#The Promised Neverland S2 Break Hearts Through Disappointment

Season aired: Winter 2021

Number of episodes: 12

Genres: Drama, Mystery, Fantasy

Thoughts: The Promised Neverland Season 2 will likely go down as one of the most tragic endings in the anime world, and I don’t mean that in the good, heart-wrenching way. After an incredibly well-produced first season that left audiences begging for a second season, the team opted to instead smash everything together to tie a nice bow around the entire series as a final goodbye. And it was an absolute mess.

The Promised Neverland follows a group of orphans who grew up in Gracefield. After discovering the awful truth about their world, the children decided to take matters into their own hands to do whatever it takes to survive.

Everything the first season excelled at was completely missing from the second season. Though I expected a genre shift after the end of the first season, the writing differed so much in quality between the first and second season that it made me more sad than bored. I leaped at the laptop whenever there was a new episode, yet I couldn’t help but feel a sinking feeling in my stomach as I watched each episode.

Even as someone who didn’t read the manga, I could tell how much material was skipped because of how quickly conflicts got resolved and how fast the story progressed. In one particular episode, I remember counting a total of five separate conflicts getting resolved within minutes of each other. Even worse, the conflicts started conversations that were convoluted and filled with gray morality, but the series opted to simply wave the problems away through the familiar power of friendship in a series famous for not using friendship as a core solution to its more complicated problems.

New characters were introduced left and right with backstories quickly forced down before moving forward once more, which left little depth or personality. While I still found the overarching storyline of The Promised Neverland riveting, its execution was undeniably horrendous. Its theme of perspectives required extensive worldbuilding, none of which we experienced as viewers in this season, and its question of trying to choose between systematic stability over new ideas also quickly got swept under the rug.

In fact, the entire last episode of the series consisted of a number of straight montages of the heroes conveniently solving every last issue the series vaguely mentioned. Entire arcs got summarized into a single still picture. We never saw the process, and even the titular protagonists feel so much more cardboard in comparison to their personalities in the first season.

The complete degradation of writing quality hurts not only because of the solid first season but also because of the other elements involved. Music continues to elevate this series, and the new pieces Obata-san composed sound marvelous to the ears, with one particular theme that sounds just as alien as the creatures of the world. In addition, voice acting continues to excel. Emma’s voice actress, Sumire Morohoshi, actually improved in her voice acting performance despite the less-than-average script given. Mariya Ise also continues her incredible performance as the logical and direct Ray. However, as bad as the writing was, I have no doubt that the music and the voice acting will get completely overlooked despite the stellar quality.

I’m not sure why the production team chose to quickly put an end to The Promised Neverland rather than continuing the series, but with how shoddily put together this second season was, I can’t help but wonder why they even bothered making it in the first place. If anything, even with no plans of continuing the anime series, they could’ve instead chosen to end it at an arc as many series adaptations often do. With a forced ending that skipped over mountains of world-building and character development, the second season of The Promised Neverland will likely never fade from people’s minds due to the waves of disappointment felt all throughout the season.

Rating

Plot: 5.5 (Multiplier 3.5)

Characters: 6.5 (Multiplier 3.5)

Voice acting: 8

Art/Animation: 6.5

Soundtrack: 9

FINAL SCORE: 65.5