I think Shinsekai Yori, or From the New World, is one of the latter.
Story
Every anime has its strongest point. Shinsekai Yori isn’t an exception. The story and the amazingly fleshed out world are by far the best part of this series. Everything is thought through, and the dystopian world is unique.
Many stories that are about our dystopian future, tend to be focusing on the way our world as we know it has ‘ended’ and the people that live in that future are still struggling with this fact. Shinsekai Yori is different in that it turns this around, and the inhabitants of this new world are mostly unaware of their history and have gone back to living in small settlements, separated from the outside world. With twists and tricks of its own, the story contains more mystery than you would think on first glance. The further we travel along our companions, the more we get to unravel the history of this new world and the more we get sucked into the plausible world that has come of it. I think that is the true beauty of this anime, the way we travel along with its characters and come to know things they didn’t know either.
Shinsekai Yori gets a lot of praise for its ending, which isn’t surprising as it’s a great one, but I think it’s truly noteworthy how the story develops and how its themes are shown in a way that makes the story flow and how the art and the music support this.
Characters
As every anime has its strongest point, there has to be a weak one too. With Shinsekai Yori, this weak one are the characters.
It’s not that the characters are awful by any means, they are, for the most part, a likable cast of characters that gets some good moments and that means something for the story. But that doesn’t make up for the things that lack in the character department. As the beginning of this anime focuses more on the world and its setting than anything else. This isn’t something that makes the start bad, but as the story gets a really good start and sparks the interest, something else has to pay for it. In this case, the characters have to pay. With the lack of development for most of the characters in the beginning of the series, this results in a second arc that’s mostly about characters we don’t really care about.
The first arc focuses on Saki and Satoru, while the other members of the group get little to no development at all. When the second arc comes around and focuses more on the other members, the whole thing starts to come down. This arc is the worst in this series, as we get some ‘emotional’ scenes that we don’t really care about because of the characters that are engaged in these scenes. Because of this, my enjoyment of the series went downwards and that is something that shouldn’t happen with a story this good.
Animation
When movies or series are based on novels, their greatest challenge lies in transferring the words and descriptions of the world into visual counterparts that stand strong in their presentation. I think the art itself is beautiful and creates a world that is believable. I think it’s really great that the environment is made to look pretty and peaceful, especially in the beginning, to connect with the peaceful atmosphere, as we’re meant to believe that the world is peaceful and righteous. But when things get gloomy, the art gets more gloomy too, which is something you can’t obtain with a novel.
On the other hand, the animation is really disappointing and lacklustre. In my opinion, the animation isn’t as important as the art, so I still gave the overall section a 7,5. But I have to admit that it did strike me that the animation wasn’t handled well and that it was really sloppy at times.
Sound
The soundtrack of this anime sends shivers down my spine every time I hear those songs. They really fit the anime and help create an atmosphere that is necessary for such a mystery fantasy. I especially loved the OST called the Traditional Song of Shadows. It set a tone to start every episode. The lack of an opening surprised me, but to me it was something unique I actually liked. I liked getting into the story, with this OST in the beginning of each episode to still have an opening feel.
The first ED was really nice. It’s probably one of my favourites, although I can’t really explain why. It fitted the anime in a way I can’t explain.
Enjoyment
For me, it’s really important for an anime series to be able to entertain me. That doesn’t mean it has to have lots of comedy or fights all over the place. In this case, I enjoyed the atmosphere Shinsekai Yori created. I was curious how the story would deliver, but I didn’t have to worry. The history that got revealed, really intrigued me in a way I wasn’t expecting.
Summary
This isn’t an anime for everyone, so I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone. But if you enjoy fantasies and stories of dystopian futures, I think you’d like this one. I think this is one of a handful of fantasy series that delivers such an amazingly developed and fleshed out story.
To be a masterpiece, I thought an anime had to deliver on all levels. But Shinsekai Yori convinced me that this isn’t necessarily true. It isn’t perfect, but nothing is. I think a series that intrigued me in a way like this deserves to be called a masterpiece.
“The power of imagination is what changes everything.”
