Shin Sekai Yori - Episode 18 Discussion / Poll
 

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Oh man. I've been looking forward to this episode so I have to say I'm kind of underwhelmed... :/

Two words: "AV interview" (by 2ch) :heh:


Other than that, I guess this was the best they could condense the whole thing? Still, it had less of a punch than I hoped it would.


Oh, and the text-on-screen thing was cool as a one-off trick, but let's not make it a regular thing, please.

Ah well, at least now everyone can see what the first ED was based on... it's such a pity that they changed it. They could've at least kept it until this episode.

Things are even more tense and action-packed than I thought it was going to be. Didn't expect so many to die and it brings up some interesting points with how the situation will be dealt with. Everything with Queerats have been messed up since the beginning. They'll have a difficult time trying to find and execute Yakomaru. Besides, he successfully completed his first mission with how many "gods" died this episode.

Actually I really liked this. First of all it really does make you think who would be saying that, and I have my guesses who it is but I'll keep it to myself. You seem to complain alot about the changes in this show, but I really have to say the show's been great despite some animation derps and Maria suddenly caring about Mamoru after being a complete jerk to him by teasing him around. Whatever changes happened, I'm looking at Shin Sekai Yori the anime not the novel. This is why I always avoid reading manga period (that, and I like things to be in color and in motion which manga sadly is not except for the occasional 3 pages of color). I'm just glad a show of this caliber is getting a two-cour treatment, with a director who knows how to make good trippy scenes (he did the storyboards for the fifth and thirteenth OPs of Bleach which look WAY different than the rest - i.e. more dark and warped) and some great voice acting. If only A-1 would stop animating like a dozen shows a season, it could have looked a lot better but meh.

I just love how everything is coming together especially when Saki kept telling Satoru about the child demon, when I thought "What if that's a Bakenezumi?". I also have a bad feeling about the human cantus user....is he K 2.0?

All right, I can't decide whether or not I liked this week's episode or not :heh: I'll start with the things I didn't care for:

First of all, the music selection in certain scenes was again odd. I don't know what each piece is called so it's hard to go into specifics, but I feel that in this episode and the last the music hasn't been used effectively. It's a small thing so it's not worth stressing about. The soundtrack for this series is still one of its strong points.

Next, what is with the crazy-eyed man with the fans (whose name I don't know)? Whereas every other character in the entire show is fairly placid and self-contained he is bombastic and all over the place. He doesn't fit the tone of the series at all in my opinion. Also, I didn't understand what happened when he died. So far no one else has released their cantus in such a manner upon their death. kuromitsu, was this addressed in the novel?

Third, I didn't understand the point of Maria's brief interlude at the end. It may serve some purpose in the future, but at this moment it seems like a forced way to "end" her character.

Now, onto the things I did like!

Shisei of the Double Pupils! I've been wondering why he is the only character with an über cool face mask. Now we know :D I, too, thought the display of his powers was a bit underwhelming. Nevertheless I thought it was well done.

The development of Satoru and Saki's relationship is being handled quite nicely. Given how anime usually handles summer festivals I was sort of expecting some shoe-horned romantic moment so I'm glad that we didn't get that. Having them kiss or passionately embrace wouldn't have felt natural. Instead we have a series of small but meaningful gestures from Satoru toward Saki. Being of the same age as the characters I can say that their interaction feels very natural. I like this.

"AV interview" is a really good description of that awkwardly placed Maria scene. Seriously, what was the point? I expected the ED to come on on right after Tomiko declares how she'll make Squealer suffer like no living thing ever has but suddenly Maria's talking to the audience for no apparent reason. Meanwhile Mamoru...

Other than that I liked the rest of the episode, though I have no idea what anything about Koufuu was supposed to be. Was the light lady thing just his way of using the last of his powers to show something pretty before he dies? I dunno.

Maria mentioned how she couldn't have kids with Saki. More than likely, it's to hint who exactly is the Cantus user the queerats have on their side.

I think the show's dropped a fair amount of hints about that. There is no need for Maria to do that now, especially when she's dead. Judging by kuroumitsu's dissatisfaction that scene was entirely anime original and it shows, cause I can't imagine reading a novel and suddenly run into a paragraph of "Hi, I'm Maria, 14 years old and dead. I loooove my friend Saki but it's too bad lesbians can't have children. Did I mention how much I love Saki? Wanna see a picture? Here, let me sing it for you." at this point in the story. :heh:

I also liked it in ep 15, but to me it just felt wrong here. The "hello" could've been alright on its own, but the "good-bye" was a bit too much. It's like, guys, we understand, you don't need to spell it out for us.

Eh? I think this was the first time I ever complained about changes...

Except, of course, she didn't...

Actually, up until now I was absolutely satisfied with the show, changes or no changes, animation derps or no animation derps, etc. I still think it's a fantastic show. But now I have a feeling they're steering it in a direction that I won't like, simple as that. I hope I'm wrong, though.

And I never said this was a bad episode? It was pretty good, I was just kind of underwhelmed with it, and that Maria segment didn't help at all.

