Fair warning: there are spoilers in here relating to both seasons of The Promised Neverland, but I believe those that are here have already completed the series and would like to hear the opinions of others in the community that already watched. Let's begin:

As someone that didn’t read the manga yet thoroughly enjoyed season one of The Promised Neverland, it’s safe to say that I was quite ecstatic to see what was coming next. The first season ended on such a high note after the main clique had escaped from Grace Field House, leaving behind a life of tragedy and endless lies. It was very well animated, very tense, and had all the makings to become an excellent anime series.

The main cast was very well developed, each character having a decent amount of time to grow and progress. Every character included within the main cast had diverse traits and personalities making the character development incredibly interesting to follow. Emma, Ray, and Norman were an excellent trio, and figuring out more about this twisted demon-society that they were brought into was always a joy. It was a slow recovery of information that flowed well for the series. Piece by piece we were able to understand more about this world and what truly was happening here very early on. Bottom line: this wasn’t an ordinary orphanage. The peel-back of information was exceedingly satisfying and tense, with each episode raising the stakes and adding further anxiety which crafted the path for their eventual escape.

There were some hiccups here and there, but overall the pacing was extremely well rounded and made for quite the strong showing for a new series. It kept viewers wanting to see more and opened up the slate for something really special.

Fast forward just 2 years later, and the series is completely finished. That should be an immediate red flag for anyone unaware, but diving into this season I had expected there to be at least another additional season (or maybe even two) before this story wrapped up. Brilliance takes time. Work, whether well done or poorly crafted, also takes time. Rather than CloverWorks capitalizing on the potential of this series, they botched it in every possible way from start to finish. Not just with the animation which is noticeably a vast downgrade from the first season, but everything from the actual characters to the storyline itself was flattened and overly streamlined. The previously mentioned trio? Ruined within the span of these past 11 episodes. Everything they learned, uncovered, valued, appreciated, and understood were all swept under the rug and instead, the characters became as flat and 2D as possibly imaginable. Each episode revealed enough content to fill several episodes which blows my mind as the pacing of the first season nearly perfected the transition from manga to anime. Instead of becoming an enjoyable adaptation week after week, it was one that I dreaded and only continued just to see how much worse it would become.

Ray, my favorite character from the first season, was stuck doing absolutely nothing besides following Emma and mimicking her every move. It was as if the motives he developed during season one vanished after the escape from Grace Field House. It was unbelievably disappointing seeing him transition from a witty and unique character to one that ended up having less importance than the slimy air-breathing Goowee. I still cannot fathom how the series transitioned from something incredible to something completely and utterly disappointing after one season.

The introduction of Mujika and Sonju as friendly-demons opened up many possibilities that could have been deeply explored and yet after the first two episodes, the main cast went their separate ways deeming their initial meeting basically meaningless. There was so much mystery behind them and yet they were quickly thrown in and out of the action fairly quickly. It became abundantly clear after this encounter that the entirety of the season would follow this speed of revealing information in a snap. Why completely change the formula and rush through the whole manga when the previous season was fine?

Throughout all of the series so far the characters have been guided by this mysterious figure known as “William Minerva”, aka James Ratri, and his whole presence dissolved so quickly into this second season. The delivery of backstories and the fact that major arcs were missing didn’t help their case either. The approach here was just sonic-speed all the way through with no turning back. Here’s a brand new character but they won’t mainstay their welcome and will be irrelevant after five minutes. Pointless. Norman is back...yay? The series failed to even give us time to breathe and comprehend where he might’ve gone before bringing him back into the spotlight. Rather than genuinely showcasing the entirety of the Lambda storyline and develop these brand new characters that were interjected into the storyline, their whole presence was summarized in a short flashback that didn’t even take up 1 full episode.

Norman himself grew to become somewhat of an antagonist in the eyes of the main cast and yet his mind was able to change almost instantly after his return. Bringing him back into the fold this way was different than what I expected, but this plan crumbled through his own movements after just 1 episode again. Unlike the Norman first introduced, this version was tested on and was able to create a formula capable of wiping out the majority of demons living in this world. This was something unique and yet it was still botched. Instead of fleshing out these newly introduced Lambda characters and allowing us to understand their perspective, the anime team decided to INSTANTLY humanize the demons which led to the downfall of the entire demon-genocide plan. At this point in this awful second season, this failed to surprise me. The events happening in front of my very eyes made no sense.

It’s honestly quite embarrassing seeing how flawed, rushed, and nearly unwatchable this series became after beginning this season. Manga-fans were hoping for this season to reevaluate the poor ending and the writing team decided to flip the switch and give longtime fans the complete opposite. I can’t even explain how many years passed during this season because the unloading of information and dismissal of key events did so much more harm than good.

If the main purpose of this horrible season was to get viewers to instead buy the manga in hopes of reading a storyline that actually made sense, well this plan definitely worked alright. Rarely will I have such a strong disconnect with a series, but The Promised Neverland S2 takes the cake for being the most disappointing season possibly of all time. For those that are looking for a better series to dive into, please watch basically anything else. Do not waste your time here unless you plan on watching season one and reading the rest, but apparently, there isn’t too much more to enjoy on that front.

Deservingly, this season is getting a whopping 1/10 from me.