Anime Review: Shin Sekai Yori


As this review is probably considered to be quite late since Shin Sekai Yori is already at its 4th episode, I guess it can no longer be called 'First Impressions'.

Even though Shin Sekai Yori is undeniably adorable and innocent at times, it's pretty scary when you realise that behind all that innocence, things are happening, without these kids knowing what is exactly going on. It's as if you might disappear the next day without knowing why.

Up till Episode 3, personally, I felt that the plot has been revolving around this power of psychokinesis itself. What would happen if you misused it? What would happen if you were weak? You'd disappear, as if there was some kind of invisible law bound to this latent power that had woken up within the human race. The story takes place in a seemingly country-side place, where technology is surprisingly, hardly seen, considering that it is after all, a thousand years in the future from now. And this raises doubt among the viewers, what happened to all the technology? The cars? The television? Everything seems too serene, too traditional for a story that takes place in year 3000.

It was only till Episode 4, when most of the truth was revealed. I have not finished watching the episode yet, but I've finished the part where the animal-library was narrating to them how this society was born. It struck me real bad, when I saw that these kids didn't even know that murder existed. Their reactions to human killing human, was one of, "How is that even possible?" It's not even a crime, because it didn't even exist. This is probably when signs of this society being a dystopia starts emerging.

The story is only getting started. 4 episodes aired, probably 21 more to go!