Chapter 1 | Rainbow Nisha Rokubou No Shichinin

The climax of the chapter isn’t a fistfight; it’s a moment of psychological chess. Ishihara demands that the new boys strip naked for a "medical exam" (a thinly veiled power ritual). As the others tremble, Mario is the last to comply. He doesn’t cry. He doesn’t beg. He just stares Ishihara down.

We are introduced to our seven protagonists—teenage boys who have been “corrected” (read: tortured) into submission. There’s no shonen hero here. Just broken kids. But Chapter 1 doesn’t waste time on backstories yet. Instead, it focuses on one thing:

Then comes the twist:

The immediate antagonist is Ishihara, a sadistic older inmate who acts as the warden’s muscle. He runs the cell with a mixture of terror and brute force. The scene where he forces the new arrivals to kneel and kiss his feet is nauseatingly effective. It establishes the law of the jungle immediately: eat or be eaten.

There are stories that grab you by the collar, and then there are stories that punch you in the gut, steal your shoes, and then offer you a hand up. Rainbow: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin (Rainbow: The Seven from Cell No. 6) is very much the latter. After years of hearing about the cult classic anime, I finally decided to go back to the source material—the manga by George Abe (art by Masasumi Kakizaki). And let me tell you, Chapter 1 is a masterclass in brutal, heartbreaking setup. rainbow nisha rokubou no shichinin chapter 1

But the genius of Chapter 1 is the introduction of , our de facto protagonist. Mario is quiet. He doesn’t rage against the system immediately. Instead, he observes . When Ishihara picks on the weakest kid (the tiny, frightened Cabbage), Mario doesn’t charge in like a typical hothead. He calculates.

If Mario is the quiet heart, Sakuragi is the thunder. A tall, muscular figure who has been sleeping silently in the corner, Sakuragi finally speaks. He challenges Ishihara not with volume, but with sheer presence. The panel where Sakuragi stands up—towering over the tyrant—is iconic. He declares that Cell No. 6 will not be ruled by rats. The climax of the chapter isn’t a fistfight;

However, if you love stories about the resilience of the human spirit—stories like Oldboy (the manga) or Berserk (specifically the Golden Age arc)—this is essential reading.