Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita is perhaps the most shocking series of the year, and that’s as no one would have expected or foreseen to experience something of this caliber – and with such a degree of humanity to it.
There’s so much that deserves recognition in regards to this series as there’s much which is off the charts and unprecedented in uniqueness, originality, and delivery. The entirety of this anime is a true escape – a captivating encompass away from one reality, and into another, with a hardly believable level of fluidity and simply all around distinction in every respect.
Everything done within this series wasn’t simply done to work, it was done to hit with the greatest amount of impact imaginable – and indeed, this series hits hard every second, one mustn’t be fooled by its gentle appearance at all, this series is brutal when it comes to quality as it doesn’t let up whatsoever. A short haired girl is traversing down a path towards a village – her visage may be recognizable as our heroine by any who have seen pre-release material for this series, and one will surely turn curious why her hair is short.
This series is bringing pro skills to a little league season, that’s how it feels in comparison to the other series of the summer. The heroine is indeed the short-haired girl, and it turns out an experiment with her grandfather got her hair a bit messed up – this sets up a backstory, whilst also putting our heroine on quite a human level as we see how she’s bothered regarding her hair in the intermittent of all else, and further, it makes the sight of her receiving her long lavishing hair, a signature trait of hers, quite an unprecedented sight.
When we’re shown the display of her hair growing to be the distinguished mane which a few of us may already be familiar with – it’s like at that very instance, we’re seeing how she’s come to be defined, a feeling of intimacy grows between us and the character.
Now take note of that, and also realize this, Jinrui Wa Suitai Shimashita has something which hasn’t been seen in a series since perhaps Tamayura, if not Aria The Animation, this series has a trait even lost in modern society – something called “humanity”. Our heroine works as a mediator between humans, and another intelligent species within her world, fairies. Right at the start of this episode, our heroine is in the process of aiding a village in combating their foot shortage.
Humanity has declined – that is our setting, and our heroine works alongside other individuals, humans and otherwise, to simply live on. And one particularly spectacular aspect of this is how she narrates it all within her mind – she tells us all of her encounters, actions, and activities as she goes about them, and it should be said that the voice acting is unparalleled. The storytelling feels so in tune with oneself – as if we’re being told something directly by someone face to face, and the seiyuu for our instantly lovable heroine used a voice so fitting.
Not only this, yet our heroine is full of personality – her miniature escapades around the village in an effort to contribute to a thriving society are highly amusing, and this is all as result of her specifically. She says various things which are indeed comical – yet they’re not necessarily jokes, they’re an educated assessment of the situation, no matter how simple it may be.
Additionally, the visuals must be praised as well – they’ve been done to develop the “humanity” aspect. Soft colors are everywhere, and even when met with a physically darker setting, it’s all still composed of pastel tones flushed with white. The actual palette or selection of hues utilized is also of a natural type – greens, blues, and various tans, all the predominant colors of nature also dominate in this series. The shapes are made curvy, noticeable best with the character designs, to aide in a relaxed feeling.
Furthermore, a facet one can see specifically in the eyes of the characters is a shading technique known as “hatching”, a series of lines – being able to see the artist’s lines individually like this, it truly gives a lot to the natural feel as one can grasp the hand-made qualities all the way down to the character designs.
It’s not that Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita excels in any given area, rather, it’s excellent at everything it does – and it ties together all the traits in a harmonic unison to formulate the final product of animation, a novel masterpiece.
Jul 1, 2012 @ 22:27 CDT
So…Colourful…my eyes…
but yeah, sounds good from what you described, Seven. Here’s hoping I feel the same after seeing the episode :)
Jul 1, 2012 @ 22:30 CDT
Colorful is a good thing.
My favorite aspect of this series is the narration – the heroine’s analysis of everything is wonderful and amusing.
Jul 1, 2012 @ 23:16 CDT
I love how our heroine went a little bit sinister. A little bit spooky. And all just to save herself the trouble of explaining why she couldn’t catch a chicken or two. The juxtaposition of her outward appearance with that very human quality is charming and above all else, interesting to watch.
