I have had the hardest time coming up with writing down articulate thoughts on the subject of Shinsekai Yori. Intrinsically, it's a difficult show to review in an unbiased manner. Either it blew you away with its world building, intrigue, intensity, and suspense or it bored you to death in the first act and you couldn't get back into it. It's a shame if people actually feel like the latter, because I believe that that setup is so necessary to make acts 2 and 3 hit you so much harder. Obviously, I reside in the camp of the former and I'll tell you why. (WARNING: I tried to avoid spoiling anything in the following paragraphs, but I probably slipped up somewhere, so tread lightly if you're worried about spoilers.)

Shinsekai Yori is one of the best, if not the best show, at tackling foreshadowing. Most of the time, it's done in a way so obvious that it's almost painful. The brilliance of Shinsekai Yori is that it is so obvious. I mean, it tells you basically the entire plot in the first 4-7 episodes, but does it in such a way that you never connect the dots until later. It does this so cleverly, by disguising their foreshadowing as plot exposition, diverting your attention so smartly.

Something else that Shinsekai Yori does masterfully is the time skips that occur throughout the story. There are 3 distinct acts in total, of which the later two are time skips, the first being two years and the second being twelve. The first skip is done more smoothly than the second, but that can be expected, since there's a lot less time to fill in with either exposition or inference. The way that they're handled within the story is so well done that you barely even recognize that there's a sudden gap in time. Usually, that'd be a bad thing, but in such an wordy work, it's somewhat helpful to not be bogged down with irrelevant plot lines, like them going through 3 years of school with amnesia. As an aside, the first ending, Wareta Ringo, is among the best songs I've ever heard. In fact, the entire soundtrack is incredible.

Perhaps the greatest feat of Shinsekai Yori, however, is its skill at showing and rarely telling you forthright. There are many instances of this happening throughout the show, where something happens and sometimes you're never told, you're just supposed to have gathered that it has happened. And like I said with the time skips, usually that would be a negative, but in the case of Shinsekai Yori, it's absolutely perfect for the mood of the show. After all, it's a show about intrigue, growing up, and moral ambiguity.

Probably the only negative that I've really seen regarding Shinsekai Yori, is how dull it is to get into. And it's a fair argument. If you aren't really interested in the deep world building and complex ideas being presented, it can become hard to maintain the level attention that Shinsekai Yori demands. For me, I was absolutely engrossed in the world from episode one, but I understand that that's not how it works for everyone, in which case, this is not the show for you. You have to be prepared to not see much action, but rather, a lot of puzzle pieces to fit together.

I'm not going to touch on the moral questions that Shinsekai Yori raises, since I'd have to delve deep into spoiler territory to discuss, so let it be said that by the end, you won't know who's side you should be on. One thing I will say, is that Shinsekai Yori does a fantastic job at constantly changing who you perceive as the villain of the story, you'll notice that the people who you thought were evil at first are not really all that different from Saki and her friends, only the methods of their approach differ. Shinsekai Yori weaves a wonderful narrative throughout twenty-five episodes, keeping you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Anyone who appreciates philosophical, mysterious, thrilling, and coming of age stories will love Shinsekai Yori and perhaps, even if you don't like any of those things, you can still appreciate the narrative greatness of Shinsekai Yori.