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.
Hi, everyone and welcome back! Chapters 13 to the start of 17 were covered in this episode, and deals mostly with the aftermath of the traitor reveal (speaking of which, how did you all feel when you got to this part the first time around?).
Content-wise, the biggest deviation the anime’s had so far is the way Don and Gilda entered Isabella’s room, but considering that they didn’t snatch the key that opens all the locks in the house from Isabella yet, my guess is that either the knock at the end of the episode is gonna be a fakeout, or they’ll manage to escape the room so that they’ll grab the key and go back to it again. In addition, Emma and Phil’s discovery of the William Minerva ex libris among the library books is not included here, but will most likely be touched upon in the next episode, so that’s not much cause for worry. Some vital internal monologues and flashbacks were omitted, but will be addressed either in future episodes or right here in this article. Other than that, everything else has been accurate, if a bit streamlined.
Two of the flashbacks give out full detail on how Ray has been working with Isabella behind the scenes. In particular, we finally a good idea on how Ray got Little Bunny from Conny right before she left the house.
In this part, we get a good look at Norman’s thought process as he takes in Ray’s traitor role into account for the escape plan. For as much as Ray’s offer is tempting with how beneficial he can be, Norman in the end still wants to follow by Emma’s reckless hope and idealism that he doesn’t want to deceive her like Ray told him to do. So much so, that he still struggles with how he wants to achieve that until Ray outs himself as the spy to Emma himself.
As Norman ruminates on his decision, we also are given focus on Ray right after he leaves Norman with his offer. Obviously, the anime keeps his scenes mostly quiet, but as the manga page above shows, it obscures just how adamant he was with keeping up with his original plan. The scene with him looking at the drawing on the wall shown below, while an anime-only scene, is worth touching upon due to the subtle ways this adds to his motivations in addition to the manga’s internal monologues. Ray’s smile as he leaves the bedroom disappears after he stops by the hallway, away from Norman, or anyone else who could see him walking by the staircase. Ray had to keep to himself for six years while setting his plan to motion, so the brief pause he took to look aside before his demeanor changes showcased both his cautious nature and his true feelings regarding this matter very well. The drawing focused at the end of the scene is also helpful in that it’s a subtle way of showing how much he cares for both Emma and Norman, and how his love for them drove him to make his plan in the first place.
The scene with Don and Gilda outside is the last anime-only scene added to the story for now. As brief as their exchange with each other was, it does a good job of showing the seeds of doubt planted by Krone in the previous episode, considering they’re still in the dark about the demons.
Other Notes
- The way Norman’s nightmare was shown in the anime could possibly misconstrue some viewers’ perceptions on how much Norman cares for both Emma and Ray, but I would honestly consider that a non-issue altogether due to the fact that it’s a dream.
- Fun Fact: the one who made the drawing focused in this episode was Eugene (the little boy whose bangs cover his eyes
Such talented kids - The kids that show up after Norman’s nightmare are Sherry and Damdin, so it’s not surprising that the girl who really likes Norman and the boy who’s an early riser would try to wake him up.
- Ray revealing himself as the traitor to Emma actually took place nearer where other kids could hear them in the manga at first, so the anime moving it to the forest immediately was a smart decision to do.
- What the anime brushed off from Ray being Isabella’s spy is that if he told her about Norman and Emma, then that extends to Don and Gilda as well, as shown in this screencap below:
- These two small panels help explain just how much Emma kept herself from killing Ray herself after she mentioned the thing with the tracking devices, as well as showcases how empathetic she is.
- More personal opinion than anything, but Emma gripping hardly on Ray’s hand was scarier than her making him promise not to sacrifice the other kids in the anime, whereas it was the other way around in the manga.
- Ray’s expression after Emma calls him out on his bluff of changing his mind is interesting because the anime makes him look more sad rather than surprised like in the manga.
- The way Don and Gilda left after the meeting in the bedroom is more serious in tone in the anime than it was in the manga.
- Don…punching the heavy bookshelves and making a lot of noise….is not a wise thing to do if you wanna be sneaky.
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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