Anime: Shinsekai yori mt4i

Lo primero que hay que decir de Shinsekai Yori es que es una serie a la que se le dan muchos prejuicios desde el vamos, en primer lugar gracias a la casa productora, la cual es A-1 Picture, un estudio que siempre se caracterizó por hacer series muy bien animadas y con muchos colores bonitos que hacen que la audiencia se lleve un buen espectáculo visual la mayor parte del tiempo, claro que por otro lado es la misma compañía que saca un montón de series pésimamente escritas, fantasías de autoinsercion en mundos de isekai (coff coff SAO coff) o dramas melosos que se van a traste con comedia pelotuda y situaciones forzadísimas sin igual son sello característico de dicha compañia, no es que no hayan producido una que otra cosa bien hecha además de esta, pero es solo la excepción que confirma la regla. Por otra parte esta pieza posee escenas homosexuales, lo que a cualquier persona, a menos que sea un depravado, les habrá alejado cuando se enteraron de esto aun sin saber el contexto de dichas escenas o de todo lo demás que tenía para ofrecer al público, lo cual se potenció con su manga que es más un doujinshi que un manga serio. Otra cosa peculiar es que está hecha por un escritor de novelas de ciencia ficción, así como lo oyes, no por uno de novelas visuales o ligeras, sino un auténtico escritor que además ha sido galardonado por sus historias, por eso al menos eso termina por reconfortar las ganas de ver la serie.

Pero de igual forma cuando este anime salió justo cuando A-1 Pictures estaba produciendo SAO, asi que esto terminó por afectar mucho a la producción. Los valores de producción no son malos, al contrario, son bastante creativos y dan muy buena atmósfera, pero se nota de sobremanera el bajo presupuesto, por ejemplo los personajes se deforman en ciertos momentos, el dibujo es algo genérico si se trata de la anatomía y las proporciones del diseño, aunque con algunas cualidades distinguibles como poseer lineas muy delgadas, algo muy raro en el anime, por otro lado los dibujos a veces se ven algo raros cuando se les ven en distintos ángulos o cuando se quiere jugar con la perspectiva, sus expresiones son muy tiesas y poco expresivas, el movimiento por su parte es muy limitado y mecánico, también de momentos, por lo que veras a que las cosas se mueven raras y recortadas. Esto es debido a que la calidad visual puede variar en muchas cosas como la dirección, producto de poseer un staff enorme con múltiples directores, todos dándole características distintas al ambiente o diferentes escenas, no llega a ser desastroso, ya que todos al menos supieron mantener la atmósfera conforme avanzaban los capítulos, pero llega a ser algo choqueante lo distinto que puede ser la forma en como hacen el entorno de una parte de la serie a otra, como si fuesen lugares distintos a pesar de ser el mismo, o que la dirección entre los capítulos pueda decaer, haciendo uso de ciertos efectos innecesarios que ni vienen al caso, como mal encuadrar las cámaras o hacer uso de paneos fuera de lugar, no hay que olvidar el CGI, que al igual que todas las producciones de bajo presupuesto se ven del orto, es usado en momentos muy puntuales al menos. Aun con los problemas anteriormente citados está bien producida, los colores por su parte al ser apagados llegan a ser muy característicos y dan un buen aire de incertidumbre, los paisajes están muy bien ilustrados y son muy interesantes, las casas, las vestimentas, y ciertos seres distintos a los humanos demuestran mucha creatividad. La banda sonora es muy limitada pero a la vez es bien atípica, está compuesta o por coros o por composiciones capaces de meter tensión dentro del espectador, los coros sirven muy bien para reforzar que ese mundo es como idealizado y que oculta varias cosas místicas detrás de todo. Las demás canciones son bien llevadas en escenas que pueden ser aterradoras o tensas, por ejemplo, una pieza de la banda sonora es tu típica canción madrugadora, pero la forma en que la usan como cuando ocurren cosas espeluznantes, vaya que si llega a impactar, la serie no posee algún opening de verdad, aunque en algunas versiones aparece uno que no está mal, el ending por otro lado es genial.

Hablando de la historia esta es de las más excéntricas que haya visto. Es como si agarraras a akira pero haces un salto de miles de años en el futuro y desarrollaras lo que resultó de dicha obra en un mundo parecido a la princesa mononoke. El escenario por su parte es muy cautivador, me encanta la forma en como expone el mundo, mediante el día a día de sus personajes y haciendo actividades que para ellos resultan ser normales o como pasan por distintas etapas en su desarrollo desde niños a adultos y notamos las diferencias entre su civilización y la nuestra, sin ninguna clase de dialogo expositivo o algo por el estilo, bueno la mayor parte del tiempo, en cierto punto la obra se pone a hablar un montón de cosas que rompen con esa buena exposición, la cual se da más que nada porque los personajes encontraron una máquina que les dijera varios datos del mundo, es un problema, pero no es como para decir que fuese tan grave y en cierta manera resultó ser enriquecedor para el setting y su extensión. Siguiendo con las actividades de los personajes, si bien de momentos se sienten como relleno que no aporta nada, esto en realidad es lo contrario, puesto que hay todo un trasfondo detrás que sirve para mostrar como dicha sociedad en realidad está controlando las actividades de los niños, como los moldean para que vayan por un camino determinado y como separan a los que son funcionales de aquellos que podrían dañar su sociedad, una bastante darwinista pese a su pinta hippiosa y naturalista.

