Norageki!

Story: 6/10
Well, the story has potential, but wasn’t explained well. I was rather confused at the end, so I had to watch it again. It had a lot of symbolism and references to the game of roulette. Even the prisoners are actually named after roulette slots (R,N,V stands for red, black and green… in French). It has a few plot twists, which will keep you entertained, though.

Characters: 4/10
The characters lack names and personalities. They only reveal small pieces of their background story, which wasn’t enough to care much for them.

Animation: 7/10
The characters looked a bit awkward and their movements appeared a bit stiff. At first ... I couldn’t realize it, but they were created with cel-shaded animation. Hand-draw and classic 3D were also used at some points, which was… confusing for my eyes. However, the backgrounds were detailed and futuristic.

Sound: 5/10
The cat sounds were totally fake (but funny). The music wasn’t that bad, but didn’t seem to fit with the story at some points. The voice acting was decent, but I have seen/heard better.

Enjoyment: 6/10
It was a good short story, which will leave you wondering. The ending didn’t make much sense, but is kind of poetic and symbolic.
--SPOILER WARNING--
The boy was most probably a government spy and knew the cat was carrying a virus. Thanks to him the humanity ends up infected in the end. It is a roulette game where the bets are human lives.
--END OF SPOILERS--

Overall: 6/10
It is a short animation with some good ideas. I suggest you give it a try, but there are better sci-fi animes out there.

Five Numbers is an anime version of the kind of short story we used to get in Science Fiction anthology magazines - a group of people tossed together in an unfamiliar and/or hostile environment trying to figure out where they are, why they are there, and how the hell they are going to get somewhere else. There is little time to get to know characters and every nuance counts. And there's the problem. Five Numbers is a good story but all the nuances and titillating hints miss the mark just enough to make you feel there could have/should have been something more. ...

It's single biggest flaw is character design and the animation of human movement. Stiff, awkward, and generally unattractive. I think perhaps it is so distracting that you just can't develop any kind of feeling for the characters. All the background art and mechanicals were quite lovely, though.
I didn't pay much attention to the sound so it must have been o.k. I did find the ending song fun and wonderfully ironic.

Again, I'll say it isn't a bad story and if you stay as hungry for something passably close to hard science fiction as I do, you will find it a good way to spend less than an hour.

STORY: 10/10

If you've read the synopsis it is pretty self-explanatory. There's a power outage in a prison where there are 5 prisoners and a cat. The plot is quite simple: the characters try to find an exit from the prison.

And there may be a plot twist.

ART: 9/10

The backgrounds are gorgeous. The animation of the characters feels weird in comparison though, but after a while you get used to it and becomes quite charming.

... SOUND: 10/10

There aren's many song in the OVA and the most remarkable one is the ending, which is great!

CHARACTER: 10/10

Although you do not get to know the characters completely the little things you get to know about them are enough for the story to make sense. And it is nice to see how their different skills are helpful to the situation they find themselves in.


ENJOYMENT: 10/10

Despite being short it is a very enjoyable story.

OVERALL: 10/10

Personally I didn't know what to expect from the story but I'm amazed with it. Everything was absolutely enjoyable. And it's great how the staff got to tell so many things in just 24 minutes. Definitely one of the best OVAs I've seen.

after just finishing this OVA, i felt somewhat compelled to write a short review of it.

OVERALL: 9/10
let me start of by saying that this is the only category i scored this OVA in, so i'm not going to go into detail about every other aspect but rather i'm going to be speaking generally about the OVA. So lets get on with it shall we?


this ova was interesting to say the least, it had some good concepts but it wasn't explained properly due to the lack of time. had it been longer or maybe even a series of OVA's or just a 1 cour series, I ... personally think it would've done very well.

the basic content of this ova is that there are four prisoners (an old man and a cat) that are locked away in a [very] isolated prison when suddenly there is a power outage and the locks on the prisoner's cells were released. as one would expect, they then try to find a way of escaping that prison. there is also another aspect to this OVA which (as a spoiler, I wont mention) is what the next paragraph is talking about.

so if it's something that basic, why did I score it a 9? well i would like to keep my reviews spoiler free, but what i can say is that the symbolism in this ova is that "life is a gamble" and although short and not fully explored I feel as though I can understand what was trying to be conveyed by the good peeps who made this, and so even though the sound wasn't the best or the characters weren't "the best" (nothing we haven't seen in other anime) and the art was a little shaky, I still feel like Norageki deserves praise for what it was trying to accomplish and how it was portrayed.


on a side note:
the backgrounds were done incredibly well, it's just the characters i had a problem with. the way they were animated made them look weird in motion (more especially when walking)


final thoughts:
well we all have differences in tastes when it comes to anime, so not everyone will like this kind of anime, but for those who are looking for a short concept anime (and i emphasize concept) or you have 25 minutes to spare, why not give it try, who knows you might actually like it.

Rate a 5
English Dubbed

Story
Animation wastes no time for the mystery and immerses the audience straight away. I suppose this direct approach is okay for it allows you to connect with the characters on the ‘what’ principle. Which is vial on a mystery genre. Conclusion has a nice remark about life although was a tad confusing at least upon one watch through. My understanding was that it plays off the old saying of life is a gamble. Although, is it? That is the question raised.

Art
Computer generated. It is okay I guess not perfect. For some reason the visual appears to be faded with this drawing approach ... in comparison to the background.

Overall: If you want a psychological mystery this would be a safe bet. Especially if you lack large amounts of free time. This movie could also be enjoyed for those who are political and or skeptics.