AND HEADS UP THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING AT THIS POINT SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Characters: 6/10
So character development is a big thing in this show. We see how these innocent children grow in a society that alters memories and kills of children as they please in order to ensure the "safety" of their community. We see these characters grow and change...or at least I like to think there is.
Let’s start with the main character Saki. She is by far the most linear and flattest character I have seen. Here character is as flat as a board. From beginning to end she is the exact same character which makes the show very predictable sucking away the tension? The cast around her was far more interesting. We saw them change as time went on. We saw them rise and fall encounter problems and yet we get stuck with a character whose every action is so predictable. For example let’s talk about every scene where Satoru is about to go into something we know is dangerous. Saki always does the don't go, it’s dangerous, fight with Satoru, and then I am coming with. This exact sequence is basically mimicked throughout the entire series. But one of my biggest problems is the interaction between Saki and Shun. We are supposed to believe that Saki loves Shun. Great!!! But is that the case........In the first 9 episodes we only have a couple of glance, blush and well one scene with them together. And then we get 5 episodes where he isn't even there, an uhh....scene in episode 8, and then we get one more scene of them together, and then finally his death. Now when you look at it where is the love? What this series did was what I felt kind of cheap. We are forced to believe that they are in love. But it is not believable for a moment. They share so little screen time together, have very little interaction that we see, and we are supposed to believe that they are in love and so that will make Shun's death more tear jerking. In my book it’s a little cheap, and the death scene is so bland, but I will get to that latter. Anyways I am just saying the Shun and Saki relationship (whatever was there) was not well done. This is sad because her relationship with the rest of the characters, especially Maria, was very well done. Maria and Mamoru were interesting character and you cared about their departure, there death and what implications their departure would cause. But I felt like the scenes with Maria were the only time we ever saw real emotion from Saki, and she finally broke that stoic mask. Mamoru was the scape goat and you saw he was on the harsh end quite a lot. But you saw him endure and then eventually crack bringing about his own downfall. Then we see Satoru go from being a brash young kid to an adult that is mature yet still somewhat clumsy with his thought. In conclusion we were left with probably the blandest character as or protagonist. Everyone around her was far more interesting and yet we were left with her dominating the story and kind of just ruined everything around her.
Story 5/10
If you haven't stormed of yet from this review great cause buckle in cause it’s only going to get worse.
When looking at Shinsekai Yori I like to split into 3 parts and go analyze them part by part. Part 1: Summer Camp with Rat Monsters, Part 2: The Coming of Age, and Part 3: More Rat Monsters!!!!COME ON.
So Part 1 is when they are kids and they go off. And it was great but we saw these innocent kids go off and have their own adventure. But we knew that they would find something that would redefine their whole future and this story. And it’s the origin of the world that they live in. And it’s a good back story and a good cut off of where they get to the important part. And then the rat monsters. If you can't tell I really didn't like them as a whole. Although I felt that they were necessary for the first plot. They could have been left out entirely from part 3 if you can't tell from my titles. But part 1 yes. A lot of the chase scenes from in this part felt so dragged out and eventually you attention to them kind falters. It isn't about how they are going get out of the situation. It’s more about when the hell are they going to get out. But they finally do after a long breath of rat man politics and all that stuff. But in the end there is one thing that I must say about this part. It was a necessary to bring in the part about the back story and the rat monsters. Because this is a new world that we don't know and the characters don't know. And it sets us up perfectly for part 2.
Part 2 was my favorite part of the entire series and is why this received a 5 rather than well a 2. This part is where we see the back story come to fruition. We saw them heard about the horrible thing society does and now we get to experience what actually happens. Now back to Shun's death scene as I promised. The fact that he didn't take off the mask and didn't let his power go out of control well made the scene rather emotionless. He spoke with basically a monotone and didn't explain too much. Everything was well kind of normal (at least normal in that world). I felt it would be more powerful to see and understand just how terrible Karma demons. What there power does and why it’s feared so much by society? Because this is the first and only time we come face to face with a karma demon. But nope we are left with just a white mask and "love" for this scene. And when he died it wasn't "DAMNIT SHUN WHYYYY!!!??!?!? YOU ARE LEAVING SAKI!” it was more like "THE DOG NOT THE DOG, and why shun why?” It just wasn't as powerful as it should have been. Because this story is talking about how corrupted the society is and you have to know the reason. And the Karma Demons along with the psycho killers (forgot the name) are the whole reason why they have such a horrible law that kills off children because there might be a chance. But such an act has to be justified by something. Why do such a heinous act. The Psycho killer we understand. But the karma demon we have learned of only two cases. One is shun and we only saw a fraction of what he could actually do but never knew why he was so feared. And the second was about a person we know nothing about and well was fearful. But nevertheless I had really high hopes after finishing the second part. Because we finally saw the head of the ethics committee. And we learned more about the society itself and now were their chance to change it. But what did we get an invasion of rat monsters.
Part 3 is the reason why the story score is so low. This drawn out tedious dialogue of rat monsters and other things was just so predictable and tedious to go through. They set it out to be this whole thing were they killed off a lot of the people and the psycho killer shows up and everything becomes even more terrifying, or does it. The biggest complaint about the show is this. If you are making a show where the main character goes through dangerous scenarios and faces problems. DON'T HAVE THE MAIN CHARACTER FROM THE FUTURE NARRATE THE ENTIRE SHOW. By doing this they basically say oh by the way she lives so where ever you think she is going to die she isn't. And that completely sucks out all the drama and tension in this show. When they went into the hospital and the psycho killer was there. You just didn't care because you knew she was going to come out alive and there was no horror at all. I can go on for a while on this part but this review is kind of getting long some let me just put it like this. The whole first and second part of the story set up how corrupt their society, we hear about it and experience it firsthand. So you would think the third part would be about how they would change it for the future so that society would be better. But no we forget about it all together, we get a boring thing with rat monsters, and we get a crap tie up at the end as they try to fumble together a oh lets work towards a better future that just didn't make sense.
The Good stuff Art and Sound: 10/10
So I figured I finish this off on a good note. The Art, Music and Voice acting was fantastic. Yes I said voice acting and let me explain. The script was awful the acting fantastic. The script is what made Saki a bland character the acting did a good job but couldn't save the character. Nevertheless I felt the voice acting was done very well. The Music was very good to it was just right and never felt to overpowering in places. And the art, wow is it beautiful to look at.
So In conclusion let’s end it this way, the production was great the story and script was not good. If I were to make any changes I would have made the show shorter. Some places it dragged and some places were unnecessary. But the biggest flaw with the show is that we spend so much time talking about the wrong within the human society. But our big finale is the problems we had with the rat monsters society. Which I felt was the biggest disappointment. The whole back story and the reasoning behind every decision in their society were intriguing, horrifying, and we cared since it directly affected the characters that we have been with. But to end it on rat monsters was not a great way to end a series with so much potential.
All in all I thank you for reading my long review.
