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Well, my interest is piqued. I do have some gripes and concerns, I've been disappointed before and I'm prepared for it to happen again, but overall I'm pretty sure this is a show I'll be following very closely.

A-1 Pictures is a pretty consistently solid studio--they may not have the budget of Bones or Madhouse, but their production values are still competent and they usually carry a certain measure of stylistic flair. That flair is definitely present here, the visuals are clean and they fit the story and tone like a glove, coupled with well-utilized (albeit somewhat wide-eyed) character designs. The music, on the other hand, is something of a mixed bag. A couple scenes early on in the episode had some rather misplaced musical direction, though it got better (or at least less noticeably poor) as the episode went on.

For a first episode, this one was quite ramshackle and confusing, in the same vein as Baccano and to a certain extent Texhnolyze. In this case, I'm not sure the jumpy storytelling worked to its advantage; the moments at which it chooses to cut away from one scene and switch to another are a bit less well-selected than Baccano, at least in my opinion. On a whole, it came across as a rather obtuse first episode, and I can completely understand why some people might be turned off by it.

That said, I'm still keeping my hopes up for this series. While its storytelling style demands that the viewer pay close attention, it also means that the story is not bogged down at all by exposition. It's not nearly as talky as most novel adaptations out there, to the point that I would not have guessed that it was adapted from a novel at all had I not looked it up. I can also honestly say that the world presented here is just a little unlike anything I've ever seen in anime, it has that flair of genuine inspiration and creativity that's hard to come by.

There's a word for what this anime has going for it: potential. I want to see this show flesh out its characters and show us the world it has created. It has some flaws, sure, but from what I've seen so far Shin Sekai Yori has laid down the ambitious framework for greatness, so I'm going to hope for the best.

I don't see what has some people confused in this first episode. Sure, there's a few unanswered questions, but I never expect a first episode to answer them, that's the whole point of having a show in the first place.

Okay, here is want I can deduce from the first episode:
Psychokinetics destroyed the modern world. This took some time (probably several generations) since there was enough time to create genetically modified animals suited for a post-apocalyptic world (cows that milk themselves, silkworms that spin their own thread). At some point, it was discovered how to (partially) seal the Power. This could only work at a young age, when the Power first reveals itself. Wait too long and the Power can not be controlled, creating the monsters that destroyed the world in the first place. I am basing this idea from the fact the cold start showed Power users much older than Saki. The other kids that did not display the Power were executed to prevent them from turning into these monsters. The 'Ogre' from the story was probably a memory of someone born outside who never had their Power sealed, which in turn implies there is still a form of human society outside the barrier. Which in turn implies that our heroine will have to leave the barrier at some point.

Now the Trickster Cat is interesting. Does it work for the humans or do the humans work for him? Or perhaps the Cat is simply a predator, perhaps another genetically modified animal, designed to attack those with the Power?
----
Now, that being said, I did not care for the characters at all. Most the kids were annoying and Saki so far has been bland and uninteresting. There are attempts to make the story mysterious and exciting, but I feel the director is being too heavy-handed about it. It is irritating that the mystery is already known, just not being told to our characters. And with so much ritualistic child sacrifice, what is the replacement rate for this village? I'm thinking that there must be a birth rate of six children per couple just to maintain the status quo, which is horribly depressing. Since the combination of both modern medicine and female education results in drastically lowered birth rates, I have to assume that education has been replaced with religious teachings. Well, so much for Progress.

Melanchthon wrote:

Okay, here is want I can deduce from the first episode:

Perhaps I'm nitpicking here but we most definitely can't deduce all that from episode 1. Not even close. You're just speculating wildly on most of that stuff. I mean, you could be right. None of this was actually confirmed or really even supported in any significant way in episode 1 though.

DuskyPredator wrote:

I get a slight Another feel from watching the first episode, the use of mystery that is just out of the characters give it a horror aspect that.

Warning: This is an Another spoiler!!: spoiler[The first kid that disappeared had the name Reiko... Wink

It's probably a very common name though. ]

I like the eerie vibe of this show. I'm sure the character development will show up later on.

Megiddo wrote:

The recent review for Fractale seemed to almost-randomly mention that it shared common themes from Huxley's Brave New World. I personally disagreed with that review, but I definitely see at least a few similarities between that classic dystopian novel and the first episode of From the New World. There is a, from the reader/viewer's perspective, spoiler[a crazy populace who practice some form of eugenics headed by some central governing body.] Seeing how the parents know the significance of the 'Phase Cat' makes me very suspicious of practically all of the adults in the town or perhaps just the ones who are on that 'council'. I find it hard to believe that they would not spoiler[rebel if their sons and daughters would keep getting killed] so I am going to speculate that there is some kind of brainwashing done to keep the populace accepting of such a 'tradition'. I'll be curious if the spoiler[rat-people] mentioned in the Spotlight for this are akin to the 'savages' from Brave New World as well.

