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Old 01-12-2013, 05:37 PM   #51
Talon87
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Episode 15 was meh-okay. Queerat-centric episodes seem to consistently be mildly entertaining whilst you watch them but leave me feeling like I got gypped out of an episode that week once I finish them.

Spoiler: show
How these kids can still trust Squealer is just insane. Satoru doesn't seem to, but Saki does, and it's like, "Seriously!? ^^;" You're the hope of the village to be the next leader, and you're this much of a sucker?

The lobotomized queen bit was "Whoa >_<" when you carry it over to humans. It's like those horror stories you hear of some crazy man who kept his wife locked up in the cellar. Only this time he goes so far as to lobotomize her. "All you need to do is make more babies, woman." Creeeeeeeeeeeeepy. But I guess that's what she gets for being psycho and munching up her people over the tiniest of transgressions. ^^;

Why did the kids march to the Goat whatever colony alongside Squealer's Robber Fly army? >_> That was basically an implicit blessing of his war of conquest. They should've sat that rat down and been like "Wtf is this? >_> You dare challenge a God!? You think we're so stupid that we'd accept your 'let's not go tonight since they'll mistake us for an invading army' bullshit and then the very next morning you assemble an invasion force!? Disband the army immediately and lead us to the Goat whatever colony on your own, Squealer, or else we'll tear you limb from limb! " That's what they should have done. But no. They just march right along with him and let him conquer a fucked queerat colony. (Way to go, kids! )

Hopefully next week's episode is better. I'm not holding my breath though. ^^; *sigh*
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Old 01-19-2013, 11:15 AM   #52
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Episode 16. ARGH I WANT THE NEXT EPISODE NOW!

Spoiler: show
So Maria and Mamoru left the village for good - and after a bunch of crying, dialog saying the queerats had used Saki and Mamoru and an in-dream person telling Saki that Maria should die. Which is forming another circle with an episode way in the beginning: "if Maria hadn't been alive, many lives would have been spared", so I'm personally believing that at least Maria will survive in the wilderness (kinda hope Mamoru will die and won't come back, as mean as it may sound) and something's going to go horribly wrong. Will Saki marry Satoru and start a family with him? What about Saki's sister, will she be elaborated on more in the future?

The only problem I had with this episode was the very, very weird song-bit at the beginning: when the lyrics started rolling on the screen, I thought I was watching a whole different program! In my opinion, music with clear lyrics and a non-creepy tune just doesn't fit this show.

Guess what, we're gonna have another time leap next week! Saki and Satoru will be turning 26, and in all likelyhood the shit will really start hitting the fan. Squealer is reeking of an antagonist so bad now that it's making me sick.


Weeks feel longer and longer with every episode. x.x
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Old 01-26-2013, 11:26 AM   #53
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Episode 17. I feel this is yet another stalling episode before we get to the truly juicy bits next week.

Spoiler: show
Queerats and their sudden "evolution" to more refined politics and warfare shocked the humans, and in the end the Wasp-something colony was wiped out. I think that's the one Kiroumaru(?) was leading. See, this is how much I care about queerat-parts of this show, I cannot remember any of the names.

The biggest things to me about this episode were the preview for next week, and that Saki somehow was hired at the Exospecies unit. I'm curious as to how the employment process goes in this universe, since it kind of feels like they were handed some free spot and told "go do your job". Satoru and Saki apparently fell out over "something petty" (WHAT EXACTLY WAS IT, SHOW? I WANT TO KNOW!), and Satoru is working for a unit that requires queerats to gather samples for them. What exactly is this unit? Confusion keeps increasing...

The preview for next week wasn't exactly shy about revealing that Maria is going to return in some form or another - but no visible image of Mamoru was shown, so he's either dead, missing or wearing a mask in the preview. With the given dialogue, I'm almost positive that Maria has a hand in the sudden evolution of queerats; either from her telling them how to improve things and lie to humans, or teaching them to use a fake minoshiro, or something else.

The new ED also had so much Maria in it that she is sure to be heavily involved in the plot, far more than she has been so far. A side character becoming an/the antagonist? Time will tell.
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Old 01-27-2013, 02:36 PM   #54
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Caught up, watched 16 and 17. This series is such a tease. And as one viewer commented, "The humans appear to have been holding the Idiot Ball."

