The Promised Neverland (ANIME-ONLY)

So, no longer following the manga huh?

Yeah, forget minor tweaks this is majorly changing up the story. Which could be interesting but, again, the manga is already done, so that seems like such a strange choice.

Maybe they just didn't want to adapt nearly 150 chapters? That or the mangaka (who is on the writing team this season) really did not like the reception to the later parts of the story, and just wanted to try again. Shame, I liked most of this part of the manga, and would have liked to see the entire thing animated, warts and all...

Hmm… I might like this direction better actually, depending on how it goes. Without the shelter or the weapons, they are a lot more defenseless, and a less bloated cast might allow to flesh out the existing characters better (the overabundance of extras was one of my problems with the manga).

If they really cut Yugo and Leuvis though, that’s a shame. But more Isabella can’t be a bad thing.

I do find that the assault on the shelter happened too early and too fast though. And without firearms or training plus being two years younger, the kids managing to fight off soldiers so easily strains credibility.

Sooo… reserving my judgement for now. It could be an improvement or it could go very wrong.

Edited by Lyendith on Jan 28th 2021 at 10:03:37 AM

I am adding this to my list of followed threads because I read up to the Goldy Pond arc right when Yugo is having his big moment with Lucas and I am now very nervous about the way season 2 is going. I have way to many jokes about Gun Emma and too much care for Yugo that I am scarred that Yugo is Yugone.

He could still be introduced in a different way, mind you. The writing on the wall has to have been written by someone after all.

Oh boy. This kinda move... well, I haven't seen this kind of move going well very often. Like this episode was decent enough, what with characterizing the other kids more, and there's obvious utility to bringing back Isabella.

But, well, you don't spend over a decade watching seasonal anime with learning a fair bit of pattern recognition. The only time I can recall diverging from the source material like this going well was the original FMA.

Plus, it's a Noitamina show. I've seen more promising-looking Noitamina shows fall apart at the end than I care to count. I thought it could trust it this time because it was an adaptation of a completed manga, but...

So basically. All I'm saying is that experience has taught me that I should be worried right now. So I am.

Honestly, if they were gonna change things up, I was expecting it to be further down the line, I thought Goldy Pond was generally well received. Then again the perceived quality drop seems to be a West thing since it still sold incredibly well in Japan.

The time period where the quality supposedly dropped according to the west was a time where the series was still in the Top 5 selling manga and Top 10 media franchises so it very much had to have been a western thing.

All that aside, I have no idea where they're taking of this and I'm not sure I like very much if at all since there would have been MUCH better ways of doing things by simply expanding the character interactions to further develop the cast. Cutting stuff out just alienates the core fanbase that are the manga readers.

Agreed. If the manga is ongoing, then an anime original isn't out of the question as long as care is taken to aim said ending in the general direction the manga is going. But for a completed work and one that sold as consistently well as this, there's no real reason not to go with how the series ended. Also I'm curious about the other shows you mentioned from Noitamina that went sour.

Edited by doomrider7 on Jan 29th 2021 at 5:07:03 AM

So, I mean, I recognize that a fair of this list is going to be subjective, but, with Wikipedia's help, here's the list of Noitanima shows that burned me with a bad ending:

• Shiki
• Fractale
• [C]
• No. 6
• Guilty Crown
• Psycho-Pass (This one's a bit different, in this the first season ended well, but then the second season was absolute trainwreck that killed any desire I had to keep following the franchise)
• Robotics;Notes
• Nanana's Buried treasure
• Rampo Kitan: Game of Laplace
• Erased
• Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress

Most of those shows started out really good, or at least promising, but none of them stuck the landing. On other hand we have Sarazenmai and Millionaire Detective, which had okay endings. But I've still had a lot of more bad experiences that good ones, so at this point I'm just naturally wary of Noitanima shows that start to go in an unexpected new direction towards the end.

Edited by Gilphon on Jan 29th 2021 at 1:00:53 PM

Erased had an amazing if incredibly bittersweet manga. The anime was great, but the ending was rather different.

Fractale is one of those shows that I see the images and it's right up my alley, but then recall reading the tropes page and noping out, but can't recall the specifics.

The others I see advertised a lot on Netflix or Hulu I think.

I had posted some thoughts on Resetera about the changes and while I'll very much stay with the series,I'm feeling incredibly unsure given the recent changes of direction which feel largely unnecessary, especially moreso reading those chapters again.

Found this on ANN.

As an aside, I loved the series beginning to end and while there were some things I wish were better fleshed out, I was generally pretty well satisfied with how everything turned out so all of this is giving me mixed feelings.

Edited by doomrider7 on Jan 30th 2021 at 12:01:52 PM

Huh… Things are going fast… a bit too fast?

On one hand, I really like the first half of the episode with the blind demon. It’s a different, but still elegant way to introduce the conflict about why demons need to eat humans. And I always wanted to see more scenes of the kids walking through the demon towns.

On the other hand, the chase scene was kinda… I dunno, lame? Goldy Pond it isn’t, that’s for sure. The two demons’ designs don’t help. And Norman’s return feels waaay too early.

Edited by Lyendith on Feb 5th 2021 at 2:47:47 PM

Huh, we're already at "I don't wanna kill the demons"? Wonder how this will be resolved without Scribbles around.

So this is less "we’re going a completely different direction" and more "we’re skipping the entire second act to jump straight into the third", huh… Not sure I like that… It all feels so rushed…

I heard that the changes were the mangaka's idea, is that true?

Well, I can definitely see why people are saying the series is going too fast. We're basically speedrunning the expected "what if the revolutionaries are actually bad people" arc that more or less comes standard in anime.

Aaah, we’re back at it with the comments calling Emma stupid for not wanting to exterminate an entire species. I didn’t miss that.

…On the other hand, that part in the manga relied heavily on the fact that she had a plan B (forging a new promise with the Demon God), but that part has been completely skipped so that makes her stance seem a bit more unreasonable.

Edgelords gonna edgelord.

https://twitter.com/joeybotttt/status/1367557142455095298

The Promised Neverland S2 has a Batman vs Superman Martha moment.

Hmm… after watching the episode, I’d say that’s a "Martha moment" done right? Contrived Coincidence aside, the reaction is justified here.

Things sure escalated quickly, but it was a pretty good episode actually, probably the best since the story started to deviate. At least it feels like it has actual stakes and emotion instead of just being a long expodump.

Edited by Lyendith on Mar 4th 2021 at 2:29:39 PM

Apparently episode 10 had no writing credit AND the "series composition" credit for original manga creator Kaiu Shirai is gone.

I haven't really followed the manga or the anime but I'm really curious about what might have happened, since I remember hearing a lot of positive things about season 1 as well as the manga.

The main thing is, season 2 is going for a any% speedrun of the manga.

Edited by doineedaname on Mar 19th 2021 at 10:53:58 AM

Sounds like they're doing a glitch run too XD

If you perform half an A press right when you open the door to where Yugo’s at, you can skip the entire Goldy Pond arc.