Story (8):
The story is set in the distant future and follows the lives of five children: Saki, Mamoru, Satoru, Shun and Maria. In their society everyone has a special power called "Cantus". They go to Sage Academy where they learn to manipulate their Catus. Their lives are seemingly peaceful, but there are rumors spreading that children who cannot properly use their Cantus suddenly vanish....but nobody seems to remember them. When Saki and her friends go for a trip, they find the truth....a truth that threatens to rip their beautiful friendship apart. The story takes place over 3 periods of time, when the characters are 12 years old, 14 years old and 26 years old. This was an interesting part of the anime, but I felt that it made the overall pacing a bit slow, though not overly so.
Characters (8):
The characters and there friendship is defenitly a key part of this anime. The characters were likeable and had some of the best development I have ever seen, especially in how the relationship's between the characters was constantly changing and developing. Having said that, I felt that Mamoru didn't have enough focus on him and therefore he didn't have much development in comparison to the others.
Sound (9):
Shinsekai Yori defenitly had some gorgeous pieces of music. The ED was sung by Saki's voice actor Risa Taneda and the OP sung by Maria's voice actor Kana Hanazawa. They were equally beautiful, moving pieces that suited the anime very well.
Speaking of the voice actors, they were amazing. With famous seiyus such as Yuki Kaji as Satoru and Kana Hanazawa as Maria the voice acting is just the cherry on the top of the cake for this anime. Seriously stunning!!!
Art (7):
The art wasn't really what I was expecting from A1-Pictures. The style itself was quite simple and not very unique but the art was generally quite consistent and most of the backgrounds were well done. I felt that the character designs were simple, not bad, but not amazing.
Overall Enjoyment (8):
All in all I think that Shinsekai Yori is a futuristic anime like no other. It has a tense, even depressing, atmosphere that will delight any thriller lover.
