Shinsekai Yori or From The New World's most convincing moments occur within the first four episodes. The story, which follows a group of psychokinetic children in the year 3000 in a dystopic yet serene Japanese environment, seamlessly weaves plot device after plot device until the granddaddy of straight-forward storytelling literally walks up to the main cast. A beast is captured by our protagonist, Saki, and explains to them upon request, what has happened to Japan to change it so drastically in the last 1000 years. The world of Shinsekai Yori takes four well-crafted episodes to establish it's universe believably. What follows seems tangentially related to the original psychological thriller-cum-mystery opening.
A slew of nonsense begins here, where thematically, there was never any room for. A political drama and action anime begins immediately after episode four with a romantic drama unconvincingly inserted in right afterword. This all joined together by a supernatural setting which seems boundless to the viewer leaves for massive plot holes, unnecessary subplots, and outright disregarded information.
The characters of the series are extremely simple. Many characters are written in as attention grabs, who die without doing anything but progressing the story without adding any additional layer of emotion (Inui, Shisei, Squonk, Rijin). These characters come frequently in Shinsekai Yori and feel cheaply and artificially used. That the story is furthered again and again by use of character introduction and eventual demise at first feels necessary, that the pacing and lack of character focus serve a greater purpose. Yet, by the end of the series we reach a conclusion that nulls most characters entirely from the series, leaving the viewer wondering what the purpose behind many subplots and character scenarios really was.
The main cast of the series feels particularly unkempt. Between the two time skips, none of the development behind the characters is shown on-screen. For the most part, it felt as if new characters were created and replaced the familiarly named cast. Saki, whose character has unbelievable plot armor, manages to survive every obstacle that she comes to face with despite having average to no ability using her psychokinetic abilities. Opposite her is Satoru. Satoru's character repeatedly changes based on situation, and despite Satoru receiving the most screen time, next to Saki, he never truly interacts with another character. Both he and Saki go on many adventures together, but never do they have any sort of deeper connection other than that they were in the same group of friends together. Satoru's character changes from a one-dimensional precocious to a one-dimensional smarmy without reason, and then from the latter to an one-dimensional hero.
Shinsekai Yori attempts at creating a gray morality by only using black and white arguments. Squealer fervently backs up this claim. Introduced in episode five, you can only assume what a character named Squealer can be like. In this leave-it-to-the-name style character design, squealer squeals on the main cast. He betrays them multiple times in three episodes. Then later on when Squealer is reintroduced, he is still literally a backstabbing rodent. The daft main characters seem almost impervious to the obviousness of Squealer, resulting in one of the most painfully direct and drawn out politically based story lines in an anime. The masquerade of moral ambiguity only serves to mock the viewers intelligence, leaving for an extremely expected and dissatisfying ending.
Shun is the most interesting character albeit a Gary Stu. Throughout the first nine episodes of the series, he remains mostly static, supplying seemingly otherworldly insight to the other children simultaneously acting humble. He receives a healthy dose of character development during a particularly interesting story line in the series, but is soon forgotten in lieu of continuing the romantic drama aspect of the series. What is worst about this strange intense focus on Shun followed by a dramatic disregard is that he inexplicably influences events even after he departs from the series. Saki is saved on a handful of occasions through the voice of Shun, which makes it feel once again that the characters only served a greater purpose of linearly reaching a happy ending.
Mamoru and Maria are so negligibly involved in the main series events it is laughable, and like their position to the story, their characters suffer immensely. The most thrilling part of their characters is that an uninteresting romance forms between them with no prompt which should be noted is not even really character. This romance of course serves only to produce a plot point later in the series.
The art and sound receive solid praise. The series has an excellently used voice cast. The lack of an opening helped the pacing of the anime. The background music, while overused and often misused for a cheap "spooky" effect or to create tension in undramatic scenes, for the most part was enjoyably used. Sound effects were decent, but a notable flaw was the clicking of the queerats, which was more annoying than stylistic. The character designs were very bland but served well to create a muted and realistic-looking cast. The animation was regularly on par, but many scenes can be identified as cheaply made by overuse of black backgrounds, extreme close-ups, and static mouths - especially at a distance. Note episode five, without a doubt an atrocity of animation. Beyond that animation was regularly fluid and even exciting. Monster designs stayed fresh throughout the series as well.
What started as a fanciful mystery quickly became a predictable drama. As a final opinion, I do not recommend Shinsekai Yori. Many other anime approach it's philosophical topic in superior ways and do so without treating the audience like children. Shiki quickly comes to mind, with Eve no Jikan following on the shortlist. Shinsekai Yori ultimately is crippled by it's many genres and quick, deliberate shifts in tone. The many plot holes and bland characters make for a regrettable and sadly unmemorable watch.
