Rolling Review – The Promised Neverland S2 – Episode 02

Episode Synopsis

Emma, Ray, and the rest of the Grace Field fugitive family find allies in the demons Sonju and Mujika. These two are from a sect of demons that don’t eat humans. The kids learn survival techniques for braving the unknown wilderness, and Sonju reveals startling details about the world as we know it.

Review:

I’ve missed this show, and I’m so excited it’s back!! Episode 2 quiets things down so we can have a discussion about HOLY WOW MAJOR STUFF. Spoiler Alert for my review.

It’s important to me to draw attention to the reason Sonju and Mujika don’t eat people. It’s religious in nature, which is twisted irony considering they are…demons. Their devotion is made clear throughout the episode (they pray before every meal, and they have a deep respect for the forest that allows them to find sustenance). Their piety, along with their adorable big brother/sister portrayal humanizes them immensely, and I found myself sad that we may be parting ways with them soon. They are in the ED song so we can’t lose them this fast, can we?!

Let’s talk about the major bomb drop here. There are two separate worlds. One of demons and one of humans, and guess which one our little family is stuck in? The kids of Grace Field have been duped by the limited literature they had to work with. This human farming has been going on for a thousand years. There also seems to be no way to get into the human world, but this (like many things Sonju “knows”) are merely hearsay. This leaves us the viewers starving for information and we only learn as the kids learn.

This may just be my interpretation, but I’m getting a major colonization vibe here. The demons and humans killed each other in a vicious cycle of predator and prey, but when the dust settled…
(A) The demons got to be left alone in their own world, and the humans helped them set up farming and industry to allow the demons to eat future generations of humans. To add to this atrocity, they force pho-mothers to cultivate this…livestock.

(B) The human world got…what?! It’s own world just to be left alone, free from demons preying upon them? Setting up a farm and effectively selling your own species seems like a massive price to pay. One that almost seems penance like. The whole “we live off the land and respect nature’s way like Native Americans” vibe from Sonju and Mujika add to my feelings here. Is this Somali and the Forest Spirit? Are we gearing up to showcase that humans are the real monsters here?

I’m not just worried about the dual worlds, the fate of the kids, and how the heck we are ever going to find William Minerva (if he/she/it(?) is even real). I’m worried about Emma. She gets some tough love from Gilda, but I’m not sure she’s fully learned her lesson about not shouldering all the burdens. She goes to learn hunting on her own so she can spare all the others from knowing what it’s like to kill a living thing. She also learns a painful truth about the method the demons use to kill the kids before they are harvested. Emma’s also overly optimistic about getting her current group of kids AND the kids they left behind at Grace Field out of Demon World. Emma, I feel like you are setting yourself up for a world of heartache.

Hot damn…there’s a lot to talk about. Also, can we just talk about how beautiful this show is? CloverWorks…wow. The lush beauty of the forest that Emma and Sonju go into late in the episode is stunning to look at.

Summary:

Episode 2 dials back the action, but amplifies the emotions/world-building. We have a goal, we have +5 hunting/gathering skills, and we have a whole mess of new questions about this show. I am so freaking pumped.

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