Spoiler: show
Even Satoru's grandmother, who seems to be aware that Squealer is a dirty liar and infidel, doesn't seem to be aware of or worried by the extent to which the queerats have already advanced technologically and socially. They're pretty much behaving like 16th Century Japanese soldiers at this point, which is a pretty damn remarkable advancement from their wood-and-rope catapults and their wooden spears just a decade ago.

Saki grows more beautiful with each time skip. Hopefully she'll remain this way for a while.

There was little to no mention of Satoru's grandmother training Saki as her successor and/or of Saki doing Board of Ethics things. In fact, isn't it sort of strange that the future leader of their village would be wasting her time in a queerat bio lab?

Here's hoping Saki is learning (or has even already mastered) the anti-aging trick of Tomiko's. Stay forever 26, Saki! You look good.

I think this show would be so much more exciting if it weren't being told over the course of half a year. You don't read a book one bit at a time over a six-month period. ^^;
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Old 02-03-2013, 10:58 AM   #55
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Episode 18. Things really start ramping up here. Some character development for a few of the more mysterious characters, some plot development regarding the events seen in Episode 17, and some food for thought for the upcoming episodes.

Spoiler: show

Shisei's Beautiful Eyes: so, we finally get to see what the mysterious Shisei looks like underneath that eyeshield he wears. And we get to see that Shisei is to Shinsekai yori what Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops is to X-Men: he's an ocular mutant who shields his eyes presumably for both power-level reasons as well as not freaking people out reasons. Each eye has a dark golden major iris encasing two minor bright golden irises, each of which encircles its own pupil. Thus he's a two-eyed, four-pupiled guy. Really fascinating look. :o But man is he handsome. Man oh man is he handsome. [/gay for shisei] It's easy to appreciate in retrospect why the village had hoped that Shun would be Shisei's heir. This episode demonstrates just how truly awesome Shisei's power level is, not to mention that he is the handsomest man in the whole damn village.

More pictures:
Spoiler: show


Creepy dude does stuff: so, we also finally get to see what the one creepy dude on the council is all about. Ever since he was introduced only very recently, he's seemed to be an off character. Evil, maybe? A trickster? A sadist? A pompous imbecile? You didn't really know and you couldn't really say. But he'd smile at times it wasn't appropriate to smile and he seemed to have an agenda that set him apart from the others. Well, this episode finally made it pretty clear what his whole deal was: he was a sadist, and he had one hell of a bloodlust. Kind of strange that such a man enjoyed such an esteemed position in town -- you could hear the villagers quite happily cheering for him as he vowed to deal with the queerats and you could see how sorry Shisei was that the dude died -- but whatever. This dude apparently was a Japanese-style entertainer type? He favored harisens/Japanese fans, it seems? And Japanese religious dress with the thick white corded rope and the big black beads and the red tomoes all over his clothing? And apparently he was pretty good at using his Cantus. That stated, he wasn't very perceptive, and he ends up failing to notice the infiltrators and falling victim to a gunshot wound. So no more creepy sadist dude! Yay! \o/ (Sorry, guy. ^^; It's sad when anyone dies but ... you were pretty creepy-evil-esque.)


Wait WHAT THE HECK IS THAT: I have no idea what happened here. Was this ...
  • the image of the woman he loved? (And should we recognize her? Is it Saki's mom? )
  • his own self image? Did he feel he was a beautiful woman trapped inside the body of an ugly old man?
  • his Cantus given human form? Is this a sign that Canti are more than just telekinetic powers and that they're actually spirits?
  • just some work of art he did using his Cantus, and that happened to be a beautiful woman?
  • other?
Like, I have no clue. Lots of guesses but absolutely no clue. His deceased wife, the woman he yearned for but couldn't have, he himself, his Cantus, just some work of art, or anything else ... no clue.


