Shinsekai Yori is hands down the best anime I have ever seen. I wish there was a score higher than 10/10 I could rate this. The only thing I found disappointing was the ending, simply because it didn’t do what I wanted it to do (aka it was more sad than I had hoped).
Story: 11/10
This is one of those stories that covers a long period of time. If I remember correctly, it covers ~24 years, from when the characters are 12 to when they’re 36. It starts out kind of slow with hints and foreshadowing, but nothing too dark or dramatic. In fact, it’s almost slice of life for the first two or three episodes, but then you realize that everything ties into the bigger story. The story’s pace gets faster with each timeskip until finally you get to the queerat rebellion. This is the part of the show that made it hard to keep watching. There’s so much death and despair and sadness that it became hard to watch after a while, although that’s not a problem with the show. I’d rather watch a depressing as fuck realistic anime than a fairy-tale version of war. But watching all the characters you’ve grown to love dying off one by one was just flat out hard to watch. However, the complexity of the plot, the twists, the pacing, the realism, everything was just beautifully done. I could not have asked for more from this anime.
Another thing I really liked about this anime was the fact that almost every character came back. In the very beginning of the series we introduce a lot of characters. In most stories, these characters would serve their purpose and then exit the plot. But in Shinsekai Yori, they don’t. For example, Squealer. At first it seems his only purpose is to guide the kids out of the caves and back to safety. After that we have a timeskip and focus on the kids and the school. Squealer exits the plot. But then, after you’ve forgotten about him, he comes back and leads the queerat rebellion. It almost felt like I was reading a Clive Barker novel. That’s why Maria disappearing and never coming back was so disappointing. Also I wanted Saki to be happy and get her lover back. This show is so cruel.
One more thing I’d like to address: queerats are humans. This completely blew me away. I thought all the surprises were over, but then Satoru comes in and he’s like “yeah Saki, queerats are actually humans”. It was so nicely done, especially since it was done at a time when you didn’t see any more surprises coming. Looking back on it, there were hints here and there about it, but I wasn’t paying enough attention.
Characters 9/10
All of the characters in this show were interesting. We have a group of 5 kids, all of whom are different. Admittedly, some of them were kind of annoying (*cough* Mamoru *cough*), but none of them were dislikable enough to ruin the show for me. Even Squealer, despicable evil queerat though he was, became sympathetic in the end. Slightly. I mean, come on, nobody deserves what he went through. Our main character, Saki, is one of my favorite characters. She feels like an actual human being. She isn’t invulnerable to hardships, but is strong enough to bounce back and be almost the same. All of the characters felt real. They all had flaws, but they were all strong in their own way as well. Except Mamoru. I’m glad he exited the plot. The way the characters change and develop over the course of the story is extraordinary as well. Satoru seems to be that kid in school who’s always looking for attention, gets bad grades, and seems to never mature. However, by the third timeskip, he’s grown into a fully mature adult capable of making rational decisions. The writer of Shinsekai Yori has the ability to wrote both convincing children, adolescents, and adults, which is not an easy skill to master. Admittedly, some of the adolescent kids seemed to have the sex drive of 20 year old adults, but that wasn’t enough to break my suspension of disbelief.
Art: 10/10
Not much to say here. The character designs were very nice and I loved the simple art style. The characters themselves were drawn simply and colored simply, but they had a charm to them that made them not appear boring. The way the artist draws plant life and the outdoors was also really amazing, although that might just be me.
Sound: 10/10
This show has an extremely wide variety of music. Sometimes it reminds me of Yuuki Yuuna (the choral tracks in particular), but other times it doesn’t sound like anything else I’ve heard before. All of the music fits the mood perfectly, serving to enhance the feelings of the characters and the atmosphere. It’s the kind of music you could play for me and I’d be like “oh hey, that’s Shinsekai Yori music!” The voice acting was good, and I can imagine how much fun it must have been for the voice actors who were cast as queerats (especially Squealer xD). This anime also knew when NOT to use music, or indeed sound of any kind. For example, in episode 24 when Saki and the other guy are going to find the Psychobuster and one of those sea monsters comes and eats him. During that whole scene there is no sound at all, and rather than taking away from the intensity of the scene, it serves to heighten it.
Yuri: 10/10
Because who doesn’t ship MariSaki?
There are very few times I feel comfortable using the word “masterpiece”. However, Shinsekai Yori is one of those anime that I feel deserves that title. I have never watched an anime that was as good as this one was in terms of complexity, atmosphere, characters, and of course, the twists. Madoka is the only one that comes close. I’m still upset that Saki didn’t get her Maria back, but it seems she managed to get over it. Poor Saki... I recommend this anime to everybody (unless you can’t handle exploding body parts and every character you love and cherish dying).
