JBC's NO.6 's Discussion Thread

Congrats! I got SO close to finishing the book and now I’m inspired to go back and do it.

2 Likes

why didn’t you finished it???

1 Like

Since there is no pm system I will post it here. Just had a question about n6 second book

@Kqaotix since you read them all you should be able to help me(if you want).

In N6 book 2 at the end of chapter 1 is the girl(or boy since I read a little in the next chapter) that appear at is house has white hair and a red stain on his neck too???

thx

Just dug up the book and checked the ending of that chapter. The girl looks normal. She came to get Shion to bring him to a little boy that passed out. Shion’s hair and red markings are mentioned at the end of the chapter. The narrator says that Shion remembered the girl from earlier as she had been scared by his appearance when she first saw him.

Hope this helps :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Thx, I thought he said he was scared because he was reviving the moment his hair turn white or something.

I still have a long way to go. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

1 Like

Yay! I finally finished the whole series that I started reading a bit over a year ago!

\^o^/

3 Likes

What was your assessment of the series? Was it worth reading? And I don’t remember offhand, but how many stories comprise the entire series?

1 Like

I enjoyed reading it, and would recommend it. But I have some gripes with it as well.

I felt that Shion was a rather weak protagonist almost throughout the series, and that most of the actual movers in the story were other characters. He does mature and evolve a bit, taking more control later, but I still felt he was a bit too over-reliant on Nezumi. (Even at the very end he is ready to forsake his recently sworn (sworn to his dead friend AND to a god, no less) duties in order to follow Nezumi wandering the world)

The characters at times changed rather abruptly, sometimes you just get “OK, Shion has changed super much now!” without that change really having been built up or foreshadowed.

More subjective, but as was probably evident from the first book, it takes very long for almost everything to happen. The status quo at the end of book 2 is almost identical to the end of book 1 for instance, and breaking into the correctional facility, while stated as a major and time-sensitive goal takes the larger part of the series to actually happen!

I didn’t really mind this though, and appreciated that most of it was focused on internal and external dialogue.

Even more subjective, I didn’t really feel anything between Nezumi and Shion, and their developing relationship is pretty central to the series…

I think most of this is probably evident from the first book in the series, so those who read it it should probably have a good sense of whether or not they’ll enjoy the series as a whole!

One minor thing that I thought was kinda cool was how Inukashi’s gender was left vague. This is something that would have been almost impossible to pull off in English (faced with the same problem, the English translator of Final Fantasy IX just threw their hands in the air and refered to Quina using the clumsy s/he… anybody know how they handled this in the english localization of the manga/anime?)

There were hints a couple of times throughout the series that despite the male language, Inukashi might actually be a girl, and that this might be a something they’re sensitive about… but throughout the series nobody actually asked or used a gendered pronoun. I was kind of expecting/hoping this would be “resolved” by the end of the series,

…Especially considering that Inukashi adopts a baby later on.

Finally, It consists of nine books in total (and one “beyond number six” side story that I’m not currently planning on reading)

2 Likes

gj for reading them all in a bit over a year ago. I’m only at the half of book two. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

What are you gonna read next?

Thanks!

I’ve just started reading the three books (新世界より, 獣の奏者 and 十二国記) resulting from my inquiry in this thread.

My strategy for getting regular reading practice in was to set a pretty manageable minimum amount that i must read each and every day.

In my case I chose two pages. I found that, while being something I could realistically force myself to do even when I didn’t feel like it at all, more often than not it was enough to get the ball rolling and read more.

1 Like

Hey guys, I just finished N6 book two in 4 months. Improved by more than half. :grin: The fun part is when you read things in the second book that has been introduced in the first but you don’t remember so you have to go read it back then tell yourself how you missed it. Like “I read it but… it’s like I haven’t read it”. Then ask yourself how were you reading.

The reason for my posting here is not for bragging (only) but I was wondering, should I read beyond six? The side story. Is there anyone here that read it or know something about it? I know it’s a side story about Shion and Nezoumi but is it worth it?

Thx

The series has 9 books plus a 10th one called Beyond. I only read the main 9 books and felt more than ready to move on at that point. If you’re really into the story, it might be worth picking up, but I feel that 9 books is already a lot.

Also, congrats on finishing the second one!

Hey I know it’s been a long time but just a little question to the person who has read N6 book 5.

In the beginning of chapter 2 of book 5

I am not exactly sure what is happening. They throw Shion and Nezumi in a hole. They fall on people then role not to get crush by other people falling. Then interior monologue and run to the jail section right. (I’m at page 59 btw) Did they just throw them expecting them to die from the fall?

Thx for your help

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

Thank you @RachelG!

