Today, Blue Submarine No. 6 is now 20 years old. For those unfamiliar with the show, it is essentially Waterworld meets The Island of Dr. Moreau meets The Hunt for Red October. A mad scientist has flooded the earth, his army of animal-human hybrids are attacking the remaining humans, and the crew of a submarine, the legendary Blue 6, must stop him before he uses a doomsday device to alter the magnetic poles and wipe out the rest of humanity.
I remember watching this show when it originally aired on Toonami, back in 2000. I was 6 or 7 years old at the time, and the memories I had about it were very foggy. But there was a lot that I remembered. I remembered the redheaded shark-man with the distorted voice, the creepy CGI spider-mechs, the mermaid/cat girl, and the scene where the captain of the eponymous submarine says: "This is it! We fight to the death!" But I was too young to remember much else, and it all felt very surreal to me. And in the following years, it all faded into obscurity.
Two decades later, BS6 has become one of my favorite anime series ever. It may not have a lot of episodes (only four, in fact), but it still manages to do a decent job of providing its story with closure, while still leaving us wanting more. The music and action are awesome, the creatures all have unique and interesting designs (including the mermaid I mentioned above), and the message it's trying to convey has good intentions, even if it's a little muddled in its delivery.
In fact, that's probably the biggest problem the show has (other than the dated CGI): it only has 4 episodes to tell its story when it should've had at least 13, it doesn't take a lot of time to explain itself or introduce its characters, and it makes you want to see what will happen next. It also feels like there's a lot of backstory that was glanced over that could've truly benefited the story and made sense of everything. It's like if J.K. Rowling skipped the first six Harry Potter books, went straight to Deathly Hallows, and omitted the "19 Years Later" epilogue.
While there are 2 video games that expanded a bit on the anime's story and some of its characters, they're very obscure and were only released in Japan. There's also the manga this show was based on, but I know very little about it, since it apparently had little to do with the anime and has also never been released overseas.
Sadly, there have been no plans to follow-up on BS6, other than rumors of a live-action film being made in 2005 (which went absolutely nowhere, even 13 years later). Of all the TV shows that are getting unnecessary revivals, BS6 is one that could definitely do with a sequel, movie, or reboot of some kind; it has so much potential to be an epic franchise, but has been overlooked for so long. If you ever get a chance to watch BS6, do so now. It's only four episodes, so you can finish the show in less than two hours. It's definitely worth viewing at least once.
Happy 20th Anniversary!
Today, Blue Submarine No. 6 is now 20 years old. For those unfamiliar with the show, it is essentially Waterworld meets The Island of Dr. Moreau meets The Hunt for Red October. A mad scientist has flooded the earth, his army of animal-human hybrids are attacking the remaining humans, and the crew of a submarine, the legendary Blue 6, must stop him before he uses a doomsday device to alter the magnetic poles and wipe out the rest of humanity.
I remember watching this show when it originally aired on Toonami, back in 2000. I was 6 or 7 years old at the time, and the memories I had about it were very foggy. But there was a lot that I remembered. I remembered the redheaded shark-man with the distorted voice, the creepy CGI spider-mechs, the mermaid/cat girl, and the scene where the captain of the eponymous submarine says: "This is it! We fight to the death!" But I was too young to remember much else, and it all felt very surreal to me. And in the following years, it all faded into obscurity.
Two decades later, BS6 has become one of my favorite anime series ever. It may not have a lot of episodes (only four, in fact), but it still manages to do a decent job of providing its story with closure, while still leaving us wanting more. The music and action are awesome, the creatures all have unique and interesting designs (including the mermaid I mentioned above), and the message it's trying to convey has good intentions, even if it's a little muddled in its delivery.
In fact, that's probably the biggest problem the show has (other than the dated CGI): it only has 4 episodes to tell its story when it should've had at least 13, it doesn't take a lot of time to explain itself or introduce its characters, and it makes you want to see what will happen next. It also feels like there's a lot of backstory that was glanced over that could've truly benefited the story and made sense of everything. It's like if J.K. Rowling skipped the first six Harry Potter books, went straight to Deathly Hallows, and omitted the "19 Years Later" epilogue.
While there are 2 video games that expanded a bit on the anime's story and some of its characters, they're very obscure and were only released in Japan. There's also the manga this show was based on, but I know very little about it, since it apparently had little to do with the anime and has also never been released overseas.
Sadly, there have been no plans to follow-up on BS6, other than rumors of a live-action film being made in 2005 (which went absolutely nowhere, even 13 years later). Of all the TV shows that are getting unnecessary revivals, BS6 is one that could definitely do with a sequel, movie, or reboot of some kind; it has so much potential to be an epic franchise, but has been overlooked for so long. If you ever get a chance to watch BS6, do so now. It's only four episodes, so you can finish the show in less than two hours. It's definitely worth viewing at least once.