This season, Beneath the Tangles will be offering dual posts each week for The Promised Neverland—one for newbies to the series and one for those who have read the manga. This post is for manga readers and may include spoilers up to the current issue of the manga. Spoilers are allowed in the comments, too. If you want to avoid spoilers, we recommend you read the posts by TWWK, which are spoiler-free and aimed at beginners to the series.
Welcome back, everyone! Episode 3 covers Chapters 6 to 9 of the manga, and in here we see Emma, Norman, and Ray setting up their preparations for their escape plan. Also, we are properly introduced to the loud, dynamic and utterly terrifying character that is Sister Krone.
Content-wise, the show didn’t cut out much scenes in this episode compared to the second one, and we actually get an anime-original scene with Krone added instead. For what it shows, it does a good job in adding more insight to her character and motivations. Some would argue that showing this as an internal monologue would be a better way to go about this (though this could be said to the anime adaptation in general), but frankly, this kind of behavior wouldn’t seem that out-of-character for Krone at all. The doll that she brought in and talked to provides another aspect of her that was implied from her talk with Isabella, which is her being a former child of another Grace Field House farm. Looking through this scene with that in mind presents how despite being physically an adult, Krone is still, deep-down, a child whose experience with the system that “saved” her had also utterly broken her into becoming self-serving and opportunistic.
The scene where Emma tries to find the tracking device also goes slightly differently as well. We do get a bit more interaction between Emma and Gilda, particularly after Emma discovers the tracking device. Once again, some of Emma’s internal thoughts turn into audible mumbling, but this adds to the tension of raising Gilda up as a red herring for the traitor. On the other hand, there’s one rather important detail that gets lost in adaptation due to the fact that it was presented through narration:
We finally get the mention of the Tifari in this episode, and it’s interesting to see the anime go the Detective Conan route and refer to the main head of the demons as “Him”/”Ano Kata” (あの方 ). Manga readers were speculating how this prominent figure’s name would be referred to in the anime since it was written down in “demon language,” but we still have another scene with Krone later on that would further confirm how the anime will mention this character should the anime go beyond this season.
The entire tag subplot was done really well. The strangely upbeat music choice for the soundtrack while Krone was chasing the kids around was interesting, but it did provide the right amount of tension throughout those scenes. The anime showed how terrifying the way Krone practically bulldoze herself near victory (her destroying the tree Lannion was in is one prime example of it), and didn’t hold back at all when she was tailing down Emma, Phil, and Nina. One thing the anime left out was what Norman and Ray were really after when they planned their strategy for winning against Krone, but I’m guessing this would be something that will get mentioned in the next few episodes. We end with the start of the Traitor subplot, and I can’t wait for how everyone else will react to it afterwards.
Other Notes:
- I admit, I did laugh at the kid that got beaned by a kickball after the episode title card.
- The same case goes with those kids that fell into the river during the tag training sequence. It was so unexpected, it was hilarious.
- Phil gets some small prominent scenes throughout the episode, most likely to foreshadow his incoming importance later on.
- Once again, Carol is super adorable.
- I do find it odd that they changed which girl Phil was with during tag: in the anime, it was Nina (the short-haired blonde one), while in the manga, it was Vivian (the brunette who’s crossed-eyed)
- The tone in how Ray caught Krone is wildly different for each medium as well: the anime plays it so chill with him walking to her, while in the manga, Ray looks like he’s straight-up about to kill her from behind.
Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments section. Once again, spoilers are free to be discussed here!
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