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This thread is to be used for discussing the entire episodes of Shin Sekai Yori ... your thoughts about the show, overall impressions, expectations and hopes about Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive footage etc.

A few subjects you might want to ramble on about:

General impression of the series.

Opinions on the overall story, writing & plot devices.

Thoughts about the animation quality.

Characters/Character Design

Voice Acting

Which kind of footage (Blu-Ray/DVD-exclusive) you feel you'd really like to see.

What the show meant to you.

What could the creators/animators/writers have done better.

And so on.

The poll represents your total series rating. In other words, how you would rate all the episodes combined (1-10)? If you'd rather rate the whole series by technical/artistic merits, you can do so. An example:

Funny, when the series started 10-11 months ago, everyone was like screaming on how bad the anime was. Well, compared the animation today.. it's quite, retro.. maybe. But I'll give it a 7 though, animation is simply for the eyes...

Voice Actors: 7/10

Voicing... let's see. Nothing special. The dubbing is good.. no delays that were quite obvious. I think the seiyuus really did well..

Script: 5/10

I never read the light novel so my rating will be based on the series only.. wait.. never mind... Anyway.... the writer for the anime tried everything to fused explanations into 25 episodes ( right?). They did explained evrything except one thing... The death of Mamoru and Maria.. period..

Soundtrack: 7/10

Well, I give credit for the first ED song, Wareta Ringo. One of the best song that season. I'll give a 10/10 for that song only... very moving... What made me disappointed was the Maria ED song... don't ask me why... it's so out of place... I mean it director!

Editing: 7/10

I can't really decided... they gave too much attention on the Maria x Saki shipping so that made me want to give 5/10 but for the "Shun farewell" was wonderfully executed I give 7/10 ... well, that's all.. oh the ending... yeah.. thanks for a happy ending..

Enjoyment: 7/10

Oh, yeah.. the SSY crazed... I really enjoyed it... we got dark episodes, confusing ones, irritating ones, sad ones ( Shun...) and horrifying ones in the later episodes... I did enjoyed it,though, I did a lot of jumping.. hehehe

Emotional Involvement: 7/10

*sorry for shipping

I was deeply moved of the Shun x Saki interactions.. gave me tears actually... other than that. we got rage and hate for Yakomaru and how stupid humans are as a whole... really moving..

Maybe I'll write something more elaborated later, but I think I can sum up this series as something that started out with some incredibly interesting ideas and a fascinating world, but then wasted it all over a dull story that didn't use the potential of the established setting at all. The fact the execution of said story was mediocre at best (the series had some glaring pacing issues) made things even worse.

In the end I would say the series is still worth watching, but just because interesting anime shows are pretty rare these days. It's such a shame the series turned out to be just a shadow of what it could have been.

About the animation: It was generally pretty lacking. The series did feature some really good animators, but their appearance on episodes was sporadic. So even though the series featured some really good-looking episodes, many more looked really low budget.

About the soundtrack: Again, I thought it was pretty lacking. The series has a really good main theme no doubt, but the rest of the track selection is mostly generic stuff that detracts from the show instead of enhancing it.

I've been dabbling over this the past week. I acknowledge SSY's weakness but seriously, the pluses outweigh the minuses so much that I'd give this series a full 10 even with its faults. The fact is I actually bothered rewatching the entire damn thing to understand everything that I've seen til the last episode (notwithstanding the fact that I rewatched the last episode 5 times).

Rather than pointing out what's good and what's bad about this series, I think I'm just gonna write a letter of appreciation. To the creators, the staff, the spectacular and creative animators (who I know will probably never read this), thank you. It's been a long while since a series managed to boggle my mind (and in depths not many have even reached) the way Shin Sekai Yori did and thank you for A-1 Pictures and whoever the hell is involved with this for letting my mind be boggled. Thank you for adapting this series that I probably would never had accessed had it not been adapted. This is a series clearly made with intent and passion and I totally love it for it. If this series ever becomes available in my country (through TV channels or through DVDs/Merchandise), I will watch/buy it in a heartbeat. That's how much I love this series.

It's been a long while since an anime was able to crack my personal Top 10 anime of all time.

