From the New World - Reviews

Shinsekai Yori deserves a positive review. I must say that at the beginning it is confusing and slow-paced, with many scenes that I thought were quite unnecessary. But if you stick with it, soon enough a plot starts to emerge and it gets really captivating. 

The story is what this anime is all about, it is absolutely well-conceived and also well-narrated. It's full of mystery, and until about half way you have no idea what's really going on, there's just this foreboding, this kind of ominous feeling. The atmosphere reminded me a little of Higurashi no naku koro ni, as in you can distinctly feel that something bad is happening, but you don't understand exactly what. And, as the plot has been very well thought-out, as you go on watching everything will fall into place and all questions will be answered. Apart from an intriguing story and a consistent world built to back it up, the anime deals with topics which are not trivial in the least. It is set in the future, where a new society has evolved revolving around the use of psycho-kinetic powers. And what initially is presented as a utopian world, quickly starts to reveal many less-desirable and more obscure aspects. I guess what I really liked about it is that there are no clear-cut good or bad guys. As the story unfolds you are shown the reasons and motivations behind the actions, so that you are forced to reconsider actions that initially and without any doubt you had judged as bad. It's too easy and simplistic when it's the good guys fighting the bad guys. This anime shows you instead the countless shades of grey. In the end you just can't say what is right and what is wrong. Maybe what I appreciated the most about Saki, the main protagonist, is the open-mindedness and the compassion. 

The animation is good and so is the sound, both music and voice acting.The characters are maybe the weakest point. In the sense that they are a little bland. The protagonists are a group of 5 children attending a school where they learn how to properly use and control their canti, that is their psycho-kinetic powers. But the school setting isn't very important, it's just the way in which you are presented the characters and you see how they start questioning the world around them and doubting what they have always been told. And as they get hold of more information, more suspicions arise. I can't put my finger on what exactly is lacking, but they aren't impressive, and I very much doubt that you'll remember them after the end of the anime. I would have liked their relations to be more developed and to see more of Shun.

All in all, it's an anime that I recommend viewing.     

Video review:

FULL HD (aka 1080p)
Half HD (aka 720p)

-

Shinsekai Yori, in English then, from the new world, is yet again one of these animes, where I felt so sad that it actually ended. At least, I don’t feel bad about its ending, because it had rather good ending. So I accept it, and since I got most of my questions answered, I can now put this anime into the row of finished animes, of which I have no regrets. But enough of that, let’s start rating this anime and as always, remember, it is all my opinion and it may include some soft spoilers.

Story

I must say that at first, like a few others, this anime is one of those animes, where the story development had so many moments where it became so confusing. Well, basically, when the time-lapse happened, I almost wondered: “What the hell happened, how did they end up like this?” I mean, how the heck did this anime turn into a gay and lesbian story. Thankfully though, everything had an explanation and thus, I didn’t stay under the question mark forever.

So, the story is mostly about Saki. She isn’t first family member in household, but she is the only child. Well, mostly because her other family members were “spirited away”. Well, let’s just say how it is: They were murdered, because of different reasons. Well, Saki was also in danger of being spirited away plenty of times, mostly down to being way too curious about everything and then taking very dangerous steps to solve problems. But well, if I wanted a best friend forever, I certainly would pick her, because I know I would count on her help. Now if I think about it, all Saki’s group were risk takers, except Mamoru, he was scared by almost anything. Well, I am not surprised, as they said in the anime; he was way too weak as Telekinesis user.

The story itself is amazing though, mostly because of being so frikin' complicated, but in a good way. It's also rather emotional, I had plenty of moments where I threw my mighty hand on the table and said with a manly voice: “Damn...” But regarding questions you have during the anime: you get most of the answers near the end of the anime. But once you do get your answers, you are like: “Darn, I should have thought of that...” Well, I certainly had a few questions myself, but since you might not have finished the anime yourself, I am not going to spoil it, as that question is a major spoiler.

Well, what most people might have hated, I certainly loved in this anime. This anime didn't have a “Go against the impossible and save the person” or a “Very last second change”. If someone had some kind of illness, they died, even if Saki tried to help... and if something had its flow, it followed the flow. I mean, I am kind of tired of last second changes.

So, here it is my rating, 9 out of 10, because story is damn good, but there are things, which are too confusing and some which you might not get answer to... ever...

Animation

In my opinion, the animation was rather good. Characters could have looked a bit better, even though Saki looked super sexy in the last 5 episodes. I mean, she looked way nicer with long hair. Well, she did have medium lenght hair in mid episodes, but she still looked better later!

