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| Great ending to a great show. I enjoyed it almost all the time, giving it a 9/10. I hope the sales get better D: That twist at the end with the Chromosomes, I actually did not see the coming. That made what the bakumezani [bad speller] do seem not pointless, they had a cause to stand up for their race. Overall, I'm going to miss watching this every weekend. Hope to get my hands on the novels in the next coming weeks |
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Zee530 said: A show with an actual conclusion, do you know how long it's been since i've seen one. What have you been watching lately? |
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| I think at the end of it, after all that time of hating Squealer and still- even now- knowing that the way he was going about some of the stuff was wrong yet so familiar, we all knew he was human. That queerats were humans. And seeing Squealer on the stand, shouting "We're human" and seeing those literally ignorant (not used as an insult) 'humans' laugh at him like it was some kind of joke, it made me tear up. Because I can see countless leaders, even countless citizens and everyday people, standing up on some pillar, stripped bare of pride, honor, and dignity, standing there in all their filth of sins and small glory of morality they retained while bound in the robes of defiant hope, screaming at the top of their lungs with the tears in their eyes, "We may have done wrong, but we are not wrong. We may do right, but we are not all right. We're just as important, we're equal too, we are worth something. We matter". And the most direct way that Squealer could possibly have directed this message towards the council was literally to say, "We're human too", because being human grants you so many rights that animals nowadays don't receive- just like the queerats... In the end, the whole war was just humans killing humans. But I'm glad Saki and Satoru finally got married, and are raising tainted cats, and decided to change and help change. Really the whole thing just revolved around imagination, of what you think, dream, suppose, and wonder. Wherever thoughts lead, beings follow. And that is how all souls connect- even if we may have different bodies. |
SpiraiMar 23, 2013 5:21 PM
| Well the last episode wasn't anything epic with a battle or much fighting (besides the opening scene), but it was a great resolution. It's true, though, that the queerats were pretty much subject to the humans. I'm a little surprised that even Tomiko wanted such punishment, it seems now that she would be the first to figure out the reason behind Yakomaru's revolt. This series was amazing, considering it as another favorite. Not sure on the rating as of now. |
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| I loved the whole show... I find it fascinating. It's the only show that I felt each episode like 5 minutes long. I loved the human identity crisis that grew up inside me week by week. Right now I can't think clearly... There were controversial ethical issues such as the human sacrifices for the survival of a human society, which, for me, was the most I liked. And talking about controversials, I find the pansexual episodes pretty suitable for the whole story. I think the solution to kill the 'demon' was brilliant, Satoru remembered Shun c:, and that solution to kill the 'demon' was Shun's. Saki is a good person, she killed Yakoumaru to not suffer any more... :')  This episode had a very pleasant ending, 10/10 for this episode. And a solid 10 out of 10 for the whole show. I loved the OST/OP/ED and the quality animation (including those 2 episodes that had a wierd animation, kinda creative). This show is epic, it goes for my top5 now... |
| excellent series, great plot. i would like to read the novels if they were translated. 9.5/10 9/10 on MAL |
| Complete and absolute masterpiece. My first 10/10 since 2006. I almost got the queerat origins right, thought they might be the non-PK humans mutated by Cantus leakage. But it was actually deliberate. Squealer taking back his native name was perfect symbolism. They can strip him naked all they like, but he still has more dignity than every "human" in that trial room put together. The story is completely honest about what happens when the slave classes try to stand up to the ruling classes. They profess themselves better, claim not to treat you badly, but then treat one of their own as more valuable than all of yours put together, and show not the tiniest trace of mercy. And since they have all the power, they generally win. There's no happy ending here. A happy ending would have to see "human" power over queerats smashed. But this is a realistic show, the continuation of oppression we see here is a quite appropriate way for it to end. It's been a brilliant success as an intellectual story, a brilliant success as a tense thriller, and a brilliant success as an emotional rollercoaster. This anime ranks amongst the greatest works of television ever made. |
| A lot can be said about this anime. All I'm going to say is I'm glad it was adapted and I'm glad I watched it. I had a few strange parts in it but now that it is completed, nothing is out of place. It is a very cerebral work. I think it deserves a slightly higher score than it has right now. It's unfortunate that a lot of people dropped this during the role transition phase of the anime. Kiroumaru...you are not only the man, but you embody many of the topics this work has come to expose. |
