Humanity Has Declined Episode 12--Friends At the End of the World [Final Thoughts]

Whether this show confused, annoyed, or fascinated you, it's undeniable that this is a show unlike any other.




Last week I predicted that the final episode may be a clue to how the series is meant to be framed as a whole. Now I don't know why I expected that, because from start to finish this has been a show that defies expectations and all attempts for me to make predictions about it. This arc could've been put in at any point in the show and I would've felt the same about it. However, it is interesting to end a show called "Humanity Has Declined" with a short (and disturbing) look at just humanity.

If there was any "point" to this arc (although this show seems to defy the concept of having one) my best guess is that everyone's got their secrets and darker halves they'd rather not show to the world. Some are embarassing but at the end of the day hurt no one (Y's budding fujoshi tendences), some are two-faces (the girls who agree with everything the older girls say act crass and gossip behind their backs), and others are outright disturbing (collecting grudges and hair). Curly is the biggest offender of the last part, playing house with a Watashi doll only to violently destroy it.

At first, I was entirely in agreement with Watashi's initial statement that she couldn't go back, along with the largest implication that she couldn't hang out with these people anymore. Because of that, I was surprised that she and Y eventually reconciled with the group and by all appearances they were friends at the end. But then I remembered what Y said earlier, about no one being as nice or innocent as they first appear and real trust being hard to come by. The difference between Watashi and Y's friendship versus all the other girls is that they've seen each other's ugly sides but embrace their similarities. They trust each other with their secrets. And since we each have that side to us, who are we to judge? (Although Curly is legitimately creepy...)




There's a reason why Y is the only one Watashi sees out of school, and seeing her before fandom takes her over does drive home that they are actually good friends. I would compare that moment of bonding over their classmates' secrets to when Watashi meets Assistant. The emotional level is different, but there's no denying that a lasting friendship was formed out of that shared experience. We also get that in the final scenes of the fairy jumping out of the robot. The first real friend that she had was with her all along. And just like everything else in this show, you can either read into that as a sugar-sweet happy ending or yet another unsettling and unexplained use of power by the "new humanity."

I kept thinking of the phrase "no man is an island" throughout this episode. Without the fairies taking center stage as a filter we can laugh at while recognizing what they're reflecting, this arc decided to put humans front and center along with all their baggage. Once again, the setting plays a big role in informing the characters' actions; Y mentions that "a place like this" doesn't help their classmates strange inclinations. There was also the overall feeling that deep down each of them was just lonely, and that their secrets were a way of venting it. Thinking back to Watashi crying in a pile of bones, why not look past differences in worldview (however terrifying) at the end of the world?


With all that said, I'm going to keep my final thoughts brief. When was the last time an anime really made you think? Not just about relationships and plot and theme (which if you've been following me for any stretch of time, you know I adore) but really think about the world and your place in it? Jintai is a rare series in that it's able to bring up pretty deep discussions about society, the world, and human nature at large but still make you laugh. The arc revolving around Assistant is the best example of this. There were times when I thought that this show dipped too deeply into the absurd or wandered around too much, but the whole package is really something worth seeing and it's easily the best of this season. Jintai is probably best explained as a modern fairy tale in the Grimm style; sometimes it can be overwhelming strange and make little sense even according to its own logic, and other times it can be dark and cautionary, but the overall moral depends on what you make of it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go clean up some of my mess.

Images from Crunchyroll.com. Check out the complete series screencap gallery on Subdued Fangirling's Google+ page!