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Year: 1998-2000
Genre: Science fiction, Dieselpunk, Biopunk
Episodes: 4
Rating: 2.5 turtle shells out of 5
How will the human race be destroyed? Will it be a nuclear attack between all nations of the world? Will it be global warming with the ice caps melting and flooding the Earth? Would it be a plague that will spread and kill off every human being? Would it be a man-made virus that will wipe out civilization? Would a meteorite crash into the world, causing the world to be blanketed in a cloud of dust?
What would happen if one day, a scientist loses all faith in humanity? One day, that scientist decides to cause the world to flood killing billions. During the process, he creates hybrid beasts that become his army and can attack anyone in the ocean to kill off the rest of humanity. Humanity’s last hope against the scientist is to attack using submarines.
Blue Submarine No. 6 explores the idea in a quick anime with what happens when the world becomes a blue ocean from a mad scientist who decides to wipe out humanity. The question asked is whether humanity will fight against the crisis and live or perish in the depths of the ocean.
Overview:
Blue Submarine No. 6 is set in the distant future where the Earth’s oceans have risen to unthinkable levels while flooded most of the world around it. Before the start of the series, a genius scientist named Zorndyke went rouge and decided to wipe out humanity. His decision caused the flooding of the world that killed countless people around the world, along with putting humanity on the brink of destruction. Zorndyke has also created an army of half-animal/half-human hybrids that attack the cities and people that have survived.
The surviving forces of humans have waged war against Zorndyke and his army to win back the Earth and once again become the rightful leaders. Humanity’s best hope of survival and conclusion of the conflict lies in its ability to fight with its submarine forces.
Blue Submarine No. 6 is one of the submarines that battle against Zorndyke’s army. Zorndyke has told the remaining world that he is attempting to put an end to the conflict so his hybrid children can live in peace by inducing a polar switch at the South Pole.
Humanity races to stop Zorndyke before his plan can be hatched. Will Blue Submarine No. 6 make it in time as the forces of Zorndyke pursue them?
Review:
Blue Submarine No. 6 is an even-paced anime that has animation and CGI that brings to life an anime that could be the future. Blue Submarine No. 6 storyline is pretty interesting, to say the least. When first watching the anime, it reminded me of two distinct storylines in one. The storylines were the 1995 Kevin Costner movie, Waterworld, and the classic book, “The Island of Doctor Moreau.” In Waterworld, the polar ice caps making the sea levels rise while every continent is covered in water. The remains of human civilization establish floating communities while forgetting about living on land. In the book, “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” a shipwrecked man is rescued and left on a mysterious island. The island is home to Doctor Moreau, who has created human-like hybrids beings from animals via vivisection. Blue Submarine No. 6 uses both storylines to make an interesting story as humans fight against hybrid sea creatures for their land back. While you get the jest of the story that humans want their world back and will do anything to fight against the hybrids, it almost seems like a lost cause. Once they win the war, how will they get the water to go away? How will they maintain food when there is almost no land to produce anything? The story really revolves around two main points: A) why did the scientist decide to destroy the world and B) the quest of one submarine’s mission takes to kill him while evading attention crazed, shark hybrid bent on impressing his father with killing humans.
The strongest points of this anime are the animation. I animation is absolutely amazing and before it’s time. The anime does a great job with the combination of animation and CGI. Most scenes significantly use CGI to show the battle scenes. When the submarine is in battle, it is always in CGI. Actually, whenever the submarine is revealed, everything is in CGI. The water, animals that are being fought, and everything else. The characters are hand-drawn with makes for a good effect. They switch between each design is nicely done. Now in the year 2018, CGI has become a norm in many anime and has lost its appeal. It still holds up.
One of the downsides to this anime is character development or anything character related. With only four, 30 minuted episodes, only so much can be explained, and character development falls by the wayside in terms of background information, which is very quick. In one episode, we find out why Tetsu Hayami decided to leave Blue Submarine No. 6 in the first place. You have no idea why Zorndyke decided to kill almost all of humankind with flooding while making sea creature hybrids. Yea, we could read the manga, but that is what the anime is for. On the side of making the personality, the anime does a pretty good job. Tetsu Hayami, the main character, is a former soldier who doesn’t seem too interested in the war. He secludes himself while only working as a mercenary. The character with the most personality is Verg, a shark-type man-creature that is like a little kid. He craves his father’s approval and would do pretty much anything to get it even if he doesn’t know his father’s wishes. He is the definition of a brat. When he doesn’t get his way, he shows fits of rage and jealousy while attacking those around him. The rest of the supporting characters really don’t add too much to the overall anime.
Overall, Blue Submarine No. 6 is a really quick anime to watch if you’re bored and need something to watch in a day. With four episodes, you can easily view it in a day and feel like you watched a somewhat entertaining show. The show’s high points are the CGI battle scenes. The CGI makes everything very appealing to the eye. Other than that, there is really nothing special to me about this anime, rather than being quick. The ending is pretty good, and the battle scenes are great, but besides that, you can watch other anime to entertain you.