The rest of the episode: it was good. Not great, but good. We learn that ...
  • the humans know about nuclear weaponry but reject that that was what the Robber Fly colony used to eradicate the Giant Hornet colony given the presence of undamaged arrows on the battlefield
  • Kiroumaru survived but the rest of his colony was pretty much wiped out
  • Shisei suspects that Maria and/or Mamoru are the Robber Fly colony's secret weapon
  • Tomiko rejects Shisei's theory and claims (whether she's telling the truth or not) that DNA analysis was performed on the remains and they are 100% Maria's and Mamoru's remains
  • a band of queerats, likely led by Squealer/Yakomaru, attacks Saki's village with infantry, fire bombs, and poison gas. Quite a few (10-20? Maybe more?) villagers are killed, including the quieter lady who had been on the Board of Education council.
  • Saki swears she saw Maria at the festival, but Satoru thinks she just saw Maria's ghost (since it's Obon)
The most interesting thing to me is what Tomiko said. Is she lying? Is she telling what she believes to be the truth but she's still wrong? We know she can't be flat-out correct because we know Maria has to still be alive (given Saki's Episode 05 thing about "If only Maria had died that day, then so many others wouldn't have had to have lost their lives"). So that means that one way or another, Maria is alive. And so either Tomiko is aware of this fact (and therefore lied to the council) or else she is not aware of this fact. The latter opens up an interesting possibility: that either Maria or minoshiro+Maria-assisted Yakomaru managed to perform genetic engineering. In other words, the Robber Fly colony isn't technologically just in the 1600s -- in some areas (like biology) they may be well into the 2000s or 2100s. They might have been able to replace all of the queerat DNA in the bones with samples of Maria's and Mamoru's DNA and fooled Tomiko and the other colonists in this way. The colonists, as scientists who look down on the queerats the way a man looks down on an ant, would probably never dream in a million years that the queerats could do genetic engineering or other sorts of DNA manipulation. And the adults, as we've seen, paradoxically do and at the same time do not give the children as much credit as they give themselves. Which is to say, I suspect that the scientists would never in a million years have imagined that Maria could've done genetic trickery like that to fool them.

Guess we'll find out either way in one to two more episodes whether Tomiko lied knowingly or not. Could be interesting if she lied knowingly. Would love to hear why.
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Old 02-03-2013, 11:30 AM   #56
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post

Spoiler: show

Shisei's Beautiful Eyes: so, we finally get to see what the mysterious Shisei looks like underneath that eyeshield he wears. And we get to see that Shisei is to Shinsekai yori what Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops is to X-Men: he's an ocular mutant who shields his eyes presumably for both power-level reasons as well as not freaking people out reasons. Each eye has a dark golden major iris encasing two minor bright golden irises, each of which encircles its own pupil. Thus he's a two-eyed, four-pupiled guy. Really fascinating look. :o But man is he handsome. Man oh man is he handsome. [/gay for shisei] It's easy to appreciate in retrospect why the village had hoped that Shun would be Shisei's heir. This episode demonstrates just how truly awesome Shisei's power level is, not to mention that he is the handsomest man in the whole damn village.

More pictures:
Spoiler: show
Spoiler: show
Talon, I thought you'd already dished out everything that could make my jaw drop, but I was wrong. I applaud you.

Also, I'm straight for Shisei then, but I doubt the gravity of that is nearly as large.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
Spoiler: show

Wait WHAT THE HECK IS THAT: I have no idea what happened here. Was this ...
  • the image of the woman he loved? (And should we recognize her? Is it Saki's mom? )
  • his own self image? Did he feel he was a beautiful woman trapped inside the body of an ugly old man?
  • his Cantus given human form? Is this a sign that Canti are more than just telekinetic powers and that they're actually spirits?
  • just some work of art he did using his Cantus, and that happened to be a beautiful woman?
  • other?
Like, I have no clue. Lots of guesses but absolutely no clue. His deceased wife, the woman he yearned for but couldn't have, he himself, his Cantus, just some work of art, or anything else ... no clue.
I personally thought that was...
Spoiler: show
what Saki saw - the guy said something to the effect of "may you see beauty" (UTW-translation), and since Maria is apparently the Love of Saki's Life it makes sense she'd be the one Saki would see as beauty/beautiful. Still don't really get the whole gay-aspect of the Shinsekai-universe that was kinda dropped on the viewers like a bomb, but MariaxSaki is about as canon as Yakomaru being evil at this point.
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Old 02-09-2013, 10:11 PM   #57
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Episode 19 = ONE ENORMOUS STALL-TEASE. If you haven't watched it yet, do yourself a favor and wait 'til next week. Or watch it now, it doesn't really matter. But thirty minutes go by and you're no farther along than you were last week.

