Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin

Japan, 1955: Mario Minakami has just arrived at Shounan Special Reform School along with five other teenagers who have been arrested on serious criminal charges. All assigned to the same cell, they meet older inmate Rokurouta Sakuragi—a former boxer—with whom they establish a close bond. Under his guidance, and with the promise that they will meet again on the outside after serving their sentences, the delinquents begin to view their hopeless situation in a better light.

The seven cellmates struggle together against the brutal suffering and humiliation inflicted upon them by Ishihara, a sadistic guard with a grudge on Rokurouta, and Gisuke Sasaki, a doctor who takes pleasure in violating boys. Facing such hellish conditions, the seven inmates must scrape together all the strength they have to survive until their sentences are up; but even if they do, just what kind of lives are waiting for them on the other side?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sakuragi, Rokurouta Main

Koyama, Rikiya Japanese

Minakami, Mario Main

Oguri, Shun Japanese

Maeda, Noboru Main

Park, Romi Japanese

Yokosuka, Jou Main

Hasome, Tatsuya Japanese

Nomoto, Ryuuji Main

Fujiwara, Keiji Japanese

Tooyama, Tadayoshi Main

Kuroda, Takaya Japanese

Matsuura, Mansaku Main

Waki, Tomohiro Japanese

Ishihara Supporting

Ishii, Kouji Japanese

Koike, Setsuko Supporting

Kanjiya, Shihori Japanese

Lilly Supporting

Yamagata, Kaori Japanese

Tamura, Manabu Producer

Mita, Keiji Producer

Shindou, Tomohiro Assistant Producer

Koujina, Hiroshi Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Apr 11, 2010

Nyron

Recommended

After finishing episode 1 of this series, I took a deep breath. I was so engrossed that I had apparently forgotten to breathe while I was watching.

After finishing episode 26, I finally exhaled. This series was a rush of nonstop emotion all the way throw and never faltered for a second. Everything I said here over a half a year ago holds completely true and I can't flaunt my glowing recommendation for this series enough.

Rainbow is definitely one of the best things Japan has put out in a long time, and not in an ironic "Oh, Japan!" flashy comedy/campy/ridiculous way. It's a serious story. So ... serious that the first episode starts off with a disclaimer about explicit content. Think about that for a second. In a medium like anime where there's blood, tits and who knows that else in so many shows, what are they warning you about? Real stuff, that's what. Rainbow is constantly presented as a brutal, depressing series where the violent content is required to present the story in a proper way.

But don't be put off because it sounds too depressing or even boring(I don't know how anyone could think this, personally), because Rainbow is also a story of true bro-ship. Like Gungrave before it, Rainbow will be bleak. It will be depressing. But through all that, a heartwarming tale of friendship will shine. A tale that's under the perpetual threat of being crushed by the blackened circumstances around it, and that's what will keep you engrossed.

The animation is terrific, as expected of Madhouse by this point. This includes the great still art that pops in during narrated scenes, as seen by the series' title art to the left. The whole episode, and most likely a good portion of the series was depicted with very few colors other than shades of grey and dark blue. Any bright things on screen are bright things in the eyes of the story, like the sunshine outside or the end of a lit cigarette shared between the beaten characters. This was a very fine touch and does nothing but add to the heavy atmosphere of the series.

The audio and the animation work beautifully in tandem, with the music bringing scenes to life by boosting the dank atmosphere. The opening by Coldrain is especially great, bringing a badass touch to the show. Similarly, the voices are gruff and work very well with the rest of the presentation.

The above was stated after watching episode 1, and now that the series is over I think it's time to address these issues. Firstly, Rainbow finished excellently. It did not, however, cover the entire 22 volumes of story and instead opted to stop around volume 12 or so. This is no reason to not watch the series, as the stopping point they chose was pretty tactfully chosen and very satisfying. When it comes to negatives, Rainbow suffered from two things at certain points: Pacing and over-emotion. Even if you haven't read the manga, there's a good chance you'll notice that certain parts, mostly in the second half, seem rushed or like they crammed too many chapters into an episode and that makes it seem like the story skips around a little too much. It's not a big deal at all and very rarely detracts from anything, but it's a factor you'll probably notice. One of the bigger factors that may not sit well with some is that the series can come off as a little too over-dramatized or sappy at points. Sometimes the manly guitar solos and power ballads work incredibly well and you'll be clenching your teeth with man tears streaming down your cheeks, and other times it doesn't work too well. That's something that'll vary a lot from person to person though.

The final thing that bothered me was that one of the characters never gets an episode or arc devoted to him, which is pretty unsettling considering the other six boys got the spotlight multiple times. That was the main casualty of the long manga->short anime transition, so what can you do?

