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Nanbaka(ナンバカ), also known as Nanbaka - The Numbers, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Shō Futamata. An anime television series adaptation by Satelight began airing on 5 October 2016. The title is a play on words, combining the name of the prison, which is the Japanese transcription of the word "number", and the Japanese word "baka" for "fool" or "idiot".
The story centers around four young men who are assigned to Nanba, the world's most formidable prison. Jyugo, who attempted to break out of prison and ended up extending his jail time; Uno, who likes gambling and women; Rock, who likes eating and fighting; and Nico the ex drug addict who likes anime. The action follows the daily lives of the prison’s inmates and guards.
Cell 13
Jyugo (ジューゴ,Jūgo)
Voiced by: Yūto Uemura (Japanese); Daman Mills (English)Inmate number 1315. He is of Japanese descent, has black hair with red streaks at the end, has heterochromia, his left eye is green and his right eye is violet. He is confident, cheerful, impulsive and gets bored easily. He is skilled at picking any kind of mechanical or electronic lock. The sole exceptions are the shackles on his neck, wrists and ankles which were placed on him mysteriously when he was asleep by a guard with a scar on the back of his neck. His father was inmate number 610 at the Nanba prison and known as the shame of the Nanba prison. He hates the guard who placed the shackles on him, and longs to find him and have them removed. He states that he has to be in Nanba as he has been to all other prisons.
Uno (ウノ)
Voiced by: Tetsuya Kakihara (Japanese); Alejandro Saab (English)Inmate number 1311. He is of British descent, has a long braid, wears a hat, loves women and gambling, and often has a pair of cards on hand. He has a great intuition and is able to make bets on what outcome will occur using his observational skills, luck and intuition. He is kind and outgoing (to the point of being silly) but can be blunt. After Jyugo is beaten within inches of his life by Hajime, he holds a deep anger against Hajime, stating he could never come to like prison guards. He broke out of his previous prisons because he had dates to attend.
Rock (ロック,Rokku)
Voiced by: Airu Shiozaki (Japanese); Jarrod Greene (English)Inmate number 1369. He is American, has a mohawk, wears long feather earrings, and is the physically largest of his fellow cell mates. He loves fighting and eating and is incredibly strong, with only some of the supervisors being stronger. He can be short tempered and impulsive, but cares for his friends, and mostly remains peaceful and happy. He escaped other prisons because the food was terrible, but likes the cooking at Nanba.
Nico (ニコ,Niko)
Voiced by: Daiki Kobayashi (Japanese); Justin Briner (English)Inmate 1325. An American effeminate short male with green hair and bandages on the right side of his body, predominantly on the right side of his face. He has a chain ball shackled to his right leg. He grew up in the slums, where he was a drug mule, and has escaped multiple prisons primarily because they tried to inject his medicine into him. He is calm at Nanba as the medicine is taken orally and is flavored. Drugs have an unusual effect on him and rather than incapacitate him, they have alternate side effects. He rarely takes anything seriously and is rather childish and happy go lucky. He is a huge anime fan.
Nanba Prison guards
Hajime Sugoroku (双六 一,Sugoroku Hajime)
Voiced by: Tomokazu Seki (Japanese); Ian Sinclair (English)The supervisor of Nanba prison Building 13. A Japanese bald strong serious man who takes his job very seriously and has a cross shaped scar on the left side of his face. He likes shogi and has a black belt in judo. He is annoyed by the antics of the cell 13 inmates and often intercepts them before they escape the prison. He is said to be the strongest of all supervisors in the prison. He is willing to do anything his job dictates, even kill if need be. He is very suspicious of Jyugo, not just because of his father.
Momoko Hyakushiki (百式 百子,Hyakushiki Momoko)
Voiced by: Satomi AkesakaThe prison warden. She is an intimidating serious woman with long blue hair and has a crush on Hajime. She is particularly watchful of inmate 1315, son of the man known as the eternal fugitive.
Mitsuru Hitokoe (一声 三鶴,Hitokoe Mitsuru)
Voiced by: Kenjiro TsudaOne of the Guards. Often covers for building 13 when the prisoners escape. He has a loud rockstar-like personality. Often saying things like, "Remember this is still a comedy anime!", when things get serious in the plot.
Kiji Mitsuba (三葉 キジ,Mitsuba Kiji)
Voiced by: KimeruOne of the Supervisors. He wears a lot of make up and has a somewhat effeminate personality. He insists he is not homosexual despite his personality and appearance. He is likened to a pheasant.
Kenshirō Yozakura (四桜 犬士郎,Yozakura Kenshirō)
Voiced by: Shouma YamamotoOne of the Supervisors. He has a crush on Hyakushiki, and is well aware that she has a crush on Hajime. He longs to exceed him, in order to prove himself to Hyakushiki. He is likened to a Dog. His preferred weapon is his whip. He is a hardworker, and before coming to Nanba prison was a police officer. It is suggested that he tried to bring attention the crimes against prisoners to his superiors while working as a police officer.
Samon Gokū (悟空 猿門,Gokū Samon)
Voiced by: Sōichirō HoshiBuilding 5 Supervising Officer. He has orange hair with green tips, and a red belt used for a tail like appearance. He is calm and trusting most of the time. He becomes irritated when compared to his older brother, Enki, and when Hajime is mentioned. Views Hajime as a painful reminder of how strong he feels he needs to be.
Yamato Godai (五代 大和,Godai Yamato)
Voiced by: Shunsuke TakeuchiThe deputy supervisor of building 13 at Nanba prison. He appears to be a tall well built Japanese man and is rather friendly and silly, often laughing. He has a horrible sense of direction and loves working out. Very strong and often trains with Tsukumo.
