To remind anyone that doesn’t know, I haven’t read The Promised Neverland’s manga. I knew that the anime was going to do an anime-original storyline, but I had thought maybe it would be a small thing or something in the ending, not completely rewriting/skipping an entire arc from what I’ve seen people say. I did personally think the episode was a little strange, only because of the pacing. And I’ll be honest, I don’t think I like with what they’re doing with Isabella.
So everything I thought about Minerva (or James I should say) just went completely out the window, and I didn’t really get an answer for the HELP room so I guess we’ll just ignore that? But seriously, no one mentioned that room?! Turns out James used to work for the farms but came to be disgusted to what was happening with the children, and so he left behind clues for the kids in all the farms posing as William Minerva, hoping that they would escape and locate the shelter. He gives his parting words in the recording as well as FUTURE, the next password that gives them the coordinates for the human world.
The first half of the episode was pretty slow with another montage of the children around the shelter living their lives, then moving on to a group of them going out hunting and bringing in those weird looking fish they saw in the forest. It’s then that things shift pretty quickly as their shelter gets raided by human soldiers working with the farms. I understand that these kids are really smart, but these soldiers to be beat up and outsmarted by a couple kids was pretty funny and silly. These guys have tactical gear and guns, and yet they couldn’t handle some children? The giant demon monster was something else, but getting pushed by a couple kids was silly. I am pretty disappointed that they got kicked out of the shelter already since I felt like there was still more mystery and background, but I guess they just had to skip that. It is pretty interesting, and kind of sad, to see humans working along with the demons to bring the kids back. Luckily for the children, they were all killed off. But at this point, where are they going to go this time? The shelter is a big NO, and they’re going in the opposite direction of where the humans should be (I think) so I suspect they’re going to have to meet up with Mujika and Sonju again. We’ll see what happens there.
Now, with Isabella…I’m not sure I like where this is going. She’s approached with a deal to spare her life and live a life of freedom with the humans, only if she brings back every single one of her children that escaped. I highly suspect the other thing the demon said to her was that Ray would also be given his freedom as well, giving her that extra push to agree. Now…the reason why I don’t like this is because of how Isabella was accepting of the children going out to find their freedom back in the ending of season one. She didn’t try to force them back, didn’t send anyone after them, she willingly let them leave. So to make Isabella be the villain again and just agree to this just feels so weird and I don’t really like it, it just feels like it completely goes against her character. I don’t know if she’ll go against them somehow, but that would surely mean her death since she already screwed up.
Eh, I don’t know. I don’t know what happens in the manga, but this episode did feel strange. The pacing in the first half was somehow fast, even though not much happened other than slice of life stuff, and then we suddenly got a manhunt. Also this has nothing to do with the story, but man I forgot how much I dislike the dark scenes in The Promised Neverland. They are so DARK! I can’t see!
What I don’t understand in all this is why they’re going anime original, and so soon in the story. The manga is done so there should be no reason why they’d do this, unless the mangaka was really unhappy with what he wrote. I just think it’s pretty weird all in all, and I understand manga fans’ disappointment in all this. Let’s just hope that this can at least still be a good season.
It didn’t cross your mind the possibility that Isabella accept their agreement to save the children and oppose the demons secretly in her own way? You know, working with her enemies to find an opening and then betray them at the right moment? After Isabella willingly let them go and went as far as making sure the demon’s won’t know how they escaped, I don’t think the studio would be stupid enough to just throw out her character development out of the window. Even if it’s an anime original, I want to believe they won’t ruin Isabella’s character.
As someone who has read the manga, I’m quite disappointed that the studio seems not going to adapt what I think is one of the best arcs of the series. Certain two humans and a certain demon that I love won’t make their appearance in the anime saddens me. I hope they’ll still appear eventually somehow even if the story changes…
No I definitely thought that as a possibility, but like I said she would possibly just be offering her life. Though I guess she’s totally prepared for that. I also really don’t want them to ruin her character since I do like her.
Yeah I’ve seen lots of disappointment and I’m sad for the fans. I’ve seen plenty people say that the manga/story does indeed dip in quality later on, but apparently not in this arc they were supposed to adapt. I really don’t get the reasoning, except maybe the mangaka (who is closely working with the anime team) wanted to rewrite and make their story better. It could be possible that the characters that were supposed to pop up might show up later on somehow. But well, looks like we’re all on the same ride now.