Spoiler: show
Last week we knew the runaways had probably survived. This week is the same. Signs but no solid confirmation either way.

Last week we knew Crybaby Mamoru or else Maria might've become a Fiend. Now this week we see that, yes indeed, there's a fiend on the loose killing everyone in sight. But again, no confirmation as to who it is.

We met three brand new adults this week, two of whom were very stupid and got themselves killed, one of whom was only slightly stupid and sacrificed herself for Saki and Satoru.

We met Saki's boss, Dr. Noguchi, once again. Then he turned nasty on the kids. And then he died.

NOTHING MAJOR AND NEW happened this week. Something very MAJOR happened, and it was exciting all half hour, but it wasn't new: we've already seen what Fiends are like courtesy of flashbacks and such, and we already suspected this fate might've befallen either of the two runaway children.

Entertaining but very much a staller-tease. Just give me the plot, already.
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Old 02-16-2013, 04:21 PM   #58
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Episode 20 is still more stalling. Not as bad as last week, but still pretty stally.

Spoiler: show
It introduces a new monstrosity which looks like a cross between an enormous water flea and a thick black tentacle. These things lie in wait in the waterways of the district and attack when they detect people are near. They rise from the water, fill the air with a sooty black powder-smoke, and then detonate it, killing themselves and anything else within the smoke cloud. We're not told what they are though or who made them. Yakomaru? Maria? Mamoru? Who knows.

Satoru's grandmother is injured by the attacks. When the fiend locates Sage Academy, which has been converted into a makeshift hospital and is which is where Tomiko and the other injured are being cared for, Tomiko issues the order to evacuate and stays behind herself, intending to sacrifice herself to the fiend. She tells Saki that there is no way to stop the fiend and that the only reason the town survived its last run in with a fiend 200 years ago is because they were supremely lucky. Before Saki heads out, Tomiko tells Saki that she is now the new head of the Board of Ethics and thus the new leader of the village.

Satoru is missing.

Other than these three things, nothing new happened this week. It was just one big stall for time.

Episode 21 looks like it should be much more informative than these two episodes were.
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Old 02-16-2013, 04:48 PM   #59
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I have no idea or way to find out if the original novel had stalling like this, but I'm kind of getting worried that there's 5 episodes left (according to MAL) and it feels like we're approaching maybe halfway of the story. I'm praying we won't get a super-rushed ending and that there's actually a proper wrap-up to this story, a comprehensible ending. Cause there's no way Shinsekai's getting a second season...right?
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Old 02-23-2013, 03:52 PM   #60
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Episode 21 was ... hmm. ^^;

Spoiler: show
Satoru's comment at the end about the fiend’s identity caught me by surprise. I thought the fiend this week was Maria and that the queerats had broken her both mentally and emotionally. I didn’t for one second think it was Maria’s and Mamoru’s child. If it is their child, why does Yakomaru even need to wait ten years before launching more invasions? Yes, it’ll be ten years before the newly-abducted babies can use their Canti, but who said anything about Mamoru and Maria only having one child? Couldn’t they currently have, say, one ten-year old, one nine-year old, two eight-year olds, a seven year old, and so on? Have Maria pump out babies like a queerat colony queen, making babies as fast as her body will allow. So even if Fiend #1 dies in this year’s attack, you’ve already got Fiend #2 good to go in a little under a year.

When Saki and Satoru reached the temple, I was expecting the elder to tell Saki what her password was for her original Cantus. The one that was sealed when she showed up as a 10-year old girl. I get the impression that its release and utilization will be the key to overcoming the Fiends.

