Shinsekai yori

Shinsekai Yori, or From The New World, is a teen-oriented piece of dystopic speculative fiction, the latest addition in this new wave of teen fiction to which the success of Hunger Games has opened the doors.

The series follows the adventures of five kids, from their childhood to their adulthood, in a medieval-ish post apocalyptic setting, where the only human left are the one possessing a special psychic ability called "Cantus".

While the first episode is quite good, establishing the setting and the mysteries behind it ("what's the government hiding?", "how did the world get like this?"), the series pretty much falls downwards after that, with episode ... 2 weirdly shifting the tone to high-school hi-jinx (admittedly it is foreshadowing but, as it happens many times in the series, in order to deliver us world details it suddenly changes tone, making for a very disjointed and uninteresting episode) and episode 3 basically killing any mystery with a long exposition sequence.

With almost everything resolved, the story stumbles aimlessly for ten or so episodes, as... things... start to happen. We get to see lots of short story arcs that, while again foreshadowing small story details, don't really feel connected to each other and don't offer any particularly gripping narrative. The series even pushes the reset button a couple of times, making the character forget, and having to re-learn, story details that we already know... riveting...

The story does pick up a bit with the last story arc, putting together all the awkward foreshadowing it did until that point and finally having a long story arc that feels significant to the world in which it is set.

While I feel that the first batch of episodes was intended to be about establishing and exploring the main characters before letting them loose in the final arc, in the practice it doesn't really work that well. First of all, I'm sorry, but the characters are just not that interesting, as most of them are pretty one note, secondly the main conflict of that part of the series is basically kids vs shady government... which would be fine, except that the government in question is... just not that shady, as again we learn all of their motivations in the third episode... and... they make quite a lot of sense.

Also this series has a serious problem with beating us over the head with things that have already been explained over and over again.

So... with an interesting setting that gets squandered, likable but ultimately flat characters, big problems with tone and pacing, and the trivialization of any mystery element the series could have had... is there anything good in Shinsekai Yori?

Well there is that one amazing musical theme we get to listen at the beginning of some episodes, and the series direction is quite good and can set a very eerie mood when it wants to (and when the characters shut up). Most than anything though I like how it engages with sexual themes, working as an interesting allegory for the sexual confusion of puberty and adolescence.

To be honest I quite like how Shinsekai Yori approaches youth and puberty as a whole. and how it manages to translate those themes into a post apocalyptic coming to age story. Sadly though, while the ideas behind it are solid, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The fact that it is a 25 episode slog doesn't really help, as it does feel that with a few episodes cut down the series would flow a lot better and generally be far more enjoyable.

[4.0/10]
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We wage war that tears down walls and buildings brick by brick, as our own inventions create and destroy. We put roofs over our heads only to light them ablaze. We create a hierarchy only to rebel against it. It's an endless coil, a snake eating its tail, feasting on the notion of betterment. If we dismantle our creations enough times and iterate upon them, surely we will reach that stretching plateau of perfection that our own ideology believes in. Yet once the dust and soot settle, we can only regret our impulsivity, our misunderstanding; the ladder of progress we eagerly climb is infinite, and ... there is always someone looking down on us. Yet from that rubble, a flower blossoms.

From a New World is desperate to tell us what we've been told before in a unique way. Whether it be that despotism is bad or that uncompromising control of sentience is evil, the results are virtually one and the same, and in this case, necessary. Furthermore, much like any tale of dystopia, we are presented with similar character beats, analogous narrative structure, and identical revelations. Yet none of this is a negative to me. See, I like dystopia. In fact, this signature sci-fi concept is one of my favorite tropes in entertainment. I like seeing similar ideas be iterated and expanded upon. I even find joy in witnessing ignorant, blinded characters have that signature horrifying revelation of, "Oh shit, my entire life is a lie!"

From a New World reinforces that joy, as the narrative itself is, in concept, quite good. An impressive, detailed world that was clearly birthed and seasoned at the hands of a novelist. Their pen bursting with ideas, as they terraform a white mass into something rich and structured. You could make an encyclopedia out of the knowledge given, albeit a short one, and still feel as though the folded over edges that hide that last inkling of wisdom are just out of your grasp. A flurry of creative concepts that give and give until you are figuratively stuffed and questioning what is truly right and wrong in this imagined world.

I don't feel as though I'm discussing the series, though. For all the creative strength that Yusuke Kishi, the novel's writer possesses, little of it is adapted. By that I mean, it feels as though A-1 picture's, in all their incompetence, simply took the words on his page, stripped out the prose and detail, and injected them into their abridged script. I see nothing but the story in From a New World, and for a product that is an audio-visual experience, utilizing both audio and visuals in such heavily flawed ways is beyond inexcusable.

An infection spreads throughout the presented world. That infection is power, the ability to control and manipulate objects and people. These infected people destroy out of fear, out of want, out of desire, and the world collapses at their whim. Through that collapse, a new society and hierarchy are birthed. New rules are created, new ideologies formed, yet the remains hang just below the shimmering surface, waiting patiently. That permeating mysticism is the backbone of From a New World. Especially once we are introduced to Saki Watanabe and her merry clique of character archetypes; each one varies in hair color, personality, and talent. That talent, of course, is what they are together for. You see, in Kamisu 66, one of the many sleepy towns that dot this new world, children discover their innate powers about when puberty hits. From there they are inducted into an academy and begin learning how to harness their strength.

As viewers, we are thrust into this setting with enough exposition to clue us in on just about every action taken that isn't purposefully shrouded behind the pervading mystery. This group is sent out exploring, adventuring, getting in trouble, all with the notion that they will come into their own. What becomes clear is that this society is constantly on thin ice. Any unwanted movement risks the collapse into the freezing water. If the allegory behind power isn't clear enough, let me also mention the subservient colonies of "Monster Rats" that reside in this world as well. Ugly, mole-like creatures that show intelligence, yet speak with slurred, barely comprehensible speech. They don't have power so they serve the ones who do. Get it?

"Are we the baddies?" May as well be the thesis to From a New World, and that is inherently interesting. The notion isn't spelled out immediately but seasoned veterans of dystopian writing can most likely deduce that the progressed, oppressive side is generally the one you should not trust or at least question. Whether their actions are necessary is half the intrigue in From a New World. Once again, all of this is taken from the novel, from the source. These ideas are lifted and splayed out in front of us. Examining the series itself, though? We are left with eerie orchestral vocals and stringing chimes to enrapture moments of total flaccidity.

A-1 Pictures can't seem to get it right. Their feeble attempts with Your Lie in April, smothering every element of music behind manga-esq exposition about how beautiful the music we can literally hear is. Or, in this case, deciding to ignore the fact that anime is an audio-visual medium. The fact of the matter is, From a New World is unbelievably boring. It is, for the first fifteen or so episodes, one of the single most flat and tedious series' I have ever put myself through. Virtually everything about this series is flaccid. The animation, directing, even the musical stings are often used ad nauseam. Nothing is given room to breathe; everything that the adaptors thought needed to be explained was explained.