I had issues with a good chunk of the last arc, mainly in how Saki spent entirely too long in the damsel in distress role, especially after how she had been portrayed as a character through the first 2/3 of the season, but it all worked out, so despite that, I am going to go ahead and give it a 10.

Great story + great aesthetics + great characters (well, minus Momowhatshisface, but on the plus side, he was never pushed forward as more than just background noise, so one could largely ignore him) + great sound. Really, just a fantastic anime.

There are stories that could be told, I'm sure, through OVAs, like what occurred between the time skip to adulthood that made Saki and Satoru stop being friends? Or what gruesome fate awaited Maria and Momoru? Make those OVAs!

But, overall, I was very pleasantly surprised at how the time skips didn't make me go "omg, they're skipping too much" or "but what happened to blahblahblah".

I usually hate time skips.

Easily the best show of the year so far, and will be one of the rare shows I fully intend to buy on Blu-Ray when it is hopefully released for western consumption.

lol, so silent here... I didn't know there would be an "overall impressions" thread, otherwise I probably wouldn't have written my impressions in the thread for episode 25.

Anyway, this is one of those anime that I find pointless to judge based on stuff like "animation" or "music" because all aspects together form the whole, and the "whole" was awesome. Did the show have flaws? Sure, a number of them, and there was one that I found rather grating. But as ahelo said above, the positives simply outweigh the negatives, and in the end, I'm just happy and thankful that this show was made, and that I had a chance to watch it. As I said in the episode thread:

Quote:

I'd just like to say that as much as I groused about some changes in the last arc, I think this was, hands down, one the strongest anime I've ever seen, even with its flaws. It's quite unlike anything I've seen before - sure, much of that is due to the source material. But there's also:
- the visuals - sure, it was made on a very tight budget but even so there are some striking visuals in this show (quite a number of them in this last episode), and there was of course the first ending sequence that was simply awesome. There were also some nice camera angles, visual ideas, etc.
- the designs - I've heard people hating on the character designs, but I think they worked well, and the character designer should get into fashion stat.

Spoiler for epilogue:

Seriously, Satoru's last outfit? I WANT IT, NOW. Saki's dress looked pretty neat, too, although we didn't get to take a good look at it.

And I really loved how they designed the various creatures in the world - the minoshiro, the fujouneko, etc.
- the music - everyone loves that haunting bgm that plays during key scenes, but the rest is pretty nice, too - not flashy, but it does what a BGM needs to do. The first ending, Wareta ringo that was simply awesome. (Let's just forget about the second ED.)
- the seiyuu - the voice acting was brilliant. Namikawa Daisuke is the star here, sure, but Taneda Risa, Kaji Yuuki, and the rest of the cast also did a fantastic job.

All in all, I'm happy that I met this anime. I'm glad the sponsors were willing to invest money in this, even though they must have known that it wouldn't be much of a success (or at all, as the case might be), and that despite everything the production team seemed to do their best at all times in spite of the budget, the time and the difficult to adapt source material. In the end, Shinsekai yori had flaws, including questionable writing/directorial decisions, but it was a powerful show, and it will stay with me for a long time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by creb

There are stories that could be told, I'm sure, through OVAs, like what occurred between the time skip to adulthood that made Saki and Satoru stop being friends?

Nothing. *grinds teeth* That's the one thing I'll never get over and I'll never understand why they had to change it. They're not supposed to have stopped being friends. >__<)

WOW... its been a long time since I've watched anything like this. what. a. show. I somehow saw this show like Haibane Renmei, and I put it right up there (or even higher) with it. My biggest regret is that it wasn't 36 episodes (or even 52) because it was such a mature, complex, fantastical, and horrifying world. Having said that, it wasn't perfect (though they pretty much hit all the nails), if anything because there was so much more to be seen in the universe, and of course i wanted to see some more saki x satoru (its been a long time since ive said anything like this). Still most of the plot lines are tied up beautifully. In any case ( and I really mean it when I say this), this show reminded me of why I still watch and love anime.

9/10

Quote:

Originally Posted by creb

Oh. I guess they just wanted 30 seconds of Saki being all tsundere then?