Ncrdrg said: When they had this meeting over what happened to the Giant Hornet colony, they proposed the hypothesis that it was a fiend that crushed their armies. So then, the next question was, where did it come from? Saki, I think, raised the possibility, could it be Maria and Mamoru, maybe they really did survive after all?! And the next words that came out of the female leader (I forget her name) crushed her. She said it was impossible because they matched the bones of both skeletons using DNA to determine without a shred of doubt it was Maria and Mamoru. I have two questions. But first, some background info to set them up: Satoru in this last episode explained how queerats are actually related to humans by telling Saki he looked at their number of chromosomes and DNA. Satoru couldn't just do this during his 'free time' without having a lab and permission from the council. That means he worked there (I forgot the name of it) and he had been analyzing this stuff from the start. So.... 1.) That means Satoru could have known the bones were really Mamoru and Maria's. Why didnt' he tell Saki? 2.) When Satoru already knew about the queerats being like humans before the battle with the 'fiend', why didn't he receive death feedback from killing all those queerats? (And also for attempting to kill the 'fiend' which was clearly human?) |
| in the end 8/10 - great series but bit too depressing for my taste. For sure will be buying novel if it will be translated, it might be great piece of writing I think. So in the end it turned out that fiend, queerats and tainted cats (btw those at the end were adorable) are nice beings compared to ordinary humans. Good I didn't eat anything around Squealer's punishment as this was really sick part. |
| Fantastic ending, this series really delivered beautifully with its creativity, social mindfulness, wonderful OST, entrancing setting, and great writing. A-1 really lucked out by getting to adapt such a great story. |
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Ncrdrg said: symbv said: ghostphace said: Maria and Mamoru's fate is never explained so it is left to you imagination what they went through. Indeed one terrifying speculation is whether they might have been drugged by the squeerats and then compromised so that Maria got pregnant... Or they could have perished by some natural reasons or accident. It is hard to tell. One thing is clear is that they were indeed dead when Squealer returned the bones to the village. Did they ever explain what happened to Maria and Mamoru? We know they lived long enough to conceive a child. Since that child believed that she was a queerat, we know that she never had contact with her parents, Saki deduces this herself in the beginning of the episode. If that's the case, then we can assume that Squealer killed Maria and Mamoru soon after the baby was born to raise it as his own. It was actually explained pretty well. Although we don't know how Squealer killed them, it's 100% sure that's what he did. Do you remember Squealer telling Saki they could provide them shelter and make fake human skeletons by using bones of several queerats to make it look like they were human remains? But then he added that 'it would require some time to prepare'. So Saki and Satoru left them in their care, and the implications of his words and his huge lie didn't click in Saki's head until later in the story. The bones were 'found' or 'prepared' around a year after that. Then came the 2nd time skip. I don't remember them ever saying when the bones returned to the village. Was it said in the books? For me that's the missing piece to this puzzle. |
| wait so what happened to the fiend? |
| 10/10 no questions asked. This Anime is brilliant. The ending blew my mind with that revelation about the queer rats, and the realism to the 'end' of the conflict balanced out any bias i had with a preferred ending. I like how even though Squealer was the enemy throughout that entire war, he was not a complete bad guy in the end. I sympathized with him because of how his ancestry was basically created. He did deserve some form of retribution for what the Cantus users did to him and his ancestors (which was a great plot twist because i was curious as to what happened to those who did not have Cantus at the time of its discovery). And on the other hand, our main characters did not completely stray to one side. Saki understood the unfairness and tried to keep herself from doing the same mistakes. Also those tainted cats were REALLY cute. Plus their marriage- yay. All in all, this Anime was a great roller coaster ride. |
VyudaliMar 23, 2013 6:11 PM
athetosis said: It died due to death feedback. I'm assuming they just buried the corpse somewhere.wait so what happened to the fiend? |
| 10 / 10 Amazing. I also believe there is no happy ending but a way for Saki and Satoru to move forward. Kiromaru was an awesome character and to find out that the Queer rats had human genes was a really twist. It Makes sense about what happen to the humans who did not have Cantus. I loved this anime plot, ending song Wareta Ringo is awesome and will miss watching this. Saki was a great character |
llefvoid said: Humanity learned nothing. The status quo returned. Yakomaru, hero of the revolution, was taught the fate that awaits those who defy the gods. And Saki "hopes" her child will live in a better world. Laughable. Humanity, as a whole, did not learn much. Such as the council and the masses, they were laughing at Squealer and prepared to annihilate all queer rats. However, Saki- like all parents who are about to have a child, or any living being who thinks of having a child- will want their child to live in a better world. That's not laughable, that's normal. llefvoid said: Let's go through this by bits, starting at the end. The queerats were human. So what? All of a sudden we've got all these people (a couple in the anime, a lot here in the forum) in shock that they were human. What difference does it matter? Is it ok to enslave sentient and intelligent creatures as long as