Shin Sekai Yori episode 4: An episode of words and sparkles

See folks? I haven't been a lazy slacker all week. I just...didn't hit the send button for some reason. X___X Or maybe I am a slacker. Still here is the third post of the night. I think this deserves a reward of cake woohoo!

THE VOICE OF REASON!

Okay so what is up now. Oh the train wreck that is Shin Sekai Yori episode 4. Apparently spoilers for Tenchi rolling her eyes at this show and the rest of the internet loving it.

Um that is actually a good question....

Episode Summary: All the kids stare at the Fail Eevee and decide that they want to ask it questions. Fail Eevee says that proper identification is required to operate it so Saki and Satoru start talking about how they are going to hurt it again. Fail Eevee decides that it will just answer any questions to avoid being hurt. Saki wants to ask if demons are real while Satoru wants to ask another question. Shun in his fairness and maturity lets Saki ask her random question first. Fail Eevee then talks for about 75 hours in regards to the question. It explains that humans had started experimenting with giving people powers. At the time of the Tokyo incident a very TINY portion of the population had psychic powers. The youth that had them went berserk and all-out war took place. Given the nature of said powers when placed in stressful situations kids with powers grow more powerful. Thus when attacked the kids with powers got stronger and soon only 2 percent of the population was left. Fail Eevee then explains that society changed over time, with Emperors with the power ruling over the slave humans. After 500 years 4 different societies emerged including a scientific society. The kids are descended that society, one that preserved technology and took extreme measures to make sure no one would go berserk again. They started an educational system that weeded out kids that might go insane and indoctrinating them with scary stories about behaving. There was also genetic modification with making it so if a human tried to hurt another human with powers the aggressor would be hurt or killed.

So if you don't have great powers you are at risk...why?

As the Eevee Fail talks the kids experience different levels of WFT from Mamoru melting on the ground, Saki and Satoru screaming a lot, and Shun and Maria trying to get more information. Eevee Fail also talks about bonobos, sex, and syndromes but before it can explain even more it catches on fire. It turns into a vision of a woman holding her baby before it falls to the ground. The kids accuse each other of doing it when they notice a random priest behind them. The priest explains that it is his duty to get rid of Eevee Fails and the kids broke about a million rules. He is forced to block their powers and starts to take them back to their village for further punishment. As they walk the kids notice the priest is looking pretty weak. Saki thinks this is because he hurt something that appeared to be a human thus the genetic modification kicked in. Along the way they are attacked by increasing groups of Queerats. Saki and the others are horrified as the priest kills them. Saki begs him to stop but one particular spell results in a woman like spirit appearing thus the priest is hurt even more. As the kids look at the piles of dead creatures one…balloon dog emerges from the pile resulting in MOGS! THE END!

WTF are you trying to be Daryl or something?

It took me about 40 minutes to watch this 22 minute anime episode. Never before I have I read so many words and been left being so confused AND unsatisfied at the same time. Despite the dramatic music Shin Sekai Yori is not being the amazing mystery/horror/drama anime that I think a lot of people were expecting. Forcing the drama is not making it happen, this isn’t Bravo.

What the hell is wrong with you kid? Do you put firecrackers in animals too or something?

Saki is becoming more and more unlikeable with each episode. And she got Satoru in on the action too. Future Saki (which means Saki survives this…event in her life) was talking about if Maria wasn’t born people would have been spared. Well now I am questioning that view point and whether or not older Saki can be believed. Sure she sounded mature and lovely as an older person but after seeing her this week with The Eevee Fail I am wondering if she is the crazy person.

I like to catch them all folks...but not this one.

By the way Eevee Fail is obviously the…thing that was talking to the kids. I totally understand how different subbers would translate things different and that might play a part into my confusion but….yeah. The name that was used last week for the “library” was different so I am going to use a term that I know. Or what it looks like. And it looks like what someone commented on last week which was a pokemon. Thus an Eevee Fail it is. Almost like a pony Eevee.

Saki is the only one who matters in this show YAY!

So after Saki and Satoru threatened to hurt the evil fail because they are awful human beings it was question time. Now…I am not sure why the kids asked off the bat if there were really demons in the world. If demons are “fake” or “rumors” why would a library know that? A library would have fictional books on the subject but why not ask about something that they know about? Like hey why do we get our powers “sealed” and why do we do such and such in school? No no we got to ask about all the rumors Satoru knows about because he is amazing.

Please tell me more about things we already know!

From there…it was basically all the information we have been teased about in the last three episodes. Only instead of being revealed in a horrifying manner it was explained in the most boring manner. Like it was like someone was reading to be tax laws or something. Only it was twice as boring because I had to pause the episode every single second to read ALL THE WORDS. It lost momentum on me because of all that pausing. While that is not the episode’s fault that I can’t speak Japanese I wonder if native speakers found it wordy.

WORDS! FOR 10 MINUTES! Nonstop words and half of them were made up.

