Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well A-1 Pictures, you don fucked it up (https://youtu.be/iq87efgyRuU?si=oYb0f3HI1nHdaaYR). The Promised Neverland was one of the most intense and suspenseful animes I’ve ever see. A group of intelligent kids fighting for their lives against monsters. Relying on their wits and each other to beat their much stronger opponents. After the success of the first season, The Promised Neverland returned for a second season at the start of 2021 and everyone was excited. What we got was one of if not the most disappointing anime sequel I have ever seen. Come, let us see how this once great series fell from grace. This is The Promised Neverland S2.
Opening and Ending Theme
This season’s opening is “Identity” by Kiro Akiyama. Honestly, I didn’t care for this song. It lacks the intensity and the fire that we got in the first opening. Give Kiro credit, he’s trying to make this song mean something and the lyrics are the good but it just did nothing for me.
The ending is “Mahou” by Myuk. Not gonna lie, I forgot this song existed, and I deeply regret it because this song is honestly the best thing to come from this season. I’m not joking this song is very good and very touching.
Episodes 1-4
The season starts on an exciting note with the kids in the forest (and I’ve got to say this is a cool-looking forest. It’s got the mystique of Made in Abyss) making their way to William Minerva for help. Using a pen and the books written by William that contain a hidden morse code for them to use, they managed to find the location of where William is and use the books as guides to protect them from any dangers they come across. While traveling at night, they get chased by a monster which forces the group to split up. Ray tries to lure the monster into a trap only to for the monster to get killed by the demons who have been tracking the group and have finally caught up to them (man, this feels like a tale from the Underground Railroad). Ray tries to escape the demons but has no luck and gets saved by a mysterious hooded man. Back with Emma and the others, Emma passes out from her ear injury. The wound has reopened and it’s giving her a high fever. Just when the group seems lost, they get saved by a mysterious hooded woman who takes them to an underground shelter where she feeds the children and gives Emma some medicine. Ray is also there and after he and Emma wake up we find out that the hooded-figures are working together and are in fact demons (demons helping humans. What is this Undertale?).
In episode 2 we find out that the demons are Mujika and Sonju who are in fact good demons who don’t eat humans because of religious reasons. After eating, Emma and Ray talk to Sonju where they find out these demons have been inhabiting their world for 1,000 years instead of 30 years like they originally thought (figures. Things are way too organized for this kind of system to run as smoothly as it does). In the past humans and demons fought against each other until both sides became exhausted. It was here that the humans proposed a deal to segregate their world, humans would live on one side of the planet and the demons would live on the other side with the promise of never fighting each other again. Emma, Ray, and the others are on the demon side of the planet because their ancestors were left behind as sacrifices to the demons who established the farm system to manage and breed them as food for them to enjoy. After hearing all of this you would think Emma and Ray would be shocked by what they just heard, but instead they’re overjoyed (their situation is better than I thought). Originally, they thought that the whole world was ruled by demons entirely, but instead it’s just split between the two. All they have to do now is just go over to the humans’ side, however, no one has come and gone between the two sides according to Sonju. For the next few days, Mujika and Sonju teach everyone how to survive in this demon world. They teach the group how to build a fire, edible plants, important herbs, how to use a bow, and Emma even learns how to hunt from Sonju (which is really just an excuse to learn how to kill something when the time comes if you ask me).
So after 6 days of prepping and training, the kids leave the forest and head to the wastelands where Sonju says they won’t run into any demons out there. Speaking of Sonju, we get to see his dark side where we see he’s leaving them alive in the hopes that they’ll breed and multiply. Once they do, he’ll hunt them down and finally feast on some humans (that’s pretty dark and messed up). The group makes it to the location they’re supposed to in the wasteland only to find nothing (well at least the night sky is beautiful). Actually, using the map they discover an underground facility complete with a garden, library, bath, electricity, running water and beds. They decide to use this place as their hideout for the time being and even find a radio where they’re able to listen in on the other plantations as well as a hidden room with HELP written on the wall in blood (well this is not a good sign). The group then receives a call from William Minerva (oh hi, kids).
At the start of episode 4, we find out that the William on the phone is just a recording (oh great, he’s a telemarketer). William reveals that his real name is James Ratri and he was once associated with the plantations (or farms as they call them) until he could no longer bear seeing children killed all because of some promise. He decided to start leaving clues for children should they discover the truth and let them decide what they wanted to do (live or be eaten). However, they caught on to what he was doing (https://youtu.be/8U_R446L7uU) and hunted him down calling him a traitor (well he was messing with their food supply so. . .yes). He tells them they can either stay in this shelter forever and be safe or they can head to the edge of the demon world where they’ll be able to cross over into the human world. The group decides to head to the human world but not before rescuing the children from the other plantations. They spend days/weeks building up their shelter and training when all of a sudden, the shelter gets attacked by humans (betrayed by your own kind). They manage to escape from the shelter and try to run away to the forest only to get captured and saved by a monster where they make their escape. As the episode ends, we get to see Isabella who was removed from her caretaker position and locked up, but is now being given a chance to find and capture the children. If she’s successful they’ll free her from her duties as well as give her a bonus.
