From the New World

From the New World (新世界より) is a 25 episode futuristic fantasy adventure based on the novel of the same name by Kishi Yusuke.  The series originally aired on TV in Japan during the Fall of 2012 and Spring of 2013.

    At the turn of the 21^st century small portions of humanity developed psychic abilities.  This led to a brutal cycle of war and destruction across the globe resulting in a reduction of the human population.  Japan of the 31st century is that of isolated agrarian communities who focus on traditions established to hamper any one individual’s ability to tip the balance of safety and stability.  Kamisu 66 is an idyllic town where its residents all exhibit some level of psychic ability.  The children are rigorously trained to control their abilities from a young age with special attention placed on them at the dawn of adolescence.  One child, Saki, is the last of her friend group to graduate into the next level of schooling, as she grows into her powers at the age of 12.

    As part of their schooling, the children form small groups and venture outside of the villages protective barrier to conduct unsupervised research.  Saki and her friends find a forbidden piece of technology, known as a False Minoshiro.  The technology is referred to as a demon by the elders of the village, to discourage residents from seeking them out or interacting with them.  Through the hubris of adolescence, the children discover the demon is an ancient machine that acts as a repository of knowledge and begin to coax information from it, information the village elders work hard to keep locked away.  Sensing something is wrong a monk from the village seeks them out, discovering they have been in contact with the forbidden technology.  He destroys the devices, seals the children’s abilities, and begins to take them back to the village to receive punishment for their transgressions.

 

    The monk fails to return them safely to Kamisu 66 as the group is attacked by a group of mutant mole-rats known as Queerats.  The Queerats were genetically modified long ago and are kept in a form of slavery by the residents of Kamisu 66 to undertake the more physically demanding aspects of their existence, ensuring the more blissful existence of the human population.  Not all the Queerat populations are subservient to the humans and one such group has decided to move against the village.  After killing the monk, who poses the only threat, the rebel faction looks to capture the children to use as leverage against the village.  Saki and one of the boys, Satoru, escape capture and flee into the forest.  A member of a different tribe of Queerats named Squealer, helps the two children evade their pursuers and takes them back to his tribe.  There he encourages them to assist his people in destroying the rogue tribe.  A leader among Squealers tribe can reverse the seal on Saki and Satoru’s powers and with their help they destroy the tribe, rescuing their friends.  The children return to the village, believing that with the death of the monk their transgressions will remain a secret.

    Two years later, the friend group has grown stronger and closer, beginning to explore their sexuality and test companionship.  One of their members, Shun, has begun to isolate himself from the group.  Concerned from one of her friend’s health, Saki confronts him about his increased detachment.  Shun reveals to her that the adults who control their schooling know about what happened during their ill-fated trip into the wilderness.  That alone has not stopped them from punishing the other members of her group and Shun tells her they have forced him into isolation due to him loosing the ability to control his powers, left to die alone.

 

    Unable to help the boy, Saki returns to the village.  Eventually the memory of his existence disappears from the friend group.  Saki, through some investigating, learns that the elders are aware of what happend two years earlier and have left them unpunished due because of the leadership potential they see in Saki.  As with Shun's banishment, that doesn't mean they are shielded from other punishments.  A pair from her friend group, Mamoru and Maria, decide to elope and flee the village after they attempt to exile Mamoru as well.  They receive aid from Squealer, who has been renamed Yakomaru, in escaping the village elders.  He helps to fake their death as they slip away into the uncontrolled wilderness, in search of peace.  Unknown to them, Yakomaru has found another False Minoshiro and has been extracting information from it, using it to help him take over his Queerat colony.

    The story jumps ahead many years, Saki is in her mid-twenties and is a member of the department that manages the Queerat populations that serve the village.  Yakomaru, once her ally, is growing into a threat for the village’s security.  He, fully in control of his colony, has been steadily wiping out the other colonies, solidifying power, and ability.  Yakomaru turns his attention to attacking Kamisu 66 with the help of a powerful psychic referred to only as ‘messiah’ by the Queerats.  Saki and Satoru are given a mission to explore the ruins of ancient Tokyo, to find and retrieve a legendary weapon buried in its depths that can be used to defeat the ‘messiah’ and help them crush the Queerat rebellion.  The group of friends, who unknowingly unleashed massive change in their world when they were young, must now face the consequences of their social transgressions or face their peaceful lives coming to an end.

    This is a classic coming of age epic that transcends location and time.  Stories like this have been told since the beginning of written history.  It is very familiar and most notably reminded me, in spirit, of the Chronicles of Prydain, Watership Down or The Secret of Nimh.  Beyond the Buddhist subtext's and the character names, this feels more like something that would have been written in Europe in the mid 20th century.  There is a noticeable lack of 'Japanese-ness' with the story.  The story is more taken from universal hero themes than anything particularly tied to one culture, which is what I think makes this one so appealing to me.  Not that I have a problem with Japanese-centric story telling.  What I really like about this one, with its universally recognized themes, is how approachable it is for people outside of anime fandom.

    The animation at times isn't good.  The mutant mole rats look like something out of the classic 70's animation features like Nimh or The Hobbit.  The flow of the story works well until they jump ahead in time, leaving the viewer to play catch up with the progress.  This is helped by the first episode after each time jump being used to recap what transpired in the lost time.  At times it does become confusing who some of the characters are as many of them do look similar and their appearances change through each time period in the story and the name of one character may have escaped from your memory after a few episodes, leaving the gravity of their appearance to not register quickly.

    The series deals with a few things; most notably loss of innocence.  It deals with concepts of social control and man kinds inherent fear of change.  One thing, that at times seems to be overtly dealt with, are the ideas of sexual and emotional freedom.  The children are allowed when they enter adolescence to begin exploring their sexuality without restrictions on gender identity and social roles.  The story also deals well with crafting a strong female lead.  At points it seemed as if this idea gets lost and the main lead keeps looking for help from the males around her, but ultimately she takes matters into her own hands again and again and perseveres through will and strength.  This is a dark story but I think is good for adolescent age children to view.  Its a story they can relate with on many levels.  I wish that the novel would come to America, but no word on that happening as of yet.  I could see it becoming a classic for young adults.
    The anime was licensed in North America and is available on disc and streaming.  The manga adaptation of the novel is also being released in North America.  The novel, however, has not been translated and licensed as of yet...fingers crossed.