is a Japanese novel by Yusuke Kishi. It was originally published in January 2008 by Kodansha. It follows Saki, a young girl who lives quietly in a beautiful and calm village and has just acquired her psychic powers at the age of twelve. She then goes to the academy to learn how to master it with other young people her age, including her friends Maria, Shun, Satoru, and Mamoru. But during an outing, the five of them will learn things they never should have known.
The story received a manga adaptation in Kodansha's manga magazine Bessatsu Shà Ânen Magazine, which was serialized between May 2012 and June 2014, and an anime television series adaptation by A-1 Pictures, which aired in Japan between October 2012 and March 2013. In North America, the manga has been licensed by Vertical (itself an imprint of Kodansha USA), and the anime is licensed by Sentai Filmworks.
In 2008, From the New World won the Grand Prize of the 29th Nihon SF Taisho Award.
In the year 2011, 0.3 percent of the population developed psychic abilities called "Canto." Soon after these powers manifested themselves, many began using Canto for violence and crime, and the conscious and unconscious use of these powers altered the wildlife and environment. This led to a breakdown of modern society and a world war which devastated the human population and caused the fall of modern society. This was followed by oppressive and feudalistic regimes, but these too dissolved in chaos due to the violence of the psychic humans. Eventually, the psychic endowed humans established a stable society by controlling their powers using genetic modification and social conditioning. They made themselves incapable of violence against other humans by implementing Attack Inhibition and creating Death Feedback (Death of Shame in the anime) which would be activated if a psychic human kills another, causing the murderer's organs to shut down and the killer to die almost instantly. The villages also use genetically engineered creatures for various purposes. The mole-like Queerats resemble humanity, are able to speak human language, and live in a complex eusocial society ruled by queens. The feline Impure Cats are used to kill children at risk of developing one of the two dangerous disorders: the , who are unable to control their powers, and the (Ogres in the anime), who can suppress the Attack Inhibition and Death Feedback and use their special powers against humans.
One thousand years after the fall of modern society, Saki Watanabe is born in the tranquil agrarian settlement of Kamisu 66, a society where all humans wield potent psychic abilities. Initially feared by her parents to be a latent, she awakens her powers at age twelve and enrolls in Sage Academy alongside her peersâÂÂSatoru Asahina, Maria Akizuki, Mamoru Itou, Shun Aonuma, and Reiko Amano. Unbeknownst to them, the village authorities closely monitor students, eliminating those deemed unstable or dangerous. Erased from collective memory, these disappearances leave no trace; Saki and her friends remain unaware of Reiko's fate.
During an unsupervised excursion, the group encounters a False Minoshiro, a relic from the past that reveals the dark origins of their civilization and the true nature of their powers. Before they can learn more, the monk Rijin intervenes, destroying the machine and suppressing their abilities as punishment for consorting with forbidden knowledge. While returning to face judgment, Rijin is slain by rogue Queerats, and Saki and Satoru are captured. They escape with the aid of Squealer, a member of the Robber Fly colony, who later assists them in defeating their pursuers alongside General Kiroumaru of the allied Giant Hornet colony. Reunited with their friends, Saki restores their powers using hypnotic techniques employed by the village and returns home, believing their transgressions remain hidden.
Years later, Shun isolates himself before vanishing entirely. Saki discovers him in seclusion, learning he has succumbed to becoming a Karmic Demon. Before taking his own life, he reveals the adults' awareness of their past misdeeds. Though memories of Shun fade, Saki and her friends sense his absence. Meanwhile, Mamoru and Maria flee when the village targets Mamoru for elimination, aided by SquealerâÂÂnow called YakomaruâÂÂwho stages their deaths. Saki later dreams of a faceless child warning her against searching for them.
As an adult, Saki works in the Department of Mutant Management, overseeing the Queerats. Yakomaru rises to power, conquering rival colonies before launching an assault on Kamisu 66 with a supposed FiendâÂÂlater revealed to be the child of Mamoru and Maria, raised by Yakomaru to bypass the psychological restraints that prevent psychics from harming humans. Pursued and outmatched, Saki and Satoru seek the Psychobuster, an ancient weapon, but ultimately spare the child upon realizing it is no true Fiend. Kiroumaru sacrifices himself by provoking the child's Death Feedback, ending the rebellion.
Yakomaru is captured and subjected to unending torment, though his defiance and claim that Queerats are human unsettle Saki. She later learns the Queerats were once ordinary humans genetically altered to prevent triggering psychic inhibitions. Unable to bear his suffering, she secretly ends his life.
A decade later, Saki and Satoru, now married and expecting a child, look toward the future with cautious hope, believing the world may yet improve for the next generation.
The are humanoid mole rat mutants organized in colonies that outwardly serve humans as divine beings. Their rebellion under Squealer exposes their suppressed resentment toward human oppression. Saki Watanabe later discovers they originated from non-psychic humans genetically altered with mole rat DNA, created to bypass the psychological restraints (Attack Inhibition and Death Feedback) that prevent psychics from harming ordinary humans.
The idea of the story had been submitted earlier as a novella in 1980s, and was selected by Hayakawa SF Contest. Yusuke Kishi's translator noted that in this sense Kishi debuted as a science fiction writer even before his career in writing horror and mystery.
In an interview Kishi mentioned that he got the idea from reading King Solomon's Ring by Konrad Lorenz, in which the zoologist compared aggression of some herd animals with that of humans. Lorenz suggested that the animals have evolved to inhibit aggression to avoid mutual loss, while humans only acquired bigger destructive power recently and have no such instinctive inhibition. Kishi also said that some names of the strange animals were a tribute to the science fiction novel Long Afternoon of Earth by Brian Aldiss.
The novel From the New World was written by the Japanese author Yusuke Kishi and published by Kodansha. It is titled after AntonÃÂn Dvoà Âák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World", whose Movement II appears in the story several times. Its original publication was on January 23, 2008, in two volumes. On August 7, 2009, it was re-released as a single volume under the Kodansha Novels imprint; and again on January 14, 2011, as three volumes under the Kodansha Bunko imprint.
A manga adaption by Tà Âru Oikawa was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Bessatsu Shà Ânen Magazine from May 9, 2012, to June 9, 2014. The series has been collected in seven volumes under the Kodansha Comics imprint, released between October 9, 2012, and August 8, 2014.
In 2013 the series was licensed in English by Vertical Inc, who released the seven volumes between November 12, 2013, and January 20, 2015.
The novel was adapted into an anime television series by A-1 Pictures which aired on TV Asahi from October 2012 to March 2013. The anime does not have an opening theme but has two ending themes. by Risa Taneda was used for episode 1 through 16, which was replaced by by Kana Hanazawa starting in episode 17.
It has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks in North America. Sentai Filmworks later released the English dub version on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 15, 2014. Hanabee Entertainment licensed the series in Australia, and released it on Blu-ray and DVD on June 9, 2016.
Along with Den-noh Coil, From the New World received the Grand Prize of the 29th Nihon SF Taisho Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of Japan (SFWJ) in 2008.