The Promised Neverland
Yakusoku no Neverland (original title)
TV-14 | 30min | Animation, Fantasy, Horror | TV Series (2019– )
Series Directed by: Mamoru Kanbe (11 episodes, 2019)
Series Writing Credits: Kaiu Shirai (12 episodes, 2019)
Production manager: Suzanne St. Clair (12 episodes, 2019)
Production Companies: Aniplex (production), CloverWorks (animation), Fuji Television Network (production), Shueisha (production)
Full cast and crew (Japanese and English) available here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8788458/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm
It’s hard to imagine a more unlikely scenario: children in an orphanage learn they are being fattened up to become stew for daemons. Sounds like Charles Dickens on bath salts, doesn’t it?
Here’s something even more unlikely: it turns out to be one of the best animes I’ve seen, with the depth, darkness and emotional impact of such gems as Grave of the Fireflies or Princess Mononoke.
Two children disobey a rule at the idyllic orphanage in which they live and go to the gates to see off one of their fellow children, a girl who has turned 12 and has been sent to a new life. Slipping into the gate, they are horrified to see their friend murdered and put in a preservative tank by…creatures.
In a medium that thrives on silliness, it is the last silly moment in this series. What follows is a deadly serious game of cat and mouse between the children and “mother”, the always-smiling and oh-so-caring governess of what they learn is Area 3, one of not less than 8 such orphanages.
The year is 2045, and while the orphanage has a good sized library, all the books date to before 2020. There are no computers, radio or television. The children have no idea what the outside world is like, beyond what they read in the books.
The children range from infants to 11 year olds, and there are 38 of them at any given time. Some are “adopted out” as early as the age of 6, some leave on their 12th birthday. The two witnesses work out that the “adoptions” are based on the intellectual capacity of each child—the smarter the kid, the longer before harvesting. Brains are a delicacy, it seems.
They probe the perimeters and restraints of what they now realize is a prison, and work to discern the motives, not of the daemons, but of “mother.” Slowly, they work out plans, drawing in other children. Some of the children work at cross-purposes, and the plot gets very sophisticated and never follows a formulaic route.
The writing in this is as good as it gets. Kaiu Shirai has worked a complicated, profound and disturbing drama that will live with you.
The kids are kids—human, afraid, determined, and in a quiet way, very brave. The ending isn’t pat, or simple. Not all the kids make it. But there is to be a second season late this year.
Now available on Crunchyroll.