[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I have never understood Queerat reproduction at any time in this story. Despite them appearing to be mammals, they have "queens" and seemingly reproduce more like insects.

That's because they have naked mole rat ancestors, and naked mole rats have the same social structure, similar to ants or bees. There's a dominant female (called, in fact, a queen) that mates with a select number of males, the rest are workers.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

We also had that scene of Saki in the lab with the immature rats, another theme that was immediately ignored once it was introduced. We were never told where they came from or why she was breeding them other than it was part of her job.

Those weren't bakenezumi, they were naked mole rats. And breeding/observing them was part of her job because her job was essentially All Things Bakenezumi.

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I'll reiterate that I see little difference between psychokinesis as depicted in this story and magic. The same power used to move boulders somehow also causes living things to catch fire? Why? How? We're never told, so it just looks like magic.

In a way yes, it's like magic insofar as we have to accept that telekinesis is an existing thing, and also the stuff the author made up about it (such as poltergeist phenomenon happening mostly to children at the onset of puberty as an unconscious manifestation of mental/sexual energies, or something along those lines, I don't quite remember). But after that is established, there's a science behind it, vague as it may be. As for where it comes from and how it actually works, Satoru provides some possible explanations in his monologue in the snow hut (which the anime mostly cut, in the book he talks quite a lot). Of course, it helps that the author pretty much leaves it with "well one theory says this, another says that, who knows what the truth is..."

So yes, technically it may be more fantasy than hard sci-fi, but it's not treated as ~magic!~ (Also, don't forget that it's called "psychokinesis" but it's not really that - originally it was, but as the minoshiro library said, its scope extended hugely after a while.)

(As for Noein, by the way, I think it did the "many worlds theory" well? Obviously scientifically it was kind of sketchy, but it was never meant to be scientifically accurate, the many worlds theory was basically a backdrop to the main theme of the show, that is, "in such a world what defines a person?" And in this it was, I think, very effective.)

As for the Kiroumaru vs Squealer/Yakomaru debate, I can already see the battlefield here next week... In any case, I stand by what I said earlier: there are people who are just assholes, regardless of the circumstances, regardless of their goals. To me, Squealer is one of these people (bakenezumi). No doubt, he's a well-developed, very intriguing character - but that doesn't mean I have to like him.

Also, I still think most people are approaching them from the wrong POV - their differences lie in their worldview as bakenezumi, not in their relationship with humans.