Shinsekai Yori has the story of a life time. Quite literally. As events unfold early on, not much is explained. However as time passes and the young grow in the mature, the secrets of generations past come to light and you realize just how amazingly complex and in depth the writer has tied everything in. As more and more knowledge comes to fruit, one cannot help but admire the immense detail and lengths it goes with seemingly no effort. The first quarter places many dots in the story and seem to not add up at all. However as the season passes two thirds of the way through, there are enough points that the anime effortlessly draws a line connecting them all making everything fall in place.
Scenery and backgrounds that some times gain more attention than the characters them selves. This anime does not disappoint in any way shape or form. The art that's used is, for lack of a better word(s), utterly astounding. Cell shading? I'm sorry this is the 21st century, Cell shading is ancient anime technology. Every scene looks like it would have many hours to complete. Even those that are on screen for a second or two. Even the moving objects have shades, tones and gradients out the wazoo. The only draw back is the facial expressions are more often than not, lacking the proper emotion of the events that just transpired.
With music and scenery noise to make you think you are watching an A grade movie, Shinsekai Yori is bliss to a musicians ears. Original piece music that sounds like it should have its own record label, is one thing. But the use and placement of every little sound is not misplaced. The only time where musical pieces are used enough to be easily picked out would be in the final few episodes where it seems to be the final stretch of the anime's resources.
Out of the 25 episode series, if one where to cut out all the story points, you would be left with about 17 or 18 episodes of pure character development. It holds nothing back but in doing so, it lacks in the feels as you already know the relationship stance of all the main characters. It by any means does not say that the characters emotions for each other does not evoke feels within the watcher, It just heavily dampens many potential feels scenes.
Even if one were to view this anime from a heavily criticized point of view, they will still not be able to say they did not enjoy it. Complicated civilization and story lines aside, Shinsekai Yori really does captivate its viewers with largely enjoyable action scenes that will always have some greater plan of action behind it making you want to know what's next. Those who like anime a heavy story with a deeper meaning will enjoy it for the perspective it gives on future human civilization. Those who like a large amount of action, may find it lacking between battles but the scale will make their enjoyment worth the wait.