Shisei died so easily. I was hoping they were going to show that he was a decent match for a Fiend. *sigh*

The bit with Saki's parents leaving again to go and release the cats was stupid. If the author just plans to kill them off like that, why even bother with having them reach the temple successfully in the first place? Why not have them intercepted by the Fiend and killed en route? The story the author's gone with instead is stupid. These people are said to be genetically and culturally descended from scientists. Scientists are rational people. Why would Saki's parents risk their lives to free 3-10 cats to take on a Fiend when 1) a normal adult human can take out a cat and 2) a Fiend can take out 20+ adult humans at a time? It makes absolutely no sense. It's a pointless suicide mission. It'd be like if I said, "I am going to cross enemy lines to release ten tigers." If I can't beat the enemy because his firepower is too great, what chance have ten tigers got? When even I can kill one tiger by myself with my own military rifle or machine gun?

Despite some questions and criticisms, this week's episide was nonetheless a definite improvement over the previous two weeks'.
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Old 02-23-2013, 04:41 PM   #61
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Episode 21.

Spoiler: show
I also thought the Fiend was Maria at first - but then it turned out that it was about the height of a child/queerat/a teen at best. Didn't figure out the Fiend was male either until Satoru brought it up, which brings me to the question: how the heck did Maria and Mamoru manage to produce a kid that's pretty much identical to Maria? Can you even get that lucky, genetics-wise?

And are Maria and Mamoru still alive, or dead, or just one is alive, or what's up with them? Were they only a device to make this Fiend for the plot?

I also want to know if Raman-Klogius syndrome ("Fox in the Henhouse") somehow turns off the death-feedback - because evidently Fiends still have no issues with killing fellow humans. I kinda want to know how evolution sees Fiends and Karma Demons as a positive thing, though, but it might be as simple to explain as why we still have illnesses and cancer around.
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Old 02-25-2013, 12:00 AM   #62
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I'm surprised you guys (or at least Talon) didn't...

Spoiler: show
...Think the Fiend could be Mamoru and Maria's child. I had a feeling as soon as his/her/its eyes were revealed. Looked way too young to be Maria. Voice and behavior were childlike too.
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Old 02-25-2013, 12:59 AM   #63
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I'm surprised you guys (or at least Talon) didn't...

Spoiler: show
...Think the Fiend could be Mamoru and Maria's child. I had a feeling as soon as his/her/its eyes were revealed. Looked way too young to be Maria. Voice and behavior were childlike too.
Brag all you want , but ...

Spoiler: show
the Fiend looks 100% identical to Maria, 0% identical to Mamoru. There's nothing about it that suggests "half-Maria, half-Mamoru". As for its physical age, it's not readily that apparent because of behavior, this being an anime with very simple character art, and the cloak + hunched stature obscuring height. As for its behavioral age, I figured it was Maria regressed into a primitive childlike state because her mind had been broken by Squealer, whether through physical abuse, brain lobotomization, whatever.

I mean, I see what you're saying about "look at all these signs it's a kid," but I don't see any of those as conclusive signs that it's a child; rather, they're only supportive signs, but signs which could still just as easily fit with an adult who has mentally regressed to a childlike state because of a mental breakdown and/or brain damage.

Changing gears slightly, ...

Spoiler: show
Some people on UTW's blog have opined that Maria and Mamoru are already dead, that Squealer gave the human colonists the childrens' bones as proof, etc. Other people claim that they could still be alive. I myself believe that it's possible that they're alive and that the bone samples Tomiko received were faked somehow using a combination of knowledge from a false minoshiro and Cantus power from Maria or Mamoru. It'll be interesting to see as the series wraps up who's right and who's wrong.

At least one fan has suggested a somewhat radical idea:

Spoiler: show
What if the sneak peek next week, which shows the Earth from space, is meant to suggest that Saki and Satoru are going to colonize a new world and be its Adam and Eve? Hence the title of the series, Shinsekai yori "From the New World". I always assumed it meant from a world post-social upheaval. And with the recent stuff with the Fiend, I assumed the title meant from a post-apocalyptic world. I don't think the fan is right about the space theory, and I think the Earth was shown from space just for artistic reasons of trying to show all the various continents and to suggest that Saki and Satoru might wind up leaving Japan. But ... wouldn't that be something if this guy were right? What if Saki and Satoru get on some spaceship and head off for a new world?

..... naaaaaaaaaaaaah. But if it does happen, that fan deserves all the marbles.
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Old 02-25-2013, 01:18 AM   #64
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Brag all you want , but ...

