who shy away from darkness or violence, but there's the potential for something good here.