Shinsekai Yori follows six kids that possess extraordinary psychokinetic powers as the premise likes to call Cantis in a utopia set 1000 years from today. They go by the names of Saki Watanabe, Maria Akizuki, Sotaru Asahina, Mamoru Itou, Shun Aonuma, and Reiko amano. These kids are isolated from the rest of the world this utopia ruled by people who possess Cantis as well and they attend to their academy to train and practice their Cantis. However, these kids one day across something called a false Minoshiro. That day, they have discovered the dark history of the world they live in and experience it in the distant future.
Story: The story itself had great potential to be one of the best anime there is with that wicked premise. It is portrayed to be seemingly original and is executed very well to bury myself deep within the soil of immersion it's world. Shinsekai yori has a heavy focus on convincing psychological point-of-views which is what us human fail to understand the circumstances of unequals like how we treat a different species and ironically, that species thinks well alike as humans as well as they do intellectually. The problems I have with the is that it has a few plot holes that need fixing like how Cantis was even possible and we received not enough info about it origin either and Death Feedback was just a warping vortex for holes.
Characters: The characters are about the weakest part of the show next to animation which I'll get to in a sec. In all honestly, most of the characters are just plain bland and boring, but the least I can give is that the the characters close to Saki had some good subtlety to back them up I'll give them that much. Otherwise, they are just as interesting as dry wood in a deep forest. Saki was consistent as a character. Well for the plot anyways. Aside for that, she gets kind of dull after a while later. Overall, the cast are just plain mediocre.
Sound: Since no one gives a damn about SFX, I'll just skip straight into the OST. It fit in great within it's premise, but I did find the tracks to be repetitive at times. However, it's only a little pet peeve so myself considers just a scratch from a plastic knife. Besides, it definitely wasn't even in the measurements compared to Tetsuro Araki's works who repeats the same single OST for every episode.
Art/Animation: The art and designs are indeed creative and the background paintings look lively and fitting for the premise. However, i simply can't overlook the character design and the animation quality. every time when Saki looks at me with her eyes I get this feeling I'm being sucked in a bland orange space with a black hole in the middle. Also, there isn't any shading on the characters. What, is light flashing at them in every direction. The animation can be good at times but holy s*** I flipped many tables every time I see a catapulted CGI boulder. Nothing special about the animation, but the was decent at the least.
Again, Shinsekai Yori had a lot of potential, but the plot holes, characters, and the animation quality seem to get in the way of that significantly by a margin, but I won't go as far to say it was mediocre and not worth the watch. In all honesty, it a pretty good watch overall. Just isn't the best thing to come out of ever. If into the whole psychokinesis premise this is probably going to some fine oolong for you if you dig into this sort of stuff.
Overall: 7.5 / 10
