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I binged From the New World last week.
This is such an underrated anime if we go off of its AniList rating.
Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised. I haven’t watched an anime of such low production quality relative to how good the story is in a while. Pretty much all the recent anime with top-tier story got adaptations of corresponding quality, and I have gotten used to that level of standard.
So it was quite jarring for me to see the unexpected change in artstyle in episode 5, and back to the original style for the next episode. I think I got used to it though, or was too absorbed in the story, because subsequent inconsistencies weren’t as noticeable.
It is not just the inconsistent artstyle that’s an issue. The direction / writing / execution doesn’t feel quite perfect, though I can’t really put a finger on it. I am no anime connoisseur 😅
It is certainly not A1 studio at their best when you consider the rest of their portfolio. In their defence, this anime aired in 2012. Of course the studio is going to improve given time.
Earlier I said that this anime is underrated, but don’t get me wrong: its rating is 80% at the moment, so it’s not like the rating is low. It’s just that the story is so great that it felt much more than that. (Plus, I haven’t really seen people talking about it.)
If you refer to the top recommendations on its AniList page, you will see that it’s all peak: Made in Abyss, The Promised Neverland, and the likes. That should give you a clue as to the type and level of story it is.
Personally, without spoiling too much, it felt much more like a mix of Attack on Titan and The Summer Hikaru Died to me. Or the whole
anime title; mild? meta spoiler
Sword Art Online: Alicization
arc. I was surprised that I had to submit this recommendation given how on the nose some of the plot points are.
Other anime of underrated similarity include:
multiple anime titles; mild? meta spoiler
Long story short, the plot of this anime is too good, or at the very least it’s right up my alley. It embodies the saying “History is written by the victors”.
I tend to weigh my enjoyment of the story way higher than other aspects of the anime, so this one defaults to a 10/10 for now. Definitely going into my Peak Politics list.
By the way, when I first saw the queerats, I thought that
From the New World spoiler
the authorities transformed the children into queerats.
Although my guess turned out to be wrong, it wasn’t too far off 😎 I gotta say, I like their twist better.
Also, to those who have watched it, or even better, those who have read the source material:
question regarding From the New World
When Mamoru was about to be done in by the Tainted Cat, how was he saved? We saw a portal sucking the cat in - how did it came about? Was someone responsible for creating the portal? If so, what was their motive?
I have also just completed The Ramparts of Ice. Kocha Agasawa is so good at writing romance, having written You and I are Polar Opposites too.
Like with Polar Opposites, it’s so refreshing to see characters with EQ and self-awareness, which means no unnecessary drama. But it never gets boring, because there is drama.
What I like is how these characters approach the drama - maturely. (Though they could have been more honest / open with each other, but that’s getting unrealistic).
Heck, we even see a character turn to adults for advice:
So many kids in anime could learn from her.
Another specific instance in this anime I liked is how characters actually turn around and wave when saying goodbye:
It has always bothered me when anime characters just wave while facing away from the others. Sure, perhaps it reduces animation effort, but it’s so unrealistic. So glad this anime got it right.
Lastly, many others have pointed it out already, but the ending theme Sakasama is lit 🔥
It sounds very familiar - I’m convinced it either sampled other songs, or was inspired by them. I’m unable to identify exactly which songs though.
I’m so looking forward to the next season.
I actually had a Korean girl do this to me once when I was in college. Maybe it’s an east-asian thing? Not exactly a large sample size here though, so also maybe not.
I always had the impression that it was the adults.
spoiler
I mean, it becomes pretty clear toward the end that the kids were under heavy surveillance, even if the adults didn’t usually interfere because they wanted to see what results going light on their conditioning would have. If the cat was trying to kill Mamoru because it saw him as not properly conditioned, the adults might have stopped it because that was what he was intended to be and having the cat kill him wasn’t useful.
A note about other versions/source material: The proper source material, which is a novel, has never been officially translated as far as I know. The manga, which I think is a separate adaptation of the novel, had a reputation for leaning too heavily into the “bonobos” aspect, if you know what I mean.
From the New World spoiler
This doesn’t make sense.
From the New World spoiler
During Saki’s court hearing - the one headed by the Board of Education (BoE) - I thought it was made quite clear that they attempted to kill Mamoru. The cat should be acting on behalf of the BoE.
The way the conversation went when Tomiko joined in, it sounded as though BoE failed in their murder attempt due to circumstances outside their control.
So if the adults are responsible for saving Mamoru:
Point 2 is certainly plausible. We have already seen the Ethics committee intervened to save Saki.
Out of curiosity, have you watched Shiki?
Nope, haven’t even heard of it until now. why?
Edit: having read its synopsis, I guess it is similar and I should watch it?
It has some similarities, and yeah, you might find it interesting.