they are not human, subjecting their lives and deaths to a whim of your humor? And then do a couple of lines about genetics change any of the previous facts? Boy, no wonder it took so long for black people to have their rights recognised. The fact that the queer rats were human was surprising in the sense that they didn't look like humans. A part of the mystery of the anime was figuring out what exactly the queer rats were. We knew, halfway through or so, that they were humans, or at the very least, a branched section of Homo Sapiens. However, how did they come to look like that? How did this whole hierarchy of queer rats and humans start? Are they really humans? If so, why is the society treating them like that? Does the society know? Does the council know? Why wouldn't there be any information on that? That's what the viewers were thinking (well, most of them). Not, "Omg ew! They're HUMAN? I feel SO bad!". As for enslaving, it's not okay to enslave anything. Even if the being isn't intelligent or sentient, it should be illogical and against all morals to treat living beings as things below us or for entertainment. But that's the real world isn't it? We see animals locked in zoos (even those with self-made habitats span out for a few meters or so), we hear the opinion of children disregarded by adults, we know how it feels to be looked down upon. And thus, we struggle for power. To be greater, wiser, prettier, healthier, smarter. We're always struggling, it's always for power and recognition, and having our senses constantly Sensurround by this unspoken treatment against other living beings causes most of us to take it as a norm. Beings form connections through trust. It's easier to trust an environment you've grown up in. It's easier to trust those who look like you (which is why, for example, Alexander the Great adopted the dress of those whom he conquered so they'd feel less wary of him in his foreign attire). It's all in our psychology. And though we may be aware and rebel against that, it'll take a lot of time to change our way of thinking and perceiving. llefvoid said: (Surprising how no one has pointed out yet how ridiculous is the implication that the PK users of the past did genetic modifications to pretty much everyone who was not one of them to create the queerats. That's some industrial scale genetics going on there.) I think they killed a lot of the non-PK users, then modified the genetics of the ones they had left (perhaps by modifying the genetics in the DNA so the children came out different and then killing the parents?). llefvoid said: So, we've got these enslaved people, who must subject both to the arbitrarities of both the humans and their queens. They find a hope in Yakomaru, a leader who helps to depose the queens and is now looking to liberate them from the humans. They wage war and fail, narrowly escaping absolute extermination. All in all, today was a sad day for those who believe in freedom and equal rights. It should be noted that even the "loyal" Kiroumaru had previously tried to find the psychobuster. Have no doubt, had he found it, it would have been him to lead the revolution. But what did the humans learn from this? Nothing. They just laugh at the queerat pretensions from the height of their stands, now that they won and have nothing to fear. They see nothing wrong with the previous status quo and are keen to return to it. Kind of reminds me of the German Peasant's War and how the aristocracy solved it by butchering the peasants. Yep, goes to show that the masses are usually not informed and that huge crowds often feed upon whatever that united them, causing overall ignorance and stupidity to prevail (sometimes). But that's the reality of it all, isn't it? Just because the masses and the council don't know, doesn't mean they won't ever. And just because they don't now, doesn't mean no one else does. llefvoid said: And lastly a few words for the humans, in particular Saki. First she didn't want to kill the girl because she was not sure she was a fiend. Then she busted Satoru's chance of killing her because she didn't want him to go down. And when she finally concludes that she really isn't a fiend she is totally ok with killing her at the expense of Kiroumaru. Oh, that heartache seeing her dying, repeating to yourself you didn't kill her! No more than any of the education board killed any of those children with the tainted cats, that's for sure. So, they win and return to the village with Yakomaru prisoner. From Satoru's talk with him we can understand that this whole rebellion thing went over his head. WHY WOULD THE RATS REBEL AGAINST THE GODS!? As for Saki's legendary strength, she couldn't even stand behind the reasons she had to put an end to Yakomaru's suffering. No, she went on to lead the village with her reasons buried in lies, what a leader she'll be. And then the whole "hoping" that her child will live in a better world. How exactly will that happen? She's the leader. She did nothing to rehabilitate the rats' image. She did nothing to make the others see how wrong they had been. She just hopes. Wishful thinking won't get you anywhere, kid! Honestly, why did Tomiko choose her as her successor? I feel it was less due to her "strength" and much more due to her complete inability to challenge the established rules, despite being fully aware that they were bad. When Saki was supposing the girl wasn't a fiend, she still thought there was a chance to perhaps make the girl realize she was human. They tried with the mirror thing, didn't work out. Seeing the time limit they had, the danger they were in, and how it would be inevitable at that rate to risk life in order to kill her, they decided then to kill her. Then Saki unconsciously stopped the attack because her mind went haywire at the