Rainbow - Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin



""We'll spend our time against these walls We'll fight this fight forever more If there's a place inside this world Where we must go﻿ back to once more Until the day We find that place We're not alone""

- "We're Not Alone", Cold Rain

A manga by George Abe and Masasumi Kakizaki, Rainbow tells the story of six teenage inmates of a post-World War II prison in Japan, and the hardships they struggle to endure within the living Hell they have been placed into.

It was adapted into an anime by animation studio Madhouse.


 * Adults Are Useless: The only good adult is the ineffectual warden Kumagai, otherwise they are all pretty useless or much worse.
 * Badass: Sakuragi.
 * Beauty Equals Goodness
 * Berserk Button: Anchan doesn't mind getting himself beaten up if that's what it takes to get him released, but if someone harms anyone of his brothers  and he WILL One Hit KO you.
 * Big Brother Mentor: Sakuragi Rokurouta, who's even called 'Anchan' (Bro) in-story.
 * Big Good: Anchan.
 * Bishonen: Joe, Anchan, and Mario.
 * But Not Too Foreign: Joe Yokosuka, the half-foreigner.
 * Cluster F-Bomb: It's set in a prison, so it's not exactly surprising.
 * Crapsack World: In the inmates' world, there's almost nothing but Complete Monsters in high places as far as the eye can see.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: Anchan manages to pwn the 6 newcomers on the first day and this sparked the formation of the Nakama.
 * Determinator: Pretty much the only thing that the inmates can rub in the faces of their sadistic overseers is that they won't give up. Ever.
 * Dirty Coward: Ishihara.
 * Driven to Suicide: Hagino,.
 * Eagle Land: The Americans in the nearby base are rude, and arrange boxing matches where untrained Japanese fighters get more or less slaughtered in the ring.
 * Engineered Public Confession:
 * Eye Scream: 's left eye, in volume 22.
 * Five-Man Band
 * The Hero: Anchan.
 * The Lancer: Mario and Soldier.
 * The Big Guy: Cabbage
 * The Smart Guy: Scam.
 * The Chick: Turtle and Joe.
 * Gentle Giant: Cabbage.
 * Gonk: Ishihara and Sasaki, to the point of being caricatures.
 * He Knows Too Much: Revealed to be the reason why Ishihara wants to make sure Anchan never gets released.
 * Heroic BSOD
 * Hey, It's That Voice!
 * Shun Oguri: Mario Minakami.
 * Keiji Fujiwara: Ryuji "Scam" Nomoto.
 * Megumi Hayashibara: The Narrator herself.
 * Rikiya Koyama: Rokurouta "Big Brother" Sakuragi.
 * Romi Paku: Noboru "Turtle" Maeda.
 * Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Anchan. Of course, it's revealed at the end of the first episode that this is actually a Jerkass Facade he put up to help the other members get a taste of prison life early.
 * Jizzed in My Pants: Scam did this right before having his first time with a prostitute in Episode 17 and its corresponding manga chapter..
 * Justified Criminal: Most of the six have some justification for the crimes they got sent in for. For example Mario and both Scam and Turtle stole and scammed to survive after orphaned.
 * Karma Houdini: Ishihara. While he does end up as a pathetic and somewhat insane drug-addict, some feel it's not enough to make up for everything he's done
 * Kick the Dog: Between shamelessly beating the prisoners for shits and giggles, depriving Sakuragi of food, forcing them to stand out in the rain for what appears to be hours, and selling prisoners to Sasaki as sex slaves, Ishihara has established himself as a professional puppy punter.
 * Killed Off for Real:
 * Manly Tears
 * My Greatest Failure: Granted he didn't really kill anybody, but  Which brings up the question on why he really was arrested in the first place.
 * Revealed in volume 21,
 * Nakama: Definitely.
 * No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Several times, to the point of being Nightmare Fuel.
 * Out of the Inferno: The seven prisoners themselves came out of a burning prison.
 * Phenotype Stereotype: Joe, who has blonde hair and blue eyes.
 * The Power of Friendship: Basically the whole point.
 * Rape as Drama: Several times--this is a prison after all. These poor kids get molested before we even learn any of their names!
 * Reasonable Authority Figure: Kumagai.
 * Shmuck Bait: Does putting "Explicit" in bright red in the disclaimer before every episode qualifies?
 * Shout-Out: Chapters from the manga are all named after songs, with everything from "Born to Be Wild" to "My Immortal." Artist credits are given at the end of each tankoubon; the mangaka seem particularly fond of Helloween.
 * Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Despite the harshness, it's quite an idealistic series about the indomitable will of the human spirit in the face of almost unbearable cruelty.
 * Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: A variation, since it's a Japanese wedding.
 * Spoiler Opening:
 * Stepford Smiler: Dr. Sasaki.
 * Supporting Protagonist: Mario is the main character, despite Anchan being The Hero and Big Good. An alternate way of seeing it is that Anchan is the main character at first and the role later shifts to Mario.
 * Surprisingly Good English: The Americans seem to be voiced by native speakers.
 * Tattooed Crook: Cabbage
 * Took a Level in Badass:
 * Where Are They Now? Epilogue: Towards the end of the first half of the series, the main characters are shown leading their own lives after their escape from the prison and : Soldier joins the military, Joe works as a band's assistant while struggling to become a singer himself, Turtle sells various items on the black market, Cabbage works for a construction company, Scam goes to high school, and Mario works as a bartender.