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As promised my next anime review will be on Shin Sekai Yori or, From the New World.

I am in absolute awe of this novel-turned anime and am currently scrabbling to find out when an English translation of the text would be available. For now I’ll have to make do with just having this gem of an anime. Unlike in my KnK review, I will not be fangirling over the clarity and sophistication of the animation – though SSY is beautiful in its own way. While the anime comes second in visual astuteness, it makes up for it through its unique and compelling storyline. Days after I finished the anime I feel like I am walking through a haze, wistfully daydreaming about giant mole rats and telekinetic teenagers while humming the anime’s addictive main theme.

Story:

10/10

Books are the best. In an era dominated by otome romances and standardized supernatural stories – I am looking at you, Diabolik Lovers – you can tell when a story was written with the purpose of being thought provoking. Wedged between reels of mindless shonens and sickly shojos, SSY reminds you that anime can have a plot; that the medium has more to offer than gravity-defying breasts and ridiculous action sequences.

Set 1000 years into the future, the show follows six children, Saki, Satoru, Maria, Mamoru, Shun, and Reiko, who have been raised in one of the tranquil yet antiquated prefectures that resemble rural Japan today. Despite a millennium between modern day and Yusuke Kishi’s future utopia, it appears civilization has digressed back to a pre-industrial state. Their world is now a rural one; engulfed by trees and rivers with only a couple of hundred families (if that!) located in any one village. It’s a setting that would make the Romantics swoon. The big change? All the humans we see today have mad superpowers. Everyone has varying degrees of telekinesis, which is carefully controlled and monitored by the benevolent town’s ethics and security councils.

Despite the idyllic setting there is something amiss. As children, Saki and her friends hear rumors of terrifying cats that steal you away in the night, and while no one has ever confirmed these findings, it doesn’t change the fact that every so often children and adults go missing. As they grow, they encounter more and more discrepancies until one faithful day they encounter an item that allows them to realize the true nature of their world, and the long, bloody history that shadows it.

What unfolds is an incredibly intricate plot that thickens like good gravy. What begins as a tale about the adventures of some psychic children soon develops an adjacent story concerning creatures called, Monster Rats: colonies of Mole Rat humanoids that live beyond the towns in sprawling hoards that are fond of feudal disputes, but live to serve their overpowered neighbors; their ‘psychic’ masters. As the rats rage war against each other around them, the children return to school to resume their training, equipped with the terrible knowledge that their society is founded on secretive and deceptive principles, of which the Monster Rats play a crucial role in.

That’s all I am going to talk about in terms of the overarching plot for now. It’s too deep to try and write about in a review, and part of the fun of this particular anime is that the story leaves you guessing; there are so many aspects at work that you never know what’s going to happen next. What I will say is that my thumbs up goes to the characters and plot creation. The characters are loveable and believable, and their interpersonal chemistry makes what happens in the plot so much more tragic and compelling. Throughout it all there is never any clear distinction of who is in the wrong, and as the children stumble through their adolescence, it becomes obvious that they are living in a world of strife and cannot trust anyone outside their circle. Even the plight of the lowly Monster Rats is compelling. As they wage war on each other, and bicker over territory and expanding their colonies, their bestial natures resonate with that of primitive humans; and as the children develop, so do their embryonic ways and existence. They evolve, much to the horror of their ‘benign’ masters.

Go watch it so I can rave about the show with someone! The first six episodes are bizarre, but it only gets better from there. The last episode left me quite teary for characters I did not think I would come to care for so deeply.

Animation:

7/10

At times it’s a 9, at others, 7. A-1 Pictures weren't very consistent with the level of detail they displayed in their animation. Overall it was delicious, and Masashi Ishihama did well employing a few beautifully drawn scenes that leave an impression in your mind. It may not be a KnK with animation, but on the whole SSY mastered its limited budget and produced an artful show speckled with memorable shots and scenes.

Music:

8/10

The main theme is addictive. Kage No Denshouka Daiichibu, the main theme, has been stuck in my head for 3 weeks now. There is a lot of repetition in the show, but I think that really adds to the growing tension and ambiance of the anime: the melodic and someone sad New World Symphony by Antonin Dvorak that plays at the end of each school day becomes sinister; the tantalizing Kage No Denshouka Daiichibu intensifies as the anime develops and the sacrifices of the characters become intrinsic to it. It’s nice music. Not on par with Cowboy Bebop, but definitely pleasing to the ear.

Dislikes:

At times the random decrease in animation quality is irritating. (Nitpicking here).

… Yep! That’s it! Go treat yourself by watching this amazing show.

