Shin Sekai Yori - 08

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That was.....unexpected. I'm at a loss for words.

Shin Sekai Yori has lost its edge with me. After starting off strong and creating a dark mood with sci-fi mystery plot, the last few episodes have made fall out of love with the series. This episode is yet another one that doesn't do it any favours.

Straight to the point: it wasn't the yayoi or yuri. Admittedly, that was quite sudden and unexpected, but it went with whole Bonobo monkey plot point. There's also something intriguing about the lack of fear about reproduction. One of the biggest fears nowadays are declining birth rates, which Shin Sekai Yori just laughs at. Yayoi or yuri aren't a problem in normal doses, but it didn't feel right in this episode.

To me this episode rested on the relationships. As if relying on the initial shock factor and only that, there wasn't any decent progress. Only at the end we get back to the main story with some of the mystery surrounding everything, but until then what we saw was basically teenage drama that can be found in any TV show, in any country.

Had Shin Sekai Yori focused less on the relationships, this could have been a better episode. We already knew that Saki was in love with Shun, it's obvious. And it's because it's obvious that we didn't need to see an entire episode of them running away from it. This episode was went on for too long and focused on the wrong things. If there's any hope for improvement, its next episode.

The ending created a new mystery and was probably the only interesting part of the episode. What Shin Sekai Yori needs to do now is be concise. No more faffing around or drawing things out, just go back to the original plot. Even if the original plot is a little complicated, that's fine but please no more episodes like this one.