The Promised Neverland

Episode Count	23 (12 in Season 1)
Season	Winter 2019
Genres	Psychological, Shounen, Thriller
Source Material	Manga
Rating	TV-14
Streaming	TBD

I respect that most sites do not tell you what this series is about, as such I will also refrain from saying what's revealed even in the first episode.

The Promised Neverland is about an orphanage. This includes both a building and acres of grassland and woods. At this orphanage, the kids are free to do whatever they want so long as they don't leave the orphanage. The kids are content to playing games, reading books etc. And they enjoy doing it! It's a fun life for them all. But the three main characters learn something at the end of episode 1 that make them realize "we gotta get out of this damn orphanage".

The first season of The Promised Neverland is honestly one of my favorite anime adaptations of manga. The direction creates a true sense of dread, alterations are improvements on the source material, emotional moments hit harder, and this first season tells a complete story. It's everything an anime adaptation should be.

Which is incredibly ironic because of how disastrous the second season's adaptation was.

Yeah let's address the elephant in the room. Someone, God knows who, told the production committee of Season 2 that they had to cram the rest of the manga (which there were around 30-40 episodes of material left) into 11 episodes. And it feels like they weren't told this until after finishing episode 3. What followed is one of the biggest WTF moments in the history of anime. Entire arcs and central characters were cut to speedrun to an ending that was confusing to casual viewers and insulting to fans of the manga. This anime could have been on the Essentials list if not for the second season destroying the whole franchise's reputation.

Despite all of that, I still recommend Season 1. I think that first season is great. But I understand if you decide you'd rather read the manga.

- 0215MADman