Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita

Because of the constantly declining birth rates over many decades, human civilization is all but extinct. With only a few humans remaining, they survive in this post-apocalyptic world with what was left behind by the previous generations. Earth is now dominated by fairies, tiny creatures with extremely advanced technology, an obsession with candy, and a complete disregard for human safety.

A young girl who has just finished her studies returns to her hometown and is designated as an official United Nations arbitrator. Her duty is to serve as a link between mankind and fairies, reassuring each side that both races can live together peacefully. She imagines this task will be easy enough, but controlling the disasters created by the oblivious fairies in their pursuit of candy will require a lot more effort than she initially believes.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Watashi Main

Nakahara, Mai Japanese

Yousei-san Supporting

Aoki, Sayaka Japanese

Ikkin-san Supporting

Mamiya, Kurumi Japanese

Y Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Joshu-san Supporting

Fukuyama, Jun Japanese

Pion Supporting

Mizuki, Nana Japanese

Oyage Supporting

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Hana-senpai Supporting

Nogawa, Sakura Japanese

Makige Supporting

Kanemoto, Hisako Japanese

Sofu Supporting

Ishizuka, Unshou Japanese

Kananiwa, Kozue Producer

Maruyama, Hajime Producer

Ishiguro, Tatsuya Producer

Sakurai, Takashi Producer, Editing

Reviews

Dec 11, 2012

Veronin

Recommended

To learn and evolve is a natural process of human nature. But after countless mistakes, does this growth still hold any meaning? What then, if the consequences are so severe that amending the situation becomes impossible?

For Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita, this is answered through a colorful world where humanity is on the verge of extinction, succeeded by a race of silly, mass-producing fairies bearing a constant grin. Adorable and amusing as they are, these little creatures are anything but auspicious. Repeating tragedy in situations of utter insanity, the fairies exist as a personification of humanity's follies, neatly told through a clever story of satire ... and cynicism.

Ah, our poor protagonist, as interacting with these frightening creatures serves as her occupation. For the nameless "Watashi", being pulled into their world of games and magic is little more than a daily occurrence. Time loops, loaves of bread committing suicide by ripping themselves in half, skinned birds raining in on a church, and faceless chickens smoking cigars while quacking in the language of nonsense— all are something to be passed off with a sigh and a dry remark by the protagonist. In this world, there is no such thing as strange. Such words ring true time and time again.

But make no mistake, this is not an anime that is strange simply for the sake of being strange. All of this gives way for plenty of witty humor between the madness that occurs. Rather than being a traditional comedy and telling the jokes through the characters' interaction with each other, much of this comes instead from the situations and the setting. It's not about a character screaming your ears to death or bopping the other over the head when they say something stupid, but about the allusions to society and the absurdity of the situation. Far too few comedy anime attempt to break from the mold of Manzai and puns, which makes Jinrui all the more refreshing of an experience.

As a satire, it's no surprise that Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita focuses itself as a social-commentary of sorts. There's a surprising amount of depth here when one really pays attention. It's cynical in tone and content, though it never feels like the viewer is being preached to and lectured. An episode may focus on consumerism, another on humanity's overconsumption of resources, the manga industry or sociocultural evolution. Moreover, the viewer can simply choose to disregard this and enjoy it for the comedy value alone if they prefer. It can be a surreal comedy, a cynical social critique, or some amalgamation of the two. Therein lies the beauty of Jinrui's subtle depth.

A comedy wouldn't be much entertaining without a clever character dynamic, though, and Jinrui does not disappoint in this regard. Watashi is easily one of the most unique protagonists we have had in an anime for quite some time. Nowhere is she defined by cute, idealized traits, by fanservice or through tropes and archetypes. She is her own character; her own person. Her internal thoughts and dry, cynical dialogue with the other characters are an important force in the social critique and comedy, which often contrast and amplify the ridiculousness of the situation. It is deadpan humor at its finest.

Several other colorful and eccentric characters also mark the cast of Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita. Watashi's grandfather, often referred to simply as "Doc", serves as the authority figure of the series and plays an important role in Watashi's past and beginnings as a Mediator. The silent "Assistant", armed with his camera, also tags along with Watashi for the first half of the series.

And then, of course, are the fairies.

