This really was an episode with some awesome animators. Especially the big fight scenes looked gorgeous and very artistic. The budget of this series has not been as big as its first half, which is quite common for series, but what I love is that the creators still are trying to make it look really nice.
As for the content… I did not expect an all-out war at this point. At all. Perhaps near the end of the series, but I did not expect the main focus of the third arc to be the war between the humans and queerats. Yakomaru so far has been unpleasant, but with this he actually attacked the humans with all sorts of dirty tactics. The weirdest of one is that they now have human allies that can use Cantus.
I wonder… was the first arc the catalyst for this? I mean, the queerats probably caught some snail or something, but did Yakomaru realize with the young Saki and Satoru that the “gods” were mere mortals? I mean, something happened. It’s not normal for the queerats to make such a progression. The question is whether Saki instigated it, or whether she was merely unlucky enough to end up in the center of it all.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)
Remember during the initial arc Saki was powerless (her Cantus was blocked) and she relied on Saturo to do all the heavy lifting? I’m sure that registered with Squealer/Yakomaru back then, that the children were not godlike beings.
Yeah and at that time, he had played with them as mere tools of war. Yakomaru’s ambitious. And obviously, I’m pretty confident that they provided shelter to Maria and Mamoru, made sure she’d get pregnant and then immediately dispose of them to obtain the bones to fool them into believing that was the end of it. What they did with that child, I don’t even want to imagine it after seeing what they’ve done to their queens.
Good speculation, and I’m inclined to agree, but random is more than likely correct because this conflict is not quite the climax of the entire series (7 episodes left to go).
Considering that in this episode there was particular emphasis placed on Maria’s line to Saki that two girls can’t have a child I’d say that your scenario sounds very likely. The fact that their remains were confirmed by dental records as well suggests it’s very unlikely their remains were ‘faked’ as Yakomaru said they would be.
“I wonder… was the first arc the catalyst for this? I mean, the queerats probably caught some snail or something, but did Yakomaru realize with the young Saki and Satoru that the “gods” were mere mortals?”
I think that’s exactly it. When he saw how exhausted Satoru was after using his powers, these “gods” became “mortals”. Powerful ones, to be sure but definitely flawed. Even back then, he was using Saki & Satoru to advance his cause.
Like many others have already speculated, I’m fairly sure the rats’ secret weapon is an offspring of Maria/Mamoru. I’m not convinced that they’re actually dead though. Saki even wondered (Ep 15) about what would happen if Squealer/Yakomaru did to a human what he did to a queen. And there are multiple scenes about Saki imagining meeting Maria again. The two are kept incapacitated as a “breeding pair” (minus a few teeth and limbs… argh) would also satisfy the DNA/dental record test. Yakomaru would just claim that the rest of the body was too difficult to recover and leave it at that.
This is kind of sick… I would feel really sorry for them if they’re like that.
But using humans would be a double edged knife: if not dealed properly, humans that use cantus can’t be controlled and a karma demon would appear really easy, specially during a war. They will be anihilated by their own ignorance and ambitions.
The most interesting information in this episode was: The Children of Heaven! What are they? It seems they dont have any trouble in killing. And their power far surpasses those of normal people. The guy with the mask was extremelly powerful. Are they the reason of the Cantus in the human race?
I think “Children of Heaven” is just a flowery way Koufuu used to call humans with Cantus. As seen by his pompousness and lack of respect of queerats, it is obvious that he, and most of Shinsekai Yori’s humans, believe that they are superior beings compared to others in the world, aka blessed by Heaven or such.
I get the feeling the war with the queer rat is a red herring for the real conflict of the series.
Wonder if your intuition comes from the obvious fact that there are 7 more episodes to go?
I’m very interested in the woman who appeared when whatshisname died. Was it the same woman who appeared when the false minoshiro was burned? Who is she?
Also, is anyone else hoping that Kiroumaru will reappear later on? They said it’s likely he escaped. I’m hoping he comes back for some vengeance on Yakomaru.
Maybe she was one of the children of heaven that returned to “heaven” after dying in this world.
I’m rather interested too. I’m wondering if it’s just some stylistic flourish, or if there’s some deeper meaning to it. We saw a woman with a scythe in Rijin’s tornado back in episode 4 (~19:30) too.
And I thought this arc was really centered in the acceptance of Maria’s death by Saki. The loss of your “true” love (well that should be Shun but his memory was hidden).
I initially thought she may be alive (the source of information for the queerats), but if Tomiko did not lie when she said the DNA analysis performed showed the bones were from Maria and Mamoru, I see Saki going to war in revenge(or her friends are alive, or they were really killed by Yakomaru’s troops and they deceived Saki). I must admit she is quite level headed after realising what Yakomaru has truly done.
Shouldn’t Cantus be able to create fake bones, or body copies?
I think Cantus can only modify what already exists, so no.
Yeah, but it could fake the DNA. We already know Tomiko can repair her telomeres, which is DNA manipulation. She could have faked the DNA evidence by turning the rat DNA in the bones to human DNA.