(L) RAINBOW: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin

[Haak]

This is definitely a lot better than episode one. God, that poor guy...

[Mashimaro]

Poor Joe?

you mean Poor Megu!

The things that is going to be done to her ;.;

[-Sho-]

No , Poor both of them .

Joe was raped by this sick fat dude over many years .
Megu omg T_T i don't wanna hear more ...

It's been a while that i didn't watched a dark show like that .

Btw , Commie-sub did some mistakes , when Joe was running away , they translated him as "they" "them" etc..

[KnightHart]

I think they use the translation from manga or something, In the manga Joe run away with Spoon.

[Connavar]

I havent seen ep 2 yet but this series is very promising. Dark,mature.


Talking about the film Sleepers and this being a negative,similar story. What you think americans invented treating kids in these kind of places like that.....

[NakedAngelX]

Joe was pathetic in episode 2, deserves it. Not much character/story development, only appeal to pity.

Just a speculation, but could the "caring doctor" actually be a really evil one doing human experiment on people.

Spoiler for Episode 3:

After 3 episodes, the narrator's starting to sound more and more like Lina inverse xD, maybe megu is the VA. As for episode 3 itself,better and more exciting episode comparing to the boring first 2.

[Psycho_Kenshin]

Wow, I'm really enjoying Rainbow. Right off the bat its impressive, not just because its dark and gritty, which makes it stand out, but I'm connecting with the characters and story immediately.

Looking forward to seeing how this plays out. I know the manga is 20 volumes or longer, anyone know if the manga is concluded or still ongoing?

Another question, anyone know how long the anime is scheduled to go on?

If they're going the distance, this could be at least 80 episodes. That's what I get from comparing it to Monster, which was 18 volumes adapted to 74 episodes.

[leongsh]

Originally Posted by Psycho_Kenshin

Looking forward to seeing how this plays out. I know the manga is 20 volumes or longer, anyone know if the manga is concluded or still ongoing?

22 manga volumes. Concluded its serialisation in February 2010.

Originally Posted by Psycho_Kenshin

Another question, anyone know how long the anime is scheduled to go on?

No idea. The lack of sponsors in the usual eyecatches after the OP and ED worries me.

Originally Posted by Psycho_Kenshin

If they're going the distance, this could be at least 80 episodes. That's what I get from comparing it to Monster, which was 18 volumes adapted to 74 episodes.

Assuming 3 episodes per manga volume, there's potentially 66 episodes for the whole series. There are about 3 stopping points in the manga which the anime could end at but that would leave you guys/gals cursing/hankering for more.

[Psycho_Kenshin]

Thanks for the info, good to know. I like it when they adapt a concluded manga series, that way we know we'll never have to deal with filler, or an artifically slowed pace to try not catching up.

Now all we need is for this to happen and not get cancelled. Go anime go!

[Kanon]

Liked episode 2 better than the first. Joe's story was pretty depressing, but I think I feel even worse for his sister, from the quick glance we've got at her new "father", you can tell her life is going to be hell...

Can someone fluent in Japanese clear up something? Commie's subs said Joe and his sister are not blood related, however, from the events seen and the words I could gather, that's not what I understood. When Joe talks about his sister, I thought he just said they are of mixed parentage, and I'm not sure if at the end, Megu says "we're not relatives" or "we don't have any relatives". So, are they related or not?

edit: got my answer in FroZen's version. They're related.

[DmonHiro]

Originally Posted by Psycho_Kenshin

Another question, anyone know how long the anime is scheduled to go on?

If they're going the distance, this could be at least 80 episodes. That's what I get from comparing it to Monster, which was 18 volumes adapted to 74 episodes.

Judging from the usual trends, there are two reasons why there wouldn't be sponsors in the eyecatch. First would be the good one: it doesn't need it. For example, Chu-Bra didn't have any either, but that one was cheaply produced (not bad, just cheap), so it could have been funded by the company. Rainbow is pretty high tier production wise, so I don't know...
Second: they couldn't get sponsors. Now this rarely happens, but it is a possibility.

Also, I don't think it will go farther then 26 episode. No offense to anyone, but I don't know how/if popular these types of shows are. Unless they get really good ratings, they might spot sooner.

[SuperKnuckles]

Considering Madhouse's recent streak of wanting to finish more manga stories, maybe we'll see enough episodes to cover the manga.

Though I'm still a bit bitter they didn't properly convert Claymore as it's still going. Maybe they need a Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood kick to the rear end to start it again.

[Haak]

Episode 3.

You know, that guitar solo is really starting to get on my nerves....

This episode isn't as good as the last one considering the only reason there was any drama in the first half of the episode was because for some strange reason Baremoto was stupid enough to believe that dickish guard without getting the full picture with Bro. Baremoto's past doesn't really provide a good enough explanation. There's no reason why his distrust in others wouldn't extend to that bastard guard either.

The second half was much better though. I wonder who that nice looking girl was, in the preview. Oh and:

Spoiler for Gar:

[Kanon]

^I don't mind the guitar solo, personally.

I agree the episode wasn't really as interesting as the last one. We saw too little of Baremoto's past to really judge his character, but he acted like an asshole in this episode. He could have at least tried to hear Sakuragi out before believing everything that guard said. The parricide probably happened, but I'm sure there were extenuating circumstances. I can't wait until his past is fully revealed.

I noticed only when watching episode 3 that

Spoiler for possible future spoilers from the OP:

Bro isn't with the others on the hill in the OP. I'm guessing he won't get out of prison alive...