Hablando mas del mundo, en este la gente a podido desarrollar poderes telequineticos y toda la sociedad se ha modificado para adecuarse a los susodichos poderes y la forma que cambiaron las leyes y normas. Es un mundo que a primera se ve muy utópico, la gente vive feliz, la naturaleza abunda y es muy prospera, pero eso solo es un telón que cubre todo un sistema de manipulación donde las personas que saben la verdad detrás de todo quieren mantener al publico a raya para que el orden formado no se corrompa. A lo de los poderes se terminan por explorar muchas cosas relacionadas con psicología, biología y sociología. Lo de psicología lo hace a través de como dicha sociedad moldea a las personas, haciéndolas ir por "el buen camino" y a la vez haciendo que controlen sus poderes en lugar de volverse locos psicópatas que lo destruyen todo a su paso por el desenfreno de su poder, razón por la cual los ciudadanos actúan de formas tan extraña, como no inmutarse al ver gente muriendo de una atroz manera, junto con lo cual se le suman varias cosas sociológicas, como el inconsciente colectivo que se fue formando a través de dicho mundo o los mitos, leyendas, transporte, divisiones de poder o costumbres que se crearon conforme avanzaba el tiempo. No hay que dejar lo de biología, ya que existen seres con una inteligencia igual a la humana con formas de ratas y otros animales rastreros, los cuales por sus cualidades físicas y al ambiente hostil donde nacieron formaron una sociedad aparte con sus propias reglas, muy parecida a las regiones que existían en el japon feudal, otro dato interesante puede ser la manipulación genética desarrollada en dicho mundo para mantener también a raya a los humanos, como que desarrollen una inmensa atracción sexual en la adolescencia para formar familias en un futuro (de ahí que hayan escenas homosexuales) o la forma en como muchos mutan y se convierten en seres de apariencia animal. La obra con dicha sociedad se expande en muchas otras cosas pero las que mencione son las principales y las que engloban a las demás asi que ya mi punto quedo claro.

En cuanto a la estructura de la serie, se le puede dividir en 3 arcos argumentales, el primero con los protagonistas de niños, el segundo siendo adolescentes y el tercero adultos. De los arcos el más importante es el tercero, puesto que es la resolución de todo lo que se fue formando en los dos arcos anteriores, además que es donde hay más cosas en riesgo pasando y se resuelve por fin el misterio. No es que los otros sean inútiles por su parte, ya que sirven para construir el mundo y sembrar las pistas, pero a la vez se siente que es mera construcción solo para que el gancho mayor se dé solo en el final. Pero no es un error perse, solo una observación menor producto de posponer mucho el conflicto. Otras cosas que resultan también un problema es la conclusión de todo, porque aun careciendo de errores no hay alguna especie de catarsis al volver todo al estatus quo, está justificado por la trama y el objetivo de la sociedad, pero sigue siendo un problema remarcable junto al hecho que hay time skips (saltos de tiempo) entre los arcos, es hecho a propósito para ver el cambio que tienen los personajes a través de su desarrollo como personas, está justificado, pero por otro lado es cierto que no se vio dicho desarrollo en los personajes, es otro inconveniente que se le puede dar.

Algo por lo que sin embargo Shinsekai Yori padece mucho y lo que por desgracia no llegue a ser una jodida obra maestra son sus personajes. Recuerdan que he dicho de forma reiterada que los personajes actúan distintos a nosotros? pues resulta que están conformados por tres tipos de personajes, observadores pasivos, vehículos argumentales y personajes simbólicos. Los primeros, entre los que se encuentra la protagonista, solo sirven para ver como dicha sociedad funciona y reaccionar a los sucesos de esta, de nuevo, a través de su interacción con este y cuando se presenta un conflicto que los puede llevar a la muerte, solo se quedan mirando como si nada en lugar de hacer algo al respecto, no es al punto de lo kino's journey, pero también es de notar que no poseen mucha independencia o pro-actividad. Los vehículos son aquellos que solo sirvieron para hacer un punto en la trama, apenas aparecen y solo se les ve hasta que algo les pase, como aquellos niños que fueron asesinados por la posibilidad de que se vuelvan locos y lo destruyan todo, sin siquiera haber sabido algo de ellos. Los simbólicos, que están conformados por los secundarios, son los personajes pro-activos del cast y a la vez simbolizan muchos aspectos de dicha civilización pero desde distintas perspectivas, aquellos que quieren destruirlas o conservarla, entre otros, son los únicos personajes genuinamente interesantes, pero al ser solo parte de los secundarios no poseen mucha presencia.