He's pretty special, isn't he. :heh: I think it's not that he sticks out because he's so boisterous, it's more like we didn't get to see him enough in the show to get used to him and his creepiness. (Not that he has a bigger or different role in the book, but for obvious reasons he's more "in place" there.) In any case, I think the point is that someone so blatantly confident in his superiority gets taken out by the same lowly bakenezumi he was playing with, on a festival that was held because he dismissed Hiromi's concerns about the village's safety.

Not really. :heh: It's a random woman, presumably someone he loved once. I think the point was how beautiful and fragile the mirage was (Saki is like "and then a giant Rei woman appeared and it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen"), to underscore the "holy" aspect of humans and the "monster" aspect of the bakenezumi. (Maybe.) But since things like this tend not to work in anime, I think they should've just cut this part...

ETA: Sorry, I just noticed, you were asking about the mechanics? :heh: It's just a mirage. Earlier on Satoru explains to Saki that the "ghosts" of Maria & Co. she saw were born out of her strong feelings of wanting to see them, projected on the water. Presumably the same thing happened with Koufuu, either with a woman he loved, or as an artist "releasing" his creativity or something like that.

Mamoru who? :heh: Poor kid. All this Maria->Saki push pretty much undermines the reasons why Maria went with him in the first place. (And they didn't even mention that it was him who drew that picture of Saki and Maria! :heh: )

XDDDDDDD But yeah, it's not like they haven't been dropping hints since as early as ep 14.

I'm not sure how Shisei display of power can be described as underwhelming after he managed save himself from an explosion at point blank range and putting all of the explosion power in the palm of his hand. That impressed me, at least.

To be honest I really liked this episode but there were aspects I didn't like. Particularly the lack of romantic tension between Satoru and Saki. And of course Maria weird interview at the end, WTH was that all about.
Are they pushing Maria's character and the yuri aspect to the forefront to grab the otaku crowd? Maria is voiced by fan favourite Kana Hanazawa and it would explain that horrible ending song.
In the novel she does care about Mamoru right?

The festival part was nice.
Saki was reminiscing...
Seems like queerats are learning and evolving.
They could become very problematic.
Especially if they're using forbidden knowledge.
Looks like some human was using Cantus and helping them win that fight.
Things took an unexpected turn.
Didn't think queerats would attack the village so soon.

What does this even mean? If yuri was that much of a money spinner don't you think there would be a whole lot more of yuri shows?
I agree that the show is overdoing the pairing thing (I particularly don't care about shipping, especially not in a show such as this) a bit but, I just don't buy the argument that they are doing it for money.

Yes they are. This is anime we're talking about. They've been doing that hardcore for a while (which is why a lot of the Satoru x Saki stuff's been cut out).

I just skip through all that Maria pushing for the sake of Otaku pandering and just enjoy the overall story.

I can think of reasons for pushing Maria (it would be a pretty logical idea, actually, even though I don't think I want them to go that way), but even with that I don't see how all this recent focus on Maria's Tragic Love! For Saki! is necessary.

She does in the anime, too... :heh: It's just that recently with all the "Saki LOVE!" it's like Mamoru became a non-entity. Sure, he was never a central character or anything, but seriously, come on.

FWIW it's not really a "x" type of stuff... it's not like they're supposed to be having a grand romance. :heh: It's just small things that show them being close and comfortable with each other (if that makes sense). Leaving them out just annoyed me because one relationship gets a whole original segment, and another gets downplayed for no good reason that I can think of.

Two girls can't have a kid together? Oh my I never knew that.

Yah besides that oh so subtle hint they gave us at the end I thought the rest of the episode was excellent, really chilling and disturbing stuff. Both in watching the humans under attack but also their joy in killing the queerrats. Even Saki & Satoru don't see the wrongness in their actions.

edit: Forgot to mention Kiromaru still alive..YES! Just didn't want him to die off screen.

Did Hiromi chan die? :(

Well after the whole Maria thing tagged on at the end of the episode combined with the preview...I don't think we need to guess what happens next.

What a strong episode.

Frankly, the thing I found odd was, how the leader thought the only way they arrows could have remained undamaged is that somebody used the force on the enemy. And what about poisonous gas? Or other means.... i mean, there is a number of ways.

lol, AV interview. That's actually a pretty good description. N-not that I've ever watched AV or anything--! That segment was very out of place and left me wondering what its purpose was, other than making it even more obvious Yakomaru's secret weapon is her child.

Now that Maria and Mamoru were confirmed dead, I understand the complaints about the ending. It's odd to dedicate the ED to a dead character that will probably have little relevance to the story. This reeks of pandering.

The war that had been brewing for so long has finally begun, and the humans never saw it coming. They were too conceited. They shouldn't have underestimated the Queerats.

I thought this was very impressive as well, so I can't say I was underwhelmed. It's apparent he didn't break a sweat in this episode, so he seems as powerful as he was described.

The other guy, on the other hand, seemed ridiculously weak on top of being goofy. He should have let Shisei handle everything.

That was the only good news in this episode. I'm glad he survived, and I hope he'll get his revenge on Yakomaru.

No there isn't because it was specifically said the arrows were not destroyed but the bodies were mutilated and reduced to lumps of flesh. That's not something that poison arrows would do.