Anime – Yakusoku no Neverland

Anime Nov 22, 2019

Overview:

Children, lots and lots of children conveniently ranging from the ages of 1 to 12. What could be better than a show about children sprouting into adulthood sooner than usda recommended? All of the children learn in the first episode that their life was too good to be true faced with only sorrow and loss ahead. Instead of accepting fate they pluck their roots and rise… no more harvesting jokes lol.

There is one arc covered which is the escape arc in which we learn and experience the ups and downs and a couple unexpected twists with the biggest being in the later episodes. It may be labeled as a shounen but in no way is it following that traditional format. Not following the traditional format, I find to be the best part of the show as it leads to unexpected outcomes that otherwise wouldn’t occur. Of course, due to its tag it will not get too deep which is fine as what was shown was executed very well.

Visuals/Music:

The faces are a little bit more blobbed rather than stretched out giving it a distinct style. With all of the cast being children the more blob style faces make more sense as they are not mature and shouldn’t be shown with mature facial features. From the sky to the background trees, everything is pleasing and appealing to look at with a good amount of detail and what looks to be time sunk into every scene. Only scene I would say could have used a bit more improvement on was near the end as they showed Norman walking down the hallway with the camera panning on him. It appeared jagged and not smooth as they moved the camera too fast for the scene to have proper flow. This however should be patched up on the bd’s, the framerate needed to be dynamic and bumped up a fair amount to give it a smoother feel.

The entire soundtrack blended well with the scenes and complimented each scene without feeling out of place. The op and ending both being songs I couldn’t skip. The ending was done by Cö shu Nie, the same band who did. As for the opening it was done by UVERworld who also does op songs one can’t simply skip when hearing them.

Final Thoughts:

Everything was executed and looked top notch. No slow parts throughout at all. I would go as far to say its one of the top suspense with a side of mystery series I have seen in a while. Is it on par with Re;Zero suspense? No, not that high up there but is still very good in its own right. The mystery parts are not mind-blowing in any way, but they are satisfying where after you see its conclusion it’s not a disappointment.

One part I had a hard time understanding was the wall climb, but it feels more like they did a poor job animating the area it was done at with the trees and wall being farther apart than they actually were supposed to be. Wall climbing, I know is possible but the way it was shown breaks the belief a fair amount, I hope they reanimate or fix the scene to make it more believable.

As for the memory reveal part, I don’t find that implausible and seemed completely within realm of possibility. Especially due to how young they are. People I saw commenting `I couldn’t recall X years ago, so how can they`… well you are not their age, and some people can remember their young childhood even into their 30’s and beyond. If these people that can remember young childhood were children, the memories from younger days would be even clearer to them.

Anybody looking for a good suspense show that has everything within believability (given the world that’s been built of course) and satisfying conclusions to the situations they are put into give it a shot and there will more than likely be no disappointment. I don’t really consider is a true phycological thriller since it never really gets you thinking in depth like a show such as Death Note, or Steins gate would. It falls more under suspense where a person will be excited and anxious about what’s to come with the result already for the most part handed to you. When the result is seen you go `I thought that was one of the most plausible outcomes`. If the next season got more in depth about making you think and analyze the situations, depending how its done might classify it more towards phycological thriller.

Characters (main) – 4/5
Characters (sub) – 3/5
Enjoyment -4/5
Visuals – 4/5
Music – 4/5
Story – 3/5