Ya concluyendo diré que es una serie que no convencerá a muchos, sus aciertos son demasiado sutiles como para que a primera vista uno se dé cuenta de sus pros, o que por esa misma sutileza se descuiden otros apartados muy importantes en el show, los personajes, puesto que nosotros vemos la serie es por su mundo, no por ellos. Tampoco posee mucho gancho, la presentación es algo débil, no hay grandes explosiones o violencia desenfrenada y sexo sin sentido, todo su contenido explicito está moderado y sirve para hacer un punto, pero no llega a entretener más allá de su atmósfera e increíble distopia que deja en pañales a the hunger games o divergente, e incluso que compite con grandes exponentes como Metropolis, Blade Runner, A Clockwork Orange o Ergo Proxy. Pero de todos modos no se merece el mal recibimiento que tuvo y por el contrario se merece una gran aprobación de mi parte.

Shinsekai Yori had a case of not knowing what precisely it wanted to be. It was an action show aimed at teenage boys, a political thriller for the older crowd and a philosophical drama for those who want to think. Except it failed to deliver on all of these promises. A significant amount of this is due to the poor characters, though the plot was decent for the most part.

Characters:
Saki, being the main character, severely disappoints with her constant ivity. She is rarely proactive which means that other characters always have to drive forward the plot. This includes Satoru, Shun, Kiroumaru and Squealer. She has very few defining character traits other than being very self-preserving and resilient. The only sequence where Saki drives the plot forward is when they are searching for someone, of which they do twice, and the sequences accomplish nothing other than provide us with nice scenery to look at. Her decision in episode 24 to burn the Psycho Buster in order to save Satoru from a chemical death is downright idiotic and illogical on every level. Not only does this keep the 'ogre' alive so it could potentially kill more people, but does nothing to save Satoru from her. Very fortunately for her, this pays off, but to make such a huge idiotic decision and not have the show comment on it one bit, aside from words of reassurance for Saki, which also makes no sense, detracts from her character immensely. If she were both self-preserving and logical she could have created a wall in front of Satoru whilst the 'ogre' suffered a chemical death, which would have ended the conflict immediately and saved Satoru's life. It is worth noting that Saki's character, although the story spanned almost 15 years of time, never changed or developed as a character. She stayed the same until the very end, where she was ruined. She also talks to the deceased Shun 10 years after he died to figure out plot details which would otherwise have been very difficult to know.

Squealer and Kiroumaru stand out as characters in the wrong show because they are charismatic, intelligent, and honourable in their own ways. Squealer progresses from a slimy servant to a glorious military leader rivalling Kiroumaru himself. Kiroumaru is the embodiment of honour, but it is revealed late in the series that he plotted a rebellion against the humans because they could have been destroyed by them at any moment. Squealer's motivations are very justifiable; fighting for the liberation of monster rats and equality of rats and humans. His experiences in the first arc of the series shape his strategy and actions in the 3rd arc where he declares war on the humans. Kiroumaru and Squealer stay true to their principles to the very end, and they do not waver in the face of death. Kiroumaru fights with the humans out of loyalty to them, even though his loyalty is not unconditional. Squealer fights for all rats in order to provide them with better lives. They are irable characters, unlike everyone else in the show, who is either a redshirt or suffers from supreme stagnation. It is not difficult to see why these are characters are the best part of the show.

Everyone else was mostly insignificant. We barely got any screentime of Shun, and so his purpose was to trigger an epiphany in Saki, however the memory wipe the episode after delays this for a very significant time, thus negating the consequences of his death for a few episodes. Mamoru and Maria were uninvolved with the plot to the point where their daughter, who has 0 lines that aren't screaming, is more relevant, more important, and drives the plot forward. Even she is not a character, though, she is a character-less enemy. Redshirts include Inui, Rijin, Kaburagi, the crazy monk dude, and countless other citizens. Tomiko is an interesting one because she does such evil things, like killing children and controlling every aspect of human life, out of fear that an apple with go bad and ruin everything. Her interests are in preservation of humans at the cost of freedom, progress, and humanity. This is contrasted well against Squealer, who is progressive and constantly advances his tribe even if it is highly dangerous for them all. Satoru is barely worth mentioning. When you see him in episode 5, that is his character and it never changes throughout the series. He makes rash decisions, and is still naive, especially during the hospital sequence where he doesn't want to realise what threat they are up against.

Plot:
The plot was the best thing about this show, though it wasn't anything better than 'good'. The first arc contains eough events, however, they are all placed at the end, leaving the first 4 episodes almost eventless. The first few episodes are used entirely to set the scene and infodump, rather than to develop the story. The introduction of the rat conflict and rat politics was a benefit, but having to watch humans play a large role in this detracted, especially since Satoru just killed everything. First arc has a decent conclusion, though in classic A1 fashion, there is unnecessary explanation to establish this conclusion. There are a lot of dropped plot elements, such as the characters who go missing who are given 1 sentence of information 10-15 episodes later.

