Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (Humanity Has Declined) Review

 

In the world of Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, the human population is dismal. It is never explained why, but I assume some sort of catastrophic event happened, causing humanity to revert back to the rural lifestyle of old. Our main character is essentially nameless, and plays the role of the sarcastically smart character. She is a mediator for the U.N, providing a link between humanity and the “new humanity” called fairies. The role of fairies in this anime can be seen in two ways. The first would be to consider them what they are, fairies. The other would be to see them as the creators of the anime wanted them to be seen as, symbols of what modern humanity has become. In the series, the fairies care nothing more than eating sweets, playing around, excessive and irrational multiplying, following the latest trends, and ignoring what happens to the environment around them. Sound familiar? The entire series takes a satirical approach to humanity. The dark humor hits the right spots, and makes one think about the future and what it will look like. In essence, as ridiculous as this anime is at times, it paints a possible future for humanity.

The anime itself doesn’t follow standard anime norms. There is no love interest, and there is no plot. There are also more holes in the plot than Swiss cheese. Rather, what we have is a central theme, that being humanity doing the best they can to survive. There is also no beginning or end. Our main character does her job, and sometimes gets into odd situations because of it. Sometime around the middle of the series, the anime becomes a flashback. We are shown the events that led to the main character becoming a mediator. This all nice and everything, but I wanted to know more about what led to humanity’s decline. What happened? How did fairies come about? The very last minute of the series dropped a hint that perhaps there would be a sequel, in which case I’m ok with the unanswered questions. But if not, that just makes me mad. Regardless, this was a very interesting series. Expect lots of “WTF” moments, and enjoy the satirical main character.

Score - 8/10