Episodes 5-8
Nothing much happens in episode 5. We see the group is now hiding out at an abandoned temple near a demon village that they occasionally go to in order to get what little food they can. They disguise themselves as demons and hide their scent to fool them until one day they get discovered by two demons where Emma and Ray lead them away from the group and get saved by a face from the past, Norm (I knew it).
So. . .after skipping at least 40+ chapters of content (I kid you not), episode 6 sees the reunion of Emma, Ray, and Norman. Norman explains to everyone that he was taken to another plantation that was operating as an experimental facility to enhance the children and make them better when it was time to harvest them. He and the other children escaped with the help of Smee a backer of Minerva who is now dead as well (and since we never met this person I can’t feel sad for them. Do you see the problem here?). Norman says he wasn’t experimented on and using the data he got from the facility he has created a drug that causes the demons to regress mentally and attack each other. Norman takes his leave (uh, shouldn’t you invite your family to come stay at your hideout like you did in the manga? I mean, they’re living in a temple where demons come to make offerings. What the hell?). While everyone is excited about Norman’s drug, Emma and Ray can’t get fully behind it (are you seriously showing sympathy for something that wants to eat you?) as Emma wants to find a way to live peacefully with demons while Ray finds a little fault in Norman’s plan seeing as how Mujika and Sonju still maintain human intelligence despite not eating humans. The next day, Emma and Ray go to Norman’s hideout where they meet Cislo, Barbara, and Vincent. Three of the people Norman rescued at the facility where they’re all down with killing the demons because of the torment they endured in the past. Once they talk to Norman about Mujika and Sonju he gets a look on his face hinting that he knows who they’re talking about.
At the start of episode 7 Norman says Mujika is known as the Evil-Blooded Girl among the demons. She’s a special demon who’s been able to maintain her intelligence despite not eating a human. She’s been alive for 700 years and has the powers to make others just like her by giving them a sip of her blood (alright. Let’s find her, mass produce that blood, feed it to all the demons, and call it a day). She shared this power with other demons, but the king and nobles didn’t like that and had these demons killed and eaten (hmm~ tastes like treason) to gain their powers and hid the truth from the common demons in order to control them. Norman says they’re a threat to the plan and must be killed but Emma says no as they’re friends and they should instead use Mujika’s blood on the demons. Norman of course counters this argument by saying there’s no way the demons will stop eating them even if they don’t have to (it’s like fast food. Once you start eating it you won’t stop). Emma says they should just escape to the human realm, but Norman says that’ll be impossible as well as all the gates were destroyed except for one which is back at their plantation, but it’s hidden underground and guarded by the gatekeeper (glad to see he managed to find work after Nightmare). Not to mention there’s no guarantee that the humans would accept them because Minerva and his supporters were killed by humans who are determined to keep the status quo (so peace was never an option. One side must be completely eliminated in order for peace to set in). Seeing no way to change Norman’s mind, Emma makes a deal with him. She plans to find Mujika and bring her to him to work out a new plan in 4 days. If Emma can do this he won’t kill any of the demons and he agrees to this. Of course he’s lying and plans on killing the demons as well as Mujika no matter what (no offense, but I expected Ray to go down this dark path, not Norman).
Episode 8 is actually a decent episode (it had a good opening, a boring middle, and an interesting ending). We focus on Norman where we see him forced into the testing facility of Lambda ran by humans and demons. It was here that Norman met the other children and hatched a plan to escape (you know, the episode would have been 10 times better if they focused on this one story. Seeing Norman in the facility, making allies, and working out a plan to escape with the rest of the children there). Using an explosive, Norman and the remaining children who survived escaped the facility (and holy shit there were a lot of dead bodies) with the data from the lab which he would use to create his demon killing drug. Returning back to the present, Emma, Ray and the others manage to find Mujika and Sonju at the end of the third day, but it doesn’t matter as Norman changed his mind and went ahead with his plan (how they did not see this coming is beyond me). Norman uses the nearby village as a testing grounds for his drug where the effects are great. We see the demons degenerate and begin attacking each other like wild animals. When Norman sets out to kill a few demons himself he becomes hesitant to make the kill (he’s still a kid). We also find out that the blind old demon is one of the Evil-Blooded demons (that was a cool surprise). Just when Norman is about to kill him, Emma arrives to stop him (the question is, is there anything left for her to save?).