The second arc is bad. Almost nothing happens. They go looking for people for at least 4 episodes. Episode 10 contained Shun's death and some infodumping, and provided conclusion to his part of the story, which wasn't much, albeit good, transitioning the show into the next segment. The infodumps during Shun's death episode provided enough information for his issue, but didn't particularly affect the main plot in any significant way. Then the plot convolutes and starts to introduce plot holes, such as memory wipes. Use of such memory wipes in addition to sealing of power would allow the Ethics Committee to solve basically every problem that arises with children, thus rendering cats unnecessary unless they become really bad. There's a once-off character whose role was to replace Shun but he had no relevance to anything and was forgotten immediately after. The Mamoru search showed some snowy scenery, but ultimately meant little. The Maria search showed the same scenery, and also added little apart from setting up the next arc and leaving Satoru and Saki on their own.

The third arc is better, but spends far too much time focusing on the humans who have not changed since the beginning, and nowhere near enough time on rat conflict and rat politics. There are a decent few episodes where Squealer is effectively likened to the Tywin Lannister of the show, and his battle strategy against the humans appears to be quite effective, but the actual damages are never shown or mentioned at all. The lack of shown consequences makes the attacks on human settlement feel insignificant when they shouldn't. The 'ogre' was a good introduction, but instead of utilising existing characters, a new one was created specifically for the role, and for the zero lines they say, they have more of an impact on the story than Shun, Mamoru and Maria combined. A seemingly unbeatable threat upped the stakes, which was good for tension, and it remained this way until they introduced the cop-out that is the Psycho Buster: a magic solution that will solve all of their problems. This undermines the abilities of the humans and instead of letting them fight and win on their own merits, acts as a way for the plot to grant an out the the losing faction. The Tokyo exploration episodes could have had good scenery, but it was just desert and caves, which was a missed opportunity. Yet again, Shinsekai Yori becomes a searching simulator as they look for the Psycho Plot Convenience. This isn't as bad as the previous searches, though, because it is their goal they are pursuing, not insignificant side characters that don't do anything useful. The intentional sabotage of the Psycho Buster by Saki when they could have won may have ruined Saki's character, but it served the plot by allowing the humans to come up with a solution of their own merits. The actual solution is given to Saki by Shun, who died 14 episodes prior, and even though is a figment of Saki's madness, reveals important details to Saki that she either should have known herself (thus strengthening her character) or should have figured out. Being told how to beat the 'ogre' reflected poorly on her character and the plot. Kiroumaru's sacrifice was well executed (pun intended) and served as a consequence for Saki's actions.

The final episode concluded on a low note. The bad guys won, oppression and tyranny would continue, freedom was crushed. But instead of being solemn, the show maintains a neutral stance. This neutrality does serve to let the viewers decide who they feel was righteous, but it was so obviously the rats, that this could almost be considered a negative point (it isn't, though). The decision of the human council to punish Squealer made sense, and his eventual release from torment was a good conclusion to his story, however, the show mostly ended off as it began; with an oppressive and tyrannical society that controls every aspect of human life. There were few hints at any change to this system, save the treatment of some (not all) rats.

Sound and art/animation:
Voice acting was of standard quality, with standout performance by Squealer's VA. The OST was mostly forgettable, though not bad, with only one track being good. It set the scene on most occasions, but sometimes ruined the atmosphere, like during the confrontation with an imprisoned Squealer. Really not notable. It suffered from a lack of diversity in tracks and used the same ones over and over even if they didn't fit the mood of the scene.

The art style was quite pretty, especially the scenery of some of the towns that were visited, but the directing was inconsistent, especially camera angles that often focused on Saki's rear when it was inappropriate for the scene. Episodes 4 and 10 were directed very poorly, but the floating bars of soap in Shun's area were quite amusing to look at. Animation quality was inconsistent. Sometimes it was high quality, usually was mediocre, rarely bad. Lighting was good most of the time.

Overall:
This is basically just Psycho with a better plot, significantly lower production values, and a meaningful conflict with the antagonist.

5/10, was watchable, but nothing I would recommend proactively.

Review
Shinsekai Yori was one of those silent releases, hidden deep beneath layers and layers of popular franchises with tons of actions, lolis, virtual worlds, and cheap fanservice. This, however, happened for a reason: Shinsekai Yori is a tough show to digest.

At its heart, it is a dystopian adventure involved in mysteries. Its execution, in other hand, initially presents a chaotic, nearly insane, tale that tackles things from cute children and yuri/gay couples to a dark thriller filled with psychodelical artwork and tons of long explanative dialogues. This chaotic multitude of feelings and genres, which lasts for nearly half the show, can easily push away possible fans and make many viewers believe this is something it is not. Those who persist though, are presented to the true colors of Shinsekai Yori, one of the best releases of its season.

Shinsekai Yori presents us a distant future, around a thousand years from now. In the last days of our recent era humans started developing special abilities and altering the world around them. Conflicts, death, mass murderers, and everything else with "doom" in it forced our society to change. Children must now learn how to use their abilities from an early age, sometimes adults must dispose of those that could grow into savage killers, and much of the ancient civilization was lost or forgotten.

