Humanity Has Declined

Humanity Has Declined

Humanity Has Declined anime series cover art
Humanity Has Declined

Series Overview

Humanity Has Declined (Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita / 人類は衰退しました) is a fantasy comedy anime about life after humanity has peaked. I don’t believe we’re ever explicitly told what caused the decline of humanity, but the few humans who are left have regressed to a basic, agricultural society.

The series is by no means set in your typical post-apocalyptic world, though. Yes, there are ruins of the previous glory of humanity. However, it’s not as if those who remain are living in a wasteland. Food is scarce, but aside from that life isn’t too bad.

There is one odd thing, though, about this world in which humanity has declined. A new humanity has arisen from the destruction of our humanity. This new humanity is the fairy race.

"Watashi" and some fairies from the anime series Humanity Has Declined
“Watashi” and some fairies

The fairies are mysterious creatures who have come to be called the new humanity due to their ability to thrive where the old humanity collapsed. They can commonly be found within abandoned structures and other places humans aren’t likely to go.

And, while the fairies are very much child-like, they’re also extremely intelligent in ways, have advanced technology (basically magic) that far surpasses our own, and a complex society built around the latest fads.

There are two things fairies love, fun and sweets. If they have those two things, they can endlessly reproduce via spontaneous generation. If you feed one fairy sweets and it’s having fun, suddenly you’ll find there are more fairies popping up out of thin air.

Once there’s a large number of fairies in a given location, things can get out of hand. They’ll pick up on something they think is fun, run with it to the illogical extreme and build a society around it, and then cause their society to collapse all within the span of a few days.

Last Remnants of Humanity

Most of the characters in Humanity Has Declined don’t have actual names. Instead, they’re referred to by their titles or characteristics, much like the characters in Goblin Slayer. The protagonist, however, goes by “Watashi” (I/me), just like the protagonist in The Tatami Galaxy.

“Watashi” is a girl probably around 17 or 18 years old since she recently graduated from school when we first meet her. Despite her age, she was appointed as a UN envoy and her job is to serve as a mediator between the humans and fairies.

Assistant is “Watashi’s” assistant, as you could probably guess. His age is unclear, but he seems to be younger than she is. He’s a smart boy, but he doesn’t speak. Instead, “Watashi” interprets what he’s thinking for others.

"Watashi," Assistant, and Pion from the anime series Humanity Has Declined
“Watashi,” Assistant, and Pion

“Watashi’s” grandfather is a hunter with an extensive collection of firearms. It seems like he was a previous UN envoy at some point, but this isn’t quite clear. What we know for sure is that he wasn’t the previous UN envoy because he tells us a story of what happened to them.

Y is “Watashi’s” best friend from her school days. She currently works for the Human Monument Project, which has the goal of collecting and storing information about humanity before the collapse. However, Y is far more interested in discovering, reading, creating, and distributing boys’ love (BL) manga.

There are various other characters, such as the androids Pion and Oyage, and the other friends “Watashi” makes while in school like Curly, Flower-senpai, Witch-senpai, and Ryobo230r. But, none of them are important in the overall story of the series.

Oh, and of course there are all the fairies. Some of them are named, but their names don’t really matter due to the fairies’ nature of appearing and disappearing at random.

Chronological Order

The episodes of Humanity Has Declined are not in chronological order. This is similar to the Monogatari Series, which has story arcs out of chronological order, not Non Non Biyori, in which the episodes within each season are chronological, but aren’t within the overall series.

I’m fine with episodes not being in chronological order because I think structuring stories this way can be interesting. It’s a good way to add in twists without them being predictable. Rather than the story leading up to a twist, it can introduce a prior twist that explains why the current events are as they are.

However, I do think this ordering of the episodes was detrimental to the start of the series. The first episode throws us right into the middle of the story and doesn’t make sense because of it. I actually had to check to make sure I didn’t start with Episode 2 because it was such an odd starting point.

In fact, I’d say the first 2 episodes of the series aren’t very good solely because of their placement within the series. After that, everything feels more natural even though it’s still out of order. But, I wouldn’t suggest watching the series in chronological order unless you’re rewatching it.

I do think you should first watch the series in the order the director intended because it’s set up to be viewed like that. If you’ve seen the series already and want to give it a rewatch in chronological order, though, you can follow the guide below.

  • Arc 1
    • Episode 10
  • Arc 2
    • Episode 7
    • Episode 8
  • Arc 3
    • Episode 5
    • Episode 6
  • Arc 4
    • Episode 1
    • Episode 2
  • Arc 5
    • Episode 9
  • Arc 6
    • Episode 11
    • Episode 12
  • Arc 7
    • Episode 3
    • Episode 4

Generally speaking, each arc leads into the next. The main exception would be arc 5, which barely builds upon arc 4 and doesn’t directly lead into arcs 6 and 7. Arc 5 is kind of a breakpoint in the series, but I also think it was my favorite arc.

Conclusion

Overall, Humanity Has Declined is a 7/10 for me. I do think Episodes 1 and 2 were weak, though. If the whole series was like that, it’d probably be a 5, or maybe even a 4. Thankfully, it does get better.

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