Humanity Has Declined: Complete Collection Blu-ray (人類は衰退しました) (original) (raw)

人類は衰退しました Sentai Filmworks | 2012 | Season 1 | 300 min | Rated TV-14 | Dec 24, 2013

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Humanity Has Declined: Complete Collection Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 28, 2013

Anime is rife with shows depicting a post-Apocalyptic landscape. Many of these shows tend to feature technology gone awry in the aftermath of some hideous cataclysm, but even with the surfeit of robots and other high tech gizmos seemingly taking over the world, humans are almost always still front and center in this subgenre, wending their way through dense silicon forests and gleaming skyscrapers which have been built on the ashes of a previous society. Humanity Has Declined is yet another post-Apocalyptic anime, but in this case there are a couple of notable differences that separate this show from the mass of its like minded siblings. As might be inferred from the title, Humanity Has Declined takes a page out of the Children of Men playbook by positing a culture where humans are not procreating and where the species' ultimate demise is not really a question of "if", but "when". That might seem to suggest that Humanity Has Declined is going to be a dour, sober minded anime full of Oshii-esque philosophical musings wrapped around a downright depressing story of a few survivors waiting out the "end times" (think On the Beach, only even worse). And here's where perhaps the most unexpected difference in Humanity Has Declined comes to the fore: this show is unabashedly snarky, casting a jaundiced eye at just about every human escapade and insouciantly asking (if only figuratively), "Is it such a bad thing these idiots are on the way out?"

Humanity Has Declined is based on a light novel series by Romeo Tanaka, and it makes a sometimes uneasy, but generally interesting, transition to anime. One of the interesting conceits of the light novel is carried over to the anime, with the lead character, a young girl who has a rare ability to interact with a new species which is overtaking the planet, namely fairies (yes, that kind of fairy), never being named. Some press materials refer to her as "Watashi", evidently the Japanese word for "I", but in the series itself she's most often called Mediator, a reference to her job as a United Nations liaison between humans and fairies (no, that is not a typo), which this review will also do for clarity's sake. In Humanity Has Declined's rather whimsical formulation, fairies are sweet toothed by nature, and Watashi happens to be an expert confectioner. While Watashi's interaction with fairies provides Humanity Has Declined with an overall plot arc, the show is filled to the brim with outlandish sidebars and bizarre elements that seem to erupt from the quieter "slice of (declining) life" ambience of the series like so many quasi-psychedelic hallucinations. In a genre that frequently features cookie cutter entertainments that are often almost interchangeable, Humanity Has Declined benefits from being something (to paraphrase a certain British comedic troupe) completely different.

The surreal aspect of Humanity Has Declined tends to poke out of the series at unexpected moments. For example, the first two episodes (several arcs play out over two episodes in this series) deal with the Mediator losing some chickens, which were the last source of meat for a village. When she and some of her acolytes set out to find and retrieve the errant fowl, they instead come across a sentient headless and featherless chicken which becomes the talk of the town (understandably). The Mediator attempts to cow her helpers into keeping quiet about their initial failure to rein in the "beast", but of course word quickly spreads. The Mediator and her Grandfather continue looking for the chickens and any other food source, which soon leads them to a really bizarre denouement featuring yet more featherless chickens (this time with heads), who are smart enough that they want to cook humans for food (or something like that). The Mediator also has a "scary" interchange with a mutated piece of toast that goes on the attack. These are just two small moments in a series that can go along in an almost "slice of life" (as opposed to "slice of toast") fashion and then suddenly veer off into more bizarre territory at the drop of a hat (and/or butter knife).

That very surreal aspect acts as a bulwark against what is arguably this anime's biggest stumbling block: not much happens when you get right down it. While there would seem to be an incipient threat against Mankind, what with its impending extinction and all, what actually turns out to inform most episodes are bizarre adventures like the Mediator and a mysterious older woman named Y getting stuck in an alternate universe. And it's in this perhaps unwise decision not to emphasize the very conceit that's part and parcel of the show's very title where Humanity Has Declined really tends to lose at least a little steam. Instead of the Mediator frantically searching for a way to propagate the species while enduring the brickbats of rude comments (from humans and fairies alike), we're instead thrust into a kind of artificial wonderland where nothing is very threatening because it's all so patently insane.

Humanity Has Declined: Complete Collection Blu-ray, Video Quality

Humanity Has Declined is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Sentai Filmworks with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a kind of odd looking anime at times, one which tends to divorce its characters from backgrounds at least some of the time, leaving them stranded in seas of slightly blooming white (see screenshot 18 for an example). The animation style here is rather minimal most of the time, which tends to keep this high definition presentation from ever really popping in any meaningful way. That said, the animators have tried to infuse their basic aesthetic with a kind of "storybook" watercolor painting look which is quite appealing, if never very sharp or overly defined. Line detail is generally sharp and consistent and helps to provide some differentiation in otherwise ill defined sequences.

Humanity Has Declined: Complete Collection Blu-ray, Audio Quality

Funimation Entertainment recently caused a few waves in the anime fanbase when they announced they were releasing OniAi: The Complete Serieswithout the traditional English dub. Sentai Filmworks has done exactly the same thing here with Humanity Has Declined, offering only the original Japanese language track delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. This is a fairly quiet series when you get right down to it, one whose sonic ambitions are fairly limited and which only tends to create interest in things like the high pitched chatter of the fairies and some of the tinkling underscore. Dialogue is cleanly presented (though a lot of the voice actors have fairly wispy performance styles), and fidelity is fine (if unremarkable) in this track.

Humanity Has Declined: Complete Collection Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

• Clean Opening Animation (1080p; 1:32)

• Clean Closing Animation (1080p; 1:32)

• Story Digests (1080p; 6:12)

• Survival of the Fittest is a series of shorts featuring sidebar adventures (sometimes with chibi forms of characters):

  • Survival of the Fittest #1 (1080p; 2:32)
  • Survival of the Fittest #2 (1080p; 2:05)
  • Survival of the Fittest #3 (1080p; 1:59)
  • Survival of the Fittest #4 (1080p; 2:24)
  • Survival of the Fittest #5 (1080p; 3:27)
  • Survival of the Fittest #6 (1080p; 3:24)

Humanity Has Declined: Complete Collection Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

Humanity Has Declined can be just flat out bat guano crazy some of the time, but then it turns around and is just kind of curiously undercooked in equal measure. The series' outlandish humor is its greatest asset and may well be able to maintain interest for most fans. But there's one saving grace to this show, no matter what qualms you may have with this or that individual element in it: it's refreshingly, bizarrely different. In a world made of cookie cutter entertainments, it's kind of nice to have a different kind of "sweet" (to cop a term from this anime itself) to munch on. Even without completely stellar audio and video, Humanity Has Declined comes Recommended.

Humanity Has Declined: Other Seasons

Blu-raySeason 12-disc set $27.99

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