Within such a setting, Watanabe Saki and her group of friends are learning from school, still new to their amazing powers. These children, however, will see much of the world and learn through harsh experiences how their seemingly untolerable society came to be.

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1. An amazing setting
   Shinsekai Yori’s starting idea is simply amazing. Humanity has changed much, but the show smartly hides key elements to explain this transition, giving the audience many points where they can speculate about how everything came to be. Controlling the power since childhood, magical beasts that were born through influence of our power, humanoid rats building their own societies to mimic our own, revering humans as gods and supreme beings. The entire idea is innovative and intricate enough to live on its own.
   
   The pace, however...
   Sadly, Shinsekai Yori takes a while to understand what it truly wants to be. For the first episodes it is heavily erratic. At some points it feels as an average slice-of-life of cute children. Suddenly it jumps to cat-and-rat play in distorted scenarios and dark caverns. Sometimes it gets mysterious and terrifying. Then, when you least expect it, it grows absurdly psychedelic and nonsensical.
   
   These identity crises come with unexpected time skips and narrative jumps to reach whatever the author wanted. Most of the time, this means you have to make sense of tremendous shifts in the cast and the setting by just taking into a few lines of dialogue or not even that.
   
   Everyone is suddenly gay...?
   For example, early on, after presenting the children and setting them for the story, the show jumps a few years at the end of an episode and suddenly… bang! everyone is forming a gay/yuri couple out of nowhere. Although it tries to reason as to why this happens, you would need a lot of busy work by studying the original material or skimming through the internet to really get it. In the end, it feels more in line to please a specific type of audience (fanservice, mostly) than to really integrate these behaviors to the setting. It gets even worse when there are no hints as to why couples are formed, there is no natural growth to form these pairs, and after a few episodes the show simply forgets this small arc ever existed, never coming back to these themes and barely bothering with sustaining romantic couples ever again.
   
   These kinds of problems with its identity crisis harms the pace of Shinsekai Yori a lot in its first half. It’s good to never really know what will happen in the next episode, but when that means you can’t keep the show on a cohesive track it gets bothersome.
   
   It embraces the dystopian world at the end
   This indecision lasts for a dozen episodes. Then the show finally embraces what it truly wants to be. Instead of trying multiple things, Shinsekai Yori focus on the social issues of the world, how the humanoid rats' societies were formed and evolved, how their hearts became like that of humans of the past, and how Saki and Satoru feel about the current status of the world around them. This dystopian adventure is fairly simple in comparison with the many attempts to make it sound bizarrely complex in the first half, yet it is a solid work that is brimming with mystery and an amazing dark feeling to it.
   
   The cast is kinda of emotionless and not that smart
   Shinsekai Yori’s world did some bizarre work on its denizens. The cast, most of the time, will react to events in ways you simply can’t understand. Children will meet creepy, unknown monsters and dialogue as if they were talking to another kid. People will participate in warfare and mass murderer while never showing any kind of remorse. Most importantly, the majority of the show will present characters taking the dumbest possible course of action, such as always trusting the wrong guy. This makes most of the cast lose whatever charisma they could have, yet it also contributes to turn stupid events into something more interesting... If you’ve noticed this same pattern as from all other protagonists of horror shows and movies, then yeah, that’s what Shinsekai Yori is about too.
   
   A nice creepy guy and no fear of losing stylish characters
   Squealer damn you! That’s a creepy little guy. While he is presented only a few episodes after the start, this humanoid rat gets a decent number of scenes and turns the atmosphere of the show completely when present. It’s very interesting how he acts, his voice-acting also gets on your weak side, and his appearance is like that of a monster from a child’s tale. Alongside with him, the dark atmosphere of the show is also aided by many deaths or removals of seemingly important characters, a trait quite rare for a show for A-1 Pictures and always welcome when done as nicely as it is here.
   
   Yes, you know them, right?
   Shinsekai Yori is animated by studio A-1 Pictures. If you still don't get it. This means "heavy topic, light presentation". The studio has a huge problem in portraying gritty and mature settings, mainly because they typically turn every character into a cute loli or bishounen. Shinsekai Yori is no exception. It does have great animation and artistic value, especially with its intricate setting and wonderful scenarios, but fails miserably when giving life to the characters of the show.
   
   The cast starts as a bunch of children, cute children. Some time skips transform them in full adults, yet they never lose their cutie side or bishounen value. Although this is not exactly a issue, but a trend followed closely by the vast majority of shows, it does a disservice when Shinsekai Yori attempts to provide a dark tale of a world completely gone wrong. Add that to a terrible drawing where characters can look completely different from one scene to the next, and random, clumsy, distortions, and you have a show that falls short of what it could've been. This inconsistency vanishes after the first half, when the show finally decides to be sober and not nonsensical and ultimately establishes a pattern for its art style. Additionally, a purposeful lack of shadows in the characters, instead of giving an identity to the show, mostly felt as bits of laziness at many moments. A pity.
   
