Shin Sekai Yori - General Discussion

[orion]

Originally Posted by ninryu

How does having sex supposed to relive tension?

All that energy and emotions are being redirected.

Increase in male-female partners has an added bonus of more PKs being produced.

[ninryu]

Originally Posted by orion

All that energy and emotions are being redirected.

Increase in male-female partners has an added bonus of more PKs being produced.

Yeah, but how the hell does it goes?
"I hate you!" "I hate you too!" "Let's have sex!"

[orion]

Originally Posted by ninryu

Yeah, but how the hell does it goes?
"I hate you!" "I hate you too!" "Let's have sex!"

No, the neg energy is because of something external to the partner relationship.

Like had a bad day at work/school etc and go home and have sex with partner to relieve neg energy. Mother hugs you to make it all better after a bad day in school is the non sexual equivalent when you're a kid.

[Kaoru Chujo]

If the analogy between this society and bonobos is made complete, then their society will be very different from ours, with sex used very liberally and with no real romantic relationships. To quote from Wikipedia: "Bonobos do not form permanent monogamous sexual relationships with individual partners. They also do not seem to discriminate in their sexual behavior by sex or age, with the possible exception of abstaining from sexual intercourse between mothers and their adult sons. When bonobos come upon a new food source or feeding ground, the increased excitement will usually lead to communal sexual activity, presumably decreasing tension and encouraging peaceful feeding." They get rid of all that sexual energy and are intimate with just about everyone, so there is little room for jealousy and conflict over mates. It would be weird (and interesting) to see that in a human group.

The verbal infodump was huge. This would normally be a bad thing, very far from "show, don't tell." But here it somehow worked. Maybe because it all seemed so expectable. Maybe because there was so much else going on. In any case, the episode sped along and was over long before I expected it to be.

[ookamigirl]

Finally an episode that explains a whole bunch of useful things.
Guess all the new info was a bit much for the kids to handle.
Their artificial society is everything except perfect and peaceful.
Looks like they just got a chance to see that for themselves.
The whole queerats situation didn't help very much either.
So much trouble in such a short time, but finally!

[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by orion

Hmm.. I disagree.

Spoiler:

I would have gone for the food first and then went traveled back to get the info. You can't travel too far on an empty stomach imo and the food can be used to barter for stuff.

Spoiler for The Crimson Labyrinth:

That's actually what happens in the book -- after reaching the first checkpoint, each party returns to the starting point to distribute supplies. Which is where the story gets insidious -- the people who took the info route have a full inventory of what everyone else found, so they know that the other parties are hiding the best stuff. And once they realize this, they decide not to share the info from the second cartridge.

Which includes useful notes on each item, such as the fact that the condoms included with the survival gear can be used to store water, whereas the insect repellant is mostly useless since it wasn't designed for this environment and you're better off coating your skin in mud. As for the food ... well, some items are listed with a skull-and-crossbone symbol next to it.

So, yeah, good luck bartering.

[Theo]

Originally Posted by ninryu

How does having sex supposed to relive tension?

You have my sympathies.

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

The verbal infodump was huge. This would normally be a bad thing, very far from "show, don't tell." But here it somehow worked. Maybe because it all seemed so expectable. Maybe because there was so much else going on. In any case, the episode sped along and was over long before I expected it to be.

One of the reasons it worked for me is that SSY actually found a way to take the obligatory extraneous expository speech and make it fit perfectly with the plot. That's no small feat.

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by ninryu

How does having sex supposed to relive tension?

I guess I'm going to have to explain this one...heres the simplest answer I can give you.

Having sex or engaging in sexual activity stimulates the pleasure center of your brain releasing chemicals that make you feel well pleased and relaxed. The same effect can be gained by say eating certain foods or taking certain drugs.

[SQA]

Originally Posted by Kaoru Chujo

If the analogy between this society and bonobos is made complete, then their society will be very different from ours, with sex used very liberally and with no real romantic relationships. To quote from Wikipedia: "Bonobos do not form permanent monogamous sexual relationships with individual partners. They also do not seem to discriminate in their sexual behavior by sex or age, with the possible exception of abstaining from sexual intercourse between mothers and their adult sons. When bonobos come upon a new food source or feeding ground, the increased excitement will usually lead to communal sexual activity, presumably decreasing tension and encouraging peaceful feeding." They get rid of all that sexual energy and are intimate with just about everyone, so there is little room for jealousy and conflict over mates. It would be weird (and interesting) to see that in a human group.

