Shin Sekai Yori - Episode 12 Discussion / Poll

[monir]

Welcome to the discussion thread for Shin Sekai Yori, Episode 12.

Thread Guidelines

• Raw requests and offers are not permitted anywhere on this forum.
• Spoilers or hints about future events must not be posted in this thread.
  If you need to reference something that would spoil a future event, reply directly with a private message, or seek out a more appropriate thread.
• Discuss your expectations of the episode if it has not aired yet.
• Be polite to your fellow forum members.
• Please try to keep the discussion on-topic.
• Do not post multiple times in a row. Please edit your existing post if you wish to add additional thoughts.

Episode Thread Spoiler Policy

• Any comment that discloses events, characters, plot or other information before it is revealed in the anime is expressly forbidden whether or not it is behind spoiler tags.
  Spoiler tags should still be used where appropriate.
  Please consult the AnimeSuki Spoiler Policy for more information.
• Adding a Spoiler tag:
  

  Just highlight your spoiler and click the button found on the "Quick Reply" and "Reply to Thread" forms. Make sure that you include a useful title!

• Please use the Report button if you see any inappropriate spoilers:
  

  Click the button found to the left of the post, just under the poster's avatar. Using the Report button is anonymous and helps the Moderators locate and deal with problems quickly.

• Posting inappropriate spoilers may result in a ban.
  Note: Reporting a post does not mean the poster will be banned instantly.
  The Moderators will use bans if warnings are repeatedly ignored.

[NoemiChan]

I expect for the worst... I hope for a surprise...

[kuromitsu]

Spoiler for ep 12:

One of the best part of the story is the idea of what would it be if someone with these sort of powers had destructive mental disorders. (Disclaimer: I'm sure this novel is not the first one to do this, but I'm not an avid reader of scifi/speculative fantasy.) Especially gouma - akki are a bit conventional (in that they do the good old unstoppable murder spree thing), but I find gouma terrifying and tragic on a more visceral level. And I think the anime is doing a fantastic job visualizing these ideas, with just the right amount of unease and terror, without going overboard that would just make it silly/distracting. (This is why, as atmospheric and haunting as ep 10 was, I would've preferred the usual team handling it. Not saying ep 10 was bad, it's just that it wasn't as visceral in this aspect as I think it could've been.)

Anyway, I think after this it's easy to see why this society functions the way it does...

Some other things:
-I love Maria's glove.
-Saki skiing on those tiny skis... I guess her power helps? somehow?
-Satoru XDDD

Also:

Images

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

Oh my. wtf, animators?

[deadsea]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Spoiler for ep 12:

One of the best part of the story is the idea of what would it be if someone with these sort of powers had destructive mental disorders. (Disclaimer: I'm sure this novel is not the first one to do this, but I'm not an avid reader of scifi/speculative fantasy.) Especially gouma - akki are a bit conventional (in that they do the good old unstoppable murder spree thing), but I find gouma terrifying and tragic on a more visceral level. And I think the anime is doing a fantastic job visualizing these ideas, with just the right amount of unease and terror, without going overboard that would just make it silly/distracting. (This is why, as atmospheric and haunting as ep 10 was, I would've preferred the usual team handling it. Not saying ep 10 was bad, it's just that it wasn't as visceral in this aspect as I think it could've been.)

Anyway, I think after this it's easy to see why this society functions the way it does...

Some other things:
-I love Maria's glove.
-Saki skiing on those tiny skis... I guess her power helps? somehow?
-Satoru XDDD

Also:

Images

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

Oh my. wtf, animators?

Mega boobs lol
I love this ep *x*, the atmosphere, the explanation,the narrative...all i wanna live in their society!! please future come now!

[Key Board]

Infodump episode

but much appreciated

but really.. what do you do in a world where everyone has the potential to be as powerful as professor xavier?

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Also:

Images

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

Oh my. wtf, animators?

I got another shot of that girl... Man, talk about dress code.

Images

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

I think the director is conditioning us for something more "shocking"....

Wow, Mamoru is missing..I still want to consider that Maria really cares for Mamoru.

Nice.. quite a decent episode... on the other hand, why am I so unease whenever I see the two together...

[Shadow5YA]

So after the lecture Maria gave Saki about how Mamoru isn't as strong as Saki and can't handle the harsh truth last episode, she goes on to make a joke about a Tainted Cat would get sent after him? >_>

That was a little careless on Maria's part, even though it's not really her fault that Mamoru is that unstable.

[momonae]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

So after the lecture Maria gave Saki about how Mamoru isn't as strong as Saki and can't handle the harsh truth last episode, she goes on to make a joke about a Tainted Cat would get sent after him? >_>

That was a little careless on Maria's part, even though it's not really her fault that Mamoru is that unstable.

Maria making a joke? The one who tried to pretend to be making a joke was Mamoru. Maria said everybody could see he was dead serious when he mentioned nekodamashi because his coutenance was very pale.

[Elestia]

The answers given was already floating around the previous episodes, but it helped when they shed more light on the details of what a Fiend and Karma Demon. It's kind of surprising to find out that people who become Karma Demons are ones who are usually the most gentle and kind. While the answers were given at a blistering pace the Satoru's grandmother (my she looks young), it wasn't too difficult to understand everything given what has been already shown to us.

It also heavily implies that Mamoru will become a Fiend, similar to how Shun became a Karma Demon. Although, I'm really hoping for a surprise for things to not end so grizzly. Though given what the current state of the world I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Warm Mist]

At least the subs I have say that the one who joked about nekodamashi coming after Mamoru was Maria.