   No opening
   Yup. Shinsekai Yori skips the industry’s standard and offers no opening whatsoever to the show. Instead, the first minute of each episode is gifted with heavier background music and sometimes even with a different color pallete. This however, is no issue to Shinsekai Yori. Heavy themes, darkening songs, and a solid voice-acting even for a show with many kids puts it on the upper side of sound direction. Overall, it makes a colossal contribution for building the dark atmosphere, sometimes even making you ignore the cute characters in it.
   

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Comments
Shinsekai Yori tries too hard to be something more "flashy". The attempt to feel like other shows that deceive the audience with tons of dialogue to feel smart only detracts from the first half of the show. Fortunately, things are corrected after the second time skip and after a few nice episodes you will only see those past errors as "part of the deal". The dystopian adventure filled with mystery and an amazingly intricate setting offers an experience that is nearly unique to the industry and a nice refresher. Shinsekai Yori could’ve easily fallen to loli, gore, ecchi, and yaoi/yuri fanservice, but a decent direction and a focus on making the tale more of a mystery than of a fandom pleasure marks a tremendous success for this. In the end you have a mature tale with a welcome lack of these annoying elements that plague shows these days.

I typically leave manga versions (I rarely even bother reading novels and light novels) of shows on their own, but after reading about Shinsekai Yori I found myself forced to read the manga and understand why a few people were disappointed with the adaptation. Oh man... I can only say A-1 Pictures earned more of my respect after reading the manga. The animation is completely different for many reasons, but basically, the manga is a large mess of ecchiness, cheap fanservice, senseless nude scenes with boys and girls, and bland comedy tucked where it simply destroyed any atmosphere that could've been made. Damn, even the creepy monsters feel as if they were cute inhabitants of Ragnarok Online there.

So, basically, if you are a fan of the manga, be prepared for a darker and smarter show that will probably not please you. Also, if you are one of the guys who glorified Sword Art Online in this season and kept Shinsekai Yori in the dark... Well, I don’t know what to say to you.

I'll be a bit blunter than I would've been otherwise, but conditions are what they are, and the time has proven to not be merciful towards precise memories of various anime shows.

Shinsekai yori is one of the best anime shows of the 2012/2013. It aired alongside much better known shows, such as Psycho , yet is clearly superior to most of them (only Uchuu Senkan Yamato, from what I've seen, remains as the better show). Its looks can be deceiving, certainly the current picture right here, on anidb, is diverting viewers right now, but once you realize what you do truly get with this show, you might realize you've gotten yourself a deeper deal than you bargained for.

Art & Animation

It looks pretty good for modern anime. It is one of the shows that aims at elegance via simplicity, rather than going with some extraordinary designs and flash, and it works well - characters mostly have relatively simple features, their main distinguishing feature being their haircuts, however they do not go out of the way to look crazy and unique in the whole genre of anime, they try to be unique just in this particular show. The world and landscapes share a simple elegance to them as well - it's a lush, green world of seemingly archaic societies, close to nature. Of course, plot-wise, it's far from it, but, artistically, Shinsekai yori is very pleasing to look at. But, when the time calls for it, the show can get pretty disorienting and almost psychedelic, to a great effect. Good stuff all around, a stable 8/10.

Sound & Music

The sound and music of the show was, basically, excellent. While not much to mention about the sound and stuff, other than the fact that it was there and it worked, the music was very fitting, and the show sported a bunch of very moody themes, that perhaps weren't all too memorable, but certainly evoked the right atmosphere, and did so all while barely avoiding falling into the omnipresent desire for "epic music". The vocal themes reminded me of Escaflowne, although Escaflowne's soundtrack was still superior. I'm still tempted to give a 9 here, for I enjoyed the audial part of the show very much. 9/10, then.

Story

Shinsekai yori as a story follows the lives of a relatively small bunch of people, starting from their early childhood days all the way into early adulthood. It would be a big mistake to think that this is just about teenagers growing up and going to school, for the very society, in which this growing up happens, is rather unusual and, frankly, this society's structure, laws and policies are the central topic of this show.

the show offers a twofold perspective on the society - from one side, it shows how it affects those who grow up in it and currently live in - what are their struggles and what price they have to pay for being of these particular groups. we find here the complicated troubles of growing up and living up to expectations as teenage of a post-human society, where the meaning of being a human has changed quite a bit. we also here find some romance elements and general drama, however, these aspects, while with some emotional effect, are not as fully fleshed out as the exploration of social themes.

on this other social side, the history of how this society came to be plays a heavy role, and it is this complex history and the historical challenges, that people have braved in the past, that gives some reasoning behind the present social structure. however, the show does a good job at showing how there are multiple sides here, and, even if it's possible to accept the social form portrayed here as a possible and perhaps even sort of legitimate solution, it also points out the wrongdoings of this form, and as such invites thoughts about how could this form be improved or changed to enforce a society that feels more just towards... well, everyone.

the particular choices made during the history gives raise to a number of questions about things that could have been done differently, but there are no pretensions that the society shown is perfect. rather, it is the main character's struggle with the wrongs of this society that form the central challenge in this show.

