The Mujika and Sonju Dilemma

In The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 7, it was revealed that while Norman has never met Mujika or Sonju, he’s been told about them. Specifically, he was told about Mujika. However, as far as Norman knew, Mujika and all of her followers were eaten by the demon king and nobles 700 years ago.

Mujika and her followers were killed and eaten because their blood allowed for demons to survive with human-levels of intelligence without needing to eat humans. This was bad for the king and nobles because part of their power came from their control over the human farms, and therefore the sentient demon population.

But, does this mean that Mujika survived after all? I doubt it. I don’t think the Mujika we know is the same one from 700 years ago. The Mujika we know seems to be relatively young as far as demons go. I think Sonju is probably a follower of the original Mujika. And this new Mujika is potentially her descendent, or simply named after her because she shares the same blood mutation.

Regardless of whether the current Mujika is the same as the original Mujika or not, she’s still a potential problem for Norman’s plan. If Mujika or Sonju were to share their blood with other demons, it would mean Norman’s drug wouldn’t work.

Also, Norman brought up a great point about how demons viewing humans as food would likely overrule the fact that they wouldn’t have to eat humans to survive any longer. We already know this is true because of what Sonju said about dreaming of a day when he can hunt free-range humans.

Demon Experimentation

Not only were Norman and his allies experimented on by the demons at Lambda, but they too have been experimenting on demons since escaping. We see that below their base of operations, they have hundreds of demon body parts in jars. And they even have a large demon chained up and impaled all over its body.

I’m sure that Norman was the one who first suggested experimenting on demons. His allies are certainly smart (maybe the girl to a lesser extent since she seems to be the muscle of the group), but I don’t feel like they would have come up with a plan like that. I think they would have gone out hunting demons, not experimented on them to develop a way to commit demon genocide.

Although, it’s pretty easy to see why they would go along with his plan. They were all experimented on at Lambda, so now they’re getting their revenge by doing the same to demons.

This episode also revealed some of the effects that the Lambda escapees still suffer from. They get migraines that require copious amounts of pills to get rid of. And as we saw with Norman, they occasionally cough up blood as well. It’s unclear if those two things are actually related, but I’ll assume so since one of the others mentioned that they were running out of time.

So, this brings up the question: Will Norman survive to the end of the series? Personally, I don’t think he will. But it’s also possible that Emma and Ray could get him to the human world for treatment just in time.

Oh, and I guess I should comment on the new information regarding the human world. There are apparently gates that allow travel between the two worlds. That sounds a lot like some sort of time-space gate if you ask me. I think it would be odd for there to be just regular gates connecting them in multiple locations.

My Doubts Regarding Norman

For a lot of people, the events of this episode probably made you think that Norman can be trusted to an extent. Obviously, he’s lying to Emma and Ray about not killing Mujika. But, he made a pretty convincing argument for not being on the side of the demons, as I claimed he might be last week.

However, I’m still not convinced that Norman really is on the side of the humans. I know, that might seem shocking considering the fact that he’s planning a demon genocide. But allow me to explain my reasoning.

We still don’t really have a good explanation as to why Norman would refer to Mujika as an evil girl. I get that she has the potential to thwart his plan, but it’s not as if she’s really a threat in any way. But do you know who Mujika is a threat to? The demon king and nobles who don’t want more demons to have their power.

What about Norman’s plan to commit demon genocide, though? Surely that makes him on the side of humans, right? Well, not exactly. Remember how Ray pointed out that the demon king and nobles would have wanted Mujika and her followers dead so that they could more easily control the population?

Well, if the demon king and nobles could also threaten civilians with forced regression via a drug, that would also make them more powerful. I think it’s entirely possible that Norman is pursuing these drug trials specifically for the demon king and nobles to use.

While we don’t know who Norman met at the very end of the episode, my guess is that it was either the king or a noble. They probably needed someone to figure out a new way for them to hold power — and who better to do that than a top-scorer like Norman? I bet they offered to let him and his “family” go free if he helped, which is why he wants Emma and Ray to stay out of it.

Conclusion

What do you think of The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 7? Do you think the Mujika we know is the same one from 700 years ago? Do you think Norman was the one who came up with the demon experimentation plan? And do you think Norman is a “traitor” or not? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Lambda 7214

Before this week’s episode, the only human farm we had a name for was Grace Field. With The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 6, we now have the name of another: Lambda 7214.