So far a very promising start for this show in my opinion.

Hmm...I could tell it was pretty dystopian, but I hadn't actually noticed the similarites to BNW in the episode, but now that you mention it I can definitely see it. Now I'm even more intrigued.

This one's a definite keeper for me; the fact that it's based off an actual, honest-to-God novel instead of just LNs is enough to pique my interest. I'm loving the creepy atmosphere of the show. The dusky colors, weird camera angles, and eerie music do a good job of letting the audience know that all is not well. I'm loving the art style for the most part, but I'm having trouble getting past those generic cutesy character designs. They kind of pull me out of the show's world a little bit. I'm interested to hear the origin of those strange farm animals and how it connects to the series in the present. The giant silkworms and cows with bulging udders were pretty freaky.

I'm liking the characters already. I think they were all really well-written and I hope that level of writing quality persists. However, Satoru is really getting on my nerves. I hope he becomes less of a pompous jerk as he gets older (since the trailer shows them after a significant time skip). spoiler[I feel bad for Reiko.]

Episode 2

This show sure loves teasing, and it appears that the show is largely of the main character looking back. I was a bit weirded out that in some ways they were more afraid of spoiler[being found useing their powers without permision, than saving the rat guy.] And that the teacher seemed to think it was more likely spoiler[an accident, rather than one of the kids breaks rules, but it did seem to imply the game was more important] to the kids than the adults.

Last edited by Spotlesseden on Sat Oct 06, 2012 2:42 am; edited 2 times in total

DuskyPredator wrote:

Episode 2

This show sure loves teasing, and it appears that the show is largely of the main character looking back. I was a bit weirded out that in some ways they were more afraid of spoiler[being found useing their powers without permision, than saving the rat guy.] And that the teacher seemed to think it was more likely spoiler[an accident, rather than one of the kids breaks rules, but it did seem to imply the game was more important] to the kids than the adults.

I know the dialect tells otherwise. I think they are more afraid of They are afraid of being found spoiler[saving the Quee Rat] than spoiler[being found out of using their powers without permission]

the teacher knows spoiler[ the kid broke the rules, he got punished and probably already dead.]

Spotlesseden wrote:

you got it wrong. They are not afraid of
spoiler[being found out of using their powers without permission]
They are afraid of being found spoiler[saving the Quee Rat]

I would like to know the moral reasons for this. Do the spoiler[humans indeed see themselves as gods?]

i honestly have no idea what is going on, but it is interesting

The karma demon story was interesting.
Their rock pushing game was kinda fun to watch.
The power of the mind is a scary thing.
The broken pusher incident rattled them a bit.
Saving the Queerat was a nice gesture.

Gotta admit that narrator monologue at the end creeped me the ****, considering that we went from spoiler[Reiko disappearing to Maria being responsible for numerous deaths. 'THIS' show is how you do tension IMHO, revealing one unsettling thing after another.]

Someone pointed out to me that there's a key visual feature, wherein the spoiler[school and that weird rock all have clouds swirling around them and more importantly, IIRC, the symbol/character on the rock matches that of the stamp for what was on Matsuba and Reiko's names, again IIRC]. I don't have a link of the image offhand but if someone could link it please do so that way more people can notice what I'm talking about.

The episode started off a little meh after it's flashback opening, diving straight into that training game, but once we had that moment of the spoiler[kid acting all cocky and obnoxious about cheating by pushing the sphere with his telekinesis] the episode took a turn for the more engrossing.

Very much looking forward to episode 3 and I'm just in love with the main theme, it's got this inexplicably entrancing beat to it and those guitar notes in the beginning and ending are really nifty too. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for a full version release.

Of all the shows this season, this one has peaked my interest the most. There's so much mystery and WTF moments, like the narration at the end.

I always love shows that make me think WTF in a good way.

Interesting episode. I had a hard time caring about the competition as much as the kids did, so that made some of the earlier parts of the episode not as engrossing as they could be, but it was interesting to see how comfortable they are with their Powers now, as well as learn that it's apparently spoiler[quite dangerous for two Powers to hit each other.]

What I found very interesting was that, unless crunchyroll's subtitles had an error, spoiler[the name we saw being stamped at the beginning was not Reiko, the girl who disappeared, but Satoru, who's part of the main cast seemingly, and hasn't disappeared yet. The second person we saw having his name stamped like that was the kid who cheated, who disappeared shortly afterwards (and who was seemingly being stalked by the Trickster Cat.)
]

Don't want to speculate too heavily on this yet since it's possible crunchyroll messed up the position of the names. Can anyone who watched the fansub comment on how it was there?

Mad_Scientist wrote:

What I found very interesting was that, unless crunchyroll's subtitles had an error

It was an error. Anime smile

While the stylized kanji they use is hard to read, I'm pretty sure it was spoiler[Reiko's name that was stamped out].

I haven't actually watched the fansubs, though, so I'm not sure what they did.

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