Everything was certainly smooth though and rather detailed. I have to admit, that there was something in the character design that I didn’t like, and it was mostly those lines under the eyes. Well, I shouldn't criticize it, as I have those under my eyes as well… those “Tired eyes”, or something like that. They certainly were tired near the end of the season.

While it didn't have anything that amazing, that would have left me jaw dropped, the animation certainly wasn’t done half-heartedly, so I will give it a nice 8 out of 10.

Sound

When I think about the sound in the anime, the first thing I remember (actually someone reminded me) is the melody from Dvorak symphony No.9 "From the New World” (Which happens to be also name of the anime - dam dam daaaaaaaam). It plays when it’s time for the children to go home, as it’s forbidden to stay outside after that melody. I mean, if the story is set thousands of years after our time and they still know Dvorak music... then daaaamn, classical music ftw.

Voice acting is rather good in this anime. I mean, everyone has their own personalities and their voices fit to that personality.

Also, overall the anime’s music is also perfect for every situation. Even though 90% of music was dramatic, hey, the anime is also 90% dramatic, so damn straight; everything is as it should be. I mean, imagine if in the dramatic background would be Inception’s trailer music? Lolnope. They did a good job with the music, but sadly the music isn’t so good that I would want to download it and take it into regular listening. In my opinion, it’s only good as anime background music, but well... that was its point, wasn't it? So, it does its job, thus it gets an 8 out of 10.

Characters

Well, I did say already that I liked Saki a lot. I wouldn't mind having her as my girlfriend, hehehe. But not only was Saki good, almost all the characters were very well developed.

The first things I noticed about characters were that all of them were influenced by everything that was going on. For example, Saki’s mother was overly afraid of losing Saki and that was because she had lost all her other children before Saki. Or since Mamoru was the weakest student in school, he was afraid of being cast away, thus he also had huge paranoia towards everything. And if that is still not enough, when a few citizens escaped outside the holy barrier, everyone was afraid, because if their location got discovered, it might mean the destruction of the city. And let's not forget everyone’s reactions toward fiends.

I mean, the characters were so well built, that everyone had a different personality, depending on their past. Even the council was built as council members should be. Basically cold towards everyone, doing their job and not giving a shit.

And finally, let’s not forget about the queerrats. This species was so well built, that they actually deserved a huge story of their own. Even though I had many questions regarding them, they involved some shocking news which explained everything about them, involving why they were fighting in the end. Even though because of them, plenty of amazing characters died (especially Maria, damn, she looked so nice), they did have a good reason to do all what they did.

Since the characters were built so well, I don't want to give less than 10 out of 10.

Overall

The anime was great! If you want to live in a different, fantasy world, where humans are powerful and there is also a lot of drama and action, I recommend watching it. I mean, really, it involves almost everything: Harem, gay-lesbian love, drama, OP people and even mecha (If you can call that librarian who they meet as a mecha. Well I see that as a machine though... even though they cannot go inside and move it... Well, at least it had a submarine).

So, everything together is 8.8, great anime!

Introduction

To begin with, I will try to spoil the least possible through this review so it should be safe to read if you haven't watched this anime (you should right now!).

The main themes are Dystopia and Fear.

The story begins with what looks like an utopia, as the village seems to be at peace for a long time. Everyone had telekinetic powers but didn't use it for bad purposes. The people knew that their everyday life were somewhat unusual, but everyone accepted those facts without any questions. However the thruth won't stay hidden very soon for the childrens in group one that suspected something was wrong after the disappearance of two of their classmates.

This anime will question the basic fundamentals of the human society, its morals and its way of thinking.

I would add the fact that the story is pretty confusing at first, and never gives any real solid awnsers through its entirety. If you don't like thinking during the anime or staying confused until the end, don't watch this anime.

Story (10/10)

Plot (10/10)

Early in the first arc, everything is slow-paced, the children slowly discover what is wrong with their society, however, the story doesn't only explain the point of view of the humans, the story will slowly develop and present to the viewers unexpected aspects of the world they live in and the truth about the past and the origins of ; their society ; the mutant animals ; and especially the Monster Rats.

While it would be pretty simple to assume everyone would take the side of the Humans (with telekinetic powers) throughout the story, but how can we define a "human"? A being with intelligence? Does other intelligent beings deserve the same rights as humans?

There is quite a bit of scientific references in the story, but despite some discrepancies, it is very well built and seems very probable (except the telekinetic bit).

