Early this January, a popular anime, “The Promised Neverland,” released the first episode of its much-anticipated second season. The anime centers around three children, Emma, Ray, and Norman, who are living in an ‘orphanage,’ which they come to find out is actually a farm for human meat for ‘monsters.’ 

Possible spoilers are mentioned in this article.

In the first season, Emma, Ray, and Norman first figure out just what exactly this orphanage that they’re in is. They decide that they are going to have to run away in order to survive, so they begin playing games of tag to train themselves to be more used to running.

They also tell the two other eldest children at the orphanage, Don, and Gilda, as they would be the next to be ‘adopted.’ When a child is adopted, it is simply a cover for being handed over to the ‘monsters.’ While planning their escape, Emma notices that many of the books in their library have oddly shaped stamps; an owl with a dashed line around it.

All of the books with oddly shaped stamps are from the same man, William Minerva. Upon closer inspection, Emma discovers that the dashes actually form morse code messages. One particular book, “The Adventures of Ugo,” has the morse code for ‘promise.’ In the first season, it is a big mystery as to why the word ‘promise’ was chosen, but in the second season, it is revealed that everything in “The Adventures of Ugo“ is parallel with the wonders and horrors the children encounter once they escape the orphanage. 

After discovering that the children have an ally in Mr. Minerva, they become slightly more confident. However, during a failed escape attempt, Mother breaks Emma’s leg. While Emma is still healing, Norman is ‘adopted.’ Emma and Ray try to convince him to escape, but he refuses. In the anime, it is unclear whether or not he does, in fact, die. Ray and Emma realize that Norman had planned for this outcome and continue to go along with the plan. They let many of the younger kids in on it as well and begin to train them as well. On Ray’s birthday, they start a fire in the dining room to distract Mother while the kids who are in on the escape plan run. They make it onto the wall and escape. This is where the first season ends.

In the first episode of the second season, the children are making their way through a forest and seeing many interesting creatures. They realize that they are not yet entirely safe and are using a pen Norman gave them to guide them in the right direction. While they walk at night, they begin to get chased by a giant demon-spider looking beast. Ray has a plan to trap it, but they are saved by demons before he can execute said plan. These demons aren’t friendly, however, and begin to chase Ray when they see him.

Ray pretends to be the only survivor of the group and secretly leaves a message on a tree for the others before running. A humanoid figure appears and directs the group to a safe area. The group obviously does not trust this figure, and Gilda asked it to show them its face, which is hidden beneath a hood. It then cuts back to Ray, who gets cornered by his pursuers.

Just when all hope seems lost, he gets saved by yet another demon. Ray wakes up in a cave and immediately runs to Emma. They both discuss what has happened, and the humanoid figure from earlier comes to get them to feed them. Ray then notices that the figure is, in fact, a demon and asks why demons would help humans. 

All in all, I think that so far, the anime is great, and I can’t wait for more episodes to come out as I highly recommend this show if you’re interested in new anime shows to watch. The next episode is set to come out soon.