In the end Shinsekai Yori is a excellent production with great source material to adapt from, which was written & researched at length to create a unique fusion of elements to create something entirely different. When I first watched Shinsekai Yori & reviewed it (which was never published) I regarded it (& still do) very highly. It came from a place of a deep sense of respect I had for the story, from how composed & fleshed out it's -verse felt, though I always felt that the anime was somewhat dry & perhaps a little too conservative, that of course however was overridden with all A-1 pictures staff was able to accomplish for how difficult & complex the story was to adapt.
From being terrifying, patient and earnest, we just see how timely and fragile life, time can be. It's a nice moderately slow paced tale, that's satisfyingly long and a rewarding experience, filled with independent investigation and mystery. It's a encompassing coming of age story that takes it's time to build it's world and characters, & has great perspective regarding happiness and tragedy. Though it has a drier sense of storytelling delivery that you probably won't be invigorated by excitement & anticipation from the offset which is the charm of a series such as Chihayafuru. However if you're patient enough, it's incredibly satisfying with it's sense of time and is such a rewarding experience as the plot unfolds into something so much much more compelling.
Reading the novels however really opened my eyes, as the novel slowly filled the gaps in the anime that left me feeling a little discontent & made me realize what Yusuke Kishi was trying to accomplish & how he dealt with this problem. As such, I however personally recommend watching the anime, then the novel like I did, in that my image of the story and over experience was enhanced when I read the novel, which was supported by the established imagery that the anime gave me. Though if I did it the other way around, I think established my mental image of series, alongside it's version of events & delivery would've probably gotten in the way & distracted me due to the changes because of my expectations. However because I didn't, I was more easily able to appreciate & experience both in a positive light. That is to say that the changes we're relatively minor, as the story is very much intact bringing both good & bad changes in my experience.
So no, I don't think one version is superior to the other, I mean while the text is modestly better in the novel due the more extensive subject matter & interpersonal style of delivery, the animation medium offers so much more that you simply could only imagine while reading the novel. Experiencing voice acting & characters visually in real time, the excellent music & scenery, these are things that can't be replaced no matter how many words you try to jumble into a sentence or paragraph, which is especially true for Shinsekai Yori due to the especially talented staff working under A-1 Pictures for this production.
The "Gaps" I'm talking about is not so much in a temporal sense as it is feeling that the story felt perhaps a little bit too fleeting, and while that of course made the story very better sweet in it's own way, I sort of feel like the anime could have been better by giving us just a bit more time with certain* characters to display or allude to a bit more of their aspirations & desires as people before they were killed off. We're talking inches here, because there's a power to how brief the experience of friendship followed by loss was, so if this period was too long & satisfying, the sense of what was lost & should have been wouldn't be present.
However it felt ever so slightly too brief, as I think the story had a bit more room for these relationships to swell just a bit more before cutting ties, being that I think the seminal parts of the story would have been just that much better. In reality this is really because Masashi Sogo & A-1 Pictures staff diverged from Yusuke Kishi's style of delivery, mixed up & cut alot of Saki's soliloquy & inner dialogue as I've talked about earlier. Due to this more "show don't tell" style of delivery, each given moment & our sense of time within the story was shortened pretty drastically, so we're no so much as able to soak in a lot of these moments before we actually move on. Since this is the case, if they much preferred to show & not to tell, as compensation for cutting almost the entirety of the original novels narration & non diegetic expositive elements, they should've just shown us just a bit more. A bit more of these fleeting times & timely moments before they were cut off, so we'd have that much more time & material to let each character sink in, as this style of delivery is far less direct & takes a little more time/effort build a certain level of atmosphere & nuance.
However it felt ever so slightly too brief, as I think the story had a bit more room for these relationships to swell just a bit more before cutting ties, being that I think the seminal parts of the story would have been just that much better. In reality this is really because Masashi Sogo & A-1 Pictures staff diverged from Yusuke Kishi's style of delivery, mixed up & cut alot of Saki's soliloquy & inner dialogue as I've talked about earlier. Due to this more "show don't tell" style of delivery, each given moment & our sense of time within the story was shortened pretty drastically, so we're no so much as able to soak in a lot of these moments before we actually move on. Since this is the case, if they much preferred to show & not to tell, as compensation for cutting almost the entirety of the original novels narration & non diegetic expositive elements, they should've just shown us just a bit more. A bit more of these fleeting times & timely moments before they were cut off, so we'd have that much more time & material to let each character sink in, as this style of delivery is far less direct & takes a little more time/effort build a certain level of atmosphere & nuance.
However in the end it's somewhat of a minor problem, in that that I feel that the -verse that was beautifully fleshed out and animated with a great range of expression & consistency, alongside Shigeo Komori's awe inspiring score really captivated me, and more than supplemented my slight feelings of discontent, as the audio/visual image that swelled up on to screen perhaps spoke & conveyed more emotions instantaneously than words ever could. It's a beautifully crafted world, that's richly built upon it's rather complex mechanics & lore, and interwoven with a personal story & setting driven dynamics that'll touch your heart as it so much as it will leave you horrified.
Sure fire Q's WOF in that I rarely ever see an anime that does so much so well - The story, animation, art direction, score, sound direction, dubbing. It's something that really has to be respected.
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Page 6
Article Contents - Comments Section
- Plot & Narrative Aspects [The Novel & The Anime]
- Character Analysis
- Production Aspects [Cinematography | Animation | Art Direction]
- Voice Actor Choreography
- Sound Direction & Original Soundtrack
- Addendum
Editors Note: "This review was supposed to be published on Thursday but why didn't it?" .... I totally forgot (I Dun Goofed) I was totally busy recording & creating graphics for Youtube when I suddenly realized that (Facepalm)