You see, a novel has the ability to have large exposition dumps because the reader sets their own pace. A fast reader can shoot through these segments and siphon all the necessary information from them. Especially when large sections of supposedly good, mysterious plot progression is back ending these bursts of exposition. Yet the series doesn't have that quality. It's a twenty-minute anime, and that fact ruins the entire product! The writers need to get this massive amount of information across, so they have to cut out those valuable segments of proper writing because there is no time to have them. They rush from beat to beat and those beats are the least interesting part of a visual medium. That's not to say it is unable to be adapted. It simply requires a talented, unique approach to showcasing information diagetically.

In episode three our group stumbles upon what I can only call a glowing information hedgehog. While they call it a false minoshiro, all it is is a glorified exposition machine. That entire episode was them sitting in a generic, boring anime forest listening to this man-made device literally tell them everything they want to know except what just so happens to be a crucial piece of information the entire series wants to keep a mystery. It's genuinely unbelievable how weak this presentation is. Now if there were redeeming factors to the shot composition or animation maybe I could remain engaged for what is a glorified reading of a Wikipedia page. However, there is none of that.

From a New World is ugly. It has this somewhat unique aesthetic, with flat colors and a gray, dusty palette. Yet the director has seemingly no idea how to direct color, or images, for that matter. You'd think it is easy to create compelling shot composition when you have virtually no animation to worry about, yet this series' unsightly palette is all that is to be seen. From a New World uses something I see in every A-1 show and plenty of other anime; I call it "texture muddying." They are clearly rushing the product and the artists either don't have the time or talent to draw proper backgrounds, so they instead just color a texture onto flat environments using what I imagine is a tool from their digital art software. These environments lack all semblance of depth and quality, resulting in some horrendous design. Decent character-designs stand in fields of muddy greens and shit-stain browns that are drained of all vibrancy for no apparent reason.

Similar to last season's Violet Evergarden, the director isn't grasping why one should use a certain color palette or filter, instead prompting for a stylistic choice that holds absolutely no reason or merit. Glaring, abrasive CG rocks are hurled through the air in some tensionless action scenes where the characters take a backseat to whirring, synthetic sound design that is constantly repeated for every telekinetic "move" these characters employ.

This aggressively weak presentation is compounded by endless exposition that disregards any potentially interesting writing for blunt explanation. It lasts for minutes on end with minimal flashbacks or any sort of engaging material to consume. The application of these ideas is beyond misguided and feels downright disrespectful to the author who clearly put effort into this world. More so than just that, the series feels as though it is presented through a passive voice. Nothing is imminent. Nothing is about to happen. It already happened. Multiple episodes pass with virtually no tension established.

For example, a character runs away and hides from their impending doom at the hands of their own people! Yet we don't see this. We see their friend's reacting to their disappearance and then finding them. Seven minutes of exposition as to why they left ensue. A few minor, fuzzy flashbacks reveal what they experienced and then the credits roll. This happens constantly. Everything experienced by our protagonist, Saki, always feels as though it already happened and the viewer is just treading on ground that has been stampeded on. The majority of the actions she takes aren't even out of her own volition, and the small number of actions she decides to take are either frustrating or minor in the context of the entire series.

I can only place this blame on the series' presentation. Virtually every fault is at the hands of the people adapting this novel, as they visibly fumble over themselves and fail to convey any form of intrigue when by all means it should exist in abundance. Once these tedious pieces begin to fall away and we enter the third act of the narrative, we are met with more focused storytelling. It feels as though the earlier segments only existed to convey the few ideas that were carried over into this act. I began feeling somewhat rejuvenated and started to enjoy the kinds of revelations I was expecting from this narrative. None of it was all too surprising, but as I stated earlier, I like dystopian stories and From a New World breathes some interesting ideas into this potentially stale conceit.

Unfortunately, once the final credits roll I couldn't help but ask myself whether the many hours of tedium and despondency was worth the neat conclusion and I can't help but say no. It really wasn't worth it. The presentation is so weak that reading a summary or just the novel itself would've served to be a better way to spend my time. If watching this series was like biting into a sandwich made of mud and feces which housed a delicious piece of chocolate at the center, chewing through all that only for a hint of sweetness would still result in a putrid taste.

The title of the series breeds mystery, intrigue, a will to go forward and discover what comes from the new world, both literally and figuratively. I'm sure the novel follows through with that mystery at least to a certain extent. I can't judge the novel based on the abridged, mangled body presented by A-1 Pictures, though, and I would never want to. What was initially a holistic work was chopped up to only include the most mandatory elements presented in a lifeless way with sporadic moments of inspired shot composition blended hideously with endless, muddy animation and tensionless scene structure. However, the ethical questions of greater good and excusing horrendous actions to negate even more frightening results is fascinating. A truly unique way to expound upon established dystopian concepts and pulling inspiration exactly where it is iterated upon.

Giving appropriate praise where it's due, From a New World succeeds through its ideas, and fails through its presentation. Sadly, that's hardly a feat in this medium. In film, visuals are the single most important element. The same should be applied to animation. We can have a film without sound, without story, yet it can be something that blooms with quality. A novel is bound by different chains, so an adaptation requires a specific effort to be applied to change a long-form story into a completely different medium that utilizes unique presentational elements. As it stands, the title is what breeds the mystery. The cover art was why I initially picked this series up. Yet From the New World, only disappointment blossoms.

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 passivity. 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. Squealer progresses from a slimy servant to a glorious military leader rivalling Kiroumaru. 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 admirable 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 is indication that the humans have undergone some cultural change regarding freedom of thought, but the rats are still considered subhuman and were all exterminated, save Kiroumaru's colony.

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 a weird shoujo style, the scenery of some of the towns that were visited was nice, 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. Rarely it was high quality, usually was mediocre, often bad. Lighting was good most of the time.

Overall:
This is a very messy show which has the misfortune of being created around intriguing ideas. That makes it more disappointing that this is bad.

I don't know what the hell happened.

The first 3 episodes were pretty fantastic actually. Slow moving, but the world building was top notch, the animation quality was excellent, the characters were interesting, the setting was pretty fascinating and weird, and the music was good. The pacing was slow but good. I was really, really damn happy for this show.

Then, everything after episode 3 has been absolutely terrible. There was apparently a change of director, and everything just went downhill. Pacing is awful and doesn't make sense, animation quality is absolutely shocking, camera angle rules are constantly being broken, the music is still okay but it's ... just absolutely terrible. Dropped.

If you don't believe me just see for yourself. Something awful happened in the animation studio.

This is one of the most overrated anime out there. Unlike many other anime this one takes a more serious tone but it really devolves into just being an anime that includes the elements that are present in more serious anime rather than tell a good story.

Story

The story itself is broken into three arcs, this is problematic and would cause the story to suffer. The background of the story that a sudden outbreak in a few people obtaining telekinesis powers results in dystopian feudalistic future. The story talks about a few characters and their lives in school and then as adults and their ... understanding of the world and interactions.

