From the New World – 06

Another great thing from From the new World is that it’s different with every episode. This was quite an eerie episode, in which Satoru fights off small armies of those Ground Spiders after getting his powers back.

I’m not quite sure how he got his powers back. I mean, I get that Saki used Satoru’s mantra to get his Cantis back, but I’m curious why Satoru didn’t do the same for Saki. After all, they were in a situation of life and death, which meant that even there, the thought of crossing this taboo didn’t occur to them.

This episode worked really well despite its problems though, in particular the change within Satoru was great as he plowed through these groups of Ground Spiders, actually enjoying himself. Only to run into this actual army at the end of the episode. Although I have to say that some of the 3D animation could have been blended a bit better. In particular the flying rocks and trees.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

39 thoughts on “From the New World – 06

  1. Lol, you must of missed out on the shoutbox conversation about how everything happened. So basically we think that the priest sealed their mantra mentally. saki remembered from the classroom conversation that she found out satorus mantra thats why she could redo the ritual and give back his powers. the reason behind sakis remember satorus was because satorus was never sealed it was only hers that was because the priest was only sealing their power not any other mantra that was know in their minds.

  2. Each person has an individual mantra, and what the floating monk did was seal away each individual’s mantra. Saki knew Satoru’s mantra (because she cheated), but he only glanced at hers and so doesn’t know hers. He can’t repeat the ceremony and give her back her mantra.

    1. She knows Satoru’s mantra becasue she looked at his paper in the flashback (by doing the “hatching the pencil trace” trick), and in fact she was actually trying to persuade him to tell her his own mantra .. so there is NOTHING that says a person can’t tell another his/her own mantra (or there would be absolutely no point in the teachers warning them about that) … so why can’t Saki tell Satoru her own mantra and teach him the ritual (which is mostly there for psychological effect) so he can unlock her mantra the same exact way she did for him !!!?

  3. I found the fact that she replicated the mantra of the priest a bit odd. It just seemed to be a huge leap of faith for us as the viewer to take on. And when it worked, why didn’t he use it on her? She could have instructed him, and then they’d both be free. All very odd. But, I did appreciate that we got to see Satoru’s start into madness. It’s probably representative of the state the TK users were before the new societies. We will get to see first hand why the Scientist decided to build the society they did.

  4. @Joe: Read above explanation. Neither Satoru nor Saki herself knows Saki’s mantra so Satoru won’t be able to do it even if Saki told him how to do it.

    1. There’s nothing that says she doesn’t know hers. The flashback scene with Satoru indicates that. She just manages to get his through and old trick. And what she probably realizes is that all the mantras are the same. And in her self induced hypnosis, she comes up with the idea to free him.

      1. In the flashback they acknowledged that their mantra were different. Saki’s mantra has now been locked away so she can no longer recall it.

  5. The reason is that the mantra is just a type of auto-hypnosis.
    Remember the library creature that protected it self with some lights; the creature described it as hypnosis. And the kids said that it was similar to the ritual where they were given their mantra.
    So reason why the sealing works is because the kids believe that it would work.

    Saki is probably starting to figure things out, but just because you know something that does not mean that you believe it. The thing is just too much engraved into her mind to dismiss it that easily.

    However Satoru was tired and in shock the perfect mental state to try to convince him that his powers were back. That she knew his mantra was simply the right bit of knowledge for achieving this. But I believe that she could made up any mantra and it would work.

    1. Maybe her telling him the wrong mantra was the reason his anti-goma conditioning failed to return and drove him to violence.

  6. Fantastic episode, and is it me or those Tarantula guys are just damn resourceful, cunning and tenacious, i was surprised they can actually mass-produce poisonous gas using machines, can shape-shift and have such giants in their ranks .. they are indeed proving to be formidable enemies even against PK users .. i bet the Blow-dog from two episodes back was actually one of them who managed to survive the tornado then transformed into a blow-dog and blew himself up to avenge his comrades and destroy the enemy.

    There is also the debate going on here about why didn’t Saki tell Satoru her own mantra so he can unlock her powers the same way she did for him .. some are saying she can’t or that she doesn’t know her own mantra .. where did you get that from !!? she clearly knew her own mantra in the flashback and the teachers wouldn’t warn them about telling others your mantra unless every student had one and unless you actually CAN tell other people about your mantra and have them unlock your powers .. so she MUST know her own mantra.

    1. In episode 4, at about the 14:30 mark, the monk very clearly says that the children will never again remember their mantras. He clearly did something that caused them to forget their own mantras.

      Not sure why there is a debate when it’s explained pretty clearly in the preceding episodes.

      1. I think that the context of his powers revival is more important. Why did Saki wait ’til they were trapped? I want to go further into detail but I don’t have any time at the moment (cop-out!), but I feel strongly that the explanation was obscure and that it strongly effected the pacing of both this episode and the series, as well as my faith in the writer’s ability to convey these. To use psgels super-strange grading system, this episode is on the low end of a 2.

        http://altairandvega.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/colloquium-shin-sekai-yori-episode-6-2/ the writer does a decent job of explaining some of what has been discussed by others

        Also, psgels, if it means anything to you, here is one reader that does not agree / understand your grading system or it’s methodology. I liked 1-4 w/ *asterisks much better. Everything may as well be a 5 if you don’t plan on giving out more than a 6 :)). That is all!

