Shinsekai Yori - 16

"To Saki, My Love"

Have you ever heard of the term "death flags"? That's essentially what this episode of Shinsekai Yori has painstakingly set up in both subtle and obvious forms.

Of the two people Saki has truly loved, one has died and the other has disappeared from her life, with only a premonition of terrible things to follow. Neither Maria nor Mamoru can be blamed for their escape, however. Even with Tomiko's promise to protect them from the Board, Saki and Satoru had little guarantee that bringing them back would do them any good, and only Saki herself is aware of exactly what it is that awaits the runaways even if they do succeed in evading Kamisu 66. However, Maria finds living as fugitives a far better alternative to continuing their lives in the village, and for good reason. There is a sense of anger and well-placed outrage (an almost revolutionary one) at the system in her letter for the manner in which adults treat their children, regardless of necessity. It is clear that Maria does not think the system is worth saving, for what kind of humans have they become when killing their own children off is necessary for self-preservation? If one out of every thousand children is born a devil rather than an angel, and hundreds of angels are killed as a precaution, why bother having children at all? Have the adults not become more cruel in letting things proceed the way they have, by letting fear destroy their paternal instincts?

The various flashbacks to Maria and Saki's childhood together, while initially strange (and almost jarring, if we consider the insert song), serve to underlie Maria's words and to give us as viewers a stronger emotional bond so that it will hurt all the more when the two girls part ways. They strengthen Maria's conviction that their society is built on a faulty premise, and it makes the love between herself and Saki more accessible to us. Her choice to aid Mamoru isn't necessarily one made out of romantic love, but rather one made through fraternal affection and motherly instinct; Mamoru, contrary to his name, has always required protection from the others, and Maria has always been the one to give it, and now that his life is in danger, she's willing to throw everything away to help him survive. Even if it means parting with Saki, whom she considers her lover despite it all.

Of course, Satoru and Saki are loathe to give up hope in finding them. The ties between these children are special, especially by the terms of this world, and one by one the members of Group One have been picked off, destroying those bonds. In realizing the truth of this, Saki is at a loss, and Satoru, the only one left, changes his position from one of Saki's closest friends to the only loved one she has left in the world. The sexual tension between them has been in existence since they were twelve years old, but the two of them have finally found a real link, begun from the moment they survived the bakenezumi incident together and fell in love with the same boy.

In any case, the foreshadowing as to what will happen to Maria and Mamoru isn't very clear, but we are told that the bakenezumi are up to something (my suspicions are alerted when Yakomaru mentions that their bones are no different from the humans), and are using the children to bring it about. There is also a surreal dream, in which Saki is visited by many monstrous silhouettes and someone who is presumably Shun, and where Saki is warned that Maria must die. Seeing as there is a time skip to age 26 next week, it's likely that the terms of Saki's premonition, in which Maria's survival implies the death of many, will soon come to pass, and that it will be every bit as tragic as we've been led to believe it will be.