The verbal infodump was huge. This would normally be a bad thing, very far from "show, don't tell." But here it somehow worked. Maybe because it all seemed so expectable. Maybe because there was so much else going on. In any case, the episode sped along and was over long before I expected it to be.

Without rewiring human nature completely, a society based that way simply wouldn't exist, but it is one of those interesting ideas.

[Byakou]

So the kids learn the truth. But it seems it hasn't sunk it yet. If it had they would have realized that the priest 'sealing' their PK was likely a mind trick.

[SQA]

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

I guess I'm going to have to explain this one...heres the simplest answer I can give you.

Having sex or engaging in sexual activity stimulates the pleasure center of your brain releasing chemicals that make you feel well pleased and relaxed. The same effect can be gained by say eating certain foods or taking certain drugs.

As much as I had your first reaction, Ninryu actually has a pretty solid question. Just because your emotionally calm (after sex) doesn't mean the tension in a relationship is suddenly gone. They may no longer want to kill each other, but that doesn't remove what caused the tension in the first place. If you killed their cat, by accident, that doesn't suddenly bring the cat back from the dead.

For beings (humans) with higher cognitive ability, releaving emotional tension won't solve most interpersonal relationship issues. I.e. we couldn't just have the World Leaders go have a massive orgy and suddenly there is World Peace. Given how powerful a PK user is shown to be, the relationship interactions is probably better understood in the Cold War-era major power interactions. Brinksmanship would be the name of the game.

[Solace]

Originally Posted by CJ_Walker

Hi, I'd like to be spoiled rotten about this series, I'm one of the rare people that actually like spoilersi fsomeone can pm them to me or guide me to where I can find them, that would be great! Of course If I didnt spend about an hour searhing on the forums here for them I probably wouldnt have made this post. . . a mod said this recently:



Thing is, there is no Novel thread, I did a search a few times and came up with nothing.

Any help is appreciated. thanks!

So make a thread to discuss the manga or the novel. Just remember that those forums have a spoiler policy as well. If you're coming to this site just to be spoiled, you're going to be disappointed in most cases. We're very strict about open spoiler discussion.

[Utsuro no Hako]

Originally Posted by SQA

Without rewiring human nature completely, a society based that way simply wouldn't exist, but it is one of those interesting ideas.

Given that people get sick and die if they hurt another person, I don't think rewiring the brain is an obstacle.

However, it seems it'd be really easy to game the system.

"Hi, honey, how was your day at work?"

"Got in another argument with Sue."

"Did you make up?"

"Five or six times."

"Sometimes I think you pick fights with her on purpose."

"I do. Does that make you mad?"

"Extremely."

"Awesome."

[Byakou]

The ape sex thing wouldn't work for human society. But it's an anime, so suspend disbelief. The author definitively could have picked a more realistic reason to explain the state of society they live in. Messing with people's DNA and behaviour, using hypnosis, suggestion, etc, that I can believe.

[ninryu]

Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako

Given that people get sick and die if they hurt another person, I don't think rewiring the brain is an obstacle.

However, it seems it'd be really easy to game the system.

"Hi, honey, how was your day at work?"

"Got in another argument with Sue."

"Did you make up?"

"Five or six times."

"Sometimes I think you pick fights with her on purpose."

"I do. Does that make you mad?"

"Extremely."

"Awesome."

That.. Actually sounds pretty hilarious.

I imagine their view of sex is different from ours, such as sexual acts doesn't necessarily involves romance. That way there's a distinction between romantic relationship and friends-with-benefits.

[Dark Wing]

Originally Posted by SQA

As much as I had your first reaction, Ninryu actually has a pretty solid question. Just because your emotionally calm (after sex) doesn't mean the tension in a relationship is suddenly gone. They may no longer want to kill each other, but that doesn't remove what caused the tension in the first place. If you killed their cat, by accident, that doesn't suddenly bring the cat back from the dead.

For beings (humans) with higher cognitive ability, releaving emotional tension won't solve most interpersonal relationship issues. I.e. we couldn't just have the World Leaders go have a massive orgy and suddenly there is World Peace. Given how powerful a PK user is shown to be, the relationship interactions is probably better understood in the Cold War-era major power interactions. Brinksmanship would be the name of the game.