Spoiler: show
the Fiend looks 100% identical to Maria, 0% identical to Mamoru. There's nothing about it that suggests "half-Maria, half-Mamoru". As for its physical age, it's not readily that apparent because of behavior, this being an anime with very simple character art, and the cloak + hunched stature obscuring height. As for its behavioral age, I figured it was Maria regressed into a primitive childlike state because her mind had been broken by Squealer, whether through physical abuse, brain lobotomization, whatever.

I mean, I see what you're saying about "look at all these signs it's a kid," but I don't see any of those as conclusive signs that it's a child; rather, they're only supportive signs, but signs which could still just as easily fit with an adult who has mentally regressed to a childlike state because of a mental breakdown and/or brain damage.
Um...

Spoiler: show




I'd say the bangs are a giveaway. Sure, they could've grown out, but... I dunno, I just didn't get very strong "Maria" vibes from him/her/it.

Granted, I wasn't sure until Satoru confirmed it, but I figured it made sense in the context of the story. Given how Saki's been going on about "Maria, Maria my darling Maria", one wonders where Mamoru is in the equation. >.>;

Last edited by lilboocorsola; 02-25-2013 at 01:20 AM.
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Old 02-25-2013, 01:23 AM   #65
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Um ...

Spoiler: show
What? ^^; Are you serious? It's just long unkempt hair. "Bangs"? First of all, I don't recall Mamoru having any bangs, and even if he did, they sure as hell didn't stretch all the way down past his nose. Second, everything about that face screams Maria. Blue eyes. Long, flat red hair. I mean, granted, we've not seen Maria look quite so childish and crazed before ... but like I said, I thought that that was because she was in a crazed, regressed mental state. Animation as a means to communicate ideas: I thought the animators were trying to show us just how much she'd lost her mind with that face. You and a lot of others apparently took it much more literally and seem to have said to yourselves "MARIA HAS NEVER LOOKED LIKE THAT, THEREFORE THIS IS NOT MARIA." I looked at it and thought "Wow, Maria sure has never looked this creepy before. Dayum. What did you do to her, Squealer? "

Anyway, not interested in arguing the point further. I was wrong, Satoru confirmed as much. All that remains to be seen is whether the mother and father still live or not.
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Old 03-09-2013, 06:14 PM   #66
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I just finished episode 23, so that's what I'm going to be talking about.

Spoiler: show
I had a theory around episode 21 that the "fiend" isn't a fiend - and apparently, I was right! Or as much can be deduced from Shun's ghost/projection's words "that's no fiend". The preview supports this, as well.

We'll see if I'm correct about the details; my theory being that since Maria and Mamoru's kid wasn't subjected to hypnosis and crap since birth like all the other humans in the show, of course he doesn't have death feedback, and if he was raised by queerats and Yakomaru, it's kinda obvious he's been told "gods are evil and you need to kill them".

Saki's got the Psycho-Buster now, and with the material in the preview I'm guessing Satoru's going to try to kill the kid, while Saki learns he's not a fiend and tries to stop Satoru. Plot will be wrapped up by Saki's Words of Awesome that help the kid realize humans aren't evil. There's also the possibility that Kiroumaru betrayed humans from the start and lead them to the Psycho-Buster so the queerats can destroy it or use it against humans - in any case, it seems next week is going to be interesting!


I'm sort of disliking how most of my SSY-posts are theories and speculations lately, but the episodes have mostly been "LOOK AT THAT HUGE BUG THAT'S EVOLVED INTO A HUMAN-SLAUGHTERER" and "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES" instead of, you know...dialog and events that progress the plot from A to C - we just hang around Point Bs a whole lot. If I bother to get all the episodes and try to marathon the show, I'll most likely be skipping half the show just because of stretched out Point Bs. And that's a huge minus for Shinsekai Yori.
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Old 03-10-2013, 03:24 AM   #67
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What the hell happened at the end there (Episode 23)? I am so confused.

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We know Shun's dead ... but that "hallucination" Saki just had was the most lifelike one yet. When she rounded the corner and he was still there, I was like, "Are they going to reveal that he never actually died? And that, after Teenage Saki left his house, Shun still lived and he migrated to Tokyo?" I knew that was unlikely, and the lack of Shun in the sneak peek seems to confirm that this was just another one of Saki's crazy hallucinations, but still.