The significance of this name isn’t known. Does the 7214 represent its farm number? If so, freeing children from over 7,000 farms is going to be a difficult task. Does Lambda refer to its farm number? Lambda is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet and also represents the number 30 in Greek numerals.

Lambda 7214 is also the third type of farm that we know of, despite only being the second named (from what I remember). Grace Field is one of the standard farms that specialize in high-quality products. Lambda 7214 is an experimental facility. And we already know that there are breeding/training facilities as well.

Lambda 7214 is a bit different from the regular farms in some additional ways, though. First, they brand their subjects with an additional tattoo. Why exactly they would do this is unclear. Are they labeling them as being not for consumption? Or is it so they can be properly identified in the event they escape?

Neither option really makes much sense. Simply by being at Lambda 7214 would probably designate a human as not for consumption. And I don’t think they really expect escapees.

The second difference is that Lambda 7214 apparently houses adults who aren’t working for the farms. We don’t actually know how old Norman’s comrades are, but they’re clearly older than the main children. This implies that the human experiments are valuable long after their “peak ripeness.”

Demon Slayers

Despite what Norman’s plan may or may not be, his comrades are interested in one thing: Getting revenge on the demons by slaughtering them all. They believe in this goal so much that at least one of them has even resorted to eating the demons they kill.

Norman and Ray also don’t have an issue with the eradication of all demons. But, Emma does. It’s no surprise that after meeting Mujika and Sonju, Emma has begun to feel that humans and demons could potentially coexist at some point in the future. All that needs to happen is for the demons to stop eating humans.

Unfortunately for Emma, it’s not as simple as she probably thinks. Right now, she’s probably thinking that the human-eating demons can take up the diet Mujika and Sonju have and everything will be fine. After all, Mujika and Sonju don’t regress, so they must be doing something right.

The first problem with Emma’s idealistic plan is what Ray points out: Mujika and Sonju may be inherently different from the other demons. It’s possible that no matter what the other demons do, they can’t become like Mujika and Sonju. I don’t believe this is the case, though.

So, that brings us to the second problem: It’s very likely that the vast majority of demons don’t want to give up eating humans. Humans are considered a delicacy to them. And something we know which Emma doesn’t is that even though Sonju doesn’t eat humans now, he dreams of a future in which he can.

It’s not going to be as simple as telling the demons to choose an alternative diet. I think the plan to force the demons to regress via Norman’s drug will at least need to be threatened if not used. The only way I could see the demons choosing not to eat humans is if the alternative is being forcibly regressed by a drug.

The Boss’ Plan

When Norman was reintroduced to the series, I didn’t really think much of it. He’s back and is part of a rebel group of humans. So what? Well, this episode made me realize that there’s probably a lot going on behind the scenes that we, and Emma and Ray, don’t know about yet.

Even towards the beginning of this episode, I started to get a bad feeling about Norman’s return. Once he mentioned that he was transported to an experimental facility and had devised a drug that would magically solve the demon problem, I was suspicious.

How did Norman escape from that facility? How did he learn about demon regression? And how did he come up with this drug? All we’re told is that a now-deceased follower of Minerva helped him. To me, it kind of seems like Norman has been brainwashed by the demons and is secretly working for them.

Obviously, his comrades don’t fit into this. They really seem to have a deep-rooted hatred of the demons. So I don’t think they’ve been compromised. But I do suspect that Norman is simply using them to accomplish whatever his true goal is. On the other hand, Norman could actually secretly be helping the humans while pretending to secretly help the demons.

Isn’t that what Ray did back in the first season?

We also can’t just ignore the final scene of the episode in which not only is it revealed that Norman knows about Mujika’s existence, but he also refers to her as the “heretical girl.” That should be raising some major red flags.

If Norman simply knew of her, that would be one thing. But he seems to view her as a major enemy, which is odd considering what we know of her. So who told him Mujika was the enemy? And why is he using a word like “heretical” to describe her? That really makes it seem like he’s been turned.

Conclusion

What do you think of The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 6? Do you think there’s any significance to the name of the Lambda 7214 experimental farm? Do you think Emma will get her wish of not eradicating the demons? And do you think Norman has swapped his allegiance? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

The Evil-Blooded Temple

The first thing I want to say about The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 5 is that it was better than episode 4 because only half of the episode was unwatchable due to being too dark. I get it, there are scenes happening at night and in dark places. But you can still show that it’s dark without making everything blend into the abyss.