I've been dabbling over this the past week. I acknowledge SSY's weakness but seriously, the pluses outweigh the minuses so much that I'd give this series a full 10 even with its faults. The fact is I actually bothered rewatching the entire damn thing to understand everything that I've seen til the last episode (notwithstanding the fact that I rewatched the last episode 5 times).

Rather than pointing out what's good and what's bad about this series, I think I'm just gonna write a letter of appreciation. To the creators, the staff, the spectacular and creative animators (who I know will probably never read this), thank you. It's been a long while since a series managed to boggle my mind (and in depths not many have even reached) the way Shin Sekai Yori did and thank you for A-1 Pictures and whoever the hell is involved with this for letting my mind be boggled. Thank you for adapting this series that I probably would never had accessed had it not been adapted. This is a series clearly made with intent and passion and I totally love it for it. If this series ever becomes available in my country (through TV channels or through DVDs/Merchandise), I will watch/buy it in a heartbeat. That's how much I love this series.

It's been a long while since an anime was able to crack my personal Top 10 anime of all time.

10/10 (Perfect in my eyes)

Yeah, this is basically how I feel.

I could quibble about the minor flaws but it was still one of the best shows I've ever seen.

I finished the final arc half an hour ago and I really would like to give it a 10, but despite loving the finale (despite being too preachy), this adaption had a lot of problems (the art was mediocre, the animation very inconsistent, cutting down character development to the bare essentials, pacing and storytelling awkward at best)... nevertheless, having such a strong source material helped a lot, and is still one of the best anime that can be broadcasted on TV, yet if one can read the book, it is far better. Actually, having read the book was also the biggest obstacle, if I hadn't, I guess that I would have liked the anime a lot more. Should the rest of the author's books get animated though, I hope the producers will choose better staff or a different medium altogether... an indie movie by Tsukamoto Shin'ya and his usual collaborators would be ideal

Despite the high bar to entry and the characters not standing out as much as the rest of the show, Shin Sekai Yori still turned out to be very good. More thoughts below...

Spoiler for Length:

An anime where the characters are born with supernatural abilities would be science fiction. An anime that follows the characters at crucial points in their lives would be a coming of age story. An anime that parallels society at the past and present would be social commentary. And an anime with all these traits would be Shin Sekai Yori.

As a coming of age story, it shows a believable mix of the highs and lows that come with childhood, adolescence, and adulthood but only shows the character’s emotions as they are. This neutrality toward the characters lends itself to the show’s social commentary on privilege, race, and sexuality because the lack of demonization or pedestal placing on their reactions to the society around them offers different viewpoints without saying who’s right or wrong. And in their society are the supernatural abilities everyone has adding an element of science fiction. Making a good story from the science fiction, coming of age, and social commentary genres is difficult separately but Shin Sekai Yori uses a needle of neutrality to weave these threads into a near flawless shape.

But although it’s an excellent mix of content, Shin Sekai Yori does not easily surrender its value. It answers all its questions but often leaves more questions than answers. This story structure mimics the way the characters gradually learn about the world around them. And it is that replica of their perspectives that can make Shin Sekai Yori difficult to watch; it requires commitment not everyone will have.

The characters themselves are very well fleshed out and provide a feel for why they act the way they do. They each feel like real (supernatural) people. Unfortunately their development doesn’t match their characterization. The lack of change works for Saki given her eventual place in the story but the lack of change on Maria, Mamoru, and Shun raises the question of how much the events around them are affecting them. But it’s Satoru who steals the show as he gradually develops into someone that could be mistaken for another character. That said, Shin Sekai Yori’s characters are overall well-written though some are better standouts than others.

The show’s world itself looks as bleak as many of its mysteries. The best way to describe Shin Sekai Yori’s visuals is a subdued color palette for a bleak feeling punctuated by lively color splashes that ironically don’t have a different mood. The latter in particular is where the visuals stand out, as they’re always experimental but always purposeful. Using a sharp contrast of black and white, for example, to show the teetering between sanity and insanity for one character compared to the shades of grey everyone else’s minds are in. Or a certain weapon that’s as psychedelically colorful as it is deadly.