The anime sets up a premise that has pretty big flaws, ones that it doesn't really address or even provide any sort of explanation for. It simply establishes that somehow people with telekinesis wouldn't continue to wage war among themselves. There is no explanation of what would be created to limit destructive behavior, the viewer would have to simply make a guess.

Because of the 3 arc format, it means that a lot of elements of the story are just thrown at audience rather than developed. This makes the story appear to be a cliff note version, with elements rapidly introduced and then removed to make room for other ones.

Of the three arcs the first one is remotely watchable, the other two are either weird or boring. The first one explains the world that the characters inhabit and gives away the entire plot, which is government doing shady things. The problem is that because of the formatting or because of the creator’s wish to create an anime that is more “unique” than well developed the plot doesn’t exactly fit, as the explanations for this “shady” behavior isn’t all that shady. The second arc is focused on romance but because of the 3 arc format the story is hastily thrown in together with the characters acting in odd ways making the whole 2nd arc simply odd, weird and just overall pointless. The third arc simply confirms what the audience learned in the first arc, the government does shady things, but not really.

Art

I cannot say that there is anything all that good about the art. It wasn’t bad just nothing remarkable and interesting. There was a possibility of creating some interesting art but it wasn’t done.

Sound

The sound is where this anime does well. The music chosen is pretty spot on but not without its imperfections. That is the music at times is used to create a tense situation when the situation wasn’t tense at all and simply made the whole feeling weird.

Character

Because of the 3 arc format the character development is pushed into hyper mode creating major jumps. Nothing interesting is about the characters, they all are their own stereotypes and simply are boring. They don't develop in any sort of way.

Enjoyment

This anime was one that showed a lot of promise but because the creators wanted to create a unique anime than a good one meant that whole thing just seemed more of a marketing push than anything.

Overall

It is crap, elements are just thrown in with little to no explanation and everything about this anime was focused on creating a unique one.

I don't even care if I get slayed for this, I'm just going to say it, this anime is a big mess and just extremely sloppy...

I've read reviews where people were saying how the anime was deep and took a lot of analysis or that it is realistic.... Personally, I think the writers for the anime was trying very hard to be deep and artistic... They honestly should have just followed the manga a bit more closely.

The story was simply poorly executed, intriguing at first but then the characters themselves just kind of throw that out of the dust with their irrational thinking, and no, ... just because they are children and they are from a closed off utopia does not automatically excuse them of their stupidity.
We start off with a sort of mystery about the world outside and the world in their little village and our main characters are given the "truth" from this weird... jelly.... thing... that was really unnecessary design in my point of view. The children are shocked about what they hear and before they can find out more they are discovered and immediately in trouble... If they were to go back to the village and just have their eyes opened to have fucked up their village is and they fight to survive or change it, that would have been a lot better!!! But no, instead we are put on a spot where they forcibly put the characters in an awkward and random almost sex scene which was just... what the flying fuck? Then a war between the queerats which literally came from nowhere. Since when could queerats actually SPEAK human language, I knew they had their own language but apparently they can speak like humans too? Fine, fine, I will accept that... we move on...
Satoru gets his abilities back and instead of getting back to the village for safety... he claims they have to fight them so that they aren't in danger anymore. Uhm, why not just hurry back to the village and ohh... I don't know.. GET HELP? Apparently killing and stuff is only bad when you do it to humans but the writers and director DOES realize that killing and cruelty to animals is one of the signs of becoming a killer or serial killer, right? And these weren't just animals, they had human intelligence. But oh well~ I guess that doesn't matter, despite the fact that they are in the future and that study is and was an easily known fact!! Pfft, not at all, no big deal if you destroy and entire colony of the species. As you can tell, this is when I really started to dislike the anime.

There's still a lot of reasons why I dislike the anime, I didn't completely finish it but I got pretty darn far and I decided I didn't have to put up with its stupidity any longer. The people who wrote the anime did not consider many things, they'd take one part of the extreme and just blow it up but then completely ignore the other. Stopping humans with powers from killing with it? In a society where having powers is the norm, it'd be like how we are living now, basically it's like everyone going through puberty, it's not a big deal. But the way they were saying things was like saying just because someone has a gun, they'd go out and kill people with it. It's not true. There's a lot of factors that go into someone actually killing another and just because a kid is causing trouble or is going through some angst doesn't make them a killer or that they will become one. The characters dismiss a lot of things really easily and it's not because they are brainwashed but rather that's how the writers wanted them to be. That scene where they were running away from that bad ass queerat because they were afraid the people would order it to kill them.... but instead of trying to run away from it all, they run back to the village that they thought wanted to kill them??? Why run away at all then? Where's the logic in that? Am I the only one who is seeing this?

As much as I would love to go on about it, I think this is enough to prove my point of my opinion. I was extremely disappointed by the series, I read some of the manga as well and I'm wondering if it's just the case of bad source material as well.

It's difficult to tell or judge what the show was intended to be, probably there was a good idea of some kind behind it. But it resulted in very poor execution. The authors failed to establish characters, they failed to establish intrigue, they failed to establish setting or atmosphere. The result looks very dumb and boring. Dropped afer three episodes, most of which face-less characters were engaged in sense-less activity. It looked completely unpromising.

Shin Sekai Yori is an anime based on a novel written by Kishi Yusuke. The anime adaptation was handled by A-1 pictures. You may remember them as the studio behind Kuroshitsuji and AnoHana. This was actually requested as a “futuristic scenario done right” after I took a look at the mediocrity that was Blue Gender, but I've also been told that this series is just as bad, even using several of the same cliches. There's only one way to find out which is more correct and that's by taking a look.

Story:

Our tale opens in the far future. Our protagonist, Saki, has just advanced to ... the next level of education, a school that teaches kids how to use their psychic abilities, but there's something wrong. Students disappear from the school and are promptly forgotten. Saki and her friends go on a camping trip that will lead to them learning a great secret about their society.

That's how the first arc begins. Yes, the series has multiple story arcs. One thing the series does really well is introducing intriguing ideas. The problem is that most of those concepts end up going absolutely nowhere or are just executed poorly. You think that the various ideas that are touched upon are going to eventually have a point, but they never do. It's like Kishi introduced them planning to integrate them into the plot eventually, but couldn't figure out how and let them drop, or briefly mentioned them in some minor scene in the hopes that he could validate having them in the first place.

There are quite a few other issues with the execution of this anime. The series tries to explain several facets of its world with science, which it gets wrong consistently. To use an early example that won't spoil anything, the series talks about bonobos. It says that they're peaceful, preferring sex to conflict and that they'll only engage in sexual activities with the same sex when they're young. The first half is true, the second is an outright lie and the bad part is that a half-true scientific statement is about the best the series ever gets in terms of its science.

The crowning moment of stupidity is definitely the ending. It starts by using a huge logical fallacy in the major climax. Then it segues into a plot twist that hinges on bad science and just to make things even worse, the series ends with the same lazy, stupid, cliché that Blue Gender ended with. Except that the execution is even worse. At least Blue Gender had some build up going into it, Shin Sekai Yori has a five minute montage at the very end to justify resorting to this tripe.