It wouldn't be much of an exaggeration to say that the fairies are the most exciting character in the series, if one would define them as a single entity. Seeing the fairies do inconceivable things out of the blue is nothing short of hilarious, and their attempts to behave as humans do and mimic their mistakes also makes them just as much endearing as they are unpredictable. One episode involves a handful of fairies and Watashi stranded on an island, with the fairies near-instantly multiplying themselves and building from sticks to a candy kingdom with Watashi revered as some sort of god. You never really know what the heck to expect from them.

There isn't much in the way of characterization until the later episodes, though, which incidentally is also when the story takes off and develops. Each episode typically goes back further in time, with the last two episodes highlighting Watashi's experiences during her elementary school days. There's a very clear distinctness in this short story arc, notably resulting from the comedy being pushed aside and serious themes such as isolation and bullying playing a principal role. Rather than a bizarre environment typical of the series, the viewer is presented with something more realistic, albeit with a slightly macabre twist (mostly resulting from the insanity of her yandere roommate). These final two episodes succeed not only in detailing Watashi's past, but also in fleshing out her personality through her experiences in a different environment. It's not often that you find a main character in a comedy anime that has development and substance, but then Jinrui has never really been a series that's satisfied with mere uniformity.

Speaking of uniformity, though, it's a little unfortunate that the quality of the anime isn't always consistent. A few of the episodes, while still decent, are much weaker than the rest and vastly oversimplify the topic or theme that they are trying to comment on. It occasionally bites off a bit more than it can chew, which is disappointing given that most of the episodes have already demonstrated that it's fully capable. The last two episodes are also incredibly incongruous with the tone and theme of the anime, and though it fleshes out Watashi's character considerably, one can't help but wonder if it was all that necessary. Considering that her presence in the previous episodes was as a reactionary element to the bizarre situations, making the change into an empathetic and developed character seems very odd. No doubt she could have been developed instead through the quirky dialogue rather than a superfluous flashback.

The visuals also aren't going to leave anybody in awe, but they deserve a special mention for the vibrant art style and colorful palette. It's rare for an anime to deviate from conventions and focus on their visual appeal (aside from perhaps the cuteness of the characters), but here is a case where Jinrui again succeeds in doing something to stand out from the crowd. It's unique and pleasant to look at, notably accentuating the surreal world and creating a contrast between the playful appearance and cynical tone.

Jinrui is certainly one of the most refreshing and unique series that anime has seen in quite some time. In a year that hasn't seen much originality or hard-hitting series, the bizarre world of Jinrui is a very appealing experience. This is not an anime to simply be enjoyed and forgotten over the months, but is something that will no doubt linger in the minds of most for quite some time. Not necessarily for the insanity that occurs (though that is certainly a part of it), but for providing a genuinely witty comedy that brilliantly satirizes human society in an intelligent manner. It has more substance and depth than many of the more serious titles out there, though carefully remaining subtle with its themes. For a comedy anime, this is an admirable feat indeed.

Then again, I guess not everybody is going to enjoy the refined art of birds raining from the sky and mobster chickens cursing about fornication.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Feb 3, 2018

Artrill

Mixed Feelings

[6.0/10]

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Humanity has Declined left me puzzled. Not necessarily out of confusion of whether I enjoyed the show or not. Spoiler, I did, but because I can't help but feel that if this series was more geared for "me", as someone with taste and emotion and certain biases, I would've down-right loved it. I think the best way I could describe Humanity has Declined is that of an audacious delight. Audacious because of the downright fascinating narrative choices, both in story and structure, and a delight because when everything wraps up at the end you are often times left going, "that was clever!" A series thats ... biggest flaw in my eyes is simply its creative deviations from what I prefer, which is the softest criticism I could ever air towards something, as my taste isn't necessarily the only thing good in the world.

It was as though it had multiple clashing personalities that fought for and against my love. On one hand, as I've said, it was incredibly audacious as a product, and pretty much, unlike anything I've seen. It had an exceedingly strange narrative structure, where its chronology was backward. On the other hand, it had surprisingly little character to it. Apart from the nameless Watashi, our candy-haired protagonist, who was established fairly well as the series went on, albeit not incredibly, she was virtually the only character who felt at all placed well within this series. In a thirteen episode show, where we burn through multiple characters in short two-episode arcs, I would expect more characterization from these established secondaries. Unfortunately, characters like Watashi's grandfather and employer whom she works for, who doesn't even have a character page on MAL, is almost non-existent in characterization. He appears quite often too!This issue extends throughout the majority of characters and I ultimately felt wholly uninterested in their scenes together.