Episodes 9-11
At the start of episode 9 Emma manages to pull Norman from the dark road he was on with her words. He finally reveals that he along with the others who escaped Lambda don’t have long to live. The experiments done on them have shortened their lives greatly and Norman decided that in the short time he was alive, he would use it to eradicate the demons convinced that was the right thing to do (in his defense he’s not completely wrong. You really think these guys are gonna go cold turkey just like that? Old habits die hard). Norman stops his gang who also sides with him (Vincent might be sus) and the group receives news that Phil and the others are going to be shipped out soon. We see that this is all a trap set up by the researcher from Lambda and Isabella who has been promoted to grandma (wow, and so young). Lambda plans to use a drug to develop the brains of the children thus giving the demons high grade meals all the time (I’m trying to think of something food related to compare this to, but I’m drawing a blank. (Mira): I got it, soma. (Nitsuj): That’ll do it). When everyone meets up to talk, the old demon from last episode arrives and hands them a pen piece he got from a human 15 years ago. The pen piece contains blueprints on the headquarters of the farms as well as a cure for the side effects of the drugs Norman and the others were forced to take (well ain’t that convenient?). Near the end of the episode we find out that Vincent is a dirty traitor (fucking knew it! Why!?) and uses the radio to contact the demons (they probably should have hid that).
Episode 10 goes by incredibly fast and everything seems to work out for them (too good to be honest). So we start off by seeing Vincent didn’t really betray the group, he fed the demons false information (mostly) to give everyone the advantage on the night of the attack. Using hot air balloons, they sneak in on other farms to reach the demon’s HQ where they manage to get all the children away from the moms and cause a distraction in HQ. Unfortunately, everyone gets surrounded by Isabella, the moms, and Peter who is the gatekeeper, head researcher of Lambda, and William Minerva’s younger brother. He’s the one who runs all of the farms as he believed this was the only way to keep the peace between demons and humans (dude, there is a demon that can fix a demon’s co-dependence on eating humans. Use her. You don’t have to send kids to their death you sick bastard). Just when the group thinks it’s game over, Isabella activates her trap card and reveals that she and the sisters are on their side. They deactivated the chips in their hearts and are also fed up with the farm system as well (as they should be damn it. You’re sending kids to their deaths, and you have to stay living on a farm or you’ll die. Also, why aren’t there any fathers!? How fair is that?). However, Peter activates his magic card which is reinforcements that have just arrived. Only for Peter to see it’s not reinforcements but the common demons who are finally rising up against the nobles and putting a stop to this madness once and for all (enough with the fake outs). With his card failing him, Peter finally accepts defeat and Emma offers him a hand asking to join their cause and free everyone including himself.
In the final episode, despite Peter accepting defeat, he doesn’t believe they can change the status quo and kills himself (bye crazy). Everyone heads over to the human side of the world except for Emma, Norman, and Ray as there’s still work to be done and they intend to see it through to the end. So everyone adapts well to the human side of the world (you think there would be some culture shock but nope, they adapted well to their new environment. The power of youth I guess). Years went by and soon Emma, Norman, and Ray accomplished their goals of saving all the children and placing Mujika on the throne establishing peace in the demon world and going over to human world where everyone is waiting for them.
Final Thoughts
Alright, let’s get the bad stuff out of the way. This season was rushed. No question or defense about it, this was a rushed season. A lot of the manga gets skipped over for the sake of reaching the ending, not a lot of things are explained fully, and Emma really comes across as annoying this time around. In the first season, her desire to save everyone no matter what was endearing and inspirational. Here, it comes across as too preachy and forced. Likes she’s forcing everyone to do what she wants and ignoring how everyone else feels. Supposedly, there were a number of problems behind the scenes which would explain why it was so rushed, but that still doesn’t excuse this mess of a second season for an anime that a lot of people were looking forward to watching and what could have easily been 3 or 4 seasons and a movie.
Now with that said, the anime does end on a happy note. It was heartwarming to see Emma and the others forgive Isabella for everything and still treat her like their mom, getting to explore the world was nice, learning about it and what’s going on in it really did help elevate the story as we learn that those in power are purposefully keeping the status quo instead of trying to change it for the better. The animation and soundtrack are nice and for a dialogue heavy series like this, the VAs do a good job at pulling you in and making you understand everything that’s going on.
Final Score
The final score for The Promised Neverland S2 is a 2/10. A disappointing follow up to a spectacular and intense first season that had a lot of potential, but due to problems behind the scenes just fails hard and we the fans and viewers are left to suffer. I’m gonna need to watch something good to get this bad taste out of my mouth. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.