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, we’re covering Chapters 20 to 22 of the manga, which is pretty much the kids “teaming up” with Krone and the start of the investigation of the outside world.
Once again, we get the usual removal of internal monologues and flashbacks. However, in this case, I feel that the short flashback scenes involving Krone in these chapters will most likely be condensed into one big impactful scene in the next episode as she’s about to face what Grace Field headquarters has in store for her. The cut that I see causing the biggest ruckus from other manga readers is this glorious example of 4D Chess with Krone and Norman below. However, considering how this exchange took four pages, even if the anime did show internal monologue, two problems might possibly occur: first, a straight panel-for-panel adaptation has a high chance of making the execution of this scene look more like borderline telepathy between the two characters, and the execution would need to be extra careful not to let the end product look ridiculous in “motion.” Related to the first problem, the second one would involve timing; specifically, how much time this “conversation” would take place inside the story, as well as in the episode as a whole.
The kids’ meeting in the test room, though perfect in execution, is an unusual case of an “anime-only scene” for many reasons. Much of what happens from its start and its ending actually comes from two different manga scenes in differing locations from the focus chapters. The middle part of this scene, which has most of the anime-original content, is still peppered with other lines from the manga that have been rephrased to fit the flow and context better. For the characters, it gives the viewers a chance to observe how they carefully take in new information and go about hiding what they’ve already known or planned from the adults watching them, which wasn’t seen as much in the manga for this particular situation. Finally, the end of the scene hints to the audience what Emma’s new escape plan entails and how she’ll go about it.
The doll Krone ripped apart in Episode 4 reappears in this story, this time almost completely stitched together from the last time. Once again, it provides her an outlet for her inner thoughts to be voiced out and shows some aspect of Krone the Cattle Child that Krone the Adult would have to keep hidden from others, now with the added implication that she’s been keeping the doll all this years as a coping mechanism for her horrible situation. In a more meta sense, that small scene focusing on the doll at the bed, combined with how much the anime already plays around its cinematography and atmospheric environment, was a nice subtle way to foreshadow that it’s not just us viewers that’s listening in on their talk.
Other Notes:
- This small scene is also another case of foreshadowing the panel above
- This was such a cool moment for Norman, I wish they included it in the anime
- The head of the demons is now fully confirmed to be referred to as “Him”/”Ano Kata” (あの方 ) for the anime.
- Ray playing around with the camera when he first got it was so cute! It was pretty rare to see him smile and act like a child his age during this part of the manga, so it was a treat to see. The scene as a whole, however, especially Isabella’s reaction has an air of melancholy around it, given what we’ll find out about them soon.
- Krone’s point about Emma and Norman not reacting to her mentioning the location of the tracking devices was validated in an earlier scene where Gilda unconsciously put her hand to her left ear when the topic was mentioned during the kids’ meeting.
- The photo Ray took of Emma and Norman here is different from the manga (all because Ray wasn’t in a jokester mood when he took it)
- Ray taking photos of his friends and the other kids is also sad now that we know why he did it in the first place
- Hey Krone, at least clean up your mess before you leave the room!
Let us know what you thought of the episode in the comments section. Once again, spoilers are free to be discussed here!
- First Impression: SHADOWS HOUSE - 04.11.2021
- The Promised Neverland Season 2, Episode 11: The Finale - 03.28.2021
- The Promised Neverland Season 2, Episode 10: Turncoats and Revolution - 03.19.2021