[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

The way everything is described, the death toll from the culling seems like a large portion of the minor population.

I don't remember any mention of an approximation of culled children vs the population, but it can't be that large, simply because otherwise the village would die out in the matter of a few generations...

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

You see how just and fair their inquisition trials are? Executing purely on suspicion...and wasn't it that that started this whole current affair anyway since Maria and Mamoru were kept away from the village as a result?

No, they don't execute purely on suspicion... they're looking for specific things, specific issues. The school system is full of constant personality/power assessments. But the thing is, they can't exactly wait until they have definite, 100% proof because by then it's way too late. As for Mamoru, the decision may have been hasty and based on paranoia more than anything else, but ultimately? they were right. Mamoru did lose control over his power as he panicked. This is why Saki, who had just recently had "the talk" with Tomiko, is lost when Maria tells her to say something in Mamoru's defense, because she realizes this. The only problem was that they botched the attack, presumably because they sent only one cat.

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

As for the Bakenezumi...no, I don't have any sympathy for them,

I didn't mean the viewers but the humans in the story.

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

but the system of human-Bakenezumi relations is the same as those in occupied territories of war. Maybe even lower because in modern times, even troops risk prosecution for murdering others. Here, it just takes someone like say, Satoru to vent his anger and no one will ask any questions.

Actually, even in modern times there are many, many places in the world where troops don't risk crap for not only murdering others but doing other horrible, sick things. (There are also places where a murderer who killed someone in their sleep can be regarded as a national hero in their country because of the ethnicity of the person they killed.) But even the people in the story don't randomly vent their anger on bakenezumi, so...

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

Just that as a side effect, a better bunch of rulers may come forth.

But that bunch of rulers would be made up of survivors of a traumatic event, with a thirst for vengeance and distrust/hatred toward the bakenezumi. And the akki/gouma problem is still not solved, to put it lightly. :/

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

Obviously the bones where not "produced" until some mouths after they reported not finding anything.

Interestingly, the book does say when the bones were delivered, the anime for some reason neglected to mention it. (This and Maria's wtf statement are either results of a brainfart or maybe they're doing something original.)

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

I'm sure when the idea of taking the precautions regarding their children was thought up the original minds behind the idea never attended it to be used so liberally. Even Tomiko stated that the board of education was being overly paranoid as time went one.

Did she? I think it was just Saki describing Hiromi as looking like she's always afraid of something. And anyway, I don't think we have any concrete info on the relative numbers of children killed.

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

Also might I add that the group one experiment was doing just fine even taking into account what happened to Shun. The only reason things got out of hand was because the board tried to have Mamoru killed and Tomiko called them out on it too.

No, the only reason things got out of hand because they botched killing Mamoru. Tomiko said the same thing. Since he survived the attack, his lack of mental conditioning meant he could make decisions and do things a boy his age wouldn't have even thought of.