The art had some gorgeous backgrounds yet somewhat lackluster animation, especially for such a short series. Once again, this duality clashes with my taste, and ultimately, just the way the story and characters played out wasn't to my taste. If these negatives seem to be a bit too strong then you have to understand my surprise at actually enjoying quite a bit of this series. Yes, because of its risky structure, sure, but also some genuinely inspired moments of both creativity and design. There were certain arcs that through me through multiple hoops only to have me land on my ass with a giant smile.

Let's look at that.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Character, Narrative, and this Crazy World]

Humanity has Declined has us follow this nameless protagonist, Watashi, translated as "I" in Japanese, as she describes situations at her job. She just so happens to have this job in a post-apocalyptic earth that had humanity, literally, decline and get destroyed, only to have this odd, distractingly cute fairy-race spring up. These odd creatures, standing just a few inches tall, are capable of sustaining themselves on everything fun, and when they are having fun, they reproduce, funny enough. They also just so happen to posess some pretty powerful kinds of world-altering magic that plays a role in every single arc in the series.

With this crazy, almost ludicrous setting to back-end this show, we visit Watashi and her less-characterized companions in their surreal and occasionally well-crafted adventures. From being stuck in a banana-infused time-loop to becoming trapped in a manga panel, there are a surprising amount of twists here. This series is as much a mystery as it is semi-dark comedy and fantasy adventure. Sure certain arcs really miss their mark, like the tedious space-explorer-robots-turned-humanoids arc that dragged and wasn't all too engaging, but overall this was impressive to me.

The narrative here, more so than anything else, shines. There are moments where you are completely and utterly lost. And that's clearly intentional. The creators chose to order this series in a strange chronology so we get introduced to this world in the opposite way these characters do, which creates for some odd whiplash at the end of the series. Even if there are certain moments of inspiration that come out of this structure, and certainly it had it's clever stings here and there, it ultimately didn't leave enough of an impression to feel integral to the way Humanity has Declined is presented.

With these off-the-wall narratives you might get frustrated at trying to figure out what exactly is happening. Which ended up happening to me, as I would pause the episodes and try to wrap my brain around why these events were placed the way they were. I'm happy to report that at the end of every arc we would get a natural resolution. Specifically, the timeloop arc being probably the funniest and most clever out of all of them, as we not only get a hilariously cheesy pun as the climax but also some authentically amusing mystery writing with engaging imagery to boot.

The arc that really ended up making me wary of this series is the "trapped-in-a-manga" detour. Which ended up being my favorite arc, as it was undoubtedly the most entertaining, but also, unfortunately, was easily the reason why this series never quite connected with me overall. This is where the actual issues with this series, more so than the character writing, really became clear to me as a viewer with heavy biases toward what I watch, as anyone would have.

I like my series to be thematically, and tonally coherent. When I say that I refer to the fact that while this series was, at its root, a fantasy-mystery-comedy hybrid, it really struggled with tying this world together. Being a surrealistic comedy, to me, isn't an excuse to shoehorn elements into a series that basically never get elaborated or even entertained as an actual element in the show. I don't think this issue I have is necesserally a flaw for certain people though, and it's hard to argue for or against because it relies so much on personal taste.

To make it even more clear. This issue I have with the series is something that I fully expect some people to not have at all, in fact, some may even encourage it. As surrealistic comedy is rare to come across now adays. I just think the surrealistic aspects of this show weren't bountiful enough to become a defining element of the series, and when utilized, they really didn't fit. Like, at all. Even the headless, feather-less chickens being a corporate entity, because yes, that's a story in this series, is surreal and wacky, and fairy magic is loosely defined on its utilities, but I feel like if we are to find verisimilitude within this world we need an element to rope these surrealistic moments together.

