Not every anime series can be great. With dozens released every season, there are bound to be a few that simply miss the mark. Some are doomed from the start with bad writing, while others suffer from poor animation quality due to low budgets or under powered staff. A large number are plainly average, unwilling to take risks and break free from the typical tropes of the art form. Rarely, though, there are series that barge onto the scene and steal the spotlight with a fantastic product, only to self-destruct down the line. Unfortunately, The Promised Neverland fits that bill.

Based on the original manga by Kaiu Shirai and illustrated by Posuka Demizu, The Promised Neverland's anime released in 2019 to rave reviews from critics and audiences, who applauded the series' pacing, tension, and characters. The dark fantasy thriller would go on to be nominated for several anime awards, winning Best Female Character at the fan-voted Anime Grand Prix. Shortly after, however, public perception around the series flipped during the show's follow-up season.

With seemingly endless behind it, The Promised Neverland Season Two began airing in 2021, and it didn't take long for fans to realize something was wrong. By its end, collective mourning throughout the anime community took place for the loss of what could have been and never was. Drastic changes to the source material and pacing so uneven it could give a fighter pilot whiplash, The Promised Neverland dropped the ball hard. Now, fans look back at a missed opportunity for greatness, and a strong start that was ultimately wasted.

The Promised Neverland Made a Great First Impression

The Series' First Season Was a Smash Hit

There's quite a lot to like about The Promised Neverland's first season. From the jump, the anime demands its audience's intrigue, placing non-assuming characters inside an orphanage that is brimming with the innocence of childhood. However, a lingering uneasiness permeates the upbeat and warm atmosphere long before the series reveals its darker bits. Quickly shifting gears to become a mystery thriller, leading characters Emma, Ray, and Norman must band together to escape the orphanage while evading the watchful eye of their 'mother', Isabella.

The series is built entirely on the suspense created during the moments of planning the escape, leading to an incredibly cathartic release upon watching the orphans successfully leave. The world of The Promised Neverland is cruel, though, and the children aren't really any safer on the outside of the orphanage than they were on the inside.

The series' first season is a triumph of pacing, drawing its audience in and refusing to let them go until the final credits roll. And while the suspense takes hold, The Promised Neverland is impressively able to build the threat of an outside world the viewer doesn't ever get to see. Fans could hardly contain their excitement about an opportunity to steal a view of that world when Season Two was announced. Unfortunately, what they saw beyond those tall concrete walls was something many wish they could forget.

A Disastrous Second Season Forever Altered Public Perception of the Series

The Promised Neverland Season 2 Was a Head-Scratching Departure From the Source Material

The Promised Neverland's first season generated a ton of buzz, due in part to a large following gained from Netflix at a time when the platform didn't offer nearly as many anime options as it does today. When the second season finally arrived, viewers tuned in en masse to experience the terrifying world the previous season had warned them about. The premiere was the second most popular ever on MyAnimeList at the time of airing, behind only the debut of Attack on Titan's final season.

Only a few episodes in, however, it became evident that the anime's second go around wouldn't have quite the same effect as its first. Small deviations from the original manga quickly turned into bigger changes, and finally became full omissions of sections that were integral to the source material. The Goldy Pond arc, a stretch of more than 30 chapters of the manga leading up to the series' conclusion, was inexplicably skipped.

If the arc were rewritten to include anything at all of substance, the anime might have endured a better fate. Unfortunately, though, the major cut sequence inevitably led to a conclusion that was horrifyingly rushed, largely incoherent, and unsatisfying in just about every imaginable way. By the time Season Two finished airing, any of the goodwill earned with its first season was destroyed, and a large portion of the fan base walked away from the story wishing they'd never watched it at all.

The Promised Neverland Deserved Better

Despite what the series' second season turned out to be, many anime fans still hold The Promised Neverland's first season in high regard, and rightfully so. One of the very best anime to be released in 2019, the series deserved a much better fate, though it seems there are no plans to revisit Emma and her friends. Hauntingly reminiscent of Fullmetal Alchemist's original TV anime, which also ventured off to tell its own original ending, The Promised Neverland inexplicably limped to the finish line.

Unlike Fullmetal Alchemist, which made a roaring comeback with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, a series created for the sole reason of telling a more accurate story to its source material, The Promised Neverland seems to have closed its anime journey with an ending unfitting of the manga it's based on. A live-action version of the series from Amazon Prime was announced to be in development in 2022, though there have been very few announcements regarding production.

The Promised Neverland is one of the saddest examples of an anime that had an extremely strong start and tragically flamed out before its story could finish being told. If there was a recent series deserving of the Brotherhood treatment, it would be a close competition between the story of Emma and friends, and the similarly mishandled Tokyo Ghoul. Until that day comes, however, fans can read the original manga to find the sort of experience they were deprived of.