Shinsekai Yori - 12

"Weak Link"

For an episode that counts as the calm before the storm, this was a disturbing and powerful experience.

This confrontation has been in the works for quite a while, but the impact of what gets revealed is no less startling because of it. It was hinted at last week that Tomiko Asahina (Yoshiko Sakakibara) was looking to recruit Saki rather than punish her, and we get confirmation to that in this episode. It seems that all the children are constantly monitored by a "Personality Index" which determines how well they adapt to stressful situations, and Saki has been noted to have the highest tolerance to stress in recent memory. As such, Tomiko not only wants Saki's assistance, she wants her to succeed her as head of the Ethics Committee. In fact, the only reason Saki and her friends were spared was because Tomiko intervened for Saki's sake. When Saki refuses immediately, Tomiko begins to explain just why the job is so important, and what it is that the Ethics Committee is attempting to protect humanity from in the first place: themselves.

As Tomiko herself says, "there are only two things which we should fear: Fiends and Karma Demons." From Shun's demise, we already know the true nature of Karma Demons (or to use the more scientific term, "Hashimoto-Appelbaum Syndrome"); they're normal Cantus users who are unable to control their subconsciousness from leaking through and affecting their surroundings. Tomiko explains further by adding that the gentlest and kindest children are most prone to the disease, and that it doesn't reflect on murderous intent but rather the inability to control. This explains why those children who show a weak link to their Cantus are eliminated, but it's a cruel reason for anyone to have to die, though as Tomiko's tale of the cowherd girl Izumi goes to show, the consequences of letting such dangerous individuals live are terrible, and Izumi's family was mutated and killed before she was driven to suicide.

Even worse are Fiends, those who suffer from Raman-Klogius Syndrome, which Tomiko illustrates through the recounting of a terrifying and visceral personal experience with one in her younger days. The Fiend in question, a boy K, was the latest of thirty known cases (28 of which were male) throughout human history. As the son of a Committee member, his violent and cruel inclinations were largely ignored despite some apprehension, and lack of a recent case downplayed the importance of further action. When K finally snapped, he singlehandedly slaughtered nearly every single person in his village, all of whom were unable to fight back because of the genetic conditioning and "death feedback", redefining the meaning of the syndrome's second name, "Fox in the Henhouse". It was only after a doctor sacrificed himself to inject K with poison that the Fiend was stopped, and the Committee swore never to allow such a case to develop ever again. The age at which human rights were granted was raised from 22 weeks to 17 years, allowing the Committee and Board of Education to remove any potentially dangerous children from society through the Bakenezumi and Nekodamashi, creating something of a terror state in which necessity and paranoia forces the adults to kill off children on the smallest of inclinations.

This is horrifying stuff, that can't be denied, but what's ultimately worse is the fact that without such desperate measures, humanity would be all but wiped out by their own weaknesses, personified by these syndromes. Raman-Klogius is a disease of unknown origins, but the theories point to either an animalistic fear of others in which the affected individual needs to destroy all those around him or her in order to feel safe or to an endorphin high from the act of murder which overrides the "death feedback". Both explanations have horrifying implications on the nature of humanity, and it begs the question of whether or not these people are worth protecting at all, even though those same weaknesses are possibly reflections of our own.

When Saki begs Tomiko to return her memories of Shun, the head of the Ethics Committee firmly refuses. Tomiko warns Saki that such knowledge can stress and unhinge others to the point that other tragedies may occur, and begs her to consider taking over as Head as a method to regain those memories instead. "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link," and Group One certainly boasts a weak link in Mamoru. The two translated versions of this episode I have seen boast two different interpretations of what occurs in the latter half of this episode; in one version, Maria cruelly goads Mamoru by taunting him with the threat of the Nekodamashi when he does badly in school. In the other, it's a teacher who jokes about this when he sees Mamoru's bad results. Regardless, Mamoru is terrified and leaves behind what looks like a suicide or runaway note, and Saki, Maria, and Satoru skip school the next day to search for him.

The foreshadowing about kind children being the most vulnerable to Hashimoto-Appelbaum Syndrome is certainly worrying, and we'll have to wait until next time to see if our fears come true or not, though the preview points to the fact that we'll be running into the Bakenezumi again sooner than later.