Why The Promised Neverland season 2 is a disaster
Is the Promised Neverland season 2 that bad?
The Promised Neverland 2 has finally ended. Now it is the time for the final evaluation of the sequel of The Promised Neverland which has been aired since 8th January 2021 and ended the 26th March 2021. The first season of The Promised Neverland, was one of the most interesting anime series of recent years as we praised the work done by Cloverworks in our articles related to the Promised Neverland. Despite the wretched season 2, we have ranked The Promised Neverland (season 1) at the top of our TOP RATED ANIMES to watch.
Why the Promised Neverland season 2 is a disaster.
The Promised Neverland season 2 gets worse episode by episode. The 11-episodes sequel starts from where the story of Norman, Ray and Emma was left: the escape from the Grace Field House. However, The Promised Neverland 2 fails as an anime production incapable of re-creating the thrilling atmosphere and the psychology background of the characters. The Promised Neverland season 2 is getting an incredible amounts of downvotes by fans (for example in MyAnimelist) because it disappointed both the anime-lovers and manga-readers. The reason is easily told: The Promised Neverland season 2 has a rushed storytelling that wipes away fundamentals part of the original manga story.
Why The Promised Neverland 2 disappointed the manga-readers.
Inside the anime industry there’s the endless debate around the anime adaptation from the manga. In most cases, the anime fans of a series would like a 1:1 adapation of the plot into the anime, even though difficult to achieve. However, in the case of the second season of The Promised Neverland, the problem is far bigger. A decent adaptation of original manga story couldn’t have been made in only 11 episodes. In fact, the animated series ruins the narrative and psychological storytelling with the only aim to sommarily wrap the original events of The Promised Neverland (manga). By the comparison of the volumes covered by the two seasons becomes clear the reason why the 2021 sequel raised the negative sentiment of the fans.
- The Promised Neverland season 1: 12 episodes cover chapters 1-37 of the manga
- The Promised Neverland season 2: 11 episodes cover chapters 38-188 of the manga
The manga arcs skipped in The Promised Neverland season 2.
A close adaptation of the manga is always difficut because of the different narrative strategies which differentiate scripts and cinematic production. In the case of The Promised Neverland the skipping of some narrative arcs from the manga has greatly hurted the anime series. Let’s look in more detail which are the most important manga arcs skipped by the anime.
The removal of the Goldy Pond arc.
The Goldy Pond arc was one of the most nerve-wracking arcs in the manga. The skills of Cloverworks Studio on animating the action and the thrill could have pumped the enthusiams of the fans. It was a disturbing arc with many characters introduced and their vulnerability inspected. The horrors of the Goldy Pond arc could have translated well into the anime.
The Poachers in the Promised Neverland (manga)
The Promised Neverland season 2 sweeps away the Pouchers, Lucas and Yugo.
The gang of the Pouchers is never mentioned in the anime and also the bloody scratches on the Shelter B06-32 were altered. In fact, on the manga, additional hints were given instead of the lonely word “HELP”. A list of names and a clear reference to the hunters (the Pounchers) was made clear on paper.
The disappeared contribution of “Mister” Yugo and Lucas.
Yugo and Lucas are two core characters for the development of the plot on the manga of the Promised Neverland. In fact, in the second season of The Promised Neverland, Emma and the orphans found the Shelter B06-32 without any trace of human inside. On the manga, instead, the Grace Field Escapees found there “Mister” who will reveal his name later on the story. “Mister” (who later reveals his true name to Emma is ‘Yugo‘) is at first hostile to the new visitors while recovering a father-like role on the following characters. His sacrifice and that of his friend Lucas has an invaluable impact on Emma and Ray psychology.
Yugo from the Promised Neverland season 2 (manga)
The Norman twist and return scrambled on the anime The Promised Neverland 2.
Norman’s chatartic moment at the end of Episode 8 turns out to be too impacting on Norman’s decisions. In fact, in the manga he regrets attempting genocide but decidedly does not regret slaughtering the royal family. The royal family members and the conflict with the king, are merely mentioned on the anime while they’re the story’s true villains whose oppressive rule kept the other demons reliant on the farms.
The return of Norman in the manga was one of the best twists of the series. However, in the anime, everything was rushed. The audience didn’t have time to miss Norman and his appearance seemed far too convenient. Norman was re-introduced alongside Emma and Ray too early on the anime without the needed precautions.