Characters:

The characters are similar to the story. The writing teases you with hints that these characters are going to develop and get fleshed out, but then it never delivers. In spite of the story spanning over a decade, the characters never grow or develop. They remain pretty stagnant throughout.

The only attempts to demonstrate growth for the characters are done with informed characteristics. For example, there's a character who talks about Saki's great leadership skills but she never demonstrates any leadership abilities whatsoever. She follows other people's plans or gets told what to do by the voices in her head. Yes, she has deceased people talk to her. No, this is never explained it's just used as a deus ex machina device.
The issue with informed characteristics like this is that the audience isn't going to believe them. You can tell us the stormtroopers are precise marksmen, but if we see them miss virtually ever shot we aren't going to believe it. Likewise, you can tell us she's a great leader. You could also tell us she gained magical girl powers from a talking dog and saved the world from goo monsters during one of the time skips or that she's the world's greatest detective. We not only aren't going to buy it, but we aren't going to care unless you actually demonstrate it within the narrative.

Art:

The art is really good. Everything is nicely detailed and the character designs are nicely done. That being said, there is one problem with the art. The action sequences are drawn very oddly and they can be difficult to follow. Especially the early ones. For the sake of argument, let's say that this was done to provide a sense of chaos and make things seem hectic. That would be fine, but it still doesn't flow well or look good.

Sound:

I have no complaints about the voice acting. Every actor gives a capable performance, in spite of not having much to work with. Hanazawa Kana (Akane from Psycho Pass) and Hirata Hiroaki (Benny from Black Lagoon) are particularly good. The music is largely forgettable, but not bad.

Ho-Yay:

The ho-yay factor is going to be a 4/10. The series has a bit early on. It has some yaoi between Shun and Satoru, as well as some in the background, and some yuri between Saki and Maria, plus some more in the background. Then it transitions into having nothing but het.

Final Thoughts:

On the positive side, Shin Sekai Yori has strong art and good voice acting. Unfortunately, the writing is just inept. The story suffers from major plot holes, terrible science, dropped plot aspects, a horrendous ending and characters who are less interesting than the random nameless bad guys you fight in a Fire Emblem game. As a result, the narrative is just terrible and I would not suggest sitting through it just for the art and acting. My final rating is going to be a 3/10. Next week, One Outs.

Shin Sekai Yori (SSY) is an incredibly ambitious anime that fails to deliver. The initial premise for the series involves a society desperate to control its citizens due to the fear that any one of them could become a mass murderer due to misusing their cantus (magical powers) or simply losing control. In a similar manner, the creators of SSY managed to lose control of their own narrative.

It only takes four episodes before the show veers off course from its original premise. The first two episodes introduce the village and the cantus school where kids disappear frequently. This gets forgotten for episode 3 where an ... exposition dump tells us the dark history of the world, and that nothing has changed over the past few centuries; humans still murder anyone they are suspicious of. All of this information is forgotten the very next episode as Satoru and Saki begin mass murdering Queerats. Finally, when the kids return to the village where there's a possibility for them to act on the information that they just learned, there's a time skip and they've been brainwashed to forget everything.

The show continues like this until the finale. Every development doesn't change how the characters behave because it's forgotten the next episode. Saki is completely incompetent with everything she does all the way through, even though the show tries to tell us how intelligent and capable she is. The other characters are just as incompetent with almost no personality. What this leaves us with is a show with bland characters making terrible decisions. The emotional parts of the story fall flat, and the climax of the story is completely ridiculous due to how easily it could have been avoided if any of the characters had any intelligence. The ending itself was insulting, trying to get us to empathise with a mass murderer who brainwashes his own people.

The elements were there to make this one of my favourites. The soundtrack was great, and the haunting atmosphere and sense of mystery were enough to keep me hooked. However, once the show was over, I was disappointed. The series introduces many concepts that could be important to our future and are worth discussing, but the show never goes into any depth and usually uses these ideas as a means for plot conveniences (especially death feedback). Unlike other anime that explore similar concepts, there are no lessons to learn from SSY. The biggest praise I can give to SSY is how well it manages to masquerade itself as an intellectual anime.

I would not recommend anyone watch SSY.

My friend had recommended me to watch this anime as it is considered a masterpiece by many. Packed with a fantastic storyline with amazing characters and a deep philosophy, I've decided to give it a shot and after 25 episodes, I've got to say....
I am frankly very disappointed.

My first biggest issue was the story, I thoroughly enjoyed the first 7 episodes when it was exploring the world, but after that, the anime started talking about rat tribes and colonies for the next 12 episodes. I was extremely bored and uninterested at this point - to the point where I was resting my hand on my ... chin and cheek trying to keep my head up. The story of human and beasts (genetically modified mole rat-humans) arguing over their moral code along with understanding of what's right and wrong was a promising venture in anime with its themes explored very well. However because of the lengthy explanations of every single event that occurred and how slow paced the show was for the entirety of its run time, I left the anime feeling very bored, disinterested and worn out.

The last episode which explains everything, was something I had already figured out. In fact, I had figured out 90% of the anime just from the events leading up to the ending, it was extremely predictable. even so I did enjoy the last episode for what it was. This is because I knew that the queerats felt misjudged and mistreated because an entire colony would simply be wiped out if caused an issue and how if the tables were turned, it would be a similar situation with the humans. But the philosophy was already presented to us throughout the show which led to an obvious ending. I feel if you wanted to preach this kind of philosophy, you could have done it in a much better way whilst keeping it interesting; instead of focusing the entire plot on explaining the queerat species and obtaining the psycho buster just to run from a fake fiend and waste it.

Another issue I had were the characters, the idea of killing main characters which are vital to the story are fine but to constantly remind us that Saki can't remember Shuns name because of mind manipulation was extremely tedious, I understand that she had her memories changed but why does it talk about it so much it's so obnoxious; The story left on Shun turning into a karma demon which was very interesting, but instead of exploring that concept, along with the concept of false minoshiro's, the anime decided to shift the focus of the "creatures" in this world to solely talk about queerats and how they are genetically modified humans. I would have loved more development into minoshiros and the entities presented in general, are all fake minoshiros libraries of knowledge? is the voice in Saki's head, Shun a hallucination or a prophet guiding her to the light? the show is essentially telling us "this is what exists" but never explains 'why' they exist.

One thing I want to point out especially is how many episodes are just filler, especially the episodes of getting the psycho buster, running for a few episodes and using it, just for Saki to destroy it because of Satoru, why write that into the show when Akki just suicides anyway. Completely pointless event and a 'twist' that's just frustrating to watch.

Another issue I had was the overuse of CGI, the rocks and arrows looked horrible, I don't know what it is with animes past 2010 using these Adobe After Effects CGI. It looks unrealistic and horrible, especially when the main characters use their special cactus psychic abilities to freeze moving objects mid-air and revert the entities thrown at them.