In closing, Rainbow's definitely in the top 10, maybe even top 5 shows of the year 2010. Not watching it should be a crime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Jul 24, 2015

mkzxwing

Mixed Feelings

*This review WILL contain spoilers

Since the anime has such a high score and a crazy amount of 10/10 reviews (what aggravates me, because its far from perfect), i will write a review, pointing all of the problems i found with it. This anime was very hard to watch and relate to at a lot of points. No, not because of how sad and harsh it is, but because as an anime that takes itself seriously its too inconsistent and illogical. Now don't get me wrong, this anime has a lot of strong points, but they still can't fully cover for all the flaws. Ill ... start from the very beginning, and state every problem i personally spotted and can remember (by chronological order).

An-chan "kills" his father. Its also said he committed suicide. So how exactly did An-chan get to the reformatory? Did he turn himself in to the police saying he is the one who did it? If so, did no one bother checking? Because his father didn't have a grudge against him, and logically would commit suicide in a way that can't be connected to his son (to avoid giving him more trouble)... What follows is the suicide incident (in the reformatory). An-chan didn't seem to be a stupid guy. He only had a few months left, so he could just quietly get out and bring both the bad guys to justice. Instead he decided to tell Ishihara that he knows. WHY? No logical explanation is provided, and none is even possible.

Next up is "Turtle". I'm not sure about the circumstances of the post nuclear bombing aid that was given (or not given) in japan, but shouldn't he have been placed in some sort of hospital and/or trauma rehabilitation facility, and if he ran off and was judged, wouldn't he at least get a more considerate verdict based on his personal file?

Moving on. When the boys come to the reformatory, they seem to be already familiar with each other, how, and when did that happen, and why is it not mentioned? Also why did An-chan decide to beat them all up when they got there? Because it was completely unnecessary, and frankly out of character for him to do so, the only reason for this event i can think of is to speed up their bonding instead of showing it develop overtime (though frankly i doubt that one as well, because usually no one would bond with someone that beat them up faster that if he wouldn't)... The boys in the reformatory also seem to have the ability to go the the library as they please, yet never use it except for one time... What's the point of sitting in a prison cell then if they can always or at least sometimes be in the library?!

Side characters. They just seem to be there for decoration, as if no one else even exists. When Joe runs away and gets caught, he clearly states that the woman who took him in raped him in front of two guards, and she replies in a hostile way and even hits him and draws blood. The two guards seem shocked, but this does not lead anywhere. When the fire starts at the reformatory, no one seems interested to investigate why and how it started, and why 7 people where almost burned alive. Why does it seem no one else supervises the reformatory aside the doctor? In episode 2 the director is shown, but later he's never mentioned. The doctor also seems to have too much power (able to fire guards and he's completely unsupervised). Why does that stay true after 2 lethal accidents and a fire that almost killed 7 people? Normally those events would definitely earn the attention of investigators and the director.

After the fire, An-chan decides to come out of the infirmary early, again, for no apparent reason. He is put in with a few angry cell mates who where instructed to beat him to death overtime. He endures it. But after his friend gets hurt while trying to persuade them to take it out on him instead, he beats them all up at once, and threatens them so they won't blame him and the problem gets solved. The question arises - why the heck didn't he do that in the first place?

When An-chan is made to starve, a good guard appears. Instead of talking to other guards and maybe filing a report, he goes against the doc and Ishihara, eventually getting killed (again, with no consequences, because its apparently easier to kill a guard than a prisoner. Another point - this man, who pretty much lost his life while trying to help the protagonists, got completely forgotten, and the boys didn't even once visit his grave).

And finally, the escape. Everything would be ok about it if you have a very short memory, BUT, if you do remember back a little, an important detail gets left out (for the plot convenience, as usual). When Joe escaped, the director said that the police will be involved if he's not back in 48 hours. This time nothing like that was mentioned. So, was that not important in the first place? Or if it was, then the police surely got involved this time, so why was it not shown, and why was it fruitless?

An-chan's death. It was ridiculous. There was so many problems with this event alone that its almost comical. First off - Ishihara shot the gun. He shot it a few times, NEAR A MILITARY BASE. Now i don't know what anyone thinks, but let me assure you, if something like that really happened, the guards would come running. Yet no one came (until later, when it serves the wanted plot... in reality - just in time to be court martialed for not doing their job), not after the shooting, and not after the motorcycle accident. An-chan didn't knock him out for some reason as well (though if you'd consider his character he WOULD do that much before he got stabbed). Now explain to me, if going back to see the boxing match was so important, why did he remember it just when it was convenient? Why not just knock out Ishihara? Why not knock him out after giving him the letter and he still came at him? And why remember to go back only when he's about to get killed, taking the knife out and walking menacingly towards armed men? I mean he above all else should have known that getting killed is the worst possible thing he can do to his friends...

And what about the cops who decided to side with An-chan at the very end? What happened to the investigation of why he got killed? All the leads where there - Ishihara's finger prints on the gun, the man who called them and said he had the gun, and then lied to them and told them to shoot the wrong guy? Why was Ishihara not interrogated and put in prison/ mental facility? How did the doctor not get arrested over that, how did he leave the reformatory, and how on the earth some time later, he, being a DOCTOR tried running for a mayor?

