A Tale of Two Worlds

The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 2 was a surprisingly good episode. There wasn’t action or thrills of any other variety. But it had a lot of great world-building. And, as it turns out, that world-building began with a literal explanation of the current state of the world.

According to Sonju, the world as the children know it has been this way for 1,000 years. Previously, they thought that the appearance of the demons and the eradication of humanity was a relatively recent event. That’s not the case. He also explains that the only place you’d find humans nowadays is on the farms, of which there are many.

However, the really big reveal comes when Sonju mentions that the world is actually split into two sides. On one, where they’re currently located, you have the demon’s domain. And on the other, you have the human’s domain. Also according to Sonju, when this split happened 1,000 years ago, some humans were offered to the demons to be bred as a source of food — which lead to the farms.

This explanation of the world actually sounds fairly familiar. In Somali and the Forest Spirit, the world is set up in a similar way. Somali, a human child, is abandoned on a continent run by monsters who eat humans. A forest guardian finds her and travels with her to reach the human continent.

That’s basically the same plot that we’re seeing here in The Promised Neverland.

It’s also important to note a few things about Sonju’s story. First, he’s only heard of this human side of the planet — he hasn’t seen it. Second, he’s never heard of anyone getting there. And third, it doesn’t really make sense for the humans to offer some of their own up to the demons to be bred for food. What do they get out of it? Peace? Both sides got peace, so why did the humans pay this added tax?

Surviving the Great Outdoors

In this episode, we also learned a bit more about Sonju and Mujika specifically. They’re not necessarily “good” demons. But they don’t eat humans, so in that regard, they are “good” in the eyes of the children. I’ll get into why they don’t eat humans later on, but they also don’t support the idea of human farms or many of the other norms of demon society.

And since they’re friendly to humans, Sonju and Mujika have decided to escort the children to the coordinates where they believe they’ll find a hidden human settlement on the demon side of the planet. But, if there’s a human side of the planet, why aren’t they headed there?

That will no doubt be their ultimate goal (if the human side really does exist at all), but they have some other goals to accomplish along the way. Not every child was rescued from the farm they fled. We know that Phil was left behind, and I believe they left behind every child under two years old as well. So, they want to rescue them.

There’s also the fact that other farms exist around the world. With this knowledge, Emma and Ray decide that they need to free the children of all those farms too. Basically, they plan to completely eliminate the practice of eating humans on the demon side of the planet.

Anyway, during their travels, Sonju and Mujika plan to teach the children everything they’ll need to know in order to survive in the wild. This includes what plants are edible, how to cook, how to hunt, and more. But, it’s unlikely that they’ll teach them how to fight demons considering they seem to largely be pacifists.

Rather than actual combat training, my guess is that Sonju might teach them how to make the smoke bombs he used when he rescued Ray. He might have some other non-combat tactics to teach them as well in case they’re cornered.

Religion of the Demons

One of the most interesting aspects of this episode was how it touched on religion in demon society. We don’t know exactly what their religion is, but the Sonju claims that he and Mujika abstain from eating humans for religious reasons. Many religions have bans on certain food items, so that’s not all too surprising.

But the fact that the only creatures Sonju claims they won’t eat are humans might give us a hint about their religion. On one hand, it could simply have to do with their religion not believing in the domestication of animals for food — which is what the humans are to demons.

On the other hand, their religion may have originated with the deal that the humans and demons made 1,000 years ago. This makes much more sense to me. The founders of their religion were probably the demons who wanted peace with the humans. And there was probably an anti-peace faction that demanded the farms be created.

This would also explain Sonju’s limited knowledge about the human side of the planet. Perhaps he knows it exists solely due to the teachings of his religion. It’s possible that it’s not even true, and that it’s just a story meant to illustrate some values held by the religion’s followers.

One more thing I want to mention regarding demon religion as a whole is that there does seem to be some truth to it. By this, I mean that it doesn’t appear to be blind faith. There is a single, observable proof that some aspect of demon religion — not necessarily the one Sonju and Mujika follow — is real.

Of course, I’m talking about the vida (life) plant. This is the plant that the demons pierce through the hearts of the children when they’re harvested from the farms. As Sonju explains, these plants are actually used to pierce the hearts of all creatures the demons consume.

The first reason the demons do this is to make some kind of offering to the gods. The second reason is so the blood from the creature is drained, thus preserving the meat for longer. But interestingly, the plant only drains the blood when a prayer is offered — that’s observable proof that there’s something to this religion of theirs.