I had no qualms with the art, I liked the designs of the minoshiro, karma demon and the shapeshifting queerats, I really enjoyed the colour used on the Blowdogs but other than that, everything else was pretty standard, no big issue.

One thing I did enjoy however, was the world building, it was phenomenal how it was built and it all connected and made sense, I felt that the contrast between the real world and the world relayed to us was extremely interesting considering the information fed to us by the librarian minoshiro, along with how its development had reached that point after we learned of the events leading up to it.

Regarding the sound and music I very much enjoyed it. Everything sounded wonderful with each scene and I especially enjoy the OP and ED songs, phenomenal soundtrack, definitely going to search it up later and re-listen to some of the songs.

My overall enjoyment of this anime was a 3/10, if they had took the first 7 episodes and skipped the rest up to the 25th episode, I would have bumped it up to a 9/10, but there was just too much in between that didn't matter. The philosophy at the end is important and it was presented especially well with the internal conflict between both human and beast species, but that's it, the rest is extremely tedious and disappointing.

Thank you for reading!

Please read this before you attempt to watch this anime. You may take this warning with a grain of salt as I have only watched 8 episodes but after being thoroughly pertubed, I have done a lot of secondary research and this is the conclusion I have reached. This anime is not worth your time and here is why if you want an explanation/evidence.

From what I have gathered, the way this anime works is, excluding the first episode, the anime is entirely shitty filler until the final arc which I have heard people say is absolutely ... amazing and deep and others say is clichéd and easily found in other anime. Idk, I didn’t watch the end. But even the people that highly rate this anime generally agree that this anime is not enjoyable. Deep, dark, and thought provoking yes but not an enjoyable watch. Some people praise this difference in story telling and seem to be genuinely fine with the all moral no entertainment type of story. Others get off on thinking that being able to value something for reasons other than enjoyment makes them more mature than others and will dismiss all criticisms of the piece as being made by “immature simpletons” whose brains are too underdeveloped to appreciate something this deep. But me personally I watch anime for enjoyment, and while a deeper meaning to anime is a very welcome and cherished experience, I am not willing to torture or bore myself to death myself just to obtain this.


The reason I didnt watch the end is because the middle is so bad. There are various random plot elements scattered throughout the middle which means you have to sit through it to get to the end. So lets get into why the middle is bad.

There are various reviews labeled 3-4 (and even some 10s) on the MAL page that will perform a much better analysis of this shows specific shortcomings so I will simply list the basics without going into much detail or providing examples. Take them as you will but I can attest that I truly felt and recognized these issues while watching the anime and that I am not simply parroting the specific negatives others had identified while vaguely not liking the anime.

1. There are no interesting characters and there is no character developement.
2. The world and is magic system while somewhat interesting, are very shoddily built and frustratingly vague or self contradictory
3. There is no “good” comedy, action, or romance to temporarily sate you while you wait for the story to get istelf in gear at the very end
4. The 3 aforementioned factors combined lead to a very unnatural and uncomfortable watch as everything you know about good storytelling is ripped to shreds. You could pretty objectively say that the author did not write a good story. How much of this is on purpose snd how much of this is simply a lack of talent or foresight who knows and does it matter if its unenjoyable all the same.

There are definitely many more major issues I could talk about, any many more comparisons I could make to try and explain it to you, but for brevitiy’s sake just know that the middle section definitely does not feel good. And for me it feels really bad.

So these factors combined make it so you sit through the most horrible mundane shit slowly gathering the few important plot points while you wait for something to happen. Considering this anime is 24 episodes long and the reviews of the ending have ranged from amazing all the way down to meh, you really have to ask yourself if this is a gamble worth taking. I personally have made my choice and decided that it isnt worth the risk. To paraphase another reviewers words there are much better anime like Shiki and Eve no Jikan that deliver a similar and probably better highly philisophical/ thought provoking message without taking the time to drag you throught the mud and insult your intelligence first. So maybe if you have seen these other reccomendations and you have a lot of time and patience you can watch this but If not i would suggest watching them first and then still not watching this anime. Thats how much I personally disliked what I did watch.


Thank you for taking your time to read this review. I very much am open to comments and critiques on my review as I am always trying to expand my critical mind, and this review was quite fundsmentally different from my other reviews. Also if you want to try and convince me that the ending message of shinsekai yori is sooo good and lifechanging that it is worth me slogging through the rest even after watching the aforementioned suggestions first.

As a lover of psychological/philosophical/mystery anime, this is NOT one I recommend. Shinsekai Yori fails terribly to hold any interesting substance, wether it be within its stories or its characters. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I truly do not understand how someone could see this as a good anime, so I will explain my thoughts with lots of details so you may figure out if the problems would disrupt your viewing experience as well.

(spoiler free)

Story - 4
The IDEA for the story is brilliant and had so much potential, which is clear throughout the first quarter of the anime. But it is poorly ... executed most of the time.

First of all, this anime thinks you are stupid. The only way this anime gets information across is through info dumps, or from Saki repeating the same revelation she’s had 4 times, which really takes away from the shock effect. There are basically entire episodes dedicated to just giving a massive info dump. This is annoying because it takes the fun out of the chase for our characters. They don’t really have to fight much to get useful information, instead it’s just told to them pretty easily. Additionally, it’s better to have a story continue to unfold throughout the anime to keep viewers engaged. Instead, this anime will go a couple episodes with us learning nothing, and then INFO EPISODE! Then more episode learning nothing, and then INFO EPISODE! Again and again. It’s so bad that there are creatures in this show whose SOLE PURPOSE is to provide info dumps. Like a literal library-esque device that just spits out info whenever the main characters ask for it. Seriously, these characters don’t have to try at all to learn anything, like how did nobody else discover this stuff before them when it seems so easy?

The next problem with the story is the time skips. Time skips can make or break an anime in my opinion. I see them hindering this anime in the same way they hurt Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom, however it’s even worse in Shinsekai Yori. The time skips happen pretty randomly which disrupts the flow of the story. We don’t really get to see character development, but I will talk more about that in the character section. It also hurts the pacing of this anime, which is already very off. It’s too slow.

Finally the story is ruined from the stupid random plot points. The romance for starters is out of nowhere. You DON’T want romance to be something the viewers completely didn’t expect, because that means that the chemistry was not well developed at all. And this is the problem. No chemistry is shown through the characters at all. The main cast is friends. Wow! Honestly from watching I don’t know if you could even say they are that great of friends from the first couple episodes, but then later on it seems like they are the most important people to each other, even though they did not seem to have some great bond early on.

Saki’s actions also seem to be pretty random at times which I really dislike. One second she is not okay letting someone die to kill a threat. The next second she’s asking someone to sacrifice themselves to help kill the threat... where is the logic. This is also a problem with the characters but I think it is a pretty lazy way to move the story forward.

Art - 3
I am not too picky with art styles but I didn’t care for this one. Sometimes people will review an anime and say that the art looks cheap and poor in certain scenes, and I won’t have even noticed. But for this anime, I really noticed how cheap some scenes looked. Also, there are practically no bright colors. It’s all so dark and grayish.

