- Genre: Absurdist, surreal, comedy, commentary
- Episodes: 12
- Studio: AIC A.S.T.A.
It was bound to happen. We all saw it coming. Now Humanity has declined. No longer comfortably perched at the top of the food chain the dwindling remains of the once great human race are calmly, slowly biding their time on the way to inevitable extinction. There was no cataclysm, no tragedy, no great upheaval, Humanity has simply run its course and with nothing much to do and no one to fight, humans do what they can to maintain their lifestyle with greatly reduced resources, as they watch the fairies slowly take over the future. Hilarity ensues!
I discovered this hidden gem through Anime and Coffee’s absolutely brilliant post on this criminally underrated show. Sadly, it seems the blog hasn’t been updated in a minute but I hope Peter comes back soon because I need to start thanking him right now if I ever want to be able to thank him enough.
A quick look over the pictures in this post should be enough to reveal the obvious. Humanity has Declined is one gorgeous show. The designs are simple but incredibly effective and unique. The backgrounds use the same transparent ink/watercolor aesthetic as My Hero Academia, but push it even further to absolutely breathtaking effect and the colour palette is resplendent. I had to dig up the thesaurus for this one folks – I just couldn’t find a way to praise it enough.
Sound design and direction are both excellent but because of the nature of fairies, I could see their shrill little voices getting annoying. Not to worry, they are not that present and to be honest, I kinda liked their weird eternally cheery voices. It added to their personalities. You know what, instead of my just piling on the hyperbole (is it hyperbole when it’s 100% earned?), just take a minute and look at this OP. It’ll give you a sense of what you’re dealing with here.
I guess some of you may be thinking, visuals and technical aspects are all well and good, but a show really needs some kind of decent narrative or characters to keep you interested… Picky aren’t we? Generally speaking, the story is exactly as I’ve summarized it but particularly speaking, it is in fact a series of loosely related, non-linear mini arcs. I wouldn’t quite qualify it as a Slice of Life though since each mini arc most definitely does not deal with any mundane daily activity but are rather self-contained high concept adventures.
One is a meta-commentary on Manga/Fan culture and popularity versus quality as the characters attempt to escape a manga universe. One deals with the feelings and disappointments of personified space probes, the failings of the space program and the possibility that we are alone in a godless universe, it also has a giant biomecha kitten. One is a fantastic environmentalist take on the Lord of the Flies… OMG this show is soooo awesome…
Lest you think I named all the best ones, I left my 2 favorites out….
In tone this is an unambiguous comedy. A somewhat smug, a little cheeky, stoned faced, comedy. You get the sense that Humanity has Declined thinks it’s the smartest thing in the room but well, when I was watching it, it was the smartest thing in the room. It’s that fabulous witty, cultured friend you have, that you go out for drinks with and listen slack-jawed as they make witty comment over obscure reference over catty call-out. It might not be the most constructive use of your time but golly gee it makes *you* feel cool and smart by association.
Speaking of references, it throws bucket loads your way mercilessly picking from any random field it feels like. Among the few I managed to pick up on, we see a clear homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey, a character ships chess pieces in a way that requires some pretty good knowledge of the game fundamentals to get, assistant recreates an Amphigorey cartoon, one scenes is a parody of Scarface and one arc is essentially a mashup of Groundhog Day and Primer, in which a character names their pet Time Paradog!!!!…and I’ve devolved into just badly describing the show again. But guys…Time Paradog…
These surreal tidbits are presented with a sweet smile and a harsh sarcastic tone. One thing you can count on is that Humanity has Declined has opinions. On a lot of things. On ALL the things. If you happen to have superhuman deduction skills, you may have inferred from the description so far and my inability to do much more than constantly lapse into half coherent fangirling, that this show covers a wide variety of complex and absolutely fascinating subjects, a lot of them very timely and intellectual, and it clearly has something to say on all these subjects. Now this isn’t an overly preachy show and it avoids cramming morals down our throats but it’s also unafraid to take a stand. It has issues with industrialization and capitalism, it’s disenchanted with bureaucracy, it believes our priorities may be misplaced at times. It has a point.
But the show also seems to say it’s ok if you disagree, because if anything can truly be taken away from this singular experience, it’s that in the end, nothing really matters. And the truly fantastic, amazing, indescribable thing is – Humanity has Declined makes that into a comforting even somewhat hopeful message. In fact, the final scenes had my heart swelling with tenderness and my eyes tearing up. How the heck did a mean, deadpan, snide comedy like this even manage that? I’m really asking. This thing’s brilliant…
With so much pure narrative to take on, the show opted to minimize characterization but again in the smartest way possible. We never learn much about anyone, we hardly even know anyone’s names in fact, but their personalities are extremely well defined through their actions with minimal exposition. The Mediator’s constant stream of consciousness narration is used to effectually create a rich and detailed image of her own psyche while simultaneously creating an excuse for highly subjective and emotional exposition on any new characters that enter which will always be more impactful than objective descriptions. Let me just say this, Humanity has Declined has one of the best Yandere characters I’ve seen in a long time and that archetype is very hard to pull off.