Seitarō Tanabata (七夕星太郎,Tanabata Seitarō)
Voiced by: Keito OkuyamaThe building 13 guard who often stresses over the fact that the cell 13 mates often try to escape. He is a bit of a worrywart and an easy target for the cell 13 inmates to bully but is otherwise a pleasant person who takes his job seriously. He has long blue hair. He is described as a pretty boy.
Inori Hakkai (八戒猪里,Hakkai Inori)
The deputy supervisor under Samon Gokuu. His face is Boar-like, having teeth that mimic such.Voiced by: Mitsutaka Itakura
Enki Gokū (悟空 猿鬼,Gokū Enki)
He has long white and red hair, with a long ponytail which acts like a tail. He has multiple piercings on his left ear and wears a golden choker. He is usually seen with a serious expression. When he was younger, he was usually seen training. He was strong enough to break a boulder in two with a single strike, mediate underwater and even studied diligently. He also was often seen with Samon by his side.According to Liang and Upa, Enki used to be in charge of a prison in China where he cruelly beat up inmates to become stronger. Liang was terrified at the thought that he would be next but Enki was transferred to Nanba Prison.Formerly the supervising officer of Building 5, he was well-respected and admired by the many fellow guards and even inmates throughout Nanba Prison. He was also considered indispensable to Building 5 and Nanba Prison. However, according to Liang and Upa, Enki had continued to cruelly beat up inmates in Nanba Prison which causes inmates to fear Enki. Enki had built an underground prison beneath Building 5, and has a secret archive room which has data on certain dangerous criminals, later discovered by Jyugo, that Enki was aware that Jyugo was part of a human experiment. After betraying his co-workers and killing an inmate, later revealed to be Elf. He was apprehended and arrested by his co-workers. He now resides in the underground prison of Building 5.Some time ago, Enki faced someone with blades similar to Jyugo. The mysterious person managed to injure Enki's left arm and Enki called him a monster. Since then, Enki was searching for him.
Hōzuki Sanzō (三蔵 法月,Sanzō Hōzuki)
Hitoshi Sugoroku (双六 仁志,Sugoroku Hitoshi)
Voiced by: Eishin FudemuraHajime's cute blonde crossdressing brother who befriends Jyugo. He has a kind and sweet personality and is very girly. He is more or less the opposite of Hajime; Slow, Clumsy and Non-athletic. However, the one trait he shares with his brother, is his toughness. Like Hajime, he can withstand abnormal amounts of impact, brushing them off like nothing. Hajime even goes so far as using him as a blunt weapon or projectile.
Other staff members
KAGU-8 (神八,Kaguya)
Voiced by: Yō Taichi
Shiro
The Chef of Building 13. He was once a prisoner himself, but after serving his sentence, he returned to Nanba to learn cooking and be a chef. He is a massive hulking figure, with a stoney unchanging face. He usually expresses his emotions in actions, like giving Rock a cake, when complimented. However, Rock has also proven to be able to identify certain emotions on his blank face such as Happiness, when they obtained a stone oven for the kitchen.
Voiced by: Toshiyuki ToyonagaInmate number 1399. He believes that he is a shinobi or ninja, but his techniques usually fail to work. Ironically, he was born in a ninja village, but even as a child he was terrible. He was found by a movie director, who wanted a real shinobi to cast in her film. She tricked the child into believing that she was his long lost mother, come to take him back, and raised him to be an actor and shinobi. When he discovered the truth he tried to head back to his home village, but got lost and ended up getting arrested for trespassing. After escaping the prison, he was recaptured and sent to Nanba.
Musashi (ムサシ)
Voiced by: Yoshimasa Hosoya (Japanese); Jason Liebrecht (English)Inmate number 4634. He was born with a rare disease that keeps his body temperature much higher than normal and allows him to manifest flames. He would learn to live and adapt with the disease. However, when he went to college in Germany, his condition went out of control. Fellow student Elf took advantage of the situation by framing him for numerous arson crimes in order to make it acceptable for him as a convicted criminal to be used as a test subject. In an act of rebellion, he burned the lab, but his power was suppressed by the scientist with the scar on his neck, which led to him being sent to Nanba where he finally found someone who believed his story in Kenshiro. He has since been determined to get revenge against that scientist.
Liang (リャン,Ryan)
Voiced by: Yuuki Fujiwara
Upa (ウパ)
Voiced by: Yū KobayashiUpa is a powerful qigong master and has a talismen attached to his head to restrict his chi usage.
Qi (チィー,Chī)
Voiced by: Genki Okawa (Japanese); Gabe Kunda (English)His his skill to create both medicine and poison. He creates drugs for Hachiman in return for protection from his debt collectors.
Ruka is a former guard, but is now inmate at Nanba Prison Building 5.
Other characters
Elf (エルフ,Erufu)
Voiced by: Daisuke KishioA mysterious character who framed Musashi for a series of arson crimes.
Man with the Scar
Voiced by: Masanori IkedaAn unknown figure, who is responsible for Jugo's irremovable shackles, and Musahi's pyrokinesis. His only known feature is a distinctive scar on the back of his neck.
Noriko Sanzō (三蔵 法子,Sanzō Noriko)
Manga
Shō Futamata began serializing the manga on NHN PlayArt's Comico manga app on 13 October 2013. The series is published in print by Futabasha. Crunchyroll Manga acquired the series for digital publication in English.
Chapter not yet in tankōbon format
The following chapters have not yet been collected into a tankōbon volume:
Anime
NHN Play Art announced in February 2015 that the series would receive an anime adaptation. The series is directed by Shinji Takamatsu and written by Mitsutaka Hirota, with animation by Satelight. The series premiered on 5 October 2016 on MBS. Crunchyroll is simulcasting the series on their website, and Funimation is simulcasting the dub for the series on their service.