Sound - 3
The OST is way too small in my opinion. There isn’t really an opening which is disappointing. It feels as if the creators thought this anime was too dark for an opening, but what I like about openings is how they make you excited for the show wether it is a super light-hearted comedy or a very dark psychological piece - yes it’s challenging to make one that won’t ruin the mood for the latter, but it shouldn’t just be skipped. The first ending is okay, the second ending is bad.

There was only one piece on the soundtrack that I kind of liked, otherwise they don’t stand out much. They are overused so much though, it seemed like the same two tracks were being played at least once per episode.

Characters - 2
The characters in this anime are unbelievably bland. I really cannot separate anyone from the main group of friends apart from each other. They are all nice and like each other and curious. That’s it. There is nothing defining about them when comparing them to characters from other anime, let alone when comparing them to each other. This makes it very boring to watch the show and destroys any emotional scenes because I just did not care about any of the characters.

The time skips made the character situation even worse because character development isn’t shown. Honestly it was kind of surprising how even though there were multiple time skips in the anime, I still see absolutely zero changes in any of the characters. They all stay the same.

The characters outside of the main friend group exist just to help the story continue and then they die. They have no memorable personality traits. I don’t even remember any of their names.

Now the only exception to this is Squealer. Squealer actually had traits (omg! a character that isn’t a blank slate in shisekai yori!) which included good and bad. This is revolutionary for this anime. Every other character is either a simple kind person who doesn’t want bad stuff to happen, or a simple person who also doesn’t want bad stuff to happen, but is framed as an evil person because they have a different idea.

Oh, and then of course we have the characters that serve solely for info dumps. I’m not really sure if these count as characters.

Enjoyment - 3
Every once in a while tensions were a little high and I was wondering what was going to happen next, so I guess that’s good! Some excitement put into the thrilling scenes, though these are far and few.

I enjoyed thinking about the philosophical concepts brought up. However the anime didn’t really aid with this because they bring up some philosophical questions but then completely abandon them.

Overall - 3
This anime was overall very boring to watch and didn’t have a well connected story line. Worst of all, the characters served no purpose to the story and didn’t have any personality. I found myself waiting for the episodes to end and excited when I was going to finally finish this anime. It was like a chore.

Shinsekai Yori has a great concept but it is very poorly executed.

A society free of violence, where the human behavior is molded from birth and peace and respect are made to reign supreme, harmful information is kept under lock and key so as your blissfull mind shant ever worry of the stress it could bring
Does that sound like paradise to you?

Now look at that same utopia thru these lense
A society unable to rebel, where the human body is programmed from birth to fall sick at any inkling of a hostile thought, censorship reigns supreme, knowledge is a forbidden realm as your blissfull mind shall be marked that of a demon for ever seeking it out
This is ... the world of Shinsekai Yori, still sound like paradise to you?

Or at least that's the extreamly interesting possible plot that's teased after a couple episodes, 'casue it very quickly gets flushed down the toilet!
All that talk about abolishing violence? Gone! Satoru is suddenly a war hero to the qeerats, and very much enjoying being so
After a couple episodes things do get explained in a little more detail, so i just put it down to shoddy pacing and gave the anime the benefit of the doubt as glimpses of that potential plot resurficed
But alas, the next episode hits you with a time jump... and suddenly everyone's gay... what? WHAT?? WHY??? Is there any valid explanation for this?? Any way it remotely makes sense???
Even Satoru who was previously very obviously crushing on Saki (scene that was a little to explicite for a couple 12 year olds) is now making out with Shun!

Looking over this anime again, "queerats", that manga cover, yeah it was all in plain sight what road this was gonna take...

Shinsekai Yori squanders its promising premise with an abundance of tiresome exposition, cardboard characters, and a lethargic story line.

From the New World is a show that should be something so much more as the foundations of its premise should lead to a captivating and interesting story. However, towards the middle of the first arc the issues with this anime became very apparent.

First of all, most of the story follows Saki and her friends as their quest for curiosity leads to them discovering the intentionally hidden mysteries of their world. However, the show never devotes any time to learn much about Saki or most ... of her group. We don’t know anything about Saki’s interests, passions, or even what drives her to take an interest in the world around her. Most of the time she feels very one dimensional and standard in nature. This is also problematic because her stubborn and ungracious personality frequently turns a blind eye to the consequences of her actions. Some of the time these ramifications even lead to her losing her friends and coping with life threatening situations, but when dealing with these repercussions she seems weirdly spoiled or as if she never expected to have to cope with any consequences at all. The side cast is also very weak and standard in nature. We know nothing about their families, interests, hobbies, or why they continue to follow Saki into danger. There is almost no time devoted to their development as for most of the show the character’s personalities never change or grow. At times they seem to clash with each other so often it left me pondering why they are even friends to begin with. Most of the times when dealing with the fallout of following Saki they seem awkwardly nonchalant. Satoru blindly follows Saki even though they fall out with each other multiple times throughout the show. Maria is simply Saki’s friend and nothing more. Mamoru is a one note character who's only trait is shyness, and most of the villagers and other members of the cast are granted so little screen time it is hard to be emotionally invested when darkness falls upon them. With a show that features multiple arcs in which the characters are shown to progress in age from being kids to adults we never experience any situations that really change any of their personalities or allow us to identify with them on any level.

From the New World’s predictable and sluggish story line also leaves a lot to be desired. The opening episode begins with a synopsis showing us the world in our present time and the humans that develop psychokinesis. We also get information on why Saki’s world is the way it is and why kids are removed from society for extremely obvious reasons. Then the show progresses as if we do not have that knowledge and focuses on Saki and her group discovering these reasons for the first 17 or so episodes of the show. Ummm….. why? Why do we need to follow Saki’s group and her friends discovering plot elements that we were so obviously shown in the first episode or beginning of the show? Why is the show attempting to build suspense for answers we were already giving? I’m not exactly sure myself and for the first two arcs of the show the lethargic pacing along with Saki’s oblivious reactions to the extremely obvious intentions of the Queerat character Squeeler was downright painful to sit through and comparable to having the most boring class in school during the final session of the day.

The largest and most glaring problem with this show is not only the worst aspect of the show but a problem that overflows into many of the show’s other issues already stated. I am of course talking about the extreme overabundance of exposition that plagues the show and why sitting through this anime was a bad experience. When watching a fantasy or mystery anime set in a different world that is not meant to be our own the main aspects that draw the audience into the story should be engaging or interesting events that SHOW the similarities and differences between our world and the fantasy world allowing the audience to become emotionally invested in the setting. Many other shows do this by showing off the beauty/horrors of the world through the soundtrack and cinematography. Others do so by alluding to the consequences of what could come if our characters fail to conquer the world. Some shows simply take a breather to show how characters live and interact with each other and the world on a daily basis in the fantasy realm. Unfortunately, Shinsekai yori never does this, and to make matters worse what shows up more often is the lowest common denominator of boring conversations between the characters describing how the rules of the world work assuming we are already invested. Most episodes are nothing but explaining….. and explaining…… and more explaining. The anime abandons all characterization as you rarely hear any natural human like conversations between anyone. To make matters worse the anime is constantly throwing new terms at you as if it expects you to sit there and follow every bit of dialogue that consumes the majority of every episode. This is made even worse when complemented by the fact that some of the dialogue is even focused on the political processes of how the world works as if CNN and Fox News weren’t bad enough. All of the constant dialogue and explaining never stopped in any part of the show resulting in a hollow and empty experience.

