"Footsteps of Ruin"
Growing up is no easier in Shinsekai Yori than it ever was in real life.
After twelve years, Saki finds herself 26 years old, and under the employment of the Department of Exospecies Control as a supervisor to the
bakenezumi. Life, it seems, hasn't gone quite the way she hoped it would; she and
Satoru (who have drifted apart somewhat since their tryst at the age of fourteen) never did find Maria and Mamoru, and despite being privy to the cruel politics of the village, they now work for the very people they imagined running away from as children. Satoru has been employed as some sort of scientist, doing something that Saki terms "actually useful" while Saki herself is stuck in a bureaucratic position. There's an almost funny irony in watching these two kids grow up into dissatisfied adults; isn't that what happens to most of us? We envision great things for our futures, but unfortunately, someone has to do the dirty work and the desk jobs, and some of us end up "pencil pushers" instead of the professions we wished for. As unsatisfied as she may be, however, Saki's job is anything but easy, and if we've learned anything from the
bakenezumi, it's that whenever
Yakomaru shows up, trouble follows.
The
bakenezumi issue at the center of this episode gives
Saki and Satoru the excuse they needed to get over a falling out they'd had, but the conflict itself is complex and dangerous in more ways than one. The Spider Wasp colony has been attacked by another colony, and the attacker failed to file a declaration of war beforehand. The incident reveals the fact that the Robber Fly colony has been amassing power over the last twelve years, and since it's starting to encroach on the Giant Hornet colony, it may have had a hand in attacking the Spider Wasps (who have close ties to the Giant Hornets) for political reasons. This leads to an inquiry during which both Yakomaru and Kiroumaru are questioned before some of the most powerful humans of Kamisu 66,
including Tomiko. The tensions between Yakomaru (now so elevated in status that he wears gold proudly) and
Kiroumaru are all but visible, and Yakomaru seems to only have gotten better at snaking his way out of trouble with his words. For all of Saki's misgivings, Squealer has become a real threat to their society, and even now that she's an adult in the Exospecies Department, he still manipulates her and the rest of the "gods" to his advantage.
With suspicion on the Spider Wasps and the Giant Hornets, Kiroumaru and Yakomaru
go to war (with the paperwork properly filed this time) on different sides, and if there's one moment that stood out to me this episode, it was the one where Kiroumaru, covered in blood and expressing his regret at his slow victory,
smiles cruelly and in ecstasy at the defeat of his enemies. There's something really chilling about that moment, watching the usually noble Kiroumaru show the true feelings beneath his facade, made even more frightening by the fact that the Giant Hornets inject themselves with a drug to dull their sense of fear and pain prior to battle. Knowing that Saki and the others in her department watch over these battles like
spectators at a movie is also unnerving, but finding out that the Giant Hornets have been wiped out by the end of the episode is even more shocking, and proves just how dangerous Yakomaru and the Robber Flies have become in their rise to power.
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