possibility of losing Satoru. Then, at the end, after discussing out another plan (by this point Kiromaru probably realized he'd have to be the one to die, and he was prepared from the start, as he said), they decided to carry out the plan which would probably be the only one with a 90% success rate: activating the death feedback. Finally, in order to suppress her death feedback (there are rules to the death feedback, by the way), she repeats she didn't kill her. However, we all know she did, just like the school with the tainted cats. You're right about that. But she wanted to and felt as if she needed to live. Overall, anyone at their last moments, close to death, would try anything to live. As for Satoru, what he didn't understand was why the rats didn't try some other form of rebellion. At least, that's what I think. I want to believe that he worded what he felt incorrectly because of the sheer anger he felt of what happened as a whole and why. And Saki didn't explain her real reasons to the council because then there would be little chance she'd become head of the Ethics Council then. Just like Squealer, she's embraced those lies you have to tell to 'do the better good for all'. While I can't say I agree with what she did and I certainly do understand where you're coming from, it all comes down to this: Would you stick by your beliefs, preaching your morality, calling out the wrong and revealing what is right to a group of people- most of whom are just sheep (like Tomiko-san said) who can't and won't understand what you just said OR would you wait it out, keep your real thoughts hidden, gain steady ground, and then slowly begin to reveal the truth among the general public? Yes, the second option is tainted with lies. But you can never be truly wholesome or purely moralistic about these sort of things. It's like trying to explain death to five year old kids. It's a true concept but you have to take your time. As for Saki, she is doing what she can. She asked the council to approve a list of colonies of queer rats that wouldn't be destroyed. She also made a list of villages that they should connect and communicate with. And by writing her story, she's slowly starting to attempt to change the view the humans have about the queer rats- the other humans. Wishful thinking, in itself, isn't bad. Saki's doing what she can- though we didn't see all of it. And hope is a concept that will always repeat itself. It's probably the one thing living beings put faith in unanimously. |
| Fine example of survival of the fittest. This is the reason why I believe that men will kill anything more intelligent than they are so they can always be number one. |
| Squealer had some good lines in this episode. When he siad "My name is Squealer" and "we are human". Powerful lines, he kept his pride till the end even when he was stripped and ridiculed in front of that council room who seem to have learned nothing after 1 pk user killed so many of them. |
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Nequam said: In TL;DR terms for the time-pressed reader (Spirai): Yes, humanity learned nothing such as the masses/council remaining ignorant. Hoping that a child lives in a better world, is by parental nature, innate and not laughable. We knew that queer rats were humans, but the mystery was in figuring out what they were, why they were treated that way, and what does everyone know, and why they are hiding it. It's not A-OK to enslave. We have zoos and such. We always want power to influence other people. We are humanist and we trust those who most resemble us, over what looks least like us. It's a bias that takes time for us to get over with. They modified the genetics of the few remaining non-PK users. I agree, the masses are generally stupid, but it's reality. However, just because they don't know doesn't mean they won't ever know. People will learn the truth with time. Saki tried everything she could, at the last moments she realized the most rational plan given that time was running out. And since that choice had the highest success rate, she followed through it. She felt like she wanted to live, anyone who tried to suicide (most people who jump off the bridge and survive) regret it at the last moment. Satoru didn't understand why the rats tried an alternative method rather than killing humans, but in the fit of rage he said that. Saki can't explain to the ignorant masses that easily, or she would lose her credibility. Like Tomoko-chan said, she has to do it slowly overtime and reveal the truth overtime. Lies must be handed out at the end of the day, for the sake of the good. Saki is doing the best she can by approving villages that they can connect, saving the remaining colonies and hope is a concept that is to be cherished and repeated. Thank you! =) But man do I need to learn to be more concise :P |
| 10/10. Thanks for the great series. But honestly, their ancestors were so blinded with pride they had to do that to those without PK. They could have just inserted attack inhibition and death feedback to them as well instead of changing them into beasts. That was just so evil... However, one question of mine that I'm still unaware of the answer is that why do they kill people who do not have Cantus or people who could not control their Cantus well? Is it to prevent a Karma Demon? |