True we humans are more complex the other creatures and many conflicts over reaching aren't easy to solve. My explanation was reference to everyday stress in general and it doesn't have to be the person you have a problem with that helps with the "releasing" of your stress but someone whom you are intimately involved with or know well but that's getting into a whole other topic so well just go with intimately involved.

Originally Posted by Byakou

The ape sex thing wouldn't work for human society. But it's an anime, so suspend disbelief. The author definitively could have picked a more realistic reason to explain the state of society they live in. Messing with people's DNA and behaviour, using hypnosis, suggestion, etc, that I can believe.

Didn't the living computer already stated that their DNA was altered so their livers failed if they killed someone or something so what's to say they didn't do that as well?

Originally Posted by ninryu

I imagine their view of sex is different from ours, such as sexual acts doesn't necessarily involves romance. That way there's a distinction between romantic relationship and friends-with-benefits.

Yea that what I'm thinking as well.

[Blonto]

Originally Posted by ninryu

How does having sex supposed to relive tension?

You'll just have to use suspension of disbelief for that one. The tactic used by bonobos is really the equivalent of offering food in hopes that it will make all the troubles go away. It would pretty much be as effective as that with humans.
I guess it's another a way of keeping people in ignorance. Everything is ok as long as you get your daily dose of orgasm. Just try not to use your brain much in between. It does make me wonder what about people who don't want to solve their problems through sex. Do they get raped until they forget about the problem? With a bonobo-like society taught that sex is a solution to everything, individuals who'd insist on solving a problem through different, more challenging means probably wouldn't be in a very good position.

[Trajan]

Originally Posted by Grey

I like that idea. The Library did say there were Hunter Gatherer tribes with no PK powers. That fits with the Queerats wonderfully. We see them briefly as human because they really are human. But because some tribes are still dangerous they use hypnosis to stop their death feedback.

Originally Posted by Dark Wing

so your theory is the only reason they look like mole people is because the PKers make them seem that way...I like it!

Interesting. Then perhaps the real reason children without awakened Cantus are kept away from the Queerats is because they might see them as they really are (i.e. humans).

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

One of the reasons it worked for me is that SSY actually found a way to take the obligatory extraneous expository speech and make it fit perfectly with the plot. That's no small feat.

Normally, anime series have a pacing problem, where a series hides the truth too long and then with only a few episodes left drops mysteries hinted at earlier and tries to cram all the reveals/answers into 40 odd minutes, for an unsatisfying conclusion. Shinsekai could have teased out the "something is wrong with our world" bit much longer (e.g., Astral Ocean), but I'm happy to see much of the world-building dispensed with early.

Of course, many mysteries still remain. Who are the Queerats, really? What are the "real" symptoms of Raman-Klogius (Fiend) and Hashimoto-Applebaum (Karma demon) syndromes? Are the scientists still in charge?

I also think Shinsekai is more concerned with how the children will use what they know to change society (for good or ill) and less concerned with "big reveals" to drive the plot forward, which is a good thing.

[Malkuth]

Aside from being an excellent episode, let me add that it's the first time I personally feel, that this new overadvertised animation style is working... at least for me.

Also it is a shame that the anime took a family-friendly approach and skipped some material in favor of apes. I guess now those five pages of hot yuri action make a lot more sense to mature readers

Originally Posted by thundrakkon

What an awesome episode! Now I'm totally confused.

Then the episode was even more successful, because it made you feel the same way as the cast did

Originally Posted by garbage

whoo lotsa info dump on EP4.

... done right! The majority of the information was not new, had been already presented in the preludes of the first three episode. But the presentation was masterfully directed so it will appear confusing, yet easy to recall.

Originally Posted by Haak

Quick! Everybody to Azerbaijan!

That was too random

Originally Posted by Triple_R

In fairness to the monk, I think he's sincerely doing what he thinks is right.

So did the inquisitors and witch-hunters

Originally Posted by ninryu

How does having sex supposed to relive tension?

As it does IRL

Originally Posted by ninryu

Yeah, but how the hell does it goes?
"I hate you!" "I hate you too!" "Let's have sex!"

I think in our world we refer to this as rape.