I’m no trying to be overly negative about this season of Yakusoku no Neverland, though I know you may find that hard to believe.  But it strikes me watching this play out on-screen that the series and its adaptation may just be an example of the Peter Principle at work.  While a lot of stuff (and I do mean a lot) has been changed for the anime, I don’t think the trainwreck qualities of this season can in any way be separated from the fact that the manga itself was a mess in its final half (especially the final third).

The way I see it is this.  Shirai Kaiu couldn’t get it right the first time.  The manga got off to a great start, but when it tried to expand on the rather straightforward Grace Field Arc the emperor had no clothes.  Who knows, maybe that’s even why the production committee decided to cram everything after Grace Field into one cour – though given the commercial success of the manga that’s probably just me reaching for an explanation.  Shirai getting another bite of the apple with the anime wasn’t going to help, because (s)he couldn’t get it right to begin with.  This is as far as Shirai’s ability as a writer could carry the series.

I mean, there were individual elements of this episode that were quite good.  The destruction of the demon village was fine in the macro sense, for example.  But so much context has been ripped from the story that none of this makes any impact.  Norman’s entire backstory – the ordeal that changed him from the boy we knew at Grace Field to who he is now – was packed into six minutes.  Six minutes.  We meet Peter Ratri, and James Ratri is is name-dropped – great.  Who are either one of them, and why should we care?  The anime certainly doesn’t answer that question.  Where did Norman get the explosives to stage his escape?  Details, details – who needs ’em?

Really, the most egregious part of the episode for me was the whole “Emma” bit – which isn’t in the manga for the record, and is basically ripped off from “Batman V. Superman” to begin with.  It’s just so dumb, so random, so pointlessly silly.  Norman is the best character in the series, in case that wasn’t obvious from the first season, and he’s just been screwed over at every turn – robbed of every meaningful development for his character and reduced to a plot device.  It’s irritating as hell.

There are times when it isn’t a bad thing not to be too emotionally vested, and this is one of them.  If the manga hadn’t pretty much lost me altogether by the end I would be a lot more upset about all this than I am.  Even so it irks me to see some genuinely good content axed altogether and an ending that’s a lock to be borderline incomprehensible.  If a series as massive as The Promised Neverland isn’t immune from this sort of thing, it makes you wonder what series is.