So we have characters being stuck in a manga panel. I love it. It provides some entertaining, meta-commentary on mangas and we get to see the cliche of these light novel and manga authors consistently jerk themselves off over how 'different' they are. I'll take it because meta-shit is tons of fun. But, lets take it a step further. This is obviously fairy magic to create what the fairies survive on. That in and of itself is pretty surreal and strange, even within this series. But that step further needs to also elaborate, to a certain extent, why these events don't permeate throughout the world!

The rest of the world seems to be normal, as in, the remaining humans living with one another and fairies hiding in plain sight. But you'd think that with this mind-bending and world-altering magic, we'd see more of it! No? I just found the entire thing to be a bit too much to fully grasp, especially with how loosely defined it was.

Even with that said though, the stories here were genuinely good, and apart from one, were all captivating in some way or another. It wasn't laugh-out-loud funny, but each arc definitely had a moment that made me chuckle fairly hard. Which is more than I can say about the majority of anime comedy I have the displeasure of watching. I think if you don't particularly care about this element I just criticized, then this show could truly be a hidden gem for you.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Art and Sound]

It's good. As I said, the art here is a it of a mixed bag. The backgrounds and general aesthetics here are solid as hell. In fact, they are downright excellent. Unfortunately, there is some lackluster animation and not many sequences of overly-impressive animation either, which is unfortunate for how short this series is. Overall, it's fine in the animation department. The biggest complaint in its presentation is its uninspired character designs. Even our protagonist took a bit to get used to for me. From her voice acting to her actual design, she was overall not too appealing to me. Thankfully, as the series progressed, she grew on me.

The character design overall struggles, though. From the secondaries to them majority of the fairies and characters, there is just too much banality in a world that is so focused on the surreal. If they really wanted to juxtapose the surreal elements with grounded designs then that would make sense, but our protagonist has fluffy, bright-pink hair, so I doubt that's the intent either.

The music is quite good, though. I rarely like anime music as it often just sounds the same to me. However, Humanity has Declined has some memorable moments. From the very Monogatari-esq mystery stings that occur every so often to the actually quite catchy opening and closing, these are elements i'm happy to praise!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

[Conclusion]

Overall, I hope you understand why this series can be confusing for me. Not from an enjoyment aspect, but from a recommendation aspect. If this series had more elements tailored towards my personal taste, I would have most likely thought it be one of my favorites. But, simply due to the audacious and surprising structure and stories told with remarkably well-crafted mystery stories, we have a show that totally nails certain elements.

I think this kind of thing can't be said about a lot of shows. Humanity has Declined feels like it is in a perpetual tug-of-war in my mind. One side is pulling for me to love the truly inspired elements, the other side is fighting vigorously for me to critique some of the design elements and even the overly-loose and limp interpretation of the more interesting aspects of the world. If you can look past that, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way, you will find a hidden gem with this series. It is genuinely, even when battling against some of my tastes, a lot of fun to watch.

I've been doing my best to not spoil some of the engaging moments seen here because I think they are best experienced through watching, not reading. It's a semi-dark comedy with a mystery slant that does not disappoint. Even if it doesn't look like "your kind of thing", hell, even if it doesn't feel like "your kind of thing" from your initial venture in, I recommend sticking with this short runtime for you may surprise yourself in what you end up taking out of it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jun 4, 2013

gknight

Not Recommended

I am just so happy to be through with that show, I really could not stand it. Generally I came to it for the amazing art style but I only found a pile of jokes that really didn't entertain me that much.
The show has some interesting atmosphere for a comedy, and it sometimes give the feeling of something more dramatic but it's not funny enough as a comedy and not nearly interesting enough as a drama.
Character and story development is almost non existent. The main character is being slightly examined throughout the show but the characters around her are so wacky there's hardly one relationship ... that is interesting to inspect. The story is episodic and episodes are separated from one another almost as being stand alone stories, which adds to the show's undeveloped nature.
Perhaps the show wanted to examine ideas instead of a story in the common term but the episodes range from boring to bizarre. Some of the allegories I did not understand, some I found too tedious to even try and the rest I just not relate to.
I find very little reason to watch this show. Again, I praise the art and animation which are some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in anime and also some BGM tracks were catchy and likable to me, but I do not recommend this unless you are looking for a very unique and not so successful dark comedy.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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