I feel like I have ranted, and I probably have, I am not sure how to review a story such as this without going into evaluating the concepts and ideas presented here. But I suppose this necessity to think afterwards is a good excuse in itself to give this show's story a high grade. If it had a slightly better dramatic side, then it could get an even higher value, but right now it's just... 9/10

Characters

Characters, outside their role in story exposition, are a less interesting affair, although they're not without their appeal. Most of the characters are likeable, their struggles sort of realistic and also interesting due to the differences between Shinsekai Yori's world and the one we currently inhabit, but they do lack a realistic development. They feel emotions, but how these emotions came to be remains a mystery. There are changes in characters, but these changes could have used some better shown and more understandable reasoning/experiences behind them. However, the core features of characters are fairly well-founded, even if some of them get great, seemingly unfounded praise in the series (you're so strong, yes, you are), however we get some hints of motivation and desires even for relatively minor side characters, so there's something here.

I would have loved for the core romantic relationship to have developed in a deeper way, but I can see and understand its outcome, it's a bit sad that the journey there was more implied than shown.

However, the characters were good enough to show the story and ideas behind it, so they work, and I liked them well enough, and I think they deserve, say, a 7/10

Value & Enjoyment

This was a serious case of "surprisingly good" for me. With all the bad rep modern anime gets, worthwhile shows still keep popping up here and there, so all is not lost. Shinsekai Yori certainly is from that same cloth that gives me hope and that motivates me too look at the new shows with anticipations of something actually good. I found the show's style, the complex society and history portrayed a very inviting thought matter, a pleasure for the eyes, and the characters worked well enough to invoke some minor emotional responses, although the majority of that comes from structural, not experiential considerations.
value is an easy 9/10, and so was my enjoyment. I liked this show a lot!

An anime where the characters are born with supernatural abilities would be science fiction. An anime that follows the characters at crucial points in their lives would be a coming of age story. An anime that parallels society at the past and present would be social commentary. And an anime with all these traits would be Shin Sekai Yori.

As a coming of age story, it shows a believable mix of the highs and lows that come with childhood, adolescence, and adulthood but only shows the character’s emotions as they are. This neutrality toward the characters lends itself to the show’s social commentary on privilege, race, and sexuality because the lack of demonization or pedestal placing on their reactions to the society around them offers different viewpoints without saying who’s right or wrong. And in their society are the supernatural abilities everyone has adding an element of science fiction. Making a good story from the science fiction, coming of age, and social commentary genres is difficult separately but Shin Sekai Yori uses a needle of neutrality to weave these threads into a near flawless shape.

But although it’s an excellent mix of content, Shin Sekai Yori does not easily surrender its value. It answers all its questions but often leaves more questions than answers. This story structure mimics the way the characters gradually learn about the world around them. And it is that replica of their perspectives that can make Shin Sekai Yori difficult to watch; it requires commitment not everyone will have.

The characters themselves are very well fleshed out and provide a feel for why they act the way they do. They each feel like real (supernatural) people. Unfortunately their development doesn’t match their characterization. The lack of change works for Saki given her eventual place in the story but the lack of change on Maria, Mamoru, and Shun raises the question of how much the events around them are affecting them. But it’s Satoru who steals the show as he gradually develops into someone that could be mistaken for another character. That said, Shin Sekai Yori’s characters are overall well-written though some are better standouts than others.

The show’s world itself looks as bleak as many of its mysteries. The best way to describe Shin Sekai Yori’s visuals is a subdued color palette for a bleak feeling punctuated by lively color splashes that ironically don’t have a different mood. The latter in particular is where the visuals stand out, as they’re always experimental but always purposeful. Using a sharp contrast of black and white, for example, to show the teetering between sanity and insanity for one character compared to the shades of grey everyone else’s minds are in. Or a certain weapon that’s as psychedelically colorful as it is deadly.

Audio-wise, the soundtrack is scarce, subtle, but highly effective. Very often the score is less like music and more like ambience that voices the show’s atmosphere rather than giving the show a voice. The show has no opening sequence in the traditional sense but the music during the early part of each episode is more haunting than words can describe.

This anime’s flaws are few and far between. But the high bar to entry may warrant a raise or drop in score depending on your patience. The characters don’t standout as much as the show’s story or audiovisuals but they in themselves are still –good- characters. Shin Sekai Yori might be a difficult anime to watch and it’s not the best one but don’t be discouraged from trying it anyway; this saga From The New World is still very good.

What is fun and what is enjoyment?
Are they different?
Are they the same?

Shinsekai Yori is hard to enjoy. It really is. It is demanding and opressive. The emotions it elicits are definitely not the light hearted kind. Takes a special kind of viewer to enjoy that kind of stuff.
It is also most fun i had watching an anime in years.

I invite you to consider why.

Video

This anime's visuals are exceptionally strong. Great sceneries, great animations, exellent attention to detail. Almost every episode has at least one scene that'll stay with you for a long long time.
What SSY does cannot be attributed to any sort of production value. The artists really put a lot of thought in how they want to present their world and really poured their hearts out creating it. Scene composition, lighting, "camera work", color combinations - everything is impeccably made to maintain just the kind of flow that a serious story really sorely needs.