Audio-wise, the soundtrack is scarce, subtle, but highly effective. Very often the score is less like music and more like ambience that voices the show’s atmosphere rather than giving the show a voice. The show has no opening sequence in the traditional sense but the music during the early part of each episode is more haunting than words can describe.

This anime’s flaws are few and far between. But the high bar to entry may warrant a raise or drop in score depending on your patience. The characters don’t standout as much as the show’s story or audiovisuals but they in themselves are still –good- characters. Shin Sekai Yori might be a difficult anime to watch and it’s not the best one but don’t be discouraged from trying it anyway; this saga From The New World is still very good.

__________________

I want to know more, it's a wild night
let's delve into the dreams
I want to know more, it's a wild ride
so let's have a shocking party
dancing, dancing, don't stop my dancing
dancing, dancing, let me do

Excellent serie. The flaws are few (mainly animations/graphics being quite poor from ep 5 to ep 12) and superficial, the qualities are numerous and strong.

As someone who's always about details, consistency and realism, I tend to be nearly always irritated, even when I like a serie, by things being convenients, or complexity being ignored, or hard choices being bypassed or the like. Toward the Terra or Darker than Black for example, had a very similar societal setup (superpowered humans vs normal humans) but didn't live up to the complexity, reality and ethical difficulties of such a situation.

Well, THIS serie actually DID manage to get it right. Nobody is the good or the bad guys, everyone do things from logical and understandable (even if gruesome, repulsive or whatever) reasons which come from real problems and not just the author's own all-resolving preferences.

I was riveted by the depth of the serie, how everything was carefully analyzed and explained, how everything had a reason for existing, etc.
Lack of manicheism (I could never really take the side of anyone against anyone else, as I can understand and relate with every single point of view in the show - don't really see how people could ever see Squealer as a villain, even before the trial), realism before convenience (finally the heroes is not some dumb "I'll react stupidly with a knee-jerk reaction that will throw all logic to the wind but somehow ends up being the thing that will magically makes everything better" guy) and exploration in-depth of what could happen with a simple but world-changing premise, made this serie one of the most intelligent, deep and interesting of these few years.

This series was one of two anime chosen for Random Curiosity's anime of the year & also won best Sci Fi and Saki won best character, in a pretty amazing run.

I still find it difficult to attach a number to this series. It went a completely different direction than I had hoped (more focus on emotional manipulation/suspense/thriller aspects in the second half than interesting sci fi elements IMO), but I did enjoy it more than most other anime this year.

Animation Quality: 10
I like beautiful scenery in anime... and some imaginary visual
I think Shinsekai Yori got it all... pretty animation

Voice Actors: 10
it's weird but I think every seiyuus are okay... except one
yes... it's Squealer!!! His voice is awesome...
I believe he could be "gollum" from Lord of The Rings
I want to hear him say "My Precious" though

Script: 12/10
what else you got here... Science fiction mixed with traditional japanese setting with some futuristic technologies... and ah! Psychokinetic power
You could split SSY into 3 seasons based on the time skip...
anyway, I think this is the first time I love how the anime pictured the relationship between the characters... He did it in the most messed up way ever!
Satoru --> Shun <-- Saki <-- Maria <-- Mamoru
Thanks god... in the end, my favorite pairing is the one who win
I almost though that Saki would be all alone in the end... but the ending is cheerful enough to complete this anime

Soundtrack: 10
I think I want "Call Home" soundtrack for my alarm..
and the 2nd ending is beautiful... thanks Kana-chan for singing it

Enjoyment: 10
Honestly, this anime is starting to show some possibility to go bad from the beginning
The summer camp revealed that there are so many secrets in the world...
then Shun's Karma Demon arc... after that Maria-Mamoru runaway arc... and finally Queerats revolution arc
everything is so enjoyable... and I enjoy the timeskip as well.. it's like the anime managed to explain so many mysteries in just 25 episodes
even at the last episode, the last mystery about queerats' origin got explained (well, I understand why they put it at the end... because if Saki knew from beginning, she won't be able to kill anything)

Emotional Involvement: 10
too bad they didn't show any intercourse between Saki and Satoru though
well... I mean... they're the normal couple here... at least show some kissing
I have explained enough about how this anime involved watchers' emotion with those blood splatters, pretty animation, destruction of the village, weird mutants, and Saki's tears

final score : 10/10
even though it's little late, thanks for my friends who keep pushing me to watch this anime

__________________

even if you can't see me, even if you can't hear me, I'll be by your side (Kaname Madoka, 2011)anime listmanga list

Since this is a hot topic right now, I want to take the time to give a more in-depth idea of my opinions and observations for Shin Sekai Yori.