Ncrdrg said: I remember everything you said above, and I agree with you that it is quite a good guess, but on the other hand, as much as we think there is a certain likelihood that Squealer murdered them, we could only go as far as some circumstantial evidence. My point is that you cannot conclusively prove Yakomaru is the murderer of Maria and Mamoru with those circumstantial evidence. It is still possible that they died from other causes, illness, accident, other animals, other queerats etc.It was actually explained pretty well. Although we don't know how Squealer killed them, it's 100% sure that's what he did. Do you remember Squealer telling Saki they could provide them shelter and make fake human skeletons by using bones of several queerats to make it look like they were human remains? But then he added that 'it would require some time to prepare'. So Saki and Satoru left them in their care, and the implications of his words and his huge lie didn't click in Saki's head until later in the story. The bones were 'found' or 'prepared' around a year after that. Then came the 2nd time skip. When they had this meeting over what happened to the Giant Hornet colony, they proposed the hypothesis that it was a fiend that crushed their armies. So then, the next question was, where did it come from? Saki, I think, raised the possibility, could it be Maria and Mamoru, maybe they really did survive after all?! And the next words that came out of the female leader (I forget her name) crushed her. She said it was impossible because they matched the bones of both skeletons using DNA to determine without a shred of doubt it was Maria and Mamoru. It's only at that point that she realized the implications of the lie Yakomaru told her 12 years earlier. Yakomaru told her he would need some time to prepare fake skeletons. What he was actually doing is waiting for them to conceive a child so he could murder them. How he killed them is left to the imagination (sleep, weakened by pregnancy, surprise attack, w/e). But it was clearly implied that Yakomaru had planned to use Saki's desire to protect them to his advantage back then. So while Saki lied about them being dead so they could live peaceful lives outside the village, Yakomaru was only using them to get his hands on a human child he could manipulate/brainwash from childhood. The parents had to be killed so the village would never come looking for them. |
| So MAL finally starts locking news threads that are only a few weeks old? I wonder where was the announcement of this change? Or we are seeing yet another case of changes made that impacted users but not communicated to them? I wonder how long people would put up with this. As much as I have a bunch of information to share about anime announced recently I cannot share it in news board, and the anime series is too disorganized and chaotic to share information except with people already interested in the particular series. |
Morridine said: This show left me with a feeling beyond words. It was a deeply thought through novel, the author expressed some existential questions through a probably best chosen kind of story. But above all the existential, ethical and philosophical take, the story has a highly original, rich setting, a true new world that is both futuristic and archaic, beautiful and scary. I just can't possibly praise this concept more, and i say concept since i'm talking about everything related to shinsekai yori. I'm just HAPPY that i lived to see this. Just want to say that this novel winning the TOP SCIENCE FICTION AWARD in Japan in 2008 (Nihon SF Taisho http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihon_SF_Taisho_Award ) is NO FLUKE. It really deserves it. |
| So MAL finally starts locking news threads that are only a few weeks old? I wonder where was the announcement of this change? Or we are seeing yet another case of changes made that impacted users but not communicated to them? I wonder how long people would put up with this. As much as I have a bunch of information to share about anime announced recently I cannot share it in news board, and the anime series is too disorganized and chaotic to share information except with people already interested in the particular series. |
| 10/10 and a spot among my favorites. Definitely gonna buy this when Sentai releases it. |
| Don't forget. Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember her, you are not alone. |
AnimageNeby said: Perhaps you are just asking a rhetorical question but that is for the BD/DVD unfortunately. To be honest, I love the manga as it is, but then I am a yuri fan LOL. Since I do not expect it to follow the novel, I just treat it as a technically well-accomplished (meaning the characters etc are drawn very well) take on an alternative look at SSY's world and its characters. And I plan to buy the manga ;-) At the end, buying the novel or buying the manga still count as supporting the anime, and a cheaper way too, because they are all statistics Kodansha (the publisher of the novel which initiated the anime project) would look at to gauge the success of the anime.**,549 - Shinsekai Yori (Fall, 9 vols) DVD (0%) / 549 BD (100%) Does that mean it's only the manga? In that case, the manga deserved it; it was completely inferior to the anime, more yuri than anything else. but as we all know, the anime was NOT based on the manga, but on the novel, and did a far, far better job at it. |
| So MAL finally starts locking news threads that are only a few weeks old? I wonder where was the announcement of this change? Or we are seeing yet another case of changes made that impacted users but not communicated to them? I wonder how long people would put up with this. As much as I have a bunch of information to share about anime announced recently I cannot share it in news board, and the anime series is too disorganized and chaotic to share information except with people already interested in the particular series. |
| This is one splendid plot and story...I regret nothing.. BTW..squeerle is a human?!...0,o I never thought it that way. |
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| Most underrated anime this year. Great freaking story I loved the suspenseful parts. |
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