The visuals would be 10/10, if not for one major drawback, and that's character presentations. Surprising as it is, this is the show where you get to differentiate characters by their hairstyle :(.

I understand that this is a result of the authors trying to be minimalistic in their overall design approach, always trying to get away with only as many visual elements as needed to get the point across. I even understand why they chose this minimalistic approach - there is really too much visual content in this show to be flamboyant about every little detail.
Sadly, this approach doesn't really work well for characters that tend to maintain ~70% of screen time. Having to constantly look at minimally featured blobs of skin-like color definitely ruins the experience a bit. So minus point for that. 9/10.

Sound

Sound in the show is simply straight up impeccable.

On the most basic level, it is possible to just listen to this show, and you'll still understand what's going on.
On the more advanced level, there are solid music themes, exellent use of situational sounds, very good voiceacting. I really can't name one thing that's bad about SSY's sound approach.

There is some margin for taste in of situations where the show goes into deep exposition mode and really cracks up the sound intensity. However, i found that it really works to punctuate the need for viewer to really take in and concentrate on what's going on right now, because that's gonna be damn important. So i'd say this is not a flaw of the show's sound design, but rather a useful feature.

Also i definitely loved the show's first ED. Best ED sequence of the year imo (with Jojo being close second).

Long story short, the show's sounds really worked to tell the show's story and struck all sorts of chords for me. I'm entirely comfortable giving it a 10/10 in this category.

Story

Here comes the controversial part.
In of sheer content, the story is amazing. It touches on a lot of issues, handles them with depth and care and relentlessly works towards resolving the main conflict (which no less than about understanding of nature of humanity itself), while still maintaining enough room for the viewers to have all sorts of discussions around the topics presented.

However, the sheer amount of content comes with a price, and that price is that you cannot really watch this show leisurely.
The thing about huge chunks of content in stories is that a good story still requires proper observation of four classic stages of story development, and huge chunks of content make it hard.

In very simple , there is a stage where you explain stuff, stage where stuff you explained comes together and forms the story's conflict, stage where this conflict resolves and stage where you consider the aftermath. All of these stages require very different pacing and very different tools. If your story delivers content in huge chunks, like SSY does, then suddenly you need to dedicate entire episodes to slow-paced exposition, and then go into overdrive in next episode for fast-paced buildup and culmination, and then have another slow-paced episode for aftermath. Pacing problems appear.
The only three ways around it are either simplifying the story, or partitioning it in smaller chunks over larger amount of episodes, or hoping that your viewer is willing to work for his fun by dedicating the necessary amount of active thought and solid attention to your show.

SSY went with "work for your fun" approach. Some people enjoy it, some don't. Those who don't say it is a bad story for it.
Well, i happen to enjoy working for my fun, and in fact find fun that i need to work for even more worthwhile than fun delivered to me on a platter.

Another issue with huge chunks of content is that suddenly you as an author are not really sure that the viewers are going to sit through the slow-paced early exposition, and feel the need to throw in cheap hooks like hollow foreshadowing ("that nice smiling girl is going to be responsible for death of a lot of ppl - watch to find out how!") and a bunch of cheap fanservicey themes (all the pointless bonobo-related stuff).
Unlike pacing issues, however, this part really hurt the story, almost got me to drop it early on and is probably responsible for the show's low general acceptance. You don't do serious story with that kind of crap at the start.

So yeah, given the amount and quality of story content SSY delivered, i am perfectly willing to overlook the pacing issues, but the fact that they succumbed to lure of ez mode attention grabbing mechanics in early episodes still requires me to lower the score to 9/10.

Characters
Characters in this show are secondary to the story. They are all ultimately swept along with the story's larger themes and almost never get to show any actual character. Nonexistent backstories, weak visual presentations, almost complete lack of actual character development.

The characters, however, do have a saving grace in the sense that when something happens that really makes them feel bad or good, the viewer is easily able to understand it and get behind it. In fact, there are plenty real poignant moments in story arc aftermaths that rely on exactly this simplicity of characters for letting the viewer grasp the true extent of horror, sadness or (though very rarely in this show) joy that the story is trying to deliver.

Characters in this show are simple. Given how much is going on in the story besides the characters, i'd say simple is exactly what this show needed. Comfortable with 6/10 here.

Value
This is a show i can confidently recommend to any single one of my friends, even if they only heard of anime through obscure Dr. House reference. I'll also be recommending this anime to a couple of my writer friends as an exellent professional example of writing for visual medium.
I also know that i personally will be rewatching this show down the line more than once, and that the story of this show will be in my head for years to come.
That's how you do value, folks. 10/10 easy.

Enjoyment
I happen to enjoy working for my fun a lot more than anything else in the world.
Plenty of people out there who enjoy different things, but 10/10 is where it is for me.

Or rather it would be, if not for sodding bonobos. Seriously. Minus two points for that crap. 8/10 verdict.