Shinsekai Yori: A Review

I had actually dropped Shinsekai Yori when I had first watched it- due to being rather uncomfortable at a certain "bonding" scene in episode 5. It was just very weird and off putting as it depicted sexual intimacy between children. But that was very long ago, and now I feel like I'm not fazed by much. So when I was looking for a good psychological-horror-mystery show like Higurashi, I stumbled on Shinsekai Yori again, which happened to be tagged all of the aforementioned genres.

Shinsekai Yori, or From the New World, is about a group of kids growing up in a dystopian society formed after an outbreak of people developing psychic powers 1000 years ago wrecked havoc in the world. As the kids grow, they begin to discover the dark history of the world and the unsettling ways their society maintains order.

The review is filled with spoilers, so you may scroll to the bottom for a spoiler free conclusion!

Story

The Dark Ages

One thing that Shinsekai Yori does well is its worldbuilding. Its world has a rich history, and the show takes time to explain much of it- from the discovery of psychic powers and the havoc it wrecked on society, the period of the "Dark Ages" where humanity had regressed, and finally to how society was eventually stabilized. It explains the fears the current society faces- karma demons and fiends, and how they came about. The society itself is well constructed- I like how it extensively details the life of a child growing up there, where they undergo a coming of age religious ritual, attend schools for the psychic children to master their powers, then proceed to become normal members of society working in the government (not necessarily, but government jobs are the only ones we see).

However, all the new information and terminology was quite overwhelming- Cantus, the Golden and Dark ages, Fiends and Karma Demons, Death Feedback, Bonobo modeled social engineering, etc. It may have been better explain these things a bit more slowly and concisely- this is especially true in the huge infodump in episode 4 that left me rather confused.

The show is ambitious with its themes, and that is applaudable, but some work and some don't. Firstly is the theme of questioning authority, which it does rather well. Because the story is told from the perspective of kids, it is easy to sympathize with their viewpoint and believe their actions must be right. There can't be anything wrong behind discovering the censored past from the false Minoshiro, or Maria's decision to run from the village who is trying to kill Mamoru. However, these actions lead to disaster later in the story. The horrible past is what drives Shun to become a karma demon, and Maria running away led her child to be captured by the Queerats. This does not suggest that authority is always right, but it does suggest that there is a reason to what they do- sometimes these reasons are justified, sometimes not.

The thing that drives Shinsekai Yori's society

The second theme is that humans are fearful and hence become merciless to quell their fear. We see it in how the Board of Education eliminates mentally unstable children preemptively. We also see it in how the humans with Cantus genetically modified those without Cantus to look inhuman so they can kill them without death feedback, out of fear of being killed themselves. It's a reflection of how our primal nature, in this case fear, can drive us to do cruel things.

That said the third and final theme of racism and oppression doesn't really work. The parallel to it, seen by the conflict between humans and Queerats, was not done very well. Squeler suggests that because Queerats are intelligent (arguably) they are human, and it is ultimately revealed that Queerats are genetically modified humans. This does call into question exactly what makes us human, which is interesting, but it is still pretty damn easy to see why they could never be human. Queerats just seem more animal than human. The Queerats we meet outside of Squealer and Kiroumaru are grunts, with little intelligence and display nothing but primal emotions such as fear, anger, and the occasional joy when they've slaughtered a rival tribe and stolen their babies. The structure of their society is akin to ants and bees, with a female reduced solely to the job of reproduction and everyone else being a slave. They lack individuality, behaving more like hivemind. Yes the Queerats don't deserve to be mercilessly slaughtered, as neither do any race of animal, but to consider them humans like Squealer suggests is absurd. If the show wanted to suggest a parallel to human racism, it would do better to make the Queerats seem more like the humans, or (more interestingly) the humans more like Queerats.

The show has a lot to say, more so than I can write about, but I believe it lacks a central theme that unites the show. Its first two arcs, when the kids are in Harmony School and Sage Academy, revolve around questioning authority, and the fear which drives humans to take extreme actions. The final arc when the kids are adults revolves around racism and oppression, calling into question exactly what makes us human. That's not to say these themes are in conflict, but focusing on different themes causes the show to focus on different things in the story and just forget about what happened previously. It's almost like the show forgot about the whole "society that kills kids preemptively" thing in the first two arcs when the Queerat conflict started. It seems like Saki kinda just accepted it as a matter of fact and wasn't affected by it anymore. The anime may have been done better if it kept one theme and explored it through the course of the show, so the story can also keep its focus on one single thing.

Characters

The main cast of characters never really were developed outside of Saki and Satoru. They exit the show too quickly before we can really delve into their characters or see them grow and mature. Shun becomes a karma demon early on and never is seen again aside from those weird visions Saki had. Maria and Mamoru run away and never become relevant again.

Aside from that, there was the whole emotional saga of Saki trying to remember who Shun was that didn't lead anywhere. The show makes him appear critical to Saki, but based off what we see in the early arcs he's just Saki's childhood crush who shared that one moment with her on the raft. In the end, her remembering him didn't really cause any growth in her character, he was just a tool to give her the idea that the fiend wasn't actually a fiend.

Finally, the romantic relationships between the characters is very odd because it comes out of nowhere. You never see any romantic development between them or reasons why the characters love each other. Saki and Shun share that one moment on the raft, which is somewhat passable as at least a romantic bonding moment between them. But these moments are nonexistent for many other instances. Like Satoru and Shun, or Maria and Saki. I thought Shun and Saki liked each other? Or is this some whack thing to do with the Bonobo-esque social conditioning? It's not very well explained.

Yo weren't they just like, friends?

That said, Squealer was a good antagonist. Him being a lowly Queerat and having a cowardly, boot-licking personality would lead us to never expect him being the final villain. However underneath that he is cunning, unforgiving leader. And that was great. It's like an underdog story, but instead for a villain. The show really makes you hate him for his underhanded and cruel tactics- I wanted to see him tortured over and over once he was caught, but he is also admirable for his driving motivation and his unwillingness to apologize for what he believes.

Don't agree with you, but a courageous final stance.

Sound

One of the best aspects of the show is definitely the music. The soundtrack is a selection of mostly melancholic (Sad Love, Sad Song), foreboding (Komori Shigeo), and haunting tracks (Loneliness, Sign of Juryouku). My favorite of these has been the main theme Komori Shigeo- I will never forget how it serves as the foreboding opening track to the show's early episodes, foreshadowing the carnage to come in the final arc. The choir of children's voices combined with the electric guitar somehow works very well.

Conclusion

Shinsekai Yori is not a bad show, boasting an intriguing world, big themes and ideas, and a great soundtrack. Its many themes brings mixed success- as some of them are done well, some not so. It lacks a strong cohesive theme throughout the story, which affects the things the story focuses on. That's not to say its story is bad, as it is still engaging to watch. Its characters are left mostly underdeveloped outside of a good antagonist, but I think you'd want to watch the show for its dystopian world building and the story instead. I did enjoy it, but it didn't really resonate with me. 7/10

-GaryMuffuginOak