Sunday, September 16, 2012

Summer 2012 Anime Review - Part 2 Humanity Has Declined


Humanity Has Declined

Plot Summary: It has been several centuries since human population has declined. Food has become harder to find and what little sources the humans have are considered highly valuable. The most prosperous species on the Earth are "Fairies", 10 cm tall creatures with high intelligence and a great love for sweets. A nameless girl, the main character, became a UN arbitrator between the humans and the fairies and had returned to her hometown to help her grandfather. One day, the village is sent some strange products made by a company called FairyCo. Since the villagers are wary of using the products, the girl, her grandfather, and a nameless boy decide to go to the factory to find out about the mysterious products and who is behind making them.

This is a weird combination of dystopia, utopia, science fiction, fantasy, and reality. I wouldn’t call it bad, but it’s very interesting to call it good. Very easy to call it good, but very interesting to do so as well. Since that’s ridiculously vague, let me explain.

It starts off with a sentient robot piece of bread killing itself so that it can be eaten. And that’s just the first episode. It was a ridiculous moment of dystopia in a seemingly utopia, but it’s also a dystopia.

This is a hard show to explain.

But I suppose a big flaw in this show is that it’s kind of just a cool story and there are no big character revelations (until the very end, which is a flashback of telling how the Mediator went through school and met Y).

Those cool stories, though, are absolutely brilliant. In one, you get that piece of bread. In another, you get sentient uncooked chickens trying to take over the world. In another, you get thrown into a manga world. In another, you get a time loop. I’ve seen these stories done before, and I’ve seen them done better, but damn if there isn’t something unique and cynical about these stories that you just have to love. I mean, the fairies constant smile that creeps you out more than anything else in the show and at the same time they represent the cutest thing the show has to offer is just brilliant.

What was so great about the show was its stories and its utopian cynicism about, literally, the decline of humanity. The show has its dull moments, but it also had its brilliant ones. The great thing about it is that you can skip the two episode arcs you don’t like and get straight to the ones you do, because nothing is lost in between.

Rating: 8/10

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