I’ve been subtle about it so far but it’s time for me to be straight with you guys: I simply loved this anime. So, like you do with anything you love, I immediately went to check that everybody else agreed with me. I was quite surprised to see that it had a 7.89 rating on My Anime List which by MAL standards might as well be Garbage. I was worried that maybe humanity really had declined if we can no longer appreciate the simple joys of exquisite comedy. A bit more investigation was in order.
What I found, unsurprisingly in hindsight, is that this is one polarizing show. The ratings were split between 9/10s and 4/3s, with very little middle ground. And I get why some people may rate this so low. They’re wrong but I get it.
First, there’s the simple fact that comedy is highly subjective, and this is the intellectual, tongue in cheek, snarky type. It’s not as likely to have broad appeal and you couldn’t easily layer a laugh track over it. If deadpan isn’t your thing, neither is this show.
Second, as I’ve mentioned, the series tackles both important and deep subject through very high concept surreal storylines but it never sticks to one for too long. It gives you this highly intricate setup goes in for a darkly sarcastic, but often somehow also sweet, punchline, then moves on. As such it doesn’t have the time to delve too deeply into any one subject. Much like that cool sardonic friend I mentioned what must now feel like 3 years ago….
And that’s all I can see. Since neither of these things bother me in the least, I loved Humanity has Declined. And I certainly hope we are in for such a nice end when the time comes. What I hope for even more that we somehow get a second season. I’ll start holding my breath now!
Favorite character: the Mediator, also my new role model.
What this anime taught me: Hope can be difficult to recogize sometimes
I quit drinking ! Now I freeze it and eat it!
Suggested drink: Classic Green Fairy
- Every time anyone says Sensei – take a sip
- Every time Assistant is off… – take a sip
- Every time we hear the Meditor’s inner monologue – listen
- if it’s snarky – cheers!
- Every time we’re introduced to a supporting girl – take a sip
- Every time Y is intense – take a sip
- Every time someone almost dies – take a sip
- Every time we see sweet – have a snack
- Every time we’re reminded that Humanity has Declined – take a sip
- Every time the fairies are menacing – take a sip
- Every time Grandpa has a weapon – take a sip
- Every timeAssistant talks – finish your drink
I’ve heard the title of this anime in passing, and this is something I’d be interested in. I do enjoy a good satire every now and then. Some surrealism and experimental storytelling doesn’t hurt either. My sense of humor can be dark at times, so this might be up my alley.
I would never discourage anyone from seeing this show
Of course not. It sounds like something I might enjoy. I have so much stuff to watch before then, but I’ll keep that in mind.
If you get to it, I hope you tell us about it
Sure. That would be nice if I get to watch that anime.
I’m glad I signed up for an account on MAL, now I can just hurt over their and put this on my list of want to watch anime before I forget. There are a couple shows you reviewed that I forgot to write down. I need to go through your archives… as for this show it sounds awesome and definitely worth a look. I was wondering what anime that loaf of bread was from.
Great review as always!
I really loved it – if you want you can go through my MAL https://myanimelist.net/animelist/RinMarch – for a much quicker view of what I enjoyed.
Thanks! I’ll do that!
I loved every moment of the show! The dark humor along with the show’s tackling of social issues just won me over. Plus the fairies. I want them in my life. I feel like even through a re-watch this show would still surprise you with it’s little Easter eggs and what have yous.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh! You stumbled across one of my favourite SF anime. Everyone shares the bleeding bread gif, but my favourite part of that scene is probably the guide’s deadpan (“dead-pan” – is that a pun?) “Dozo”.
The references are pretty fun, too. For example, of course the kitten is fighting a nautilus; the show has to make sure you know that the scene reminding you of Journey to the Centre of the Earth is deliberate, by giving you another Jules Verne reference.
There’s so much going on that I’m pretty sure you’ll notice new things on each re-watch. Should get around to a re-watch soon. Maybe as soon as I’m finished with Fantastic Children, which I’m currently re-watching.
Faerie A: What’s starvation?
Faerie B: A slow and brutal death.
Faerie C: It could become a fad.
Faerie chorus: A fad! A fad!
God, this show.