Shin Sekai Yori is one of those ideas that starts out very promising. You have your indoctrinated society seemingly alone in the world coming to realize all of the lies they were raised on. What we're given is something really compelling and interesting, this idea that their society will destroy them for realizing the truth. Instead their fear of this governs them whenever it's convenient and causes turmoil. The first time around it makes sense, but then it's recycled to force an off-screen plot point later on.

What made Shin Sekai Yori interesting for me when it all started off was that idea that they were realizing the truth about their society and themselves. The psychology, and the tricks used to keep their people indoctrinated. The writer(s) created this implication that they were in a dystopia-like world and that these characters had awakened to this reality. Then this setup is discarded in favor of something different.

Spoiler for A very, very lengthy look at the major plot points of Shin Sekai Yori:

Apparently this knowledge isn't quite as secret as we viewers are made to believe (aren't we glad we have a plot device for a main character, who is really important because she has a bright future ahead of her?), and so the queerats, the grotesque slaves of this small pocket of humanity, are going to be rebellious instead. Apparently their rights have been trampled upon, and they want to enslave their queens to breed an endless supply of queerats while embracing a claim that they're democratized and desiring equal rights (all things are created equal, except the queens of course, an issue which I recall being brought up briefly a total of one times, quickly dismissed).

So for the story we went from psychological themes of indoctrination, dystopian societies, and embracing a lore related to their situation that paints a clear picture as to how it all happened. This initial idea is very promising and sensible, and creates a scenario with lots of potential. Instead they switched to this heavily-used idea of the "inferior species" rebelling against their heartless masters.

So where do the characters fit into all of this? We have our main group of adolescents, struggling to accept their new reality. Fortunately their society need not worry because they can easily erase their memories, and then bring them back to further the plot years down the road! One of the aspects of Shin Sekai Yori is timeskipping. Twice timeskips are utilized to show the growth (physically. I stress this: The growth is ONLY physical. More on this later) of the characters and how they fit into their society as they age. Before the first skip and memory wiping one of their dear friends is lost after he begins to fit into one of two categories of dangerous people. The reason for this very strictly indoctrinated society, is that these very powerful people fear psychopaths (pretty self-explanatory, yeah?), and people who subconsciously leak their special powers into the world around them and cause unintentional harm and death to those around them. Of course, their friend fits into this latter category and like the historical character exampled before him (a very interesting scene that takes advantage of this idea that everything is the way it is FOR A REASON) takes his own life in the end to prevent undue harm to the world. Again, this is one of those really great moments in Shin Sekai Yori that establishes the lore of the world through current and past events. We then skip to further along in the development of our characters, the dreaded late teens.

As teenagers, they realize that the male in their group is someone they don't actually know and that they used to have a friend who is now lost to them! Fear of their society ensues, and the male-female couple in the group decides to run off after the weak-minded male begins to fear for his life (for good reason, because they were going to kill him. If only they had succeeded...). This is all for the purpose of, yet again, encountering the queerats and their newly-democratized society. Eventually the couple is left to their own devices outside the confines of their human society after the villain convinces the main character (Saki) to let him fake their deaths (I use "convinces" very loosely here, but they don't). Again, what could possibly go wrong with Squealer, the obvious villain of the anime, being entrusted with the lives of these powerful and idiotic teenagers?

To make a long story short, a vast amount of off-screen decisions are made by Squealer elevating him to power. He starts a war, does a decent job, and then loses in the end (surprise surprise! The villain loses). Every interaction he's ever had with humans (primarily the main cast) has been an intricate series of manipulations empowering him to fight fire with fire utilizing the child of the dead teenage couple. I will admit that this was another part where SSY shined in writing, because this was a unique approach to the power gap that allowed the queerats to be subjugated in the first place. In fact, his plan goes so well that he kidnaps human infants as the war goes in his favor, but that's a matter for later.