The shallow character development on The Promised Neverland season 2: Isabella and Vylk.
The blind old man demon, Vylk, is an “evil-blooded.” Whereas Sonju and Mujika have had to live in hiding because of persecution, Vylk has managed to go about his business in ordinary demon society for 700 years. The decision of Vylk to help Emma appears an easy and too convienent plot choice. His presence makes the role of Sonju and Mujika less important because of the power of his ‘evil blood’.
Isabella promoted to Grandmother is pointeless.
Isabella character steps in Episode 4 (The Promised Neverland season 2) where she was asked to find the ‘her’ kids. That request from the demons stands ‘fronzen’ for a number of episodes on the anime and remains pointless. In fact, when the audience come across with Isabella on the following episodes she’s already been promoted to Grandmother, without completing the task.
The nuisance of Peter Ratri in The Promised Neverland 2.
Another character that has been spoiled by the anime version is Peter Ratri. In fact, the poor writing of the animated series does not convey the fear an ‘evil’ character as P. Ratri should. The manga version of Peter Ratri wouldn’t have relied only on the ‘Moms’ to make his plan work. P.Ratri is able to take action by his own to contrast Norman’s plan. For sure, Vincent’s deceive shouldn’t have been enough to beat the upholder of the Promise between humans and demons. Also his relationship with his brother (James Ratri, referred as ‘William Minerva’) is rushed and completely denaturated.
The Promised Neverland season 2 is bad also for an anime lover.
Despite the above mentioned differences with the manga, the second season of The Promised Neverland could have been much better. The feeling we have is that of a precious jewel being spoiled. Considering the limited number of episodes (11+1 recap episode) also the path of a completely original storyplot should have been suitable. Such a development decision, however, should have preserved the essence of The Promised Neverland.
The Promised Neverland season 2: character design, music and graphics.
In the Promised Neverland season 2, the main characters have lost their unique characteristics. All the knots of the plot are controlled by the willing of Emma, making the character of Ray a flat shadow beside her. Also the logical and cunning mind of Norman seems to be slightly blurred on the second season. In few words, The Promised Neverland 2 lacks on true emotions to the audience. During the season 1, the audience enjoyed every moment of the mind battle with ‘Mom’ Isabella because of the electric and thrilling atmosphere created on each scene.
The bloody scratches inside the shelter in The Promised Neverland season 2 (anime)
The music and graphic design of The Promised Neverland 2.
The technical compartment of The Promised Neverland 2 isn’t excellent. While the first season has been appreciated by fans for the exciting soundtracks and clear design, in the second season the audience is forced to experience a poor rushed mixing of the instrumental of the previous season. The quality of the drawings has been further hurted by the use of computer graphics CGI.
Will The Promised Neverland get a season 3?
At the time of writing a new season of The Promised Neverland has not been announced. However, it’s unlikely for The Promised Neverland to have another season shortly for at least two reasons. The first one is that the title has been covered by negative sentiment by the anime world. The disappointment was so wide that the hashtag #thepromisedneverland became a USA trend after the release of the last episode.
Will The Promised Neverland get a reboot?
The second reason is related to the fact that also a reboot season is unlikely to be released shortly. In fact, we can mention two manga adaptations into anime that received a reboot: FullMetal Alchemist and Fruits Basket. These two have a major difference with The Promised Neverland. They received an anime reboot because the first animated series was developed alongside the manga. When the anime episode covered the available manga chapters, the anime story split from the manga one. For this reason, in both cases, an anime reboot/adaptation was made to make the animated series closer to the original manga story. This isn’t the case of the Promised Neverland with the last volume released in June 2020. The anime adaptation was made when the original manga story was already complete, despite the short time between anime release and manga ending.
A disgraceful payback model: The Promised Neverland 2.
Finishing as quickly as possible to cash a paycheck. This is the main motive of The Promised Neverland 2. Every aspect of it is rushed: the stiff voice performances, the recycled soundtrack is poorly mixed. They reuse the same facial expressions, character animations, background art, and CGI monsters. In a world where the paycheck is the most important thing, The Promised Neverland 2 has ridden the wave of the hype of the first season and the result is a low quality product with a high selling rate. The Promised Neverland season 2 is spiritual successor to Tokyo Ghoul: Root A (read Tokyo Ghoul review here). Is this a commercial strategy to sell more manga volumes also on the anime followers of the series?
