I've seen From the New World get dozens of recommendations from newer anime fans. I finally decided to cave in, and see what the fuss is about. I got 12 episodes in before I decided to quit. Reading the synopsizes for the rest, I'm glad I did before it got worse. FNW only succeeds in bringing up ideas, never mind executing them. If this is one of the best anime of the 10s, I'm buying a time machine! >:I
The pacing is slow, and a lot of elements are vague. The first three episodes are almost slice-of-life. At the 4th episode, we get a convenient slug to info-dump the reality of the situation, and the heat begins to flame, as our characters are caught, and we gain a better view of this strange world.
From here, there could have been numerous paths to a great anime. Combine them, and you could have had a masterpiece. The anime could have criticized Buddhism, explore life in a harsh dystopian society, compare and contrast the humans with the rat people, or shown the characters struggle with forced love. All of these are brought up, but there's never any focus. Characters don't develop, nothing really changes. By the end, it seems like it just becomes a full-blown action anime, with long periods of waiting and villains I don't care about.
The characters were pretty weak, as far as I've seen. There's not much to note about them. They don't even do much despite their knowledge. I don't like their art design, which makes it even harder to tell them apart. Why do they look so soft? Why are their noses so small? Why do they have gigantic, colorful eyes? This isn't a moe anime, why are they sticking to the cutesy style?
I wish the writing could have supported the concept. In addition to its themes, I think the telepathy is used well, and there are some pretty scenes. The art is simple, but calming. Alas, it is not enough. When I dragged through episodes only to reach the 3rd info-dump, I was done. Fan fiction can do better justice for this world. I don't hate the show, and I always have to consider others have loved what I didn't. But wow I can't support this.
The pacing is slow, and a lot of elements are vague. The first three episodes are almost slice-of-life. At the 4th episode, we get a convenient slug to info-dump the reality of the situation, and the heat begins to flame, as our characters are caught, and we gain a better view of this strange world.
From here, there could have been numerous paths to a great anime. Combine them, and you could have had a masterpiece. The anime could have criticized Buddhism, explore life in a harsh dystopian society, compare and contrast the humans with the rat people, or shown the characters struggle with forced love. All of these are brought up, but there's never any focus. Characters don't develop, nothing really changes. By the end, it seems like it just becomes a full-blown action anime, with long periods of waiting and villains I don't care about.
The characters were pretty weak, as far as I've seen. There's not much to note about them. They don't even do much despite their knowledge. I don't like their art design, which makes it even harder to tell them apart. Why do they look so soft? Why are their noses so small? Why do they have gigantic, colorful eyes? This isn't a moe anime, why are they sticking to the cutesy style?
I wish the writing could have supported the concept. In addition to its themes, I think the telepathy is used well, and there are some pretty scenes. The art is simple, but calming. Alas, it is not enough. When I dragged through episodes only to reach the 3rd info-dump, I was done. Fan fiction can do better justice for this world. I don't hate the show, and I always have to consider others have loved what I didn't. But wow I can't support this.