Rainbow 01

Rainbow is the story of seven teenagers who are thrown into a juvenile detention center in 1950s Japan.  The series is decidedly dark and gritty.  If you are looking for an anime with rainbows and butterflies, find another series, like K-ON.  If you cannot handle explicit images, turn back now.  For everyone remaining, welcome to Hell.

Even the opening splash warns you what to expect.

In the aftermath of the bombings, World War II, and the reparations demanded of them, Japan has become a crapsack country.  In such conditions, those with power thrive, and those who lack power constantly draw the short straw.  On the one side of this equation, we have Inspector Ishihara, who presides over his center with an iron fist.  He prefers to issue punishment personally through beatings, viewing the teenagers as less than human.  You can see he enjoys the work with the twisted smile on his face as he inflicts blow after blow.  He also hates having his authority challenged in any way.  If the Doctor hadn’t come to the cell to stop him during one of his tirades, we would probably be out one main character in the first episode.

You can tell this guy has issues.

Speaking of Bro, he embodies the other usage of power.  Ishihara’s power has corrupted him and he rules through fear.  By comparison, Bro leads by example and commands respect from the new additions to his cell.  He has an air of maturity and a great deal of control over his actions.  When the teens attack him to assert their superiority, he defends himself, but not to an extreme extent.  He dodges and counters each one with simple blows meant to show them who leads, and not to inflict great injury.  While he berates them when they question him, he also reaches out to them in friendship by passing the cigarette around the cell.  Where all the other characters get brief introductions by the narrator, Bro doesn’t introduce himself until the end and he still doesn’t tell us why he’s here.  It’ll be interesting to learn the source of his maturity, as well as the crime he committed.

Can the fearless leader tie this motley crew together?

Then we have the other six delinquents who have freshly joined the detention center.  The narrator introduces each with the crime they committed.  Some of the descriptions are straightforward, while I assume others will have a bit of fleshing out as the series progresses.  Turtle and Uncovered are both con artists and thieves, while Cabbage’s imprisonment is due to alcohol consumption and assault.  These three illustrate the squalor plaguing the country as the poor and unfortunate resort to crime to support themselves, or fall into the wrong crowd.  On the other hand, Mario, Soldier, and Joe all have sentences relating to assault, where they defended themselves or another.  Their crimes represent the failings of the penal system to mete out true justice.

Left to Right: Cabbage, Joe, Soldier, Uncovered, Turtle, Mario

The people running this institution drive home that the teens have no power.  The first thing they have to deal with is riding on a bus filled with people while they stand in chains with their faces covered.  Then when they arrive at the facility, the doctor subjects them to a cavity search using a long glass shaft.  They use both of these experiences to degrade them.  Deprived of any power, they try their luck at harvesting some level of superiority by taking on Bro, but to no avail.  When offered the opportunity to strike him by the Inspector, they refuse.  They know they have no right to strike him when a downed man when they couldn’t even touch him while he stood.  It illustrates both a capacity for humility and morality I am interested to see develop.  In the next episode, Joe tries his hand at escaping to see his sister.  I don’t imagine his plan going too well.

Can they find any hope within despair? We'll see.