新(しん)世界(せかい)より(From the New World) is a novel that, for some reason, received an anime and manga adaptation. I have, so far, only seen the anime.
Shinsekai Yori depicts a society far into the future following a global catastrophe after psychics became a thing. The worldbuilding here is pretty eerie and, surprisingly, the story is pretty chill excluding all the tension. Yeah, this is more of a drama with occasional bouts of tension.

There is some important context here. For some reason, I decided to watch the entire anime in the span of 2 days. Specifically, I watched like 3 episodes on day one and the remaining 22 episodes on day two. I don’t know what compelled me to do this, but I do know I wouldn’t have finished the series if I didn’t decide to do this.
However, let’s start with the good. Among the dystopian fiction that I know of, Shinsekai Yori is the only one that depicts a society that actually functions. It’s a society you wouldn’t want to live in at any cost, but it’s not a non-functioning society. I guess the only other example I know of that shows a functional society would be Blade Maze Runner, since that’s less dystopian and more post-apocalyptic with dystopian elements.^A)
The society is really creepy and disturbing - which is a good thing, to be clear. You’ll be feeling uncomfortable while watching the series…unless, for some reason, you think it’s a utopia in which case you should leave.
Now for the issues…there’s something wrong with the pacing. I don’t know exactly what it is. Perhaps the reason I don’t know was because my brain was malfunctioning while I was watching it. I had serious issues getting emotionally invested and that’s why I think I wouldn’t have finished it if I didn’t finish it in two days.
There’s also something off about the scientists and what they did to the society. It’s just kinda weird. Maybe this is a me thing, but I’m having trouble figuring out what the point of creating a ‘society of love’ was in tandem with the Death Feedback. My original thinking was that it was a precaution against Fiends, but Fiends are apparently immune to Death Feedback. So…what was the point? I only see it as being something that is just…built into society for some reason.
This is especially weird if we consider the Queerats who were humans genetically modified to the point Death Feedback wasn’t triggered to maintain that dominance, y’know? But then if you’re already dealing with conflict in society through the ‘society of love’ nonsense and you have to genetically modify humans just to not trigger your other precaution. You may as well not have that precaution in place. It seems too much effort for something that is ultimately pointless.^B)
There is just the one other thing about this story that is off. The whole time, the story was structured in a way that was essentially setting up a revolution or just a shakeup to society, with Saki (the protagonist) leading the charge. But that just…doesn’t happen? Like, she’s set up from the start as being rebellious but then she just doesn’t do anything. All that we’re left with is a small implication that something might change, but that implication is only there due to all the set up…not because there’s any indication anything is changing. The series ends with the society basically remaining as it does.

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