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In Shinsekai Yori (From the New World), children who show the potential to become either Akkis (fiends/ogres) or Gouma (karma demons) are killed off and removed from society.

Examples:

  • Katayama Manabu - He cheats in the ball tournament and is disposed of near the end of episode 2.
  • Aonuma Shun - He becomes a karma demon and dies after episode 10.
  • Kutegawa Izumi - She becomes a karma demon and is told to commit suicide in Tomiko's dialogue in episode 12.

But what about Amano Reiko?

She "disappears" at the end of episode 1. But what did she do wrong?
It was apparent that she wasn't skilled with her juryoku (psychic power or Cantus). But is that reason enough to kill her off?

I vaguely remember this...

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  • Hmm... I'm not confident enough to make an answer (since I've only been watching the show, never read the book) - but in the beginning, weren't Saki's mom concerned about her not being able to use juryoku? I think it's possible that those who cannot use juryoku are disposed of since it could cause a sort of "classism" that leads to disputes to those with and without juryoku, just like in the past when those with juryoku murdered people.
    – atlantiza
    Commented Mar 18, 2013 at 22:32
  • It's interesting to note that this "monument" bears the same stamp that is stamped on the names of kids that "disappeared," like Reiko and Manabu after her.
    – кяαzєя ♦
    Commented Mar 19, 2013 at 14:28
  • Shouldn't the examples be in a spoiler block? Particularly the second one.
    – mudri
    Commented Mar 1, 2014 at 20:50
  • @JamesWood If you want to, feel free to add it in. In this case I didn't feel it was necessary because it's a question you're more likely to ask at the end of the show when you're reflecting back at what happened.
    – Mysticial
    Commented Mar 1, 2014 at 21:18
  • @Mysticial I see what you're saying, but I feel fortunate that I've watched the show already since I had no idea it was about Shinsekai yori before I saw the page. With my screen size, the “examples” section is very prominent, and people could read it accidentally.
    – mudri
    Commented Mar 1, 2014 at 21:25

1 Answer 1

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I will use the manga to answer this question. There are quite a lot of differences in the plot between the manga and the anime. However, the truth about the history of mankind, how the human population is reduced and consists of only Cantus users, and the checks and controls employed to prevent Cantus (Juryoku - 呪力) users from killing each other are essentially the same.

"Furthermore, the ones with a risk of subconscious collateral damage, those who cannot control their psychokinesis, [...] were disposed of" - False Minoshiro

From the statement above, it seems that those who cannot control their Cantus well may unconsciously cause collateral damage. Although there is no example in the anime/manga, I guess that it is analogous to a shaky hand operating a water tap: the water tap itself is not broken, but the poor control causes the water (analogous to Cantus) to flow out much more or much less than necessary.

This is different from the case of Hashimoto-Appelbaum syndrome - Karma Demon (Gouma), where a faulty running water tap would make a good analogy of: the water just keeps running out without effective way to control the amount, like the Cantus power of a Karma Demon is constantly leaking to his/her surrounding subconsciously without any way of stopping. As seen in the anime, Shun can only redirect his Cantus to orbit the balls, but the power leakage cannot be stopped.

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  • My concern is that right after you see her "die" in the manga no one really seems to care what ever happened to her. Sekai doesn't even look for her in chapter 2, those friends are a bunch **** heads.
    – user2761
    Commented Nov 20, 2013 at 0:13
  • @Oblivexx, the Board of Education are skilled at memory manipulation. >! Saki and the others forget Shun later on.
    – mudri
    Commented Mar 1, 2014 at 20:45
  • There is an example in the anime. The short intro at the beginning of the very first episode.
    – Llamageddon
    Commented Jan 2, 2018 at 2:07

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