Shin Sekai Yori - General Discussion

[deadite]

A Calm From the New World's Tomorrow

An elderly Saki and Satoru foresaw the degradation of their society and how it would eventually lead to a global catastrophe. In order to save humanity they lead a group of like minded scientists in a project to genetically engineer human embryos with the ability to survive underwater with a special membrane called "Ena".

They limited the embryos' ability for Cantus to only a faint emphatic ability when their Ena reacts with water. Saki's protege, a brilliant young man used his Cantus to alter himself to survive underwater so he can watch over the fledgling civilization. He was known and worshiped by the Sea Humans as the Sea God.

As the Cantus Humans caused untold destruction in the surface, the Sea Humans were spared from the calamity under the protection of the Sea. Thousands of years pass and the surface has calmed and the Cantus Humans were no more. Many of the Sea Humans cast off their Ena to return to the surface.

To this day the Sea Dwellers and Surface dwellers are oblivious to their origins..

[SeijiSensei]

Some interesting observations on bonobo social orders in this morning's New York Times. It discusses the use of sex as a means of conflict resolution, and how matriarchal bonobo clans appear to be in stark contrast with chimpanzees.

Bonobos are famed for their hypersexuality and the way they use sex as an all-purpose problem solver in every possible situation, permutation and combination. When bonobos come upon a great patch of fruit, for example, and tensions rise over feeding priority, the bonobos will decompress with a quick round of genito-genital rubbing and similar acts: males with females, males with males, females with females, juveniles with adults.

Female bonobos in Congo’s LuiKotale forest use specialized gestures and pantomime to convey their desire for a bit of girl-on-girl frottage, according to a report last year by Pamela Douglas and Liza Moscovice of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. The soliciting female will point backward with a foot toward her sexual swelling and then shimmy her hips in imitation of a rub, at which display the second bonobo will embrace her for the real thing.

Bonobos tongue-kiss, practice oral sex, have intercourse face-to-face, and make sex toys. Frances White, a biological anthropologist at the University of Oregon, once watched a female bonobo turn a stick into a kind of knobby “French tickler,” with which she then stimulated herself. “They’re not always family friendly,” Dr. White said.

[SeijiSensei]

I just rewatched this show for the first time in years and was even more impressed this time around.

A lot of forum commentators complained about the animation quality, but I thought the artwork in SSY was generally quite superior to what I see in most anime, particularly shows from A-1. The score was appropriately atmospheric, never really getting in the way, but insistent enough to enhance a scene when needed.

But I really wanted to ask a question that bothered me this time around? With all the advanced genetic abilities the "scientists" had in this story, why did they not attempt to remove the PK gene? All their actions like the bonobo reaction and death feedback were defenses against PK powers. Why not remove the source of the problem itself?

I realize if that were true there would have been no story at all, but the fact that it was never discussed was, in retrospect, surprising.

[Proto]

That's an excellent point. If anything I guess it underscores the arrogance of human beings that they would never consider to 'regress' before they try everything else.