[frubam]

So I guess with all the talk of Fiends and Karma Demons, and Shun fulfilling the role of Karma Demon, I guess Mamoru will be a Fiend, or at least begin the symptoms of being one. I would expect losing such a long-time friend and another she loved so much will provoke Saki to be the future leader of the Ethics Committee. Considering the death exchange between that doctor and the fiend in the story, I REALLY hope that situation doesn't occur with Maria and Mamoru =0(.

I also wonder what the role of Shun's memory in Saki will have in the future. The story about the Karma Demon girl revealed that she ate a pill to take her own life, but it didn't affect Shun in the least(stronger Cantus powers?). I wonder did he subconsciously use his Cantus to cause this subscious self to exist in Saki.

[Rakshasa]

Originally Posted by Warm Mist

At least the subs I have say that the one who joked about nekodamashi coming after Mamoru was Maria.

Never trust subs... Pretty sure it was said that Mamoru was making the joke.

[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by Warm Mist

At least the subs I have say that the one who joked about nekodamashi coming after Mamoru was Maria.

Yep, it's a mistranslation. Mamoru was upset about what happened and said the nekodamashi was coming to get him after this. He tried to make it sound like a joke but it was clear he was being serious.

[DemonOfWrath]

Seems to me like Mamoru is heading down the karma demon path. He fits the kind and gentle description and there's similarities to Shun with being stuck on a cantus exercise. I have a feeling Saki is going to have no choice but to end his suffering somehow (not sure how they'd do that, but the result would be Mamoru's death) considering the conversation she's just had, and that'll push Saki to accepting the offer and also set Maria on the path to becoming a fiend.

I have a feeling the whole "human rights aren't given until 17 now" indicates that'll take some time before it starts showing, at least long enough for the gang to hit 17 and thus remove the possibility of simply removing Maria like with all the other kids. We've had that ominous line about her from ages ago and it just seemed a bit too convenient with their current ages (they're all 16 right?) to be coincidence.

[Guardian Enzo]

In terms of pure emotional impact, Shin Sekai Yori is a show with few equals. In a word, it’s ruthless – no measures are taken to soften the impact events have on the viewer. We’re seeing these children in all their most vulnerable and sympathetic, and then being forced to watch their world crumble around them. And what a world it is, too – I think the most interesting question emerging as the series reaches the half-way point is whether this society is worth saving at all, considering the price it’s paying to try and limp on into the future.

The lessons we’re taught in life are that we should search for solutions, sensible paths that benefit everyone concerned. As a result, we tend to look for them in our fiction – in our anime no less than anywhere else – but I think our conditioning leads us astray with Shin Sekai Yori. There are no solutions to the questions this series asks us – only compromises of an ever-increasingly vile and unpleasant nature. Unless I miss my guess this series isn’t a conventional drama about obstacles and overcoming them; it’s a diary telling the story of a dying society, from the perspective of someone who already knows how the story ends. What message it seeks to impart about the world we leave in is a matter of debate, but the emotional impact of the story is hard to deny. As painful as it is to watch, this is a great series.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by DemonOfWrath

Seems to me like Mamoru is heading down the karma demon path. He fits the kind and gentle description and there's similarities to Shun with being stuck on a cantus exercise.

Shun was as genius. He was never stuck on any cantus exercise.

Also, I don't think Mamoru will become anything. If anything, I think Mamoru will get killed just for being weak like Reiko, and Maria will snap when she finds out. Remember that it was Maria whom the narrator warned us about after all.

[DemonOfWrath]

Originally Posted by Kazu-kun

Shun was as genius. He was never stuck on any cantus exercise.

Also, I don't think Mamoru will become anything. If anything, I think Mamoru will get killed just for being weak like Reiko, and Maria will snap when she finds out. Remember that it was Maria whom the narrator warned us about after all.

True, wrong way of putting it. Shun had the egg thing, whatever that was (at the very least he seemed seriously stressed while trying it) and Mamoru was repeatedly stuck on an exercise he should have found easy. Those just immediately linked together in my mind as being somewhat similar.

I think if Mamoru is on the path to becoming something Saki will end up stopping it before it gets anywhere near out of control but definitely whatever happens here will be what causes Maria to snap sometime in the future.

[Rakshasa]

The egg thing was way above the level expected of students, so Shun never actually failed in any way when it came to performance.

[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by DemonOfWrath

True, wrong way of putting it. Shun had the egg thing, whatever that was (at the very least he seemed seriously stressed while trying it) and Mamoru was repeatedly stuck on an exercise he should have found easy. Those just immediately linked together in my mind as being somewhat similar.

Shun's egg (har har) was a failure insofar as his power unconsciously corrupted the chick inside, turning it into a monster of some kind. (He was already aware, at least on some level, of what he was and what his power was doing, which is why he pushed Satoru, Saki, et al away.) Mamoru is different, he's being negative and paranoid.

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

[lots of stuff]

Yep, same here - one thing I find fascinating is how it's basically humans digging their own graves. OK, so here's this incredible, potentially dangerous power. How can we be sure it's never used against humans? Oh, let's just install a mental/genetic code that makes it impossible to kill other humans! Cool! Except now we're completely defenseless if this code malfunctions. So how do we get around that? Well, let's start treating our children as commodities, culling everyone who seems to be even remotely likely to end up being dangerous. But since we can't do it ourselves, let's create killer cats or get some monsters to do the dirty work for us. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. And yet, when you look at it from their standpoint, it's all pretty logical and inevitable, because really, what else can you do?

[NoemiChan]

Originally Posted by kuromitsu

Shun's egg (har har) was a failure insofar as his power unconsciously corrupted the chick inside, turning it into a monster of some kind. (He was already aware, at least on some level, of what he was and what his power was doing, which is why he pushed Satoru, Saki, et al away.) Mamoru is different, he's being negative and paranoid.

..and probably Maria is the only one who could keep Mamoru from truly changing through emotional support from now IMHO.