Summary:  Saki and Satoru fall into the thick of the civil war, but are rescued by the arrival of the Giant Hornet clan. They reunite with the others and attempt to evade an unexpected danger and return home.

Dragonzigg’s Thoughts: In the early episodes, we complained that From the New World favoured atmosphere over plot progression or action. I guess over the last couple of episodes we’ve been reminded that we should be careful what we wish for. The entire ‘rat civil war arc’ has been kind of a downer from my perspective – it’s not been especially interesting, compelling or vital to the plot, and has therefore basically been filler, something I’d never expect in a novel adaptation.

It’s not that it’s been bad per se, and there have been effective and powerful scenes that have taught us more about the characters and the world, such as Saki and Satoru’s uncomfortable night together or Satoru’s crazy killing spree. But by relocating out of the village, and upping the action quotient, the show has lost a lot of the creepy, Stepford Wives-esque ambiguity and uneasiness which attracted me to it in the first place. It’s not been helped that instead of following up on  the fascinating plot threads spouted by the False Minoshiro, we’ve mostly been confined to the relatively uninteresting mechanics of rat society.

This episode is workmanlike in resolving this plot, but hardly a stunner and to be honest feels like an awfully neat and pat resolution, especially the ‘we can easily all get our powers back’ scene that borders on a winking deus ex machina.  There’s none of the intense psychological drama or interpersonal study that I find interesting in the show, and it’s especially disappointing that the reunion of the two groups is so hasty and lacking drama. With Saki and Satoru so dominant over the last few episodes, you wonder if the other three will be permanently relegated to background characters.

I do however have to take a deep breath and remind myself that we’ve still got a good 16 or 17 episodes to go, and with that amount of time it’s acceptable for diversions like this to flesh out a little more backstory. There’s also the genuinely fascinating appearance of Kiroumaru, who appears to be the antithesis of everything we’ve seen of the rats so far – he’s clever, noble, pleasant to look at and has seemingly no fear of humans, though he still acknowledges their ‘divinity’. His unexpected resistance to the (inferred) orders of the ethics committee is by far the most intriguing twist in this tale, and I’d be surprised if we don’t see him again soon. Judging from the next episode preview it looks as if we’ll have a time skip, and I’ll be interested to see what repercussions the group’s adventure will have.

Aqua’s Thoughts: In this episode, Maria breaks down over Saki not looking at her enough. The two then proceed to have steaming hot lesbian sexytimes all night long. In a Queerat’s nest. This actually happens.

Well, in the manga, at least. (Zigg’s note – this certainly would have made for a more entertaining, if creepy, episode)

In the far superior (and more faithful) anime adaptation of the novel, things are looking quite a bit brighter. While this arc wasn’t exactly the epic tale enfolding we’d expect after the False Minoshiro’s shocking infodump in episode 4, it did give a nice overview of what life is like outside of town, and the street-smart the kids gained from this little escapade will be sure to play a role in the show’s actual plot, which seems to be kicking off next week. Timeskip ahoy!

Though From The New World remains an incredibly interesting anime I wholeheartedly support, it is not exactly without its flaws. I found myself having a hard time remembering what exactly happened this episode, as it mostly retrod old paths and eventually formed the finale of an arc that could have been one episode. Saki and Satoru definitely come out of it for the better, but with Shun, Marina and Mamoru gone for three whole episodes, I wonder if there will be anything remotely noticeable about them left post-timeskip. Also, after 7 episodes, it is still not exactly sure how Cantus works, which can be blamed on the adaptation’s strict fidelity to a mystifying discourse, probably ripped straight from the book. It is rather obvious that these first 7 episodes served as some sort of prologue, some means to lay out a foundation for a later plot, but for a prologue, 1/3th of the show’s entire run might be a bit too long. With the kids back home, I’m wondering what exactly will constitute the anime’s main plot.