With the major plot elements having been mentioned, we can talk main character. Saki, our female lead, is a promising young lady. She's presented as a strong-willed and cunning character, an idea that is reinforced by her friends and even the leadership of her society. Saki had unknowingly been picked to be the successor to the head of the Ethics board (the person who makes a lot of the major decisions related to this society, but isn't directly in charge of the youth because the board of education handles that). She is chosen for this role because she's smart, strong, but willing to accept that society is the way it is for a reason. In a normal anime Saki would be toted as a character with this trait, but rebel against the expectations of society in an effort to be her own person. Normally this character finds the slaying of youth capable of mass murdering other humans detestable for any reason (she initially does, but when given the reason why she begrudgingly accepts it). Evidently the society that Saki lives in knows a thing or two about personalities, because Saki is basically all the things they said she would be. In discussing SSY I've said on more than one occasion that Saki is a character who only ever makes one decision on her own that is in violation of her society, with all the rest being decisions that were made for her that she allowed because of her passive temperament. This is what really reinforces the fact that Saki's character is really more of a plot device than it is a human. Her character is consistent throughout the length of the anime, and doesn't deviate from the clearly defined expectations of her until the end. I've seen claims that Saki is a good, strong character, but people seem to ignore the fact that she's walked all over by both the humans and the queerats until her final act of the anime. She always maintains the same openness, and the same level of compassion. To make matters worse, post-story she re-embraces the idea that society should be more accepting of their youth again for no clear reason after having witnessed first-hand the horrors of their failure to harshly vet the personalities of their youth. Evidently what this society should fear is the loss of human life, and not the potential mass murderers who can destroy their entire civilization with their mind without remorse. So I suppose I was wrong about Saki. Her character does develop- in the opposite direction. She goes back to desiring a society where they're doomed to destruction, conveniently ignoring their- hell even her own past.

This is what makes Squealer's decision to kidnap infants even more questionable. He initially uses this tactic as his trump card. He preys upon the modifications that humans imposed on themselves which causes them to die if they kill other humans with their powers, and also prevents them from knowingly doing so. So what happens when Squealer raises these superpowered infants and they immediately realize that they're being raised by a completely different species that is powerless? There's only one outcome, and it involves the complete resubjugation of the queerats, and the appearance of another psychopath human that experiences no repercussions as it destroys all the life it encounters. Squealer is evidently a really cunning villain, because he managed to bring a civilization of superpowered humans who can kill things en masse with their thoughts while simultaneously failing to realize the only conclusion that can come from raising their children.

For all of my criticism, Shin Sekai Yori did do a lot of things right. Part of the quality of an anime is in its presentation, and SSY did this well. I can drone on about the numerous holes and failings in the written material, but an anime is the sum of its parts. It's still a great show to watch.

While I do think that Saki is a very flat character in development terms, I do like that she was at least flat in a way that made her accepting of the needs of this society. The fact that she was willing to acknowledge for any period of time that there was a greater good that meant the loss of human life places her high above many characters. If her character had served a greater purpose than the almighty plot, she would have been fantastic! It didn't happen though.

Squealer, too, is a very plot-device-esque character who does most of his work off screen. In the early stages of his character there was a lot of promise with him becoming more and more non-verbally skeptical of the humans, followed by him clearly manipulating them. After those initial periods, though, his character becomes an off-screen device to provide a face to the queerat rebellion, which is doomed to fail even if it succeeds.

In the end, the only people in Shin Sekai Yori who are right are the people who are running the human civilization. This makes it all the more annoying when Saki flipflops against them at the end, despite nearly being killed by the things they fought to prevent from happening. The one concession I give is that they could have been nicer to the queerats, and that is the only concession I can give.

As far as the musical and artistic presentation goes, there was a lot of great stuff here. Some really nice establishing shots are used as well as artistic ones. The background music does a decent job of setting the scenes as well. The animation isn't perfect, but it's at the level where you would expect it to be at.