Later we have the "revenge". It was pretty good, BUT... Logically, it would be a pretty big scoop, leading to a major investigation. This would mean that Mario (and Turtle) would no longer have to be a fugitive if he simply turned himself in, and aided the investigation, explaining his circumstances. But he doesn't, because it seems logic and this anime are on a different wavelength.

And finally we get to the last parts - the protagonist's arcs. First off - Mario. This is just a load of bull. A man in the bar where he is an assistant at, doesn't pay for the drink and assaults the owner, while breaking property. Mario then lets him hit himself twice before beating him up. Now what do we have here? 3 witnesses that saw the barman being assaulted, followed by Mario, who then applied self defense. 3 against 1! And he probably had a past of doing so in other bars too! Logically, he would be too afraid to even file a complain, because he's clearly at fault and there where 3 witnesses. Instead, the bar owner fires him because "he dislikes this sort of thing" (though the barman clearly likes him, and logically would help file a complaint), and Mario and Joe just keep quiet about it. The stupidity in this one is overwhelming.

Instead, Soldier gets hurt trying to get the guy at fault to sign a document saying Mario is not at fault (instead of getting the asshole in jail and revoking his complaint that way)... All for nothing, because the judge is a moron, an aggressive one on top of it. Normally, the scoop from the doctor's arrest would be pretty much enough to explain everything, yet it seems they forgot that thing exists. Instead, Baremoto turns out to be a son of the judge's friend, and they get the girl to testify she was raped and that was the reason Mario got into the reformatory in the first place, so Mario leaves happily (despite all the stuff the judge told him, and even hit him)

Next up is Joe. The logic fail is rather immense in this one, so i will explain it in depth. The problem here is when Joe is late to his concert, after almost getting killed, along with the woman who sponsored him in exchange for having sex with her. She is not portrayed as too bad of a character up to now, except making Joe lay with her to fulfill his dream. Yet after she fails to protect him, nearly gets him and herself killed and saved by his friends, instead of being shocked, or explaining Joe that its over for him (like you'd expect of her), suddenly, for no reason at all she starts to yell at him that he's a loser, its his fault for being late, and that he'll always stay scum... Just W T F . It was so frustrating to watch, not because i felt bad for Joe (at this pint i lost all emotional involvement and was torn between laughing my ass off or getting mad trying to understand wtf just happened), but because it was so horribly illogical and retarded.

Baremoto. At the fire incident, he learned to trust his friends, and that they are the most important thing in the world for him. At his arc though, he falls for a prostitute, and forgets it all without a single hesitation. This is BS. Not as BS though as Turtle's arc, who we got led to believe was seriously ill because of being near and in the blast zone of a nuke, but then, suddenly, its all ok, and we forget all about it.

And this sums it up for the story problems, now for my other problems with this anime:

No soldier arc!
The anime could use an extra ending and opening.
And finally, the characters are too immature and shounen like, while its supposed to be seinen. I also didn't expect there would be so much happy endings for everyone in it. Now don't get me wrong, Its not like i don't like happy endings.. But those look so forced, undeserved and unfitting. Not much gets resolved, after An-chan's death and revenge on their tormentors, the only problems are trivial stuff, arising from the boys being unable to deal with the real world. Yet they want to make it look like its just as dramatic and bad as everything else that happened before, and that feels as ridiculous as if a man who just literally escaped from hell itself with relative ease, suddenly broke down after being called a "poopy face" by a little kid.
*Edit* : Oh, and how could i forget? There's an extremely annoying narration going on, always pointing out the obvious and taking up extra time, not to mention the voice of the narrator is in itself pretty bad, like one you'd get in an old, self dubbed video in the 90's

So final verdict- the anime is not bad, but the story falls apart due to the infinite plot holes, inconsistency and logic fails, as well as the characters being unfit for the universe around them, and having pretty small issues in the second half compared to the first half of the show, leading to a fall in interest. Despite that 6 is usually a score i'd usually say is somewhat good, i would not really recommend this anime, as its major trait that is supposed to be the dark atmosphere and struggles of the protagonists is severely broken apart and comical if you have a long attention span and look at it critically.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 17, 2016

cubelet

Not Recommended

Funny

By halfway through, I originally decided to go ahead and mark this one "dropped," but honestly dropping a show like that drives me nuts regardless so I decided to go ahead and finish it. My biggest problem was that the characters and story were all pretty shallow, and seemed to count on some of its shock value type moments to grab the viewer emotionally rather than really building up an emotional attachment. It just felt like "oh, some stuff's happening to some guys," basically. It does improve eventually though, enough that I suppose I don't mind having finished it after all.

I think for the story, ... there was just too much they tried to pack in to show everybody's individual story. There just wasn't any time to get attached to what was happening.

The art and sound were both good, but not really so much so that I feel there's much else to say about them.

Characters- they just perpetually felt like they were almost good, almost sincere, almost engaging. There were a few scattered moments where I started to think maybe they were finally flushing out better, but it just didn't happen.

I enjoyed a few bits of it, but it definitely wasn't something that I was sad to see end.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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