This anime will let you reflect deeply on the definition of good and bad.

Universe (10/10)

The universe is really unique and solid, you can't find any flaw in its own context.

The story fits very well with the universe, and you can't help but think that the story was made for the universe, not the reverse. This makes it unparalleled.

Animation (10/10)

There is nothing to say about the animation except that it is just beautiful. You can consider some scenes "art".

It describes very well how the characters are feeling and thinking, especially when they depict the psychological scenes.

Sounds (9.5/10)

The sounds can be considered well above average, every little detail can be heard and the music fits very well with the contex and mood of a scene. Not to mention you will want to listen the two EDs over and over.

Note : This anime doesn't feature a OP song. The story starts right away.

Characters (9/10)

While you can say the main characters were very well developped, I couldn't help but notice that there were a lot of "disposable" characters in the anime who appeared only to disappear or die minutes after and never coming back.

Each person in the main cast was unique, and complemented well each other. However, there isn't a lot of screen time for anyone except the Male and Female Leads of this show. (Squealer had somewhat a lot)

Overall and Conclusion (9.63/10)

This could easily be my top #1 anime since it approaches so many aspects of our everyday life that we don't even notice (as revenge, despair and conquest). This is also true to the characters in their world.

This is an anime not to be missed, it is very thought-provoking and well developped.

Weighted Average Calculation

Story           0.40 (/2.5)
Plot              0.30
Universe        0.20
Animation    0.15 (/6.6)
Sounds        0.15 (/6.6)
Characters   0.30 (/3.3)
Overall         1.00 (/1.0)

Review Summary: Good Start, but Quickly Loses Potential

Story: Overall, the story had some well thought out ideas. But fails miserably at properly executing or finishing them. It stays relatively interesting for the first 7 episodes, and while I was initially comparing it to the likes of "Harry Potter" but in anime form, and the amazing sci-fi world of "Now and Then Here and There." These comparisons quickly faded, when I realized the story was shifting constantly from it's initial idea, for the remaining episodes. By episode 8, nothing against what happens here. But it was pointless to introduce in my opinion, and felt like a poor attempt at trying to be different. Almost like, "fan service" in a way. You could argue there is a reason for this, but in a previous episode we have already learned this reason. Aside from that though, honestly the whole time I was expecting some crazy adventurous journey, with uniquely powerful beings/monsters to show up. But this was generally far from the case. Given the mysterious tone, on how the anime presents itself. They could have gone wild with it, but didn't. Most of the time episodes seem like they were being spent looking for characters, that most of us could actually probably care less about. Generally because they were not fully developed. There really was just not enough to grasp, to give us enough of an emotional response when the story, was attempting to present us with one. By the last arc it actually starts to feel a bit awkward.

Animation: No gripes here in my opinion. It look's fairly modern, and the scenery is actually quite beautiful throughout the anime. I was pretty impressed with the imagery shown. Good use of colors, which reflected some scenes beautifully. Though the animation was mostly average.

Sound: This is where I'd say "From the New World" (Shinsekai yori) shines the most. Often times though, it almost felt a bit misleading. Since the story mostly fails to accompany it. The soundtrack want's us to feel like there is a mystery that has to be solved. Or that maybe something horrific is about to happen. But because of the story, and it's lack of consistency. It begins to lose it's touch a bit. It's an above average soundtrack, but just not enough to back it up. In terms of the acting, I was pretty impressed with some of the dialogue between the main group of friends. The way each character talked back to eachother, as a friendly group felt believable.

Characters: Below average here for sure. Almost none of them, were the least bit interesting or memorable. You'd think there would be more intellegent enemy types, in a vast "new world" which is off limits to the humans in this anime, but there isnt. The whole anime, revolves around these mutated rat creatures shown during the first arc. Which grow tiresome for 25 episodes.. Some characters as well that were shown I whole heartily believe were not given enough screentime either. More specifically, a character named "Shisei." He is meant to be the absolute strongest human with powers, and shows an extremely remarkable display. But you BARELY see anything from him. It was rather pointless to introduce most of these characters at all really, if they weren't going to be given enough screentime.

Overall: 6/10 "OK" Could have been a lot more exciting honestly, given it's initial ideas. But still far from bad.

Honestly this was my first coming of age type of anime and without spoiling this anime this is what I think:

From the New World is a very dark and tragic story, it does not waste a single minute in a any of the episodes

This anime has a very good build up with a very very good ending