Why did Saki emerge from a pyramid? Why didn't the false minoshiro just lead them that way in the first place? Why the trek through the dangerous cave?

Why did Saki and Inui leave the submarine and walk on foot underwater? We're told it was because the submarine wouldn't fit, shoving it through would've caused a cave-in, and their target was only 100 meters away. And what happens? A sea centipede 3x larger than their sub chases after them. Oh come on. Hole's not big enough for a sub but it's plenty big enough for the sea monster?

Why was Inui able to kill two centipedes above water but he got done in by one centipede later below water? He saw it coming. He placed his hands in front of himself. He couldn't use his Cantus to blow that one up too?

Some people had speculated that Kiroumaru was probably tricking the humans. I figured they were wrong, but it looks like I was wrong for trusting Kiroumaru. One wonders what his plans are.

The revelation that the Fiend isn't really a Fiend was interesting, but ... shouldn't Tomiko have been able to tell a Fiend apart from a Not Fiend given her experience with Fiends in the past? Since Shun is just in Saki's imagination, the knowledge he shared with her is more like her own epiphany. So ... if Saki can have an epiphany and realize that the Fiend isn't really a Fiend, why can't the Fiend veteran Tomiko tell the difference?

I like how the minoshiro has a subplot involving battery life, just so that the author can show off that Inui can use his Cantus to generate an electric current, just so that the author can establish that Saki can't, just to create drama by having Inui get killed off and leaving Saki with a minoshiro who only has a limited amount of energy remaining before it'll power down and she won't be able to restore it. [/long sentence]

How the hell does Satoru get away from Kiroumaru if Kiroumaru isn't to be trusted? And why? Does Kiroumaru attempt to kill Satoru or something? Or does Satoru just make a run for it even though Kiroumaru hasn't said or done anything to indicate treason? Guess we'll find out next week.
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Old 03-10-2013, 03:58 AM   #68
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
What the hell happened at the end there (Episode 23)? I am so confused.

Spoiler: show
Why did Saki emerge from a pyramid? Why didn't the false minoshiro just lead them that way in the first place? Why the trek through the dangerous cave?
Spoiler: show
Wasn't that because the group would have been sitting ducks for "Fiend" & Co. out in the open, on the desert, and all the monsters underground would also serve to hinder the pursuers? I think that was explained in episode 21 or 22 - and it was Kiroumaru's idea, no less.
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Old 03-16-2013, 02:56 PM   #69
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Episode 24 was entertaining,

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But just like Psycho-Pass Episode 21, it was the sort of episode you expect out of the second to last in a series. It didn't really make too many big moves towards resolving the current predicament, but it did close off a few gates within said predicament.

Foremost among these was taking the Psycho-Buster out of the equation. By having Satoru deploy it and by then having Saki set it on fire, that pretty much ends that plot angle.

Second, we know we're probably not going to find any more ancient civilization stuff coming to the heroes' rescue, and that's because the expert on such things, the baby false minoshiro, was destroyed by the Fiend when Saki chucked it at her.

Third, what a lot of people were speculating about -- that Kiroumaru was not trustworthy -- was addressed. Personally, I disagreed with those fans, but I thought their theory had some merit to it. It turns out that neither camp was entirely right or wrong. Kiroumaru reveals that in the past he had come to Tokyo to try and find weapons of mass destruction with which to eradicate humanity ... but that that is not what is going on here. A lot of fans were like "Kiroumaru wants the kids to lead him to the Psycho-Buster so he can use it!" But the moment Saki revealed to him that she'd found it, he should've been able to signal to the other queerats that he had it, were he really a traitor. So I doubt we're going to see him pull anything like that next week, and we certainly didn't see him turn traitor this week. He's helped those kids time and time and time again, and it seems to be just because he's a genuinely honorable person.

Fourth, Saki tried to get the Fiend-that-isn't-a-Fiend to realize that it was a human child such that it'd quit attacking them. Well, it half worked. ^^; The pseudo-Fiend did realize that she's he's a human. But she he then continued to attack Saki and Satoru, so ... ^^; While we might see that angle still be how the plot resolves itself next week (should the pseudo-Fiend betray Yakomaru after accepting the truth behind its identity). for now it's been addressed and tabled.