- entertainment - celebrity cyrus entertainment guy debord miley cyrus music spectacle wreck wrecking ball

“In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation. ”

Guy Debord

Months after the now infamous VMA awards, society continues to feel the shock-waves of Miley Cyrus’ lucrative on-stage display. With the current social networking scene governed by short lived trends and fleeting scandalous stories, the awards show has reached a popularity mile-stone in its unwillingness to be shoved from the public eye. Images of the Disney Princess in her nude two-piece costume – tongue lolling from her mouth – ‘twerking’ on fellow musician, Robin Thicke, has mutated into comedic internet memes and celebrated gifs which are passed around blogging sites and discussion forums like hot cakes on a cold Winter’s day. While the backlash has been formidable and left fans divided over the lewd display, (though some die-hard aficionados cling to their lackadaisical arguments for feminine empowerment) it remains the fact that society has caught a bad case of Miley fever; a malaise that has inflated the celebrity’s notoriety to unfathomable levels, especially when one considers the banality of her performance.

Cyrus has confessed in an array of interviews and twitter posts since the incident, that her routine with Thicke highlighted the basic discrepancies in equality and ‘freedom of speech’, namely through the lack of criticism her co-performer suffered from the event. “No-one talks about that,” Cyrus replies in her interview with DeGeneres when Thicke’s part in the concert is discussed. “No-one cares about the man behind the booty. You only care about the one that’s shaking it. Double standard.” Having shouldered the blame (and levied most of the fame) for the incident, there rests shards of truth in the Tennessee native’s words. However, the message that rings clearer is that the insufferable attention she received at the VMAs has fostered a new interest in the adjoining aspects of the celebrity’s life – spurring magazine houses and news centres into covering all aspects of Cyrus’ world; from her family history and decaying relationship with her fiancée, to speculations of drug use and future promiscuity. This heightened exposure has been the bane of many A-listers and their connecting damage control parties, but Cyrus seems unperturbed by the swelling hype. ”I don’t pay attention to the negative,” she says in her interview with The Daily Mail. “You might as well make people talk for two weeks rather than two seconds.” Clearly desiring more than the standard fifteen minutes of fame, the 20-year old can be seen as embracing her succès de scandale, going so far as to call her performance a “strategic hot mess.” And what a strategic success it was.

As one who witnessed the VMAs, there is very little aside from Miley Cyrus’ two-song appearance that I can recall. Flashes of an N-SYNC reunion and the sea-shells of Lady Gaga’s bikini top are hazy images subsumed by a mass of Cyrus’ disjointed ‘dance’ moves with an unfortunate Styrofoam finger, to music that I could not hope to remember. From a PR standpoint, I could think of no greater success for the Cyrus team. Nestled comfortably in the backlog of public interest and disdain, Miley released her newest single ‘Wrecking Ball’; a mediocre song showcasing the young adult’s nudity and visual suggestiveness that has soared to over 200 million views on Youtube. Compared to her earlier hits in 2010, such as ‘Who Owns My Heart’ and ‘When I look At You’, (which are averaging at 90,000,000 views) Miley’s histrionic, racy persona has demanded greater public notice. While the comments on the streaming website remain scathing from the most ardent critics, the message of Cyrus’ stunt is incontrovertible: the spectacle commands the attention of the hoi polloi. In a world where the homogenization of culture and the plethora of media stimuli has inured society to the ordinary, the music industry relies on a series of increasing shocks to stimulate growth and interest. With music blurring into a series of indistinguishable auto tuned idols and analogous R&B beats, artists and their sponsors choose to differentiate themselves through these strategic boundary-pushing acts to gain unhampered public notice. By following this marketing plan, Cyrus has rocketed her latest album, Bangerz to a comfortable seat at number one, proving that there is no such thing as bad publicity. In the backdrop of Cyrus’ centre stage presence, fellow musicians like Rihanna and Lady Gaga seem to be following the ex-Disney star’s footsteps, churning out near pornographic videos to accompany their forgettable songs in hopes of exciting their increasingly jaded consumers into a fleeting frenzy.

Her latest stint at the AMAs is keeping the ball rolling. Modestly dressed in comparison to the nude two-piece she wore during her last performance, “the reason why she wore such a conservative outfit on the red carpet at the AMAs is because producers wanted a show that the whole family could watch, and they didn’t want any boobs or butts or slips.” This didn’t stop producers from filming her from the waist up during most of her routine while the twenty-one year entertained audience with her performance of ‘Wrecking Ball’. Procuring more attention than her risqué kitten themed wardrobe was Miley’s stage accomplish – a giant, ginger pussycat that lip-synced the song.  Perhaps a gibe at the AMAs for threatening to cut the show if Miley misbehaved, the mischievous Miley Kit pushes the envelope discreetly against the AMAs conservative producer as a playful jab at the sweet and innocent persona they urge Miley to adopt. On top of that it is a beautiful PR move that merges the internet’s love of cats with Miley’s evolving TV personality, leading to another over-exposed performance that leaves viewers itching for more.