I must say The Promised Neverland quickly made into my favorite animes, it was captivating enough for me to watch it in some hours, the session interrupted only by an exam I had to make, giving me a ton of enjoyment and love and fear by the magnificent characters the show had.
Story - 9/10
The story is just incredible.
The plot starts quite simple I would say. The first episode is interesting, starting not only by setting the premise (with the scene of the 3 protagonists as kids wanting to see what's outside the house and what the gate protects them from) but the
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background of the orphanage and how it looks like a normal one, with kids living a good and happy life until they are adopted and... Oh no, the adoptions actually mean sending kids to the stomach of underworld creatures. The only reason I didn't surprise myself was that Netflix already said that in the synopsis. And someone reading this review will already know that by me but don't worry, as a giant plot twist it may be, it won't affect your experience.
The story development and pacing were great. The overall pacing wasn't too fast neither too slow. Although episodes 8 - 10 were slow and 11 - 12 were incredibly fast, the slow-paced one was justifiable by the plot, the 2 last however were just kinda rushed. The story develops marvelously, with discovery being made each episode, tricking the audience sometimes and some episodes even involved plot twists. The episodes fit quite well, each one being connected to the last episode while also adding new information to the episode to fit the next and to increment new overall conflicts and problems to be solved. However, sometimes the trio looked "too smart". Sometimes a conflict or a problem was introduced and solved after seconds by the kids, making everything look easy and rushed. Some things were just nonsense, like some deductions from Norman and Mom that made both look like master deductors who got hints from God. The ending not only was quite rushed but also suffered from the same nonsense, as Emma and Ray, both kids, managed to easily overcome a problem that could mentally damage an adult for years while at the same time overcoming an infinitely more intelligent opponent.
The plot twist of the child-eating demons mentioned above came with a sudden change in the overall house atmosphere, it goes to a happy and playful house where everyone has fun to a mysterious and unsettling where everyone's life is condemned. Although the house itself is dark from the start, the show atmosphere starts kind of happy, with daylight and outdoor scenes, more of kids playing, and more of hope and faith in the protagonist trio. This changes throughout history, the outdoor scenes are more shown at night and the ones at the day generally are shown within forests or dark biomes or have some level of tension on them. There are more indoor scenes, all at night and the kids hope in the face "fades", not saying they are hopeless, just more serious. This helps to increase and maintain the tension and suspense you feel while the psychological battle of the trio against Mom rages, the aura Mom emits is enough to make even Rambo be scared of her, as she constantly harasses and makes moves against the prodigy trio. All of this goes on to serve as proof that the show is really of the genre of thriller. It had its cute moments tho, of which didn't damage the tension in any way.
Art - 10/10
Gosh, the art style. I just love it. It's so unique and memorable. Basically, everyone who's not an adult looks incredibly cute and the adults are well-drawn too. The expressions are also marvelous, perhaps even exaggerating when representing a character's feelings. The only "unfitting" thing was the fact that the art style was "too cute" for a thriller or dark plot like this, but the cute art style was the same who managed such expressive faces and reactions, so I can't down ratings from this.
Sound - 8/10
I don't know how to do a review on sound, so the only thing I can say is it was enough to contribute with the thriller ambiance and the opening was unfitting for the anime. I'm sorry.
Character - 7/10
That's the part I disliked the most.
The protagonist trio is Emma, the least intelligent of the 3. She is cheerful, athletic, quite incompetent, and careful. Ray, the 2nd most intelligent in the house, is a massive edgy emo kid and probably the most mature, yet immature of them, as he can be very serious and rational in normal situations, but immature and emotional when in conflict. Norman is the most intelligent in the entire house, being a calm, analytical, and strategic kid and having a crush in Emma.
Well, even if they are child prodigies with giant IQs, they are still kids and I almost never saw that in the show. All three got through intense and highly emotional situations, facing problems at the same level of emotional distress and still they managed to be extremely calm, even being good actors sometimes. They even made random deductions and discoveries too. Those problems I mentioned were mainly from Norman, as his intelligence and character look "fake" and the author very much probably loves him.
Mom is also, for fear-inducing purposes, a sociopath. She has the generic psychopath face of a still smile in almost all situations, having no remorse for killing all those kids and the only love she has for them it's because their deaths will render her life and fame. It almost looks like she has no personality. I can't forget the random deductions the author wrote to make her look like a genius that the kids can't attack directly and win, only dodge or they will lose. Yet, at the ending, her psycho and apathetic character drastically changes to a more careful and loving to the kids, as she loved them and didn't want them to die, and also, the kids outsmart them. It just doesn't make sense to me. I could talk about the other characters, but I think mentioning them here would be a spoiler and I don't want to ruin other's experiences.
The characters had some development however, Mom's character changed, even though drastically. Emma, for good, changed too, but mentioning them here would be a spoiler. I didn't saw the same in Ray and Norman, but this may be the blindness of mine.
Most of the supporting cast was made to give an emotional aspect to the show, like, "look at those cute kids, they will all die if the trio fails" and the ones that had more screentime have basically no purpose in the show until the ending.
Enjoyment - 9/10
Even with all those errors, The Promised Neverland is still a great show, as I said, it was captivating enough for me to watch it until the end in one take. Very few shows made this with me, and Mom was the first villain since I watched Dragon Ball Z as a kid that was scary for me, making me feel that they wouldn't do it. Even with the story and the character flaws, it's still a very great show and I think most people will enjoy and remember the memorable characters for a long time as I did.
Overall - 8/10
Have no fear of watching it, the chances of you disliking the show are very low unless you take flaws too serious at the level of dropping or hating the show.
Sep 26, 2020
Yakusoku no Neverland
(Anime)
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I must say The Promised Neverland quickly made into my favorite animes, it was captivating enough for me to watch it in some hours, the session interrupted only by an exam I had to make, giving me a ton of enjoyment and love and fear by the magnificent characters the show had.
Story - 9/10 The story is just incredible. The plot starts quite simple I would say. The first episode is interesting, starting not only by setting the premise (with the scene of the 3 protagonists as kids wanting to see what's outside the house and what the gate protects them from) but the ... |