Predictions for next week?

Spoiler: show
Saki: obviously she'll live.

Satoru: no clue, but I'm going to guess that he lives so that he and Saki can pair off as husband and wife.

Kiroumaru: probably lives. Paves the way for humans and queerats to come together and co-exist as equals who simply have different cultures and physical capabilities.

Yakomaru: almost certainly dies.

Pseudo-Fiend: probably dies. I'm guessing that's the Fiend's blood on Saki's face in the sneak peek. Perhaps Saki is the one to kill her him.

Next week should be the series finale, unless they changed something on me while I wasn't looking. Nope. Still slated for 25 episodes.
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Old 04-04-2013, 12:15 AM   #70
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Episode 25 made a huge deal about things we'd already known. Kind of a letdown finale, really.

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First, it made a big deal about the pseudo-Fiend having been raised by queerats to think of itself as a queerat and thus not suffer the effects of death feedback. I didn't call this myself, but a) a lot of fans did circa Ep22/23 and b) didn't they confirm this last episode?

Second, it made a HUGE deal about queerats being genetically modified humans, but again ... didn't we already know this? ^^; Not the genetic engineering part, but the descent from a human ancestor part. I'm talking all the way back since Episode 8 or 9, back when we first met Squealer. Didn't we learn back then that there were four human tribes 200-300 years ago (from one of which the scientist-humans descended and from another of which the queerats descended)? The only thing we didn't know until Episode 25 was that the scientist-humans used their science to sneak molerat genes into the genome of humans who couldn't use Cantus, and that that's how the queerats were born. But aside from that ... the whole "queerats descended from humans" angle ... we've known that since November or thereabouts. ^_^; So I'm not why and I'm disappointed that Episode 25 made such a big deal about this, gobbling up so much time that could've been used elsewhere.

Disappointed we didn't get to see more of Future Saki.

Disappointed the series never established whether or not Saki learned Asahina Tomiko's telomere trick for remaining young.

Confused by Squealer's 180-degree reversal regarding his name. Wasn't he the one who asked to be called Yakomaru? Wasn't he proud of the name because it established that he's just like other humans? Why the sudden change of heart to be called by his Queerat name again? And why did the show make it seem like the name Yakomaru was gifted to Squealer by humans and that he never preferred it to the name he was born with?

Squealer's punishment seemed pretty awful. Promethean, really.

Why did Kiroumaru have to actually die? Why couldn't Saku have used her Cantus to make it look as though Kiroumaru had just died but really he was fine?

In the end, Shinsekai yori never managed to become one of the greats in my book; yet it did pull me in every Saturday morning, and I was delighted to wake up, watch the newest episode, and discuss it with you guys. The series was quite different from most anime these days, which was nice, but being different isn't enough: you've gotta be good too. And Shinsekai yori *was* decently good. It just wasn't great. It had some glimmers of greatness (which you can find if you go back through this thread and look for the posts where we were really excited to find out what happens next), but in the end it was just another weird story.

Plot: 6/10. It was fine, but I have quite a few problems with it that prevent a higher score.

Characters: 7/10

Animation: 4/10 some weeks, 6/10 other weeks

Music: 5/10 dead average. Not bad but hardly noticeable.

Replay Value: Low for me personally. Now that I know how the story plays out, I dunno that I'd want to watch it all over again from start to finish.

OVERALL: 6/10
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Old 11-04-2013, 06:10 PM   #71
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Remember the song that played when it was time for the children to go home? I just had my mind blown by the following discovery. Did you know that the song is a piece by famous Classical composer Dvorak? Guess what the song is called? (And remember what the words "shinsekai yori" mean.) Well played, animation studio. Well played.
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Old 02-15-2014, 12:52 PM   #72
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Found out there's a manga version of Shin Sekai Yori, with the anime having apparently been a notable success.

I have no idea what the artist was thinking. Those are the YOUNG VERSIONS. Who went on the canoe trip. Yeah. Think about that for a minute.

Now think about this: apparently the manga has seriously added more sexual content into the story.

I'm kinda terrified if the publishers think this is what the audience wants: senseless sexualization of minors.
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