Genre: Sci fi
Score: Good
The city of No.6 is practically perfect. Its citizens live clean, pleasant, carefree lives – unlike those on the outside. Shion’s life was utterly carefree until he chanced upon and helped hide an injured boy. The boy, Rat, was a criminal, and for that act of kindness Shion’s life ends up delegated to menial jobs. But a few years later he’s unlucky enough to witness something far more disturbing.
Utopias in fiction are always distopias under the surface, and No. 6 is no exception. Shion ends up outside No.6, discovering Rat’s life among the poor people of the West Block, while a dangerous parasite is sleeping within the city, a threat to everyone there.
The relationship between Shion and Rat is quite interesting: the spoiled child of No.6 who still wants to save them, and the bitter resentment of Rat who’d like nothing better than to destroy the rich city entirely. The experience changes Shion, and the young man we see at the end of the series is a long way removed from the boy we saw a few years earlier.