 |
Ouroboros here. After lurking Clan Rain for so long, I've decided that I might contribute and post up on a series. I have never posted before so bear with me.
 |
| The Beginning... |
I decided to pick up this series out of curiosity and it ended up being a great pick. Shinsekai Yori is an anime adaption Yuusuke Kishi's novel. Shinsekai's first episode hooked me in almost instantly. Episode 1 starts off with several boys mass murdering civilians with a psychic power, leaving a vague yet intriguing feeling to the viewers. After this scene, they transition into the future (with awesome music in the background) in which it appears that civilization regress into a period similar to Japan during the 1600's~. The people of this time period have a psychic power know as "Joryoku" which allows them to materialize things they imagine. The transition into the future leaves viewers wondering "Why has civilization regressed one thousand years into the future?" and "How did people obtained 'Joryoku'?" Here's MyAnimeList's synopsis of the series if you want more information.
 |
| Watanabe Saki です！ |
Following the transition into the future, we are introduced to the main character Watanabe Saki as her "Joryoku" powers awaken. Soon after the elders have a ritual to limit her powers by having Saki seal her cantus. The next day she meets up with her friends at Zenjin Gaki (Sage Academy). Saki brings up memories of her and her friends at Harmony School but they don't remember anything about it. Her friends congratulate Saki for being the last one to graduate from Harmony School. She finds this confusing because she remembers clearly that there were other students left in her previous school. I believe that the elders are controlling the students memories and influencing their way of thought. For example, the story that was read out load in class, was to scare them from crossing the Holy Barrier.
 |
| Did they completely seal all of Saki's Cantus? |
As for the students memories, I believe that the reason Saki can remember from Harmony School is because that they didn't completely seal her Cantus. During the ritual scene, Saki may have not have put all of her feelings, and memories into the emblem. This should explain why she was crying after the emblem was burned, showing that she may have missed everything that she put into the Cantus. If she put all of her feelings and memories into the emblem; wouldn't she not feel anything since everything was burned away?
 |
| Eavesdropping?... Tsk Tsk |
The elders are obviously hiding many secrets from the younger ones and have control over them in some way because of the scenes of Saki eavesdropping on her parents and the fact that they soon forget about stuff that happened. At the end of Episode 2, a voice (which seems to be Saki when she's older talking about the events that have occurred) says that the came to forget, the cheating during the team ball tournament, the disappearance of their former classmate Amano Reiko, as well as the disappearance of Katayama Manabu the one who broke the rules. These typically wouldn't be events that you just seem to forget so easily, the elders are definitely involved with this in some way.
 |
| From Left To Right: Akizuki Maria; Asahina Satoru; Watanabe Saki; Aonuma Shun; Itou Mamoru; |
 |
| SubGroup: UTW, if you didn't catch it in the first picture. |
Of the two episodes, I like the presentation of Shinsekai Yori. The animations and art all look really good, and the somewhat "earthy" tone adds to the setting of the regressed civilizations. The characters are all well made. And I really like choice of music, the background music makes the scenes palpable (aww yeah.. big word bonus!) and the ED is pretty catchy.
I'm looking forward to Shinsekai, the setting and concept of Shinsekai very interesting and I believe that this series has a lot of potential. In these posts, I will be giving my analysis and opinion of Shinsekai Yori. I will try to get these posts out shortly after each episode release, but that depends on when UTW releases the episodes and if I have time. I will try my best to be punctual. Until next episode...
~Ouroboros
