They’re out to get you, better leave while you can! Just BEAT IT!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Emma is haunted by nightmares about seeing Conny’s body, but Norman gives her the strength to put on a brave face so they don’t give away what they’ve learned to Mama Isabella. As they think about last night, they piece together things about this demon delivery business. Their white outfits and numbers on their necks seem to imply that they’re being treated like cattle. Six-year-olds are considered “average” while twelve-year-olds are considered higher quality meat, but what makes them even more coveted is greater intelligence, likely meaning that the brain is the tastiest part. They also determine a pattern in the shipping, meaning they have two months until the next kid is picked to be taken, and Emma doesn’t want to try escaping during the shipping because she doesn’t want another of her friends taken.

That day, one of the kids goes missing, but Emma and Norman notice Isabella checking her watch before quickly retrieving the lost child, which tells them that the watch likely acts as a tracker to devices placed inside the kids for easy locating. But these revelations don’t stop them from holding up against her sudden questioning. They then plan to approach Ray, the other smart eleven-year-old, about their scheme but are surprised to find him approach them first. They explain the situation, which he accepts shockingly quickly, but also warns them that their escape isn’t going to work for a number of reasons. Especially if they want to take every kid with them. But Emma won’t budge on that, wanting Conny to be the last one taken, and Norman is determined to keep Emma from crying anymore. So, Ray relents.

But things are about to get worse as a new guardian has come to monitor the kids with Isabella, an imposing woman named Crone.

OUR TAKE

With the first episode introducing the main dilemma of facing oncoming devouring by demons, this episode has Emma and Norman showing their established smarts to begin formulating a plan and getting a proper survey of their surroundings. What we end up with is the start of a two-month long Escape Room game where the kids must win over allies, find out their time limit, understand their available resources, and come up with defenses against anything that could tip off that they know they’re in danger. As I mentioned last week, non-combat oriented shows are pretty much nonexistent in the current iteration of the Toonami block, but you still might be able to call this somewhat of an action show if you qualify the “action” not in terms of fighting, but in terms of brain power.

Brainy kinds of series are also no stranger to the publication that birthed this, Shonen Jump, which is also known for stories with more emphasis on strategy than fisticuffs like “Hikaru no Go”, “Death Note”, and the original iteration of “Yugioh” before it became about children’s trading cards. Promised Neverland lives up to that in showing that the conflict between Emma, Norman, and Ray against Isabella and now Crone will likely not be one with the kids finding out that they have special abilities to gain spiky blond hair or giant swords, but simply their own higher than average brain power to possibly escape with their lives. Like with its contemporaries, “My Hero Academia” and “Black Clover”, perseverance and courage will be major factors in their survival, but intelligence likely more so.

Though as for what this episode does specifically, it’s more or less about making clear what pieces are on the board at the moment and what each of them does. All the main kids are smarties, but Emma is fueled by a naïve optimism that she can save everyone, which may come back to bite her later. Norman shows himself to be far better at keeping a cool head that can view the situation logically, but seems to be also driven to irrationality by Emma, though he doesn’t seem to mind. We don’t get a clear idea of how Ray will contribute here since he only gets informed near the end, but he’s already showing himself to likely be the skeptic who will bring up the potential downsides of every plan they come up with, which certainly has its place in brainstorming.

Perhaps next week, we’ll get to see what Isabella and Crone can really do to retaliate when tested themselves.

Score 8/10