‘Hope’ is a common ending theme in many works of fiction, especially in anime. The End of Evangelion gives humanity a chance hoping that everything will work out fine. The finale of Texhnolyze chooses to see the beauty in transience, reflecting it with an image of a flower because their fleeting lives are said to be the reason why they’re beautiful. In the end of Katanagatari, our main characters decide to leave the future descendants to secure their own future, hoping they won’t go down so easily. The ending of Ergo Proxy chooses to fight a potentially hopeless battle with its existentialist themes, with only hope as the sole driving force. If I search better, I can find much more accurate and befitting examples of this theme. However, it is not my intention to explore the idea in anime, but rather to express how it takes a much more concrete form in Shinsekai Yori, despite the level of subtlety it’s hidden beneath the narrative with.

HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD

Like many other shows, Shinsekai Yori’s main narrative ends with an optimistic line. But what does it really mean, exactly? What object of fear are they referring to? With how all things are, how are they hoping to change their society for the better? At a first glance, it may seem like just another optimistic punchline with no real basis and viewers are likely to move on with that. However, if you think carefully and discover a hidden section of its narrative, you’ll realize that it’s referring to a very specific issue in the story: Karma Demons.

Before we get to how the issue of Karma Demons can be solved, let’s examine the hidden narrative I had spoken of.



On the surface it appears that Rijin, the high priest of the Temple of Purification, simply found the main characters listening to the false minoshiro as he was strolling around as a visiting priest. However, clues suggest that he was there exactly for our main cast, upon learning what they were up to. The clue lies in this question Satoru posed in episode 4. Asking why so many toads were around in the area may seem like a pointless inquiry considering the situation before them, but it was the key to why Rijin seemingly coincidentally appeared before them. Later on in episode 9, Maria mentions that geniuses among the Committee are capable of creating lifeforms for the purpose of surveillance. Now if we consider that information in context of episode 4, I’m sure you realize what it means. Yes, the toads there were actually creatures created by the Ethics Committee for the purpose of surveillance. This idea is further emphasized by one close-up shot of a toad’s eyes the moment the main characters gained access to the information stored in the false minoshiro.



Previously I hadn’t considered the possibility that this could signify the Committee’s eyes, and thought it meant that a queerat had witnessed their conversation. It always bothered me because those looked nothing like a queerat’s eyes. But when I realized the purpose of the toads, this ominous shot’s meaning became completely clear. This emphasis is the proof that it’s a significant detail and the only way it gains any significance is if the toad was a surveillance unit.

Now with this newfound realization regarding the Committee’s knowledge of the main cast’s contact with the wandering library, false minoshiro, a lot of their actions become rather suspicious. They knew that the group had their Cantus sealed, then why did they pretend to be deceived by these kids? As Asahina Tomiko explained to Saki later, their group was special as they were conditioned to be free spirited enough for the leadership of the society in the future. However, that doesn’t explain why they didn’t restore their Cantus properly even though it was done by an amateur that is Saki. It’s entirely because of such improper restoration that Shun turned into a Karma Demon, with the lid to his Cantus broken. The truth of the matter can be found here.





In episode 14, Tomiko said there was an experiment conducted on their group. If they were simply candidates for future leadership, it’d be something that occurred in every generation. There wouldn’t be a need of calling it an ‘experiment’. So it stands to reason that there was something else going on. That something else is, creating a more efficient next generation of leaders. The boy they placed the greatest hopes on, Shun, was a more special case than they revealed to the viewers. Shun was an attempt to make the Karma Demons a useful tool for the society.

The problem with Karma Demons is that the vast energy released from within them can not be controlled. However, if they managed to control it, they’d be able to secure a very powerful leader for the society who could solve problems not possible by regular Cantus users. Not only will it benefit the overall society, it’ll also completely prevent the disaster caused by Karma Demons. I personally like to call these safe individuals of Hashimoto-Appelbaum syndrome “Karma Angels”, considering the essence of their existence.

The experiments on Shun may have ended in failure, but the idea is not ill-founded or discarded. You see, the anime has already shown a successful specimen of Karma Angel, which is none other than the most powerful Cantus user, Kaburagi Shisei himself. It was quite blatantly shown in episode 18 that Shisei had pupula duplex in both of his eyes, an extremely rare condition where you have multiple pupils in a single eye. However, Shisei’s ones seem to be a refined version of the condition that serves useful purposes.



This cannot be the eyes of a regular human. Shisei once was, I believe, a Karma Demon who had successfully managed to restore control over his subconscious Cantus leakage, and got hold of a great amount of power. However, with his death in the war, as well as that of every other individuals involved in the experiment, doesn’t that mean everything was lost into oblivion?

No. There was a single individual who possessed all the information needed to continue the experiment. It’s the most important person in the entire story, the main character, Watanabe Saki herself. She had enough conversation with Asahina Tomiko to realize that there was a special experiment, and she had witnessed the moment Shisei revealed his eyes. It wouldn’t be impossible for her to put the two together and get the bigger picture. And since Tomiko had trained Saki to be her successor, including how to restore her telomeres, Saki has a long life ahead of her. Long enough to prepare herself to undertake the risky but great endeavor to solve one of the two issues that terrorized the current society. Fiends are a much rarer phenomenon in Shinsekai Yori because it’s not a psychological issue like Hashimoto-Appelbaum syndrome, otherwise known as, Karma Demon, but rather is a genetic aberration where Attack Inhibition and Death Feedback genes do not function properly. Mutation of these two specific genes is a much rarer occurrence.

Thus, there is hope in the world of Shinsekai Yori. If one of the seemingly irreversible issues can be solved, there surely there is a great possibility that there will someday be a solution to the Fiends issue as well. Hopefully, there is much time to seek that answer.

Personal Thoughts

I am amazed by how thorough the anime has been in subtly depicting all the details, and by how thoughtfully written the entire story was. Not only does it create such a complex and compelling narrative underneath the surface, but it also pays careful attention so as not to contradict any detail. For example, when Tomiko recounted the tale of the fiend, she made her appearance as the young nurse she was at that time. But for the Karma Demon, the show made sure she wouldn’t appear because there is supposed to be a vast difference in time between two rare events. In that time, she surely got older and got a hold of a secure position to know about the details of the incident. The fact that the Karma Demon’s event hadn’t occurred nearly as far in the past as the Fiend’s helps to depict the difference in the magnitude of their rarity.

What impresses me the most is how this story created such a solid basis for the hope it conveys. The ending message wasn’t just empty optimism, it’s a well founded confidence based on real solution. Nothing else made so strong an impact on me with its concrete foundation for a final message. That’s why Shinsekai Yori’s ending holds the special place for me as the absolute best ending in all of fiction, and the anime holds its position as one of the best works of storytelling I’ve ever encountered.

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