The latest news in the unfolding nightmare that is Yakusoku no Neverland S2 is that Shirai Kaiu’s name disappeared from the credits this week. Whether that’s just a mistake from a production in disarray or an indication that Kaiu is no longer directly involved with the anime I don’t know, though the latter is certainly the more interesting prospect. Did (s)he bail? Pushed out by the production committee? Either side being disgusted enough by this debacle to make that move may be giving them more credit than they deserve, but like so much attached to this adaptation the explanations don’t come easily.
As to the events on screen, I honestly don’t even want to talk about them. As I noted a couple of weeks ago what really strikes me as the most likely driving force behind all this is that Neverland is the Peter Principle in action. A writer not good enough to close the deal in the original material wasn’t going to be able to fix it later, especially in a fraction of the time. And clearly no one involved in a position of power with the anime had the ability or inclination to keep this ship afloat. And the band played on…
Truly, this was awful. Even by Neverland ending standards. I mean, they managed to ruin Phil too, the most boss of all the manga characters (as if Norman wasn’t bad enough). The only positive for me is that Vincent doesn’t end up being a traitor after all, but apart from that it’s hard to point to anything that worked, right down to the Deus ex Vylk. Hell, it’s hard to point to anything that wasn’t an abject embarrassment. There’s one other positive, actually – there’s only one episode left. And that’s certainly better than two.
blargnobia
March 21, 2021 at 1:55 am“There’s one other positive, actually – there’s only one episode left. And that’s certainly better than two.”
I feel like we’ve reached that level of disappointment where nothing matters anymore. It’s like that Game Grumps episode when they played one of the Zelda CDI games and Dan said “The best thing about this game is that we’ll all be dead soon.”
Elia Notari
March 21, 2021 at 7:13 pmYou could just leave “it’s like Game Grumps” and it would be even funnier
Ramses
March 21, 2021 at 5:48 amI really wonder why they decided to rush it all. If there’s something that Jujutsu Kaisen and Kimetsu no Yaiba have shown, it’s that high quality adaptations are really profitable. It doesn’t make sense, even from a business perspective, to butcher the series like this.
Guardian Enzo
March 21, 2021 at 8:59 amWe may (likely) never get an explanation for that. It’s the most bewildering part of all this.
Darrel
March 23, 2021 at 9:05 pmProbably because TPN is finished and Season 1 didn’t boost manga sales as dramatically as KnY or Kaisen.
Gyarekushi
March 21, 2021 at 11:00 amThe first season’s adaptation & learning about what was lost made me only a teeny bit sad, but this? Holy gods in hell