Conclusion

What do you think about The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 2? Do you think Sonju’s story about there being two halves of the world is true? What do you think the other human farms will be like? And what do you think the origin of Sonju’s and Mujika’s religion is? 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.

Into the Wild

My Twitter followers voted for The Promised Neverland 2nd Season to be reviewed weekly over Dr. Stone: Stone Wars, so here we are. And honestly, I think this is going to be a much better anime than Dr. Stone anyway. However, I’m not sure that this season is going to end up being better than the first.

Just from this first episode alone, the series seems very different from the first season. There’s been advanced technology in the series from the start — such as the tracking chips implanted in the ears of the farm animals children. But I don’t remember there being anything like the hologram map featured in this episode.

It’s a fully-interactive, touch screen, hologram map hidden within a pen. And it even has password protection. The fact that there are items like this apparently just lying around tells us a few things. First, this series will likely contain even more advanced technology going forward. And second, that someone was able to leave that pen at the farm.

I’m a bit concerned with how advanced technology is going to be used in the future of this series. I think it could very quickly spiral into some crazy sci-fi story that has nothing to do with the original premise. But at the same time, the manga is over and I haven’t heard of anything like that happening.

Though to be fair, I have heard that it gets weird, so who knows.

As for how the pen got into the farm, I don’t believe that was answered in the previous season. We know that Norman left it behind for his friends, but how did it originally get to the farm? Someone connected to Mr. Minerva must have infiltrated the farm to place it there. Or, perhaps he was once a caretaker there himself.

Demons on the Hunt

Hopefully, we get an explanation of the different kinds of demons at some point. For now, we’ve seen what appear to be four different types of demons. Though, it could actually be three or even five, as I’ll get to in a bit.

The primary demon that’s hunting the children is bipedal and has a mask-like face with two eyes positioned vertically. It’s very large compared to the children and carries a massive sword. This demon is the leader of a group of quadrupedal, wolf-like demons.

These wolf-like demons have the same faces as the bipedal one that leads them. They’re even capable of speech, though it’s clear that they aren’t the same rank as the bipedal demon. They’re more like if you had (very large) hunting dogs that possessed human-level intelligence.

There’s also the monster that was originally chasing the children and was eventually decapitated by the bipedal demon. I’m not sure if this one specifically counts as a demon, though. It was more like a wild beast that didn’t possess intelligence. So for now, I’ll just call it a monster.

The final two demons could be the same type, or they could be different. These are the female demon who saved Emma and the group of children, and the male demon, Sonju, who saved Ray.

Despite them also being bipedal, I’m going to classify these two as separate from the “bipedal demon” mostly due to their size. They’re human-sized, with the female demon being the same height as Emma and Ray, and Sonju being about the size of an adult, male human. The female demon definitely looks different from the bipedal demon in other ways, though.

For now, it’s unclear if the female demon and Sonju are the same type of demon.

Good Demons?

One of the big questions we’re left with at the end of the episode is whether the female demon and Sonju are “good.” I assumed that the female demon would be an antagonist before watching the episode simply based on the cover art for this season.

The cover art is split down the center with the demons on one side and children on the other. And it even features the female demon as the demon equivalent of Emma. But after watching the episode, maybe that split down the center wasn’t what I should have been focusing on.

Instead, perhaps we’re supposed to focus on the fact that the female demon and Emma are sitting at the same table together. There are other similarities as well. Such as how Emma and the other kids are flanked by the farm they fled from, while the female demon and Sonju are flanked by the silhouettes of other demons — who they may have similarly fled from.

The idea that there could be good demons out there is an interesting one. It makes sense because that would make it easier for people like Mr. Minerva to have found refuge outside the farms. But on the other side of things, it doesn’t really make sense because, you know, they’re demons.

But hey, a storyline about how someone who looks evil actually isn’t evil is pretty standard in anime. Just look at the recently completed DanMachi III if you need an example. I’m just not sure how I’ll feel if these demons really do turn out to be good. That would be pretty cliché.

I’d be much more interested if these demons are simply members of a different faction, but not necessarily allies of humans. It’s clear that they’re fighting against the demons who were chasing the children. But perhaps rescuing the children isn’t their goal. They may be just as evil but in a different way.

This is a Weekly Shonen Jump series, though. So I shouldn’t get my hopes up too high.

Conclusion

What do you think of The Promised Neverland 2nd Season episode 1? Do you mind the CGI that was used for the monster in the forest? Do you think having vertical eyes is practical in any way? Probably not. And do you think the female demon and Sonju are going to be good or bad? 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.