This all being said I do recognize that this show is heavily praised by many people in the great anime community, so I will gladly touch on the redeeming factors. As I mentioned above, the setting of a futuristic world as a result of an apocalypse happening in our lifetimes is pretty cool even if it is underutilized. Also, even if it is uncommon, the show succeeds in making you feel uncomfortable or uneasy at times through its graphic visuals. The strange scenes focusing on the sexual tension that plagues Saki’s group throughout the show also added to this uneasiness. Lastly, even if it was simply explained rather than shown, the twist ending was pretty interesting and fit in well with the show’s overall themes.

Unfortunately, these factors come nowhere close to making up for the overall headaches that plague this series. Shinsekai Yori should be avoided at all costs.

Let me preface this review by saying that this isn't meant to slander the show or prevent anyone from watching it, contrary to what my score says. In fact, I think you should weigh what I say in this review equally with what someone who rates this show as one of the best they've ever seen says. However, if you end up having the same initial experience as I did with the show, don't hold out for a large payoff in the end. That wishful thinking is what led me to spend 8 hours of my life watching something that, in the end, I barely ... enjoyed at all. So, if you find yourself agonizing over the first couple episodes as I did, just stop there, you likely won't enjoy any more of it. With that said, let's get into the review:

*Non-spoiler review*

Story 2/10:
Before I get into the bad, let's start with the good. Shinsekai Yori has some beautiful moments in it that are seriously well done and genuinely emotionally moving. Along with that, the story constantly hints at complex themes and narratives. Unfortunately, the beautiful moments make up less than 1% of the show's runtime, and the complex themes and narratives are never actually explored, just hinted at. It should be noted the story does actually finally answer one of the overarching themes by the last episode, however, it's a bit of a stretch. Basically, the whole show, the main characters keep rejecting this nuanced question that the antagonist brings up (the main characters essentially just keep saying "no, that's wrong" without giving it any more thought). But in the final episode, some evidence comes up that completely changes their mind. I have a couple of issues with this. Firstly, it's completely inorganic. This complex question is just answered with a simple "oh I guess we were wrong", rather than actually answering it with any sort of depth. Secondly, the author's solution to the problem didn't even answer the real question. For those who have watched the anime and are wondering what I'm talking about *spoiler-mark (move to the next paragraph if you don't want to see spoilers)*. The complex theme I'm referring to is the question of whether it is morally right to subject semi-intelligent beings to servitude, and if it is not just right, but if it was squealer's moral obligation to his people to revolt against his queen and humans to free his people. Essentially the anime answers this by saying, "oh actually queerats are humans, and it's not ok to make humans slaves". The problem is the question regards any form of intelligent life, not just subject to humans.
Moving on, the main problems I had with the story were its pacing issues, plot contrivances, unnecessary stories, and lack of crucial pieces of information. Firstly, the anime is abhorrently paced. At the beginning of the anime, over five minutes of an episode is spent on watching a game where rocks clash into each other. The nature of telekinetic power makes it so that there's not even people making flashy moves, just a bunch of kids scrunching up their faces at each other. On the other hand, the anime will completely flash by extremely tense moments. In one scene, the characters were in a chase. This could have been used as an extremely gratifying action sequence, with smart camera angles, powerful music, and fluid animation, that really puts the viewer into the scene. Rather than that, there is a blackout, and the episode comes back with the characters having completely escaped the earlier scene with no explanation whatsoever. Secondly, the plot contrivances in this anime are absolutely rampant. The reasoning for certain character's deaths, the entire functioning of the society, even the main premise in itself, all has major plotholes that, if any character in the anime just took one second to think out would end up solving every problem of this show. The part about unnecessary stories kind of ties in with the poor pacing of the show, so I'll leave it as something that wastes your time as a viewer and isn't relevant to the overarching story. Finally, the show leaves out crucial pieces of information that would have made this show much less painful to watch. Saying that the show is a 'mystery' show is not an excuse for the lack of exposition or background information, which would have made leaps and bounds in making the setting more believable. Rather, the show holds all this back until the final episodes, where it throws everything onto you as if to force some sherlock holmes 'aha' moment. Unfortunately, this fails because sherlock holmes moments only work when there has been a groundwork of valid hints that could lead one to a satisfactory conclusion, which this shows fails to do. As a result, the vomit of information at the end just becomes yet another convenient contrivance to advance the plot.

Art 4/10:
The style is incredibly inconsistent. Sometimes there are beautiful setpieces, other times the animation was so static I felt like I was watching a keyword presentation. The character designs are incredibly uninspired, although I wasn't expecting much from A-1. It should be noted that the art style gets really interesting when exploring the situation revolving around Shun in mid-season. Unfortunately, this doesn't carry on.

Sound 6/10:
Nothing much to be said. It's fitting for the setting that's presented, but nothing ever leaps out as groundbreaking. There are also some moments were I found the music a little jarring, but that's it.

Character 3/10:
The main character Saki suffers from Sakura-syndrome. She is bland, acts incoherently, and doesn't have much to add to any situation. That being said, I didn't hate her, nor did I particularly dislike any of the other main cast members. To be honest, the best characters of this series were either removed too early or were semi-background characters (Kiroumaru and Squealer. Although Squealer was a real pain in the ass at the beginning) who, if given more screentime, would easily have taken the show.

Enjoyment 2/10:
I had to force myself to finish this show.

Overall 2/10

I see this anime recommended on many websites at many times and I thought that I'd would find at least someone writing a review here sharing my consensus regarding it but barely 2% of the reviewers have given this anime an overall score of 8 or less.

After episode 3, 4 or 5 the overall quality drops and they all start to look similar to that one episode from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann that had the director fired after very famous quotes was spoken about it; but the problem being with this show is that the quality is consistently bad up until episode 7 at least.

The ... story was promising and could have become a great show but the lack of direction from the drawers and animators made it look really bad. Because of the cheesy dialogue and the poorly animated characters, it wasn't enjoyable after its first pilot episodes. I'd call this a too-much-try-hard.

Jump straight into an episode between 3-6 then start from the beginning, then go and enjoy another show that doesn't try to force a sex scene while being captured by enemies and then have the blue balled character turn homosexual three episodes later. Probably cowritten from all the fanfiction that made 50 shades of grey.

Shinsekai Yori (From the New World) a catchy title that you will see in all 25 episodes of the anime (to keep reminding you that they came up with a good name i guess). Anyway, it's about a group of children in a post-apocalyptic future living in a controlling society that keeps children in the dark about all sorts of things. The anime is about the search for the truth, weather about the human history or about the current society, and about themselves and their feelings and personalities.

