Shin Sekai Yori

I'll be honest, the first few episodes didn't exactly captivate me. Their purpose was to set the stage for the characters and their psychokinetic powers. DO NOT LET THIS KEEP YOU FROM FINISHING THE SHOW. Around episode 3 or 4 the main driving force of the show begins as the children are able to capture a mysterious creature which holds libraries worth of information about past and present events. What they discover leads them down a path filled with adventure, action, romance, horror, mystery, death, peril and ultimate understanding of what kind of world they truly live in.

What really makes this show shine is it's complete originality. I would be lying if I said I have seen anything like it before. The basic synopsis of the setting; Jump a thousand years forward after a devastating war destroyed much of the world following an evolutionary event which began giving people the power of telekinesis. The entire human race now has telekinesis, including the village in which the protagonist group lives. As the story progresses these five characters begin uncovering many dark secrets and mysteries that lie behind this seemly happy and peaceful village of theirs.

Aside from the show's originality, Shin Sekai Yori's strongest point is it's immersion and atmosphere. This atmosphere is complimented by a beautiful yet unsettling soundtrack and sometimes very peaceful art design. You feel completely sucked into the world, giving the sense of danger the characters feel and the uncertainty that lies around every corner. You can never be certain what will happen next, and I love that about this show. The anxiousness and fear that envelopes you is such a spectacular feat for the show's creators. You are given several characters to follow throughout the course of the story but are never given certainty that all of them, or any of them, will survive. Lets just say people die in this show... a lot of people.

Other then the beginning being a little slow moving at times, the negatives of this show are small but still noticeable. Out of the five main characters not all of them get enough time to develop since most of the screen time goes to the main main characters Saki and Satoru. At times the show can pace a little awkwardly as well, due to the story writers dedicating their time to the most important portions of the show and sometimes wanting to focus very heavily on certain scenes. If you are truly invested in Shin Sekai Yori however, this shouldn't bother you at all.

Shin Sekai Yori is a roller coaster ride through a mysterious and fascinating new world with very deep moral questions and though provoking themes. If you want an anime you can invest yourself in, then look no further!

Masterpieces come once in a blue moon. If you're lucky you'll get a handful in a given year. If not, you'll only get one. In fact, only one reached the latter this year, and that was Shin Sekai Yori. With an award-winning source material, Shin Sekai Yori was a series that came in with high expectations and still managed to exceed them. It was just that good, mixing ambition and a bit of controversy to form a captivating story that showcased the potential of anime as a storytelling medium. Powered by plot twists that often left viewers in shock and a great cast of characters that made you fear for their lives, this was a great example of superb content meeting perfect execution. To top things off, it did all of this with a limited budget– that's how risky its ideas were–making Shin Sekai Yori a series that really beat the odds in terms of being animated in the first place. It's just a pity it didn't have any commercial success, because this was exactly the kind of series anime needs more of.

This Anime was much more than what I thought it would be. Despite being short, with only 25 chapters (26 if you include the intro chapter) it manages to tell a very powerful story which delivers a meaningful message in the end. One of the best things about this Anime is the atmosphere, which is one of the things that first attracted me to it. The colors are gorgeous and even though the animation isn't the best I've seen, it's good enough for it to not be bothersome. The music is interesting and intense, and really takes you to the town where everything happens and helps compel the feelings of the characters.

The first three chapters are slow, but do watch it, you wont be disappointed. It almost made me cry in the end, which almost never happens either with Animes or movies, so give it a try. I definitely recommend it for Anime lovers, and lovers of good stories be it sci-fi, post-apocalyptic worlds, fantasy, super powers, old Japanese feel and even love. Definitely one of the best animes I have seen. A great surprise that I will recommend to many friends of mine, and that I recommend to whoever ended up here. You will not regret it.

9/10

This anime took my heart and crushed it into a million pieces. There's so many surprises in almost every episode and it combines complete horror with mentally traumatizing information. Loved every second of it. From the suspense it builds up in the first few episodes to the last heart-pounding seconds, I could not stop watching. This one, out of all animes, followed me into my dreams. It is an unforgettable anime, but it is worth every single second of your time. I recommend this one 10/10 to thriller fans. The character design art is beautiful, the scenery is amazing, and the composition of real life cultural diversity and political problems makes it almost realistic. It's gripping and tragic. It comprises all genres into one amazing plot line. Truly surprising that it isn't as popular as other animes.

I gotta say this anime gave me such goosebumps that I hadn't felt in a long time. The story had a nice flow to it especially with it's intense horror scenes. It was even nice to see added romance into it as it kept the storyline going. The animation was well done including the English Dub actors.

Very satisfied that I got to see a decent horror anime for a change!