This post discusses plot spoilers through episode 5 of the anime, and links to offsite content with manga spoilers later in the story.
I’m usually not great at keeping up with anime series as they’re being simulcast. A lot of that is due to my personal workflow and my resistance to watching anime where there are still other anime remaining for me to review. I realize how ridiculous that sounds but I’m someone who easily wanders off-track and procrastinates, so I have to set some weird rules in place to keep myself from becoming distracted. There are rare times, though, where watching weekly broadcasts becomes a necessity rather than a luxury, and as soon as I started watching The Promised Neverland I suspected that it might be one of those anime.
I generally try to look past hype and not let internet chatter influence my own opinions, but the discourse around this series was difficult to ignore. I read an essay about the restrictive gender roles as they exist in the story’s universe (caution for both big-time plot spoilers and some disturbing imagery), and from that point I was intrigued. Since the anime adaptation of the manga series had already been announced, I tried to put the spoilers out of my mind (I was at least partly successful due to the length of time in between the post and the first episode, which was helpful!)
My consumption of this series reminds me a bit of my relationship with Attack on Titan, another incredibly popular manga-turned-anime that contains a lot of now well-known plot twists and reveals. I generally consider myself to be someone who’s not really drawn-in by “page-turner” series, since I find that they’re often pretty manipulative with their cliffhangers and trickle-truth storytelling in order to drum up (sometimes undeserved) interest. For whatever reason, AoT became a fast favorite of mine; I looked forward to each week’s new episode with the unreasonable hope that I’d learn something new about the society depicted in the series and humanity’s downfall (the second and third seasons have obviously scratched that itch a little bit more). Neverland feels very alike in spirit to AoT, with its similarly shocking secrets and scrappy cast bent on taking control of their lot in life.
Needless to say, one of the first things I do when I get home on Thursday evenings is to pull up the newest episode and give it a watch. This is partly to avoid plot spoilers, since this is a series that’s being recapped and reviewed by several other websites I read on a regular basis, and it’s a constant topic of conversation on twitter and other social media I follow. The other reason is simply because I find the story uniquely compelling and just have to know what happens next.
At this point I’m current through episode 5 (which came out this past Thursday – I got to wrestle with my sub-standard LTE phone signal in the area I was staying, but I managed to ). One of my favorite aspects of the series thus far is its ability to portray the stress and tension the characters are experiencing through their actions, facial expressions, and simply the situations they find themselves in. One of my favorite early revelations is knowing that Emma and Norman, having seen something they’re not meant to have seen, now have to act as though they haven’t seen it; we know how smart they are, but their perception of the world has just been ripped to pieces in a terrifying way, so there’s a question of how long they’ll be able to avoid the suspicious gaze of their once-beloved authority figure. It’s tough to keep from becoming emotionally invested in this, and frankly I wouldn’t want to try; the gut-wrenching thrill of watching these characters tip-toe around and use their intelligence to avoid capture is difficult to top.
As much as I love watching the cat and mouse game as its played between the children and Mother Isabella, I was frustrated to find that these episodes also feature a definite problematic element that distracts somewhat from the drama of the narrative. At the end of the second episode, we meet Sister Krone, another adult woman brought on to aid Mother Isabella in monitoring and controlling the children (which, obviously, lets us know that she knows that some of the children aren’t as naive as they’re playing at). Sister Krone is the only prominent woman of color in the series thus far; while the children have some variability in appearance, Sister Krone is the only character who reads as a Black woman. This wouldn’t be a bad thing in and of itself, but her portrayal (visual and otherwise) plays into a lot of old, harmful stereotypes about Black individuals, which makes her position as the only or “token” Black character more of an issue.
Critic Jackson P. Brown has a good blog post regarding Sister Krone’s portrayal (manga-wise) and the ways in which they’re problematic; the reasons ranging from her exaggerated facial features, her masculinized body composition, and her animalistic, terrifying pursuit of the children all weigh into this. The Manga Scholar on Twitter is more blunt (beware of a plot spoiler regarding the character in the linked tweet). Both critics do a good job of outlining these problems, and while I think the anime character design is a mild improvement based on the few manga images I’ve seen, I still cringe when Sister Krone’s being featured, because even though I think her story arc is interesting (from having been spoiled on the details by my own choice), she still represents a major missed opportunity for an anime series that’s otherwise been very good.
Something I do appreciate, though, is that the three main characters, Emma, Norman, and Ray, are all irregularly gifted in various ways, though not in a manner that reads as unrealistic or impossible for kids their age. I especially like that Emma is allowed to be the emotional “heart” of the trio while her intelligence is never seriously called into question, which can sometimes be the case with girls and women. I think there’s a compulsion in some circles to prioritize and value logical thinking over emotional intelligence, and in this series that’s definitely not the message being conveyed. While it’s clear from the beginning that attempting to escape with all the other children will be exponentially more difficult than if the oldest 3 were to go it alone, one of the wonderful aspects of human beings, I think, is our ability to consider and raise up the needs of the weakest among us, even if animal nature would have us leave them behind to succeed or fail on their own. I really enjoy how Emma represents the core empathy and humanity of the best of us.
Watching The Promised Neverland week-to-week has reminded me of the frustrating, conflicting emotions that come with watching first-run simulcast anime series – on the one hand, it’s great to be able to keep on top of the fascinating discussions surrounding the series, but on the other, I’ve got to wait a week in-between each episode. I suppose there’s always the manga, but I know I’d consume the rest of it in pretty short order, and be left in the same predicament in addition to dealing with the anime’s (probable) changes to the source material. What a conundrum!
For those of you watching, how are you enjoying the series so far? Let me know!