I was honestly surprised to see no small matter of social commentary going on. I’m a food guy. Given that I have had to live over half my life with bowel disease I am careful of what I eat and when. Processed, boxed, canned or instant type foods, and especially fast food are to be avoided in my diet. I found it intensely fascinating that when a stock of food stuffs came along from FairyCo, people avoided it like the plague. I think our heroine says something to the effect of “it has something of an anchovies shape”. This was very telling.
Look, you catch a chicken, you kill the chicken (a step that our heroine seemed to gloss over rather hard), you boil the carcass in water, you pluck the feathers like you’ve never plucked feathers before (people with bitch at you if they get part of it in their mouths). Then you clean the carcass and it become the beginning of food.
I live in the States. The Land of Plenty. But plenty of what. I look in the supermarkets and it’s corn and corn derivatives, a plant that actually rapes the soil it comes from; and states like Nebraska and Kansas are nearly dependent on this crop as the main source of income, and it doesn’t pay the bills. We pay, in taxes, to subsidize the agro-business end of that deal.
Sustainability. It takes a ton of resources to commit to convenience. And it looks like the world of Jintai is at the tail end of when those resources started to fail. “Humanity diminished” That is one hell of a terrifying euphemism. This might not be the colourful world that the scenery evokes. That the fay folk live in a sort of compare/contrast to the remainders of the human race is….as shocking as a bread-bot ripping itself apart.
And the ED is just uncomfortable to watch. It underscores a tragedy.
Jul 2, 2012 @ 0:41 CDT
Humanity is certainly declining indeed it seems.
Jul 2, 2012 @ 0:51 CDT
It looks like you enjoyed this episode as much as I did, Seven! I also loved how our likeable protagonist is already quite multifaceted, and how effectively she worked as a narrator. The episode never felt like it was delving into tedious exposition, but instead made it feel like we were going along with her, encountering all these peculiar surprises! Everything about this show is just unique, and I generally find that to be a good thing. It means the creators are trying to do something that hasn’t been done much before, and believe in their story enough to expect people to connect with it.
I think there will be a lot of interesting (and pertinent!) things to discuss for this series.
Jul 2, 2012 @ 0:57 CDT
Indeed, this series is unique to the point it’s almost ridiculous – and our adventure with her is quite enjoyable as if it were one with a friend.
On another note, sorry to say, though I had to eradicate a single sentence of your comment from the end – we have a strict policy against advertising of similar sites, be it plain text or hyperlink, and irregardless if intentional or not.
Jul 2, 2012 @ 5:36 CDT
Looks like the kind that I start watching for the art style, great review. I’ll use your site for reference this season, until now your impressions are spot on.
Jul 2, 2012 @ 8:02 CDT
Good to know – it’d be nice if you continued to provide feedback as well.
Jul 5, 2012 @ 6:29 CDT
After seeing this, I’m quite impressed. The MC was interesting, with her personality seeming analytical to me, and was a great contrast from her appearance.
The breadbot bit was…odd and shocking, and I was surprised when he started spraying juice everywhere. Didn’t know carrot juice looked like blood…
I’m sticking to this show, it’s very different to anything I’ve seen before – in a good way :)
I lol’d at the assistant having only 3 ratings (excellent, good, fair). Anyone else think the average human on this show is an idiot, by the way? I’m getting that impression from the majority of the townsfolk… (oh, the 6 hour debate on how to catch chickens was so stupid – heck, the problem was solved by a non-debater giving a solution someone had already voiced!).
Jul 5, 2012 @ 8:37 CDT
I think there’s a deliberate reason everyone is slow – although in the case of the debate specifically, I think that scene was attempting to show how even if they spent six hours endlessly concentrated in hopes of figuring a solution, they won’t conclude anything which they haven’t already.
The situation is hopeless in other words.
Jul 6, 2012 @ 0:43 CDT
I see. Poor guys…here’s hoping we’ll never reach a similar situation :)