Anyway, in this episode, we got to see what demon society is like. And one of the most interesting things about it to me is that every demon wears a mask. It’s a bit unclear whether these masks are part of their biology or simply masks that they’re wearing, but it’s been implied they’re masks.

After all, the lower portion of Sonju’s mask was able to slide up so that he can eat and drink. And in the OP of the season, we even see a demon’s mask shatter and break off from its face when it opens its mouth.

There is evidence to the contrary, though. The biggest piece of evidence is simply that we haven’t seen a maskless demon yet. Even the children demons we saw in this episode had masks on while dying in bed. You’d think that they would take their masks off in that situation if they really were masks.

Also, this episode introduced a god known as the “Gracious One.” The shrine to this god resides within the “Evil-Blooded Temple,” and an old demon goes there to pray for human meat from the farms for his family. So it seems safe to assume that this is a different god from the one Sonju and Mujika follow.

But, considering the temple is abandoned, it also appears that most demons no longer pray to this god.

Demon Degeneration

One of the more perplexing ideas brought up within this episode is that if demons — or at least demon children — don’t eat human meat, they’ll degenerate. I’m guessing that they degenerate until they die, but that wasn’t exactly explained. It’s possible they degenerate into something else.

A human, perhaps?

No. I think they just die. But the idea that demons need to eat human meat in order to survive is a troubling one. Why? Because Mujika has allegedly never eaten humans and she’s doing just fine. Also, why would it only affect children? Is it because they’re still growing that they need to eat humans?

There may be some logical explanation for this. But at this point, I’m going to guess that eating humans wouldn’t cure the children of their illness. It seems more like an “old demon-wives’ tale.”

Oh, and I should point out that the adult demons who were taking care of those children were able to purchase human meat. So if human meat is all the children needed, they would be fine. The adult humans specifically mention the high-quality humans from the Grace Fields farm as potentially being able to cure the children.

This is what leads me to believe that it’s just a rumor among demons. They thought eating humans would help, so they ate humans. When that didn’t work, they figured that they must need higher quality humans. When does it end? If eating high-quality humans doesn’t work, will they inject them next?

I wonder if the series will ever actually answer these questions, though. Considering I’m pretty sure this is an anime-original arc we’re in, why those children were sick may never definitively be answered. Poor nutrition? Disease? Who knows?

A Familiar Face

So, the reintroduction of Norman’s character was probably pretty surprising for some anime-only fans. I actually knew that Norman would show up again at some point because spoilers are inevitable when you write about anime. But, as I mentioned, this arc is anime-original. So he wasn’t supposed to show up right now.

It’ll be interesting to see how Norman’s reintroduction changes the anime compared to the manga. If you’re familiar with the source material, don’t tell us what happens with Norman in the manga just yet. Some of those same scenes may still eventually come to pass in a slightly altered state.

Also, I do want to address a lot of the complaints I’ve seen from manga readers online regarding the current arc. Mostly, I’ve seen people saying that the anime is ruining the series and that the best arc was skipped.

First of all, just because something is the source material doesn’t automatically make it perfect. You may like the source material. But it being the source material does not automatically make it better. At the end of the anime, it may turn out to be better, or it may not. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Also, just because the best arc was kipped over, for now, doesn’t mean it’s skipped over entirely. We don’t know what this anime-original arc is going to do. So it’s possible that the arc you like could still happen later on in a slightly altered way.

And lastly, why do you think this anime-original arc was included? The manga has been done. So it’s not like it’s a filler arc to wait for the manga to get ahead. The reason for it is probably because the author wanted to make improvements to the original story.

Why don’t we wait and see how it turns out before saying it ruined the series? So far, I’d say this was the best episode of the 2nd Season.

Conclusion

What do you think of The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 5? Is the “Gracious One” the same god Sonju and Mujika follow? Do demons really need to eat humans to survive? And, what are your opinions on the anime going in a different direction from the manga? I get that people want to see the manga they like receive a proper adaptation. But I also think we should give the anime a chance.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And, come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Goowee fish(?)

There were some good and interesting parts of The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 4. However, I would say that the episode was bad overall for one primary reason. It was way too dark. I get it, sometimes scenes need to be dark. But it seemed like all the important parts of this episode were so dark that I could barely see what was going on.

And yes, I even turned my screen brightness up in an attempt to see.

