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In all honesty, I absolutely HATED Shinsekai Yori starting out. The entire first half of the show is an utter mess. I complained without end about how incredibly disorganized the plot was, and how I really couldn't understand how or why anything was happening for at least the first 10 episodes. I had friends keep telling me it's a "slow start, but it's really good" and that I will start understanding what's going on by "episode 8... no, episode 10... maybe 12?" I'm sorry, but if it takes half an entire season to build your backstory, I think there is something wrong here. I wouldn't even have made it past the first episode without constantly being urged by friends to continue. I was almost offended by how scenes so randomly jumped to the next, how characters behaved without reason, how dialogue didn't make sense at all sometimes. I've never had a show make me so legitimately angry just watching and trying to comprehend the unexplained and irrational behavior of almost every character in an entire show. I consider myself a pretty smart person too, but I feel like half the "deepness" of this show for me was just trying to comprehend how so many others (especially all these 10* reviewers) weren't equally as confused as I was trying to make any sense out of anything at all (seriously). I won't go into any details as to not give any spoilers - but I feel like anyone who reads this review before watching will likely understand what I mean by this instantly.
STILL, I begrudgingly trucked through the rest of the series. And I'm so relieved to say that it wasn't all in vain. While I wholeheartedly disagree with the way A-1 pictures chose to tell this story, it is true (as previously mentioned friends promised me) that things do indeed start connecting towards the end that finally allows you to understand what the hell is really going on. Many of my complaints (random scene jumps, unexplained behaviors) form pieces of a puzzle that you can really only see the full picture of as the story reaches its climaxes (towards the last few episodes). For me, that is way too late to start actually enjoying a series. Despite that, I will admit that the true story of Shinsekai Yori is unlike any I've ever watched/read, definitely unique, and considerably good. The ending was the real kicker for me, and really salvaged the mess of episodes that made up the first half of this series. I still have plenty of unanswered plot and character behavioral questions. But, I had long given up hope on getting any real answers to those. I appreciate what I was able to get at the end and I won't (or rather, can't) ask for anymore than that.
All in all, Shinsekai Yori is a hard recommend simply based out how poorly the first half of the series is executed - but the story is definitely worth it for those who can manage to keep their wits about them.