        1. I see no problem with the timing of the restoration of his powers. Saki just so happened to have received her hallucinatory inspiration in the cave at that moment in time. Maybe inspired by the poison gas, or by desperation. People aren’t the perfectly rational agents they’re made out to be.

          And a 2? That’s a little harsh. That would be putting it on the level of one of those awful incest fanservice shows.

          1. Nah, those get nothing. And you stated in your response almost exactly what i mean, maybe this maybe that. It is UNCLEAR what happens in that cave.

        2. They’ve been running for their life for what seems like a whole day and this (well apart from the almost sex scene) is the first moment where they have stopped. I don’t see the issue.

      2. Thanks for the clarification .. that indeed explains how it happened.

        I did remember the monk sealed their powers completely but i missed the “you won’t remember your mantra ever again” part .. more or less becasue they NEVER actually explained what a mantra did at the time (it was only explained it this episode, so they are partially to blame) … also It’s pretty hard remembering such details when one is watching at least 10 shows this season (too many new good shows and continuing ones for previous seasons like Uchuu Kyoudai).

        Thanks again.

  7. Oh bother. All this confusion because the viewers aren’t paying attention:

    Each child is given their mantra at their coming of age.
    They summon it to mind whenever they use their power.
    Saki remembered Satoru’s mantra because she tricked the simple-minded fool into giving it to her (she shaded over the tracings in the paper that he pressed on).
    Satoru does not know Saki’s mantra.
    The priest made the children forget their own mantra. They cannot use their power.
    Saki has forgotten her mantra. She still remembers Satoru’s.
    She uses the same incantation the priest used to seal the memory of the mantra to “give” Satoru back his ability.
    Satoru does not know Saki’s mantra. He cannot do the same thing for Saki.

    Now, for some speculation. It seems to be a form of hypnosis (the whole mantra thing). The children are made to think that their ability is tied down to the mantra (through some powerful form of hypnosis: the ritual). The mantra mechanism is a form of control. Also note Satoru’s weakness at the end of this episode: it is probably a result of the mechanism that prevents humans from hurting each other. The rat-people look like humans. The mechanism also kicked in when the priest was using his power against the rat-people earlier.

    At this rate, Satoru may either pass out or die.

    1. Actually about the “rat people look like humans” part, most of the rat people Satoru he killed from far away .. those he killed killed face-to-face were transformed into other creatures (like the frogs, insects and moles) so i’m not 100% sure the exhaustion Satoru is feeling is just becasue of the kill switch … if the show is trying to be a Sci-Fi story they must establish that continuous excessive use of PK abilities (i.e like Satoru did this episode) must be exerting on the body even without a kill-switch as there is no such thing a limitless power … heck in fantasy series like Magi Aladdin exerted himself and fainted becasue his magic draws energy from his body and he needs rest and food to be able to use it again.

      I actually was expecting more speculation about the peculiar transformation ability that’s unique to the Tarantula clan (since the other queerats can’t use it) and how did they get technology to build poison manufacturing pods and build tubes and pumps to spread the poison into the colony they attacked .. they don’t seem that smart .. maybe some humans are helping them or something.

    1. No it’s not this simple, they never mentioned what a “Mantra” does until ep 6 .. so when the Monk sealed their powers and wiped their own mantra from their memory in ep4 many people watching ep6 didn’t remember that part becasue they had no reason to care what a mantra is in the first place until ep6 explained it.

      1. The mantra was explained in episode one. Re-watch the scene when Saki goes through the coming of age ceremony. The priest explains it to her.

  8. Even if you don’t remember the mantra explanation from episode one or the monk explicitly stating that they won’t remember their mantras (because quite honestly, I didn’t pay enough attention to notice them either), you can still figure it out, particularly from that scene where Saki and Satoru write down their mantras and briefly flash the papers to each other. Satoru clearly doesn’t remember his own mantra, which is why Saki’s memory of his mantra was needed. Similarly, Saki doesn’t remember her own mantra either. Simple enough.
    I think most things were pretty clear in this episode, with the exception of the whole hypnosis sequence at the beginning and Satoru twitching in the corner. But it made a lot of sense after I thought about it later, since it makes sense that it’d be easier to convince a tired, somewhat delusional kid that his powers are back.

  9. Please pay more attention to each episode, the anime might skip a lot of the character development (because it is targeted at mature readers, unlike the average anime viewer), but the rest of the plot is extremely easy to understand, however much each episode director messes up.

    The whole deal with each child’s “cantus” was described in ep.1, put into perspective in ep.4, and thoroughly explained even for NoitaminA-watchers this episode in the flashback!

    1. I agree. From ep1 you can clearly see that you need an unusual amount of seriousness when watching this anime otherwise you wouldn’t even understand what’s going on.

    2. Yeah, viewers should definitely pay attention. This is not a series that spoon-feeds and pampers its audience. Perhaps the fact that this is the only show I’m watching for this season is why I’m able to recall details better than, say for instance, someone who is following 5 or 10 shows. Especially if those other shows are mindless drivel like to-Love-Ru Darkness and the latest incest, harem, ecchi shows where attention to detail isn’t a requirement for enjoyment.

      1. While I agree with you, you make it sound like every other show airing this season falls into one of those categories you mentioned.

        Maybe I’m just getting defensive here and you’re just making an example, but I feel I need to defend at least the decent shows this season of which there are a surprising amount.

        1. Just using an example. There are some other titles that look promising from what I’ve read on this blog but I can only manage one show this season and I decided to give this a chance; glad I did.

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