I’m not sure what I hate more: When series and movies are so dark you can’t see, or when they swap back and forth between characters effectively whispering and deafening explosions. Let me know in the comments which one of those bothers you the most.

Moving on, this episode introduced a new animal referred to as a “goowee.” It’s basically a deep-sea fish that’s covered in slime, but the twist is that it lives on the exposed roots of trees in the forest.

The goowee itself doesn’t really interest me, though. What interests me more is the entire forest ecosystem that we’ve seen. Obviously, the giant demon-monsters are a pretty unique feature. But even if we ignore them, the trees are giant and most of the animals we’ve seen look more like sea creatures than forest creatures.

Originally, I thought that maybe these weird creatures could tell us something about the world. There must be some reason that jellyfish are flying through the air and deep-sea fish are stuck to trees, right? But the more I think about it, I don’t think there’s any deeper meaning behind it aside from showing us that this isn’t the world we know.

Assault on the Bunker

The assault on the bunker was probably the best part of the episode. I wouldn’t call it action, but that’s where the excitement came in. We probably all knew that something was going to happen after how peaceful the first portion of the episode was. However, I wasn’t expecting a human SWAT team to blow open the hatch.

Was there a SWAT team like this in the first season? I don’t remember there being one when the children escaped, but I could be forgetting. So let’s just pretend that my memory is amazing and there wasn’t a SWAT team in the first season and that this is the first time we’ve seen them.

I wasn’t expecting there to be a human paramilitary unit working on behalf of the farms. What’s in it for them? I can kind of understand the “mothers” who run the farms. They’re basically threatened into it or choose to do it in order to survive. But what do these soldiers get out of obeying the demons?

You could argue that the soldiers are threatened into service or they do it to save themselves as well. But once they’re armed and trained, what’s stopping them from fighting back? Are they that outnumbered? We haven’t seen that many demons yet.

Also, why would the demons even need to use humans in this way? We’ve already seen that there are demons dedicated to hunting down escaped humans. Wouldn’t they be enough?

I guess one way you could think about these soldiers is that they’ve been raised since birth for this purpose. If this is all they know, then it’s possible that they would simply follow the demons. And I guess the soldiers could also be used for breeding purposes. I just don’t really see the point of keeping them around otherwise.

The Price of Freedom

The final topic I have for today is: What did the demon offer to Isabella that changed her mind about helping to capture the kids? She said that she could capture the kids early in the conversation. But she didn’t seem like she was actually going to help do that until the very end. At that point, she was offered three things.

First, the demon said that her life would be spared. That alone is a pretty good deal, but I can see why she wouldn’t take it. Second, the demon said that she would be granted her freedom. Specifically, she would be free from the farm and would be released into the wild effectively.

This is the first thing that sparked her interest. It’s unclear how long Isabella would survive in the wilderness, or if the demons would just send hunters after her anyway. But at least she would have the chance to be free.

However, it’s the third thing Isabella’s promised that really makes her agree to the demon’s terms. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to hear what this final reward was. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a guess. Based on what we know about Isabella, there’s only one thing that I think could persuade her like that.

I think the demon offered to set Ray free with her. Yes, Ray is one of the prized “perfect score” children that the demons want to eat. But he’s also Isabella’s biological child — the only one we know of. And although Isabella took her role as caretaker of the farm seriously, we know she had a soft spot for Ray.

In my mind, it’s completely understandable, based on what we know, for Isabella to agree to capture the rest of the children in return for Ray’s freedom. With that said, I don’t think she’ll follow through with it. This seems like the perfect setup for her to sacrifice herself to help Ray and the others at the last minute.

Conclusion

What do you think about The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 4? Do you think there’s more to the odd creatures we’ve seen in the forest? Why would the demons be using a human SWAT team? And what was Isabella promised in return for her cooperation? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.

Demon Evolution

You may have missed it, but in The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 3, Mujika mentions that the demons have evolved and diversified over the past 1,000 years. Ignoring the fact that things don’t tend to evolve to those extremes that quickly, this is an interesting comment.

As we learned from Sonju in the previous episode, the split in the human and demon worlds also happened 1,000 years ago. Do you see where I’m going with this? Why would Mujika measure the evolution of demons from that specific point in time? Probably because the demons were once humans.