The one thing that really held SSY back in my eyes is the writing. No matter how I look at it, the writing ended up contradicting its own setup in the end, and that's a pretty glaring issue. It seemed to me that the events presented in SSY made a great case for their society to stay its course for the most part, but the ending declared otherwise.

Overall, I think it's a great show. It wasn't perfect though. On a scale, for MAL purposes, I gave it an 8/10.

Liked this one, gave it an 8/10 because it dared to do so much, haven't read the original source material, a novel, but the anime shared the same issues as the manga that i read afterwards... which wasn't completed, not sure if it has been yet.

SSY is perhaps biting off more than it can chew, as it trying to setup a story that really needs at least twice as many episodes to do right, not sure how the novel handled it, but I think it'd be better off trying to focus the storyline more, as covering a larger lifespan of the main character from child to chief woman of the tribe... yes, tribe, as this seemed to be all they were in this story, though with their abilties, it would seem they should be much more. They were their own worst enemy it seemed and they lived in fear of their own inability to control the power of their genetically enhanced mind... not brain, which is merely mechanical, and perhaps here is where the story has a problem. Mixing of the races isn't the real issue, but mixing of the minds, Harry Potter had a similar problem. The students had, to varying extents, greater genetically given abilities but the question remained the same as always, what are you going to do with this ability, this power? Left or right road... the 'dark side' or the 'light side' of creation? HP and SSY share the same deficit of greater self-conscious awareness. Their special abilities were just inherited genetically it seemed and not earned through independent means of 'soul development'. So what is left is essentially a battle of the 'machines', complex but vulnerable from within, against simple but numerous and willing to sacrifice everything just to win the chance to be top dog or king of the hill, as long as that lasts.

IMO, a species with these abilities wouldn't need to even deal with the 'lower lifeforms'... thus the need in the story to make them weaker, from within and without as it seemed they had a fear of the past, its knowledge and any technology that would make them completely independent from the other lifeforms... unless they had a desire to control them like sheep, to use the biblical analogy... and sheep are grown for their masters use to point it bluntly. Thus the story is 'setup' from the start in placing this need and inability to deal with the power of their own minds... thus again the need for self-conscious awareness, which is the control that allows one to choose which path to take, negative or positive, as well as deal with the issues of self-control. It sort of reminds me a little of a plot point in The Time Traveler's Wife, when they are trying to a child, but it keeps disappearing (time traveling) in the womb, thus not surviving until birth. This presupposes a lack of consciousness, and returns us to the question of Mind, are we just our brains within our bodies or are we our minds... and exist before the birth and after the death of the physical body?

This entire story rests upon this inability and the group's unwillingess among its leadership to come to terms with its past, and thereby, its present and future. Their fear of their own minds and what it did in the past, its technology, and quest for domination over others, which is suspected that they developed in their genetic labs.... isn't that the way it goes? Haven't seen this in quite a while, just wanted to bring up this point of self-conscious awareness, as it is always the crux of the problem in these stories... the Holy Grail.... Dark Night of the Soul, etc. The authors are touching upon subjects they don't know well enough it seems, and biting off more than they can chew to use an old expression, they should have limited the story more or expanded it, perhaps they did in the novel, but it doesn't show at all in the anime by the end... but it's still better than most stuff out there, and I'm not only referring to anime... a good story is a good story, the format doesn't matter. It's just that when you first encounter the setup, you are hoping for more... up to the end i was hoping ... I think the library robot in the woods/forest should have been explored more.... questions aren't asked, and if they are, their minds are 'cleaned'... so the leadership of the tribe is the problem... and this is a common plot device, such as we see in The Hunger Games... a story that anime has told a number of times, but the elders are represented in the author of the story, so it's as if we are witnessing a confession... an inability to gasp the unknown nature of self... the very essence of who and what one is... the meaning of life... so the writer has the tribe and the lesser tribes of intelligent life around it repeat this cycle over and over it seems by the end... Purgatory this is called... the same pattern only in a different uniform and after enough time has passed so that the people have forgotten the lesson... and it all begins again.

THat's the impression I got by the end... without the awareness of things, nothing will change, the thoughts will be the same, just in different forms.