The manga gets worse, too.
Summary:
- At first, The Promised Neverland was a great thriller anime.
- Later in the manga, it becomes more like a battle shounen.
- Because of how bad S2 was, fans stopped complaining about the issues with the manga.
The second season of The Promised Neverland (Yakusoku no Neverland) is ultimately considered one of the worst anime sequels of all time. A once beloved series quickly turned into a mess.
There are many reasons why the sequel is so bad. The main one is it compressed the events of the manga so much it was practically incomprehensible, skipping some arcs. The animation took a nosedive, too.
Fans often say that The Promised Neverland deserved a better sequel — or, rather, with how many chapters were left unadapted, multiple better sequels. However, some manga readers say that while the anime definitely was awful, the manga wasn’t great, either.
First Season Was Great Thriller, Even Though Some Elements Weren’t Realistic
The first season of The Promised Neverland was a gripping survival thriller. The children find out that they are essentially being raised for slaughter and have to train physically and come up with a smart plan to escape the facility.
The escape itself, however, was somewhat criticized by the fans. It’s really hard to believe these kids can perform physical feats that most adults won’t be capable of. Still, most fans dismissed it as a “rule of cool” moment in a shounen series.
The Manga Gets Worse Anyway
After the escape arc, though, the manga quickly became worse — according to some fans. Instead of being a thriller filled with a constant sense of dread, the manga takes a more shounen-y approach and features way more action, as well as a great battle for the freedom of humanity.
Many felt that this genre shift made The Promised Neverland worse. While the manga was never outright bad, it was disappointing compared to what it initially was. The battle shounen elements made it way more generic than it could have been.
Reaction to Season 2 Made Many Forget About the Faults of Manga
However, even those who did feel The Promised Neverland became worse later in the manga can’t really criticize it without bringing up the anime, which is far worse. The disaster that was S2 made fans completely forget about the faults of the manga itself — after all, it wasn’t that bad compared to perhaps the worst sequel of all time.
The fact that the changes to Season 2 were apparently approved by the mangaka didn’t help either. It seems that The Promised Neverland S2 was a mess all along, and the manga, despite its own issues, remains the superior way to experience the series.