My thoughts exactly
Great post (unsurprising of course)! 😀 You enjoyed this one more than myself but it was definitely a good show. Definitely one for people to try at the very least.
I’m not entirely sure it’s possible to enjoy this show more than I did
Haha, well I know the feeling. I’ve definitely been there with shows before.
Hmmm….I’m not a comedy fan, I have to just be honest about that, but on the other hand this show really looks amazing, and also sounds like it is way more than a comedy. So…I might give this a try, just because of your awesome review (that and of course I don’t want to suffer your wrath lol 😂😂).
Seriously though: great post! 😀
We tend to be on similar wave lengths and I’ve seen this one. I think you would find it just ok at WORST. Definitely worth giving a try.
Admittedly I love comedies but cmon Time Paradog…
I’ma have to add this to the list, and stop looking at everyone’s blogs for a month lol. You all keep finding these awesome and hilarious looking shows! Okay it’s only 12 episodes… I can do this!
I believe in you!
It is worth knowing that the little keebler elves are post human android remotes, and most of humanity has sublimed into machinespace as AI’s, thus the living people in slowville (Meatspace) are now interesting again because they’re still trapped in meaty human bodies. The elves use the little bodies to study or mock the remaining people, since AI evolves 1000x faster, thus their exotic technology. The show is more scifi than it looks.
I hadn’t picked up on all of that, I know the novels go into more detail as well. The SciFi elements are indeed quite present and a very interesting part of the series.
The space probe arc droped some great speculative tidbits.
After 5 years I stumble across confirmation that my interpretation of posthumanity SF is actually canonical. (I was fairly certain of that after the sattelite episode.) You’re going off the novels, here? Just checking.
No, I’m going off the implied dialogue from the anime. They used technology, not sparkle magic. Its the obvious answer, much like the disaster in Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (aka Cafe Alpha) manga is probably a grey-goo nanotechnology accident which has also caused widespread human infertility, thus ending humanity since they can’t reproduce. It explains all the grey goo examples in the environment. Another show with nanotech would be Sora No Woto, since they have high tech semi-autonomous AI driven spider tanks and areas where the soil is poisoned but NOT radioactive. That’s nanotech infection. There’s a bunch of series where people get by in simpler post-modern lifestyles but seriously high tech accidents or efforts are going on in the background, such as Aria (the water one). Mars has a terraforming accident releasing too much water so the planet is mostly drowned so they import Venice, stone by stone, building by building, to Mars and rebuild it at sea level so you get the Venice experience on Mars, complete with competing gondolier girls singing and offering tour guide services to the tourists. Adorable, but requires artificial gravity and artificial magnetic field to keep the atmosphere strong enough for real terraforming. That’s high technology, operating by the “mole men” which is a job title in that show.
Sounds interesting – I should check it out… Man I say that a lot these days
Ah, I see. I tend not to get as specific with my own interpretations (such as interpreting the faeries as remotes, though that’s a very likely interpretation). I was condsidering “rainbow goo” (grey goo + emergent AI consciousness), too. I didn’t think too hard about it.
I remember being surprised how deep the SF runs in Aria. I expected it to be a gimmick at best.
Thanks for the clarification.
MAL anime ratings are shit in General. Especially now that you can’t leave negative votes.
I really liked this show, and I especially loved the grounded and practical lead character, but while I haven’t seen it in a while, I seem to recall a story arc about a repeated time frame that dragged out for WAY too long, dampening my experience.
Ahhh – possibly my favorite arc… Time Paradog. And the fact that each can get a completely different experience out the series is part of its charm
Nice review! I too have never heard of this show, now that I’m following anime bloggers I am adding so many anime to my watch list! haha!
It’s a blessing and a curse. I’m not sure I will ever see sunshine again. I’m ok with it
Genuinely interested in this show now. Thanks Irina!
Oh Tetra did a review on this as well – we both enjoyed it but we have differing views on a few points. You should see his too for a more complete view: https://th0ughtreviews.wordpress.com/2017/11/25/anime-thoughts-jinrui-wa-suitai-shimashita/
Will do
(lol) Irina when I read through your whole article I had to re-read it again (at least twice) because it is an absolutely spot-on explanation of the show! (and the second and third time made me recall why I appreciate the show so much).
This together with the link you shared from Anime and Coffee’s really made my day – now that I know there are other people who also understand and appreciate (to the point of tears?!?! :O) the kind of humor and wittiness in this series. And more importantly have a positively hopeful outlook from what was presented in the show (Don’t mind my pessimism =.=) – #faithinhumanityrestored. 😛
You know – when I read your review I was hit b how perfect your pick of the moth scene is. That one scene is such a fantastic representation of the entire show.