SO MANY WORDS PEOPLE! It was like oh this horrible thing…let me explain it in the most complicated manner possible. And yes maybe it wasn’t was impactful as it could have been as all the major points were shown to us already. The new information given to us was pretty basic. Turns out humans messed with DNA to make people with powers, all but 2 percent of the world (or Japan) was wiped out, and 4 different factions of people lived in Japan for a great while. The random ugly animals weren’t explained but that is because Fail Eevee was set on fire. At this point how many years the Emperor of Sparkles ruled and that humans were used as slaves is either nonimportant or implied.

I thought this kid was going to poke his eyes out.

But the kids. THE KIDS! They were acting so dramatic. I understand all of this was new to them but I thought Mamoru was going to die on the spot. I remember being taught horrible things in school, about how humans have horrible pasts. I don’t have to list the major ones as I am sure everyone is aware of them. And while I was horrified learning just how cruel people could be I never thought it was my fault or how I could be related to such people. Maybe if it were my parents or siblings I would be more upset but these kids were weeping and gnashing of teeth over things that happened 500 years ago. And Fail Eevee wasn’t going into detail. Well gruesome detail. Us the viewers saw the carnage while the kids were told the clinic version of what happened. But I thought Saki was going to bash her head against a wall and Mamoru was going to puke up everything he ever ate. Maria had the correct reaction and Satoru was in some deep denial. Shun decided to be clinical too so I guess he and Fail Eevee can bond. But there was just so much over the top faces and reactions to this history lesson I was having a hard time concentrating or believing the suspense.

So this computer dressed up as an animal has enough power to activate the fail safe in humans but not enough power to ATTACK said humans?

So right when the Fail Eevee might have told us about the animals (something that people were speculating about on the web) the Fail Eevee is caught on fire. By a random priest/monk that walked out of the woods. But before the Eevee died it looked like a human woman holding her baby. Right. Right folks. WHA THE HELL?! I know the Fail Eevee talked about how humans with powers now placed restrictions on their powers, one of being if you attack a human you will be pretty messed up/killed. But applying this rule to a robot/animal thing was a bit of a stretch. Like AHA I know of this rule and I will apply it to you. Because if you think you are attacking a human because your eyes see a human it is the same thing as actually attacking a human. I see. I SEE INDEED!

See Saki's face? That is what I looked like the entire episode.

Also if the humans with powers could put such restricts on powers why not just get rid of them all together?! After random priest/monk came he sealed their powers…again! So perhaps I was right and the ceremony took their powers “away” but in reality they were still there but called them something else. By calling them something else maybe they the kids would think of them differently and not go all crazy. A lot of song and dance and crying over losing powers and still having powers. But yes. If they can make or change their powers to make it so they can’t attack humans that sounds pretty advanced to me. So why not just…stop the powers from occurring? Is that too much to ask?

Picture

You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals

Oh before I talk about random priest guy I have to talk about something Fail Eevee said and I forgot to mention earlier. What the hell?! WHAT THE HELL?! This current society is based around love and sex like bonobos? Where did that come from? I would like to think that in 2012 most societies are based around families and what not. So for Fail Eevee to explain that society had to force itself to become what it is today because they studied monkeys? What the hell folks, what the hell? We shall control the youth of the world by either removing them society all together or lumping the kids together that we deem okay and throwing some lube/condoms their way. I am not sure why the kids were ignoring that plot point but I am sure it will come into play later. Maybe Maria ruins everything by having sex with everyone which creates jealously and poo flinging. Exactly folks.

Well.....here are his feet anyway.

So the random priest? Yeah that was random. Maybe he should be roaming the woods or pathways more to make sure these creatures are taken care of. Or all the adults should make sure the Fail Eevees are gone/taken care of. Simply telling the kids don’t go this far isn’t going to work. Him sealing their powers was a bit odd since last time there had to be a whole song and dance ceremony behind that. Again I am doubting what the ceremony was all about. If you are born with a power how can you have it taken away and assigned a new one? Why not just take it away and call it a day so no one has to die? Oh and the priest was flying on a flower. A FLOWER PEOPLE!

Weren't you leading the charge against Eevee Fail?

The slaughtering of the queerat things was interesting. Especially since Saki and Satoru were all like woohoo let’s hurt the Eevee Fail. I guess in their mind that “animal” was a monster and okay to hurt. These creatures with bows and weapons pointed at them though were considered okay animals and didn’t deserve to die. Um no. Not buying it. I think that Saki has a violent personality and that scene with her caring about the creatures makes me think she is insane. Even before she found out about all this craziness.

Did someone really say that out loud? After all that they learned today did they REALLY say that?!

So….in conclusion this episode was special. The kids were having a mental breakdown because their past was explained. Maybe if this had been the recent past, like a 100 years I would understand the horror on their faces. But 1000 years ago a few people started a chain reaction that destroyed much of the world and now society has set rules in place to make sure the past never repeats itself. Yes it was upsetting but some of the reactions were really over the top. Saki and her repressed memories of the priest…interesting. Some of the dialogue was very made up term heavy with syndrome this and blah blah that. Oh and now the kids have an excuse to have sex all over the place because they are based on bonobos. Sex for everyone on top of the flowers. Well except for Mamoru because he will probably die of a nervous breakdown before he even finds out what sex is. YAY SPECIAL SERIES!