1 Like

Ok, so here are some comments on the book as I read it. (I did not take notes on past chapters, so I’m trying to reconstitute what I was thinking at the time).
Also, it’s such a fun experience to read the thread along with the book. I get to see everyone’s guesses and compare to my own. I wonder if it would make sense to reply to those posts, since even the people who are still on the forum might not have a clear memory of the events anyway, but we’ll see :rofl:

Chapter 1

That chapter gave me some 新世界より vibes, actually. I guess it’s a mix of the dystopian future setting (the distant year 2013 :rofl:), the fact that the town is designated by a number (coming in I thought it would be someone’s name, mostly I was thinking of this number 6) and バケネズミ.
Also, how can the main character just turn off the security while a prisoner is on the run without immediately trigger a reaction from the authorities?
And, alright, I’m getting some strong BL vibes as well. “Why are you helping me?” “Because of your beautiful grey eyes I’ve been wanting to try to perform surgery in forever.”

Chapter 2

Now that I think about it, the ranking of people from age 2 kinda remind me of the movie GATTACA as well.

Yikes, body horror. The teeth falling out of the mouth thingy? Not my cup of tea. I guess it is a horror book after all.

Re: what I said on chapter 1: Okay! The authorities did find out, nevermind :rofl: I still feel like just putting 紫苑 and his mother all the way to the bottom of the social ladder is still a soft punishment… But maybe it’s a way to keep them under surveillance? Keep your enemies close, as they say. If they had been banished outside the city, who knows what kind of evil plan 紫苑 could have been fomenting thanks to his “exceptional” brain. A smart move from the authorities (I guess), since in the first chapter his subconscious was literally telling him to destroy everything :joy:

沙布, nice job on the “I want your sperm”, very romantic :ok_hand:. That being, 紫苑 doesn’t look like he would be too much against the idea… So maybe not BL? :astonished:
Wait, nevermind, just the thought of meeting again ネズミ just lighted him up like a 4KW floodlight.

Chapter 3

Oh, hey, making the recently departed look like they were completely fine. Now I’m getting some Brave New World vibes. Are we going for the dystopian bingo?

More body horror. Looks like an absolutely terrifying way to die… Also passing out while the thing that just killed at least two people in 24h in still around? Not the brightest idea. (Not that you can really help it, I guess)

Okay, wait, isn’t the city supposed to be monitoring everything, especially in terms of insects and so on? Would they not know that a bee has randomly appeared in the environment? Also, if they have voice recordings of all places, why would they not have visual feeds as well? Doesn’t seem to hard to hide a microcamera somewhere, especially with their technological level. Then, 羅史 should know about it, right? Oh well, I guess it won’t change the fact that they need to bring 紫苑 away from the town ASAP.

Running away through sewage. Great.

Chapter 4

And of course 紫苑 has been contaminated. What did you expect. And immediately denial.

Uh, would look at that, different symptoms, and you survived with (maybe?) no sequels. Convenient.

ネズミ is really going pretty far for 紫苑. I’m guessing medicine is pretty hard to come by in those slums… Is it love :eyes:

Oh. Not without sequels. I see.

「気になるなら、後で染めてやる。けど、けっこうきれいだぜ。それに […] 赤いヘビを身体にまきつけとくのも、なかなかに艶っぽい」Smoooooth :rofl:
「きみに言われても嬉しくない」
「おれも、あんたの裸を見てても嬉しくないさ。」
Me thinks they protest too much :eyes:

Chapter 5

Oh! Maybe the cocoon got damaged when 紫苑 hurt his neck when ネズミ tried to crash the car and it stopped brutally? Looking at chapter 3 again, it was actually his shoulder that got injured. Still, could be. Or some other shocks coming just after or even biohazard from the sewers…

Okay, I guess a lot of things I was wondering about were answered. The city is aware of the problem and is just trying to frame 紫苑 to buy time before a panic breaks out. I guess the rest of the series will be a rush before the deadline of spring, get slightly too late with a final where the power-that-be is confronted and the population is still saved. I guess they will go and contact 沙布 as well. It would be too weird to have her completely disappear from the story too.

紫苑は、大きく広げたネズミの腕の中に飛びこんていった。背中を抱きしめられる。温かい。:eyes::eyes::eyes:

2 Likes

That is some nice memories. I read the first 6 book before coming to japan. I plan to read the rest when I go back home. Some of your answer are in future books. I left on such a cliffhanger too.
This was the first japanese book I read so my memories are kinda fuzzy but I did remember what you are talking about.

I was looking for the word in the dictionary and just laugh when I understood what it was.

1 Like

It doesn’t feel cliffhangery to me, since there’s no sense of urgency at the end. Even ネズミsays that 紫苑 has time to get better and read books :thinking:

1 Like

I meant after volume 6 where I stopped reading the serie