[Zwei]

Did you guys see that look on the old's man face when he placed his hands on Megu's shoulder? I'm pretty sure after seeing that smile on his face that the same fate as Joe's, if not worse, is awaiting Megu if she gets adopted by him, which I'm guessing she did at the end of the episode. It was pretty depressing seeing her put up that facade and trying to cut all her ties with her brother before he was taken back to the reformatory. I'm guessing she knew pretty well what was going to happen to her after she was sold off to the old man, and she just didn't want Joe to keep worrying about her anymore.

[Sol Falling]

Sooo...this show is pretty funny. Maybe I'm just a sick fuck who isn't bothered by rape implications or anal insertion, but overall I just can't stop laughing at how exaggerated the villains look. Christ, the sheer glee that's shown on their faces makes what they do to the protagonists seem more like comic evil than anything I actually feel sorry for.

The characterization itself feels kinda generic. Some eyerolling moments: picking up the girl's doll on the bus; the fat guy's scream after having his ass violated; refusing to beat Sakuragi after the guard knocked him out; most of the uninspired "there's the snake!" lines during the escape incident; Joe's soulless eyes during the rape flashback at the orphanage; Uncovered's shock/disgust upon hearing that Sakuragi is a parent-murderer. Given that one of this series' opening lines was "they got through with courage, guts, and their bonds with each other", to be honest I am not expecting much in terms of deep or interesting character development...

Speaking of 'Uncovered'. As a nickname, I'm assuming that's referring to his penis? Y'know, per prison culture and the Japanese preoccupation with being uncircumsized/having phimosis :P. lol.

I guess, Sakuragi himself is sufficiently admirable. This story seems pretty much structured around him as a hero, embodying the aforementioned virtues of courage, guts, and bonds with his nakama. Whether or not he'll die prematurely seems a bit uncertain...in the OP, there is a shot of him as an adult/in the future. Since Sakuragi is being presented so overwhelmingly positively, though, as I said before I'm having some trouble taking the villains/the protagonist's 'hellish suffering' seriously.

Despite what I said about the simplicity of this anime's themes though, I gotta admit there's some classic appeal. The end of episode 3, with Sakuragi heading into the fire, might have been entirely predictable, but one particular sentiment by the narrator reminded me of a scene from another series which I was touched by. It was the idea that 'he might not make it in time'; that 'he might not save them'. In the climax of the first Detective Conan movie (spoilers ahead obviously), Ran is trapped in a crumbling building with some other victims and a ticking time bomb. Conan/Shinichi arrives with a blueprint for defusing it, but at the final second the last wire is left to chance. With a crumpled steel door between them, seperating them from each other, Conan/Shinichi decides to stay no matter what happens. I found the sentiment behind that to be incredibly poignant; the idea of tying one's fate to another's, completely beyond any capability of controlling it. In a similar way here, Sakuragi is heading in, whether or not he can save them. By taking this one step beyond a vanilla display of 'guts in the face of overwhelming odds', I am moved a little.

Madhouse come off to me, to a degree, like posers. They try to do stuff that gives off a 'mature' or 'sophisticated' impression, but the end product is often not really substantial. In this example here, the 'hell' or 'suffering' of the main characters doesn't truly convince me. Most of it looks like the plain reality of the world, occasionally caricaturized (like with the villains), or even diluted. Still, I have to admit Madhouse does do good stuff sometimes, i.e. like with Mouryou no Hako, or Kaiji and Akagi. So I think I will probably still follow this show till it finishes, though I'll do it in short batches, checking occasionally.

[Psycho_Kenshin]

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

Madhouse come off to me, to a degree, like posers. They try to do stuff that gives off a 'mature' or 'sophisticated' impression, but the end product is often not really substantial. In this example here, the 'hell' or 'suffering' of the main characters doesn't truly convince me. Most of it looks like the plain reality of the world, occasionally caricaturized (like with the villains), or even diluted.

Considering this is based on a long manga series, I don't think Madhouse is responsible for the things you're talking about. Those over-the-top villains and the hellishness are all straight from the manga page. Not to say that Madhouse doesn't have artistic input here, they may take liberties.

I'm loving the series personally. And hey, while complex human villains are nice, simply sadistic people aren't entirely unbelievable either. I agree with Connavar about the similarities to Sleepers, and that movie has some similarly sadistic evil guards.

[Haak]

People have varying degrees of a threshold of drama they can take until it feels a bit to melodramatic and contrived and becomes a Deus Angst Machina. Some have a low threshold and others have a high threshold. It's really just about taste. I thought the first episode was a bit too much but enjoyed the second episode a lot.

[SuperKnuckles]

^

Huh. I feel completely the opposite. Joe's situation is very sad, but all that seemed to come across as pretty hamfisted. Same with Suppon's nuke story. Sad yes, but wow, one big negative on top of negative coming at ya. At least the first episode had it play within the context of the heavily abusive culture (like ep 2) but with the context of the prison as well.

[Haak]

Originally Posted by SuperKnuckles

Huh. I feel completely the opposite. Joe's situation is very sad, but all that seemed to come across as pretty hamfisted. Same with Suppon's nuke story. Sad yes, but wow, one big negative on top of negative coming at ya. At least the first episode had it play within the context of the heavily abusive culture (like ep 2) but with the context of the prison as well.

And not just varying degrees but can also be completely polar.

(Though I have to agree with you on the Suppon's nuke story)