If true, this would mean that the demons originated from cannibalistic humans. While interesting, I do think that this theory has one major flaw. How is it that so many humans suddenly became cannibals? If we’re to believe Sonju, there was a war that resulted in the world (metaphorically) splitting into two.

So, this got me thinking. Are there any other theories that could make sense given what Mujika said? If we take some other information from the episode — which I’ll cover in due time — into consideration, I think there is. What if there isn’t another side of the world dominated by humans?

In this scenario, I’m thinking that there was some kind of cataclysmic event 1,000 years ago that forced humans to adopt cannibalism. They then rounded up some of their kin to keep as livestock so that their supply wouldn’t run out forcing them to eat their friends. These livestock humans remained relatively unchanged while the cannibals evolved into their new niche.

Of course, this would also mean that there’s no other world for the children to escape to. After all, Sonju said that he’d never seen it and that he’d never heard of anyone getting there.

Free-Range Humans

Speaking of Sonju, his dark side was finally revealed. In my review of the first episode, I did mention that Sonju and Mujika might not necessarily be “good.” Instead, I said that while they don’t eat humans, they may be “evil” in some other way.

Well, now we know that while Sonju doesn’t eat humans right now, he’s not opposed to the idea. In fact, he looks forward to a day when he can eat them. Mujika, on the other hand, does seem to be truly “good.” She mentions reporting the humans to the other demons, but she seems to be against this idea as well as the idea of eating humans altogether.

I’m interested in learning more about Sonju’s and Mujika’s past. How did they meet? Is Mujika younger than Sonju as she seems to be? Which one of them introduced the other to their religion? As for that last point, I think it could go either way. Maybe Sonju taught Mujika and she took the teachings more to heart than him. Or, maybe Mujika “converted” Sonju somehow.

Either way, the big reveal here is that Sonju isn’t against eating humans — he’s against eating farm-grown humans. If there are wild humans for him to hunt, then they’re fair game as far as he’s concerned. And it’s to this end that he helped the children.

Sonju wants the children to survive, breed, and create a thriving population of “wild” humans for him to hunt. However, this means we have to question why their religion specifies that they can only eat wild things and not farm-grown humans.

If we assume that my cataclysm theory is correct, then perhaps this religion was started by humans who thrived in the anarchy following the fall of humanity. Growing food at a farm would go against this belief, which is why Sonju lives in the wilderness and prefers to hunt.

It may very well be that their religion bars them from farm-grown foods. But if humans are the only farm-grown food the demons consume, the teachings may have eventually become understood to mean no eating humans.

The Bunker

As soon as the children entered the bunker and began walking down the main corridor, I knew there was something off about the place. And once the secret room and passage behind the piano were discovered, I really knew that there was something wrong.

The room with “HELP” scratched into the wall and written in blood only confirmed those thoughts.

Alright, so what’s the deal with the bunker? To me, it looks to be set up suspiciously like the farm. My guess is that it was made by the same person. And if we’re assuming that Mr. Minerva is a good guy who’s going to help the children, then that would mean he co-opted the bunker for his own use.

Something tells me that Mr. Minerva isn’t who the children think he is. There’s not really any evidence for this, but I’m going to go on record saying that he’s a demon. And more than that, he’s not a good demon who wants to help the children.

I think the circumstantial evidence is quite persuasive, though. Think about how the children got to where they are now. They had to escape the farm, evade pursuers, learn how to survive in the outside world, and figure out how to solve the puzzles of the pen. All of that takes some serious intelligence.

And what do we know the demons like to eat? The brains of intelligent children. The smarter the child, the more delectable brain is. So, what if everything the children have done to get to this point was all just a test set up by Mr. Minerva to find the highest grade brains?

Oh, and let’s not forget that his last name is Minerva. Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom and knowledge and is often represented by an owl — the symbol Mr. Minerva uses to identify himself.

Conclusion

What do you think of this episode of The Promised Neverland 2nd Season? Were the demons once humans? How do you think Mujika and Sonju met? And what do you think about my theory regarding Mr. Minerva? Let me know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this review, remember to click the like button ❤️ down below. Also, follow me over on Twitter @DoubleSama so you don’t miss out on any future content. And, come join our Discord server if you’re interested in discussing anime with other members of the community.

Finally, I’d like to thank Roman for supporting DoubleSama.com at the Heika tier this month. To learn more about how you too can become a supporter of this blog, check out Patreon.com/DoubleSama.

My review of the next episode is available here.