Summary: The time has come for Kamisu’s annual summer festival, and the authorities, Saki included, discuss the overwhelming victory of the Robber Fly colony over the Giant Hornets. Kiroumaru has escaped, but the likeliness of Squealer having discovered a false Minoshiro is all the more likely. Saki and Satoru receive some bad news, but an even bigger problem interrupts their mourning.

Aqua‘s thoughts: From The New World may not be a good show in the strictest sense of the word, and definitely not something I will watch as soon as it comes out — as evidenced by this hilariously late post — but I am still very glad it exists. Its story, visual style and directorial vision are all wholly unique, and its progressive storytelling sets it apart from the tropes of its medium in ways that even some of the classics in the genre cannot achieve. It looks like the proverbial excrement has hit the proverbial ventilator, as Squealer and his Robber Flies turn on their “Gods” to try and claim their place as dominant species on Earth, after having disposed of the conservative Giant Hornets first. They even have nukes now! Once again, the analogies with human history are evident.

The Queerat assault on Kamisu’s 66th district magnificently portrayed how the humans in From The New World have no idea how to deal with conflict or war. This gave the higher-ranking officials the opportunity to show off their awesome prowess with Cantus, resulting in some exciting fight scenes that could come straight out of a Gainax anime. The never blinking bald guy was a few notches too hammy for the show’s vibe, and he showed up seemingly out of nowhere to cackle maniacally and then die, but at least Kaburagi was awesome. The Queerats seem to be retreating for now, but if Sqealer does not have anything else up his sleeve, I’ll eat my hat. With the population divided in several neighbourhood watch groups, Saki and Satoru get paired off with Saki’s parents and Tomiko, of all people. This episode already hinted that Tomiko is far crueler than her gentle demeanour indicates, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is not exactly what she had planned.

While the battle was rather quickly resolved, this episode still managed to raise a lot of important questions. Why does a strange spirit erupt from a Cantus user’s eyes when they die? How come the fake corpses for Maria and Mamoru Squealer arranged for even match their DNA exactly? Who is the almighty Cantus user working together with the Robber Flies? Did Mamoru turn into a Fiend after all? What’s with Maria’s poignant monologue at the end? Was the line about not being able to have kids an excuse she came up with or is this foreshadowing? Was she killed by Squealer after giving birth to Mamoru’s kid? That would explain the bones, the Robber Fly colony’s secret weapon, and that damn line about how many people would have been saved had Maria never been born. By the way, what happened to the girl who wanted to postpone the summer festival? Is someone on the Committee in cahoots with the Queerats?

While the first half of the episode was comprised of a lot of the political hooplah that made last episode such a drag, the second part gave  us a nice sense of danger and adventure, with some cool action scenes to boot. It’s an awesome part of From The New World that has been lying aside for way too long. The show requires a lot of attention, and sometimes clever and even shocking subtleties fly straight past me. I was unable to put properly put together the pieces of the puzzle dropped throughout this episode until read what other people thought of it. This shows that From The New World is pretty good at writing subtle mystery without having to resort to shameless exposition or narration, but maybe too good. It seems to cater towards an audience that thinks in the exact same way as the writers do, and expect the unrelenting attention it frankly does not deserve. Despite the anime making some substantial improvements on the novel — for starters, by letting all the underage sex happen off-screen — I have the feeling the novel would be able to clear up things a bit more. Nevertheless, the story itself remains tightly woven and actually pretty damn good. I’m excited to see where this heads next.

Zigg‘s thoughts: Aqua’s covered most of the relevant points, so I’m going to take a moment to discuss something particular, namely how disappointed I am with the way atmosphere has gradually been leeched out of the show. One of the major things which attracted me to New World in the first place was the murky, ambiguous sense of mystery that surrounded it. Though the questions posed then haven’t necessarily been answered yet, they’ve nevertheless become a lot less interesting. It may just be me, but I feel the creepy, Stepford Wives-esque vibe that was so compelling about the early part of the show has totally dissipated.

The show has simply pulled the curtain back too far. When our protagonists were children, menaced by mysterious authority figures they couldn’t understand, the show was scary and unnerving. Now though, we’ve met those authority figures, and discovered that they’re boring and spend most of their time sitting around in meeting rooms.  The festival Saki and Shun attempts is a wearying reminder of ‘normality’ in a world that loses more of its charm and mystique the more we see of it.  For me, this loss has severely dented my enthusiasm for the show.

This episode at least raises some interesting questions, the most immediately compelling being the ambiguity over the fate of Maria and Mamoru. We the audience know they escaped, but then how on earth did Yakomaru arrange perfect DNA and dental records? The Queerat invasion is an interesting plot twist, but one that’s sabotaged by very poor pacing and direction, making the threat appear laughable. The death of moustache guy seems to want to be treated as some great tragic moment, but since he only appeared last episode and I never even bothered learning his name, I’m less than moved.  The show also continues showing alarming signs of cheapness.

I want to emphasise I’m not trying to hate on New World, I still really want to like the show. But so much of what attracted me was intangible mystery and atmmosphere, rather than the nuts and bolts of plot. I was intrigued by the weird mental dystopia they were trying to build, and that seems to have largely been abandoned. I’ll stay the course, but I do hope we pick up a bit soon.

Random observations

• Shisei Kaburagi looks a bit like Mamoru, only with double irises. Coincidence?
• Good thing no one’s bonobo reflex kicked in when the Queerats invaded. I guess Kamisu’s citizens are arrogant enough to not consider a Queerat invasion a threat. I can hardly blame them, but I wonder how long that will last.