was gonna mention this, although I only saw the anime
CW: Spoilers ahead
season 1 was the best suspense ever depicted in an animated work. 10/10
season 2 felt was a huge non-sequitir. The demons that were built up in season1 did satanic sacrifices, and seeing them bustling around like normal people in a bazaar next season felt anticlimactic. I don’t think this was deliberate, but I could BS my way into pretending to believe this was an artistic point: that what we perceive as normal everyday people are pretty much demons from the perspective of animals
I like the allegory for vegetarianism, and I think the concept of injecting blood to stop craving meat is simplistic, but important. I also crave meat less when in certain states, and I think it’s possible to drastically reduce meat consumption by unlocking this state. My suspicions are that this state has a lot to do with the ripeness/freshness/quality of consumed produce.
I don’t think the rest of the manga is as strong generally, though it has a lot of cool points towards the end. Some discussion of the later plot in the manga
spoiler
The more mundane lives of many demons is actually part of the manga and indeed a deliberate point that the demons have a human-like society outside of the farms and potentially can be dealt with as human-like creatures, and I think it is indeed part of the allegory as well as part of a desire to discourage “exterminationist” plot solutions that we see other manga immediately jump to (though this point is debated among the cast). Remember, the kids were never being “sacrificed”, they were being harvested as cattle. There are ritual elements of this, but that’s also true of how humans have historically slaughtered animals in many places.
In general, I would say the message of the story is fine from the outset but ultimately becomes maybe the best in any manga that I have read by the final chapter.
The Promised Neverland (read the manga after season 1 of the anime)
was gonna mention this, although I only saw the anime
CW: Spoilers ahead
season 1 was the best suspense ever depicted in an animated work. 10/10
season 2 felt was a huge non-sequitir. The demons that were built up in season1 did satanic sacrifices, and seeing them bustling around like normal people in a bazaar next season felt anticlimactic. I don’t think this was deliberate, but I could BS my way into pretending to believe this was an artistic point: that what we perceive as normal everyday people are pretty much demons from the perspective of animals
I like the allegory for vegetarianism, and I think the concept of injecting blood to stop craving meat is simplistic, but important. I also crave meat less when in certain states, and I think it’s possible to drastically reduce meat consumption by unlocking this state. My suspicions are that this state has a lot to do with the ripeness/freshness/quality of consumed produce.
I don’t think the rest of the manga is as strong generally, though it has a lot of cool points towards the end. Some discussion of the later plot in the manga
spoiler
The more mundane lives of many demons is actually part of the manga and indeed a deliberate point that the demons have a human-like society outside of the farms and potentially can be dealt with as human-like creatures, and I think it is indeed part of the allegory as well as part of a desire to discourage “exterminationist” plot solutions that we see other manga immediately jump to (though this point is debated among the cast). Remember, the kids were never being “sacrificed”, they were being harvested as cattle. There are ritual elements of this, but that’s also true of how humans have historically slaughtered animals in many places.
In general, I would say the message of the story is fine from the outset but ultimately becomes maybe the best in any manga that I have read by the final chapter.