The show starts in a very good way that will get most people hooked, but suddenly it ... gets confusing,rushed and cliche out of nowhere. The first time skip was really confusing for me, as we see that not only the romantic inclinations of the characters have changed, but also their sexual orientations. And i think it went a bit like this:" How do we get people to like the show even if we know we're about the fuck it up? Just hit them with some Yaoi and Yuri so that anyone who dislikes it will be called homophobic and we'll get some high scores and good reviews".

After the first time skip, the show takes a huge detour towards being an absolute failure, it keeps bombarding the viewers with rushed scenes that add to the confusion, a hole lots of cliche scenes with no addition to the story and without even realizing... you guessed it! Another time skip and now the characters are 26 year-old good looking people who are still thinking and acting like 14 year-olds.

This review sounds more like a rant than a real review because Shinsekai Yori is one of the very few anime with a well written original story that could have made an absolute masterpiece of an anime, but it ended up being just another cliche anime that got lots of hype and great reviews just because it looked good and dealt with homosexuality (kinda). It is another example of a brilliant idea executed awfully.

This is my first review here and English is not my native language. I'll try to make it as objective and spoiler-free as possible.

Let me start by saying that I cannot fathom why this anime has received so many rave reviews. The show starts awfully slow and the story doesn't progress until very late in the anime. There seems to be no clear direction as to where the plot is taking you. You, the watcher, can't help but to feel confused and begin to wonder why are you even watching this particular anime in the first place.

Shinsekai yori takes place a thousand years into the ... future. A small percentage of the human population evolved and gained telekinetic powers. After endless wars against non-psychic humans, they rise to power and eventually rule the planet. This is revealed to you through the series and is not particularly important until the very last episode.

What you will be watching and following most of the time will be a small group of teenagers enrolled in a school to learn to control their telekinetic powers, referred to as Cantu. Bear in mind, thou, that this show is not action oriented and is not meant to be a pissing contest between Cantu users to prove their powers. For this reason, if you are looking for a flashy anime with cool characters, Shinsekai yori is not for you.

There are no memorable characters worth mentioning. With no one to root for or care about, you are only drawn at the premise of a compelling and unique story. But after sitting through 25 episodes, it just left a bitter taste in my mouth. The plot is dark sprinkled with short bits of surrealism here and there. With the seemingly omnipotent powers of Cantu, the only real threat to humans is their Cantu going out of control. This serves as the center point of the story.

That seems interesting, right? Well, I thought so too. There was so much potential here, which sadly was wasted with the introduction of...mole rats at the service of humanity. Yes, read that sentence again. Mole rats. That final revelation at the last episode, which I wont spoil here, doesn't change anything at all or diminishes the silliness of the whole thing. You have to juggle the dark and (at times) interesting parts of the story focused on the Cantu and it's mysteries, and the ridiculous and almost comical parts focused on the mole rats.

The show takes its sweet time to raise questions and answer them. I found very few plot holes or unanswered question, but in all honestly, I cared less and less about the story as it progressed. The first half of the show is the most interesting and thought provoking part of Shinsekai yori. It definitely caught my attention and got my hopes high, if only for a moment.

If you find slow-paced psychological anime with lengthy dialogues enjoyable, you might want to watch this. However, don't expect your mind to be blown apart by it's not-so-deep plot and/or lack of witty twists.

A few interesting ideas, all of them executed poorly.

I'm convinced people don't like the show itself but rather the ideas it presents.

Story:
From the first episode it does an incredible job of building mystery and showing the world bit by bit. It brings in questionable acts and lets the viewers decide whether they agree with them or not. This extends to the characters too as they piece together information and then act on it. So where does it all go wrong? Several episodes later (not any specific point) when you start actually thinking how the world fits together in that universe, you realize it's full of ... several inconsistencies. Unbelievably stupid decisions over several generations by adults who, if nothing else, are always shown to be extremely careful and controlling. Imagine a world full of missiles but absolutely no system in place to defend against them if one goes off. That's the world of Shinsekai yori. After a certain point, the story abandons pretty much everything it had built up in the previous episodes for a new tale. This new tale lacks any nuance the first episodes might have had and hits you over the head with a lesson in basic decency which every 5 year old knows about already. The writing is just overall not good, it's something you'd expect from a guilty pleasure show or schlock but after seeing a ton of perfect scores for this and the show itself seemingly trying to be something more than just background noise, it fails terribly at it. It also raises the issue of introducing some small plotlines which are then abandoned. Why bring something up if you aren't going to use it? Such cases are a minor annoyance compared to the overall circus though as the show only manages to progress the main plot through contrivances.

Art & Sound:
There's not much to be said here, the art is serviceable even if the animation budget is clearly lacking in some parts (Perhaps better directing could've made it look better). Sound is... there. Nothing memorable but nothing awful either. No particular music piece stood out for me but it's possible others might like it.

Characters:
Simply put, there's no real interesting ones. The dull characters also turn the show into a slog to sit through as you have no one to root for. Throughout the show we're told time and time again how Saki is strong and awe-inspiring even though we were never shown that. The show insists we accept her as this beacon of strength when it's clear that there's at least one other person near her who is far tougher and more powerful than her (which we were shown, not told). Characters sometimes seem to act out of character or very unnaturally when the plot demands it, making caring for them an even harder challenge.

Overall:
Don't buy into the hype of this so called underrated show if you're looking for a consistent story or interesting characters. If you still wish to see it, watch the first 2 episodes then drop it, you're better off not knowing about the world as the early mystery is the only good part it has.

3/10

A true trainwreck of an anime.
I was pulled into giving Shin Sekai Yori a shot because it seemed like a fusion of Made in Abyss (a masterpiece in my opinion) and The Promised Neverland (also a very, very good show). This, along with the hundreds of 10/10 reviews, gave me the absolute wrong impression.
It seems that the review situation is either 0/10 or 10/10, so the only way to know if you're going to enjoy the show... is to just watch the dang thing.

It was appalling, disinteresting to the point I barely have anything to say about the show itself. The premise was indeed ... something reminiscent of Made in Abyss with the kids versus a dangerous, unknown world and of Promised Neverland in the kids discovering that everything they know is a lie, but delivered much more terribly. It is based on a pseudo-utopian society where psychic powers awoke within people, who used it for wrongdoing, so people were put into a system where they would quell their angers through sexual acts (like apes), even if it was with their own gender. This did result in somewhat of an utopia, but seeing our main characters (children) suddenly turn gay from an episode to the other was a bit... jarring.
The main heroine (don't remember her name) is a princess in danger that can't do anything by herself except squeal loudly, at least for the first arcs.
The rest of the characters are so painfully disinteresting that I remember none. The only remotely interesting person was killed off in the first episodes.

I would not recommend this show to anyone, although I have asked friends to watch it because i wanted their opinion. How could a show with so many 10/10s be so damn awful for me? Am I crazy?
Anyway, give it a shot if you want.