The Promised Neverland - Episode 1

NoSurprises

NoSurprises

Hunter
Or THE PROMISED NEVERLAND as it's named on Crunchyroll.

Why are everyone's mouths so high up their face? It's not just me seeing this right?

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Also a bunch of weird shots during the episode, gave me Occultic Nine vibes where they tried some crazy stuff for no apparent reason. The part where they cut to the speaker for like a split second every time someone new begins talking after the tag game, and the weird tunnel pan towards the end being the standouts.

Not familiar with the source material, but seems highly regarded. First episode felt well paced, if not a little heavy handed; even if I'd gone into this totally blind you could see tragedy coming a mile off, but I guess that's the trade off with a limited number of episodes.

Seems like it might be good, I'll probably get used to the mouth thing, so continuing to watch for now.
 
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Personally i felt that the moment where the tension breaks was done shoddily and i wonder how the kids got from under that car without making noise. I'm not buying it. Otherwise i liked it.
 
Besides those two things the first episode was otherwise pretty good. It was just really disappointing that they broke the tension so poorly because the buildup was really good.

Though i wasn't exactly thrilled about the baddies but it's not i disliked the idea either.
 
I agree the faces are a bit distracting, does seem like it's not always the case either. Some scenes (or maybe it's some characters?) they look normal.
Not a perfect first episode but intriguing nonetheless. I did go into this knowing the initial "twist" so it's hard to tell if it would have landed better if I didn't know that.

Love the OP though.
 
Things currently trending in anime: People being kept behind walls and children suffering.

I didn't know nuffin' about this show, but I actually do like the character designs a lot (personally I think the high mouths are quite cute, certainly cuter than some of the design eras I've suffered through, like stupidly large and far apart eyes that look like they're sliding off the sides of a character's face under their own weight and Richard Nixon jowls) so I decided I'd give it a go, makes a change for me to watch something when it's airing.

NoSurprises said:
First episode felt well paced, if not a little heavy handed; even if I'd gone into this totally blind you could see tragedy coming a mile off, but I guess that's the trade off with a limited number of episodes.
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Felt way too rushed for my liking. If you've got a mystery to reveal, I like some time to be spent actually building up a sense of suspense beforehand, it doesn't mean a lot to me otherwise. I didn't feel the kids' sense of betrayal because we'd spent about ten seconds with "Mama" (the subtitle translation of the already English loanword into "Mom" also grated) and offing the cutesy little girl (who we didn't spend enough time with to care about either) seemed like such a cheap and easy way of trying to get me to care. I'll keep watching because honestly it's pretty and I like my genki girl Emma (and it gets weirdness points for being the first anime ever to feature a protagonist called Norman) but it needs to slow down and take its time a bit more to hold my interest.
 
ayase said:
If you've got a mystery to reveal, I like some time to be spent actually building up a sense of suspense beforehand, it doesn't mean a lot to me otherwise.
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There was nothing to build up though, the twist wasn't a mystery to anyone it was a sudden and unexpected (to the characters) reveal. It would have made no sense being suspenseful.
 
Vincentdante said:
There was nothing to build up though, the twist wasn't a mystery to anyone it was a sudden and unexpected (to the characters) reveal. It would have made no sense being suspenseful.
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You have kids, in a weird isolated orphanage where they have to take strange tests and while curious about the outside world, have clearly had obedience drilled into them to the point none of them have ever stepped over a thigh-high fence. That was already building up what could have been a great mystery. I'd far rather have spent some time exploring their world before I learned the truth, I think that would have been better from a storytelling point and for me caring more about the characters and their feelings when the reveal actually happened. It goes without saying this is personal preference though and I can only judge what I’ve seen, which is one episode. Willing it to pull me in over the next few eps.
 
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ayase said:
You have kids, in a weird isolated orphanage where they have to take strange tests and while curious about the outside world, have clearly had obedience drilled into them to the point none of them have ever stepped over a thigh-high fence. That was already building up what could have been a great mystery. I'd far rather have spent some time exploring their world before I learned the truth, I think that would have been better from a storytelling point and for me caring more about the characters and their feelings when the reveal actually happened. It goes without saying this is personal preference though and I can only judge what I’ve seen, which is one episode. Willing it to pull me in over the next few eps.
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Believe me I love my mystery novels, from Sherlock Holmes to Philip Marlow and sprinkle in Charles Dexter Ward for the spooks. Personally I see no mystery here besides why the kids are told not to leave the premises which really couldn't be dragged out.

I'm reminded of Stephen Kings the Mist where people will be eaten by monsters if they step outside. That mystery was solved in the opening act and the rest of it became how do you escape.
 
Let me phrase it a different way then; it subverted my expectations, but not in a way that I particularly enjoyed. All of my questions about the world, the things that intrigued me about the premise of the show (things I'd call mysterious, ymmv) were answered in eighteen and a half minutes, some of it in a very rushed and on the nose bit of bad guy exposition - Where did Conny go? She's dead. Who killed her? Weird monsters. Why was she killed? To be eaten by people outside. Why do the kids have those tests? Because people prefer eating clever kids, or something. Who's next? THE PROTAGONISTS. If it wants to be The Great Escape, Anime Edition, fine. But that whole initial set-up seemed a bit misleading, and not in a clever way. Just in a "I thought this was going to be more interesting than it actually turned out to be" way.
 
ayase said:
Things currently trending in anime: People being kept behind walls and children suffering.

I didn't know nuffin' about this show, but I actually do like the character designs a lot (personally I think the high mouths are quite cute, certainly cuter than some of the design eras I've suffered through, like stupidly large and far apart eyes that look like they're sliding off the sides of a character's face under their own weight and Richard Nixon jowls) so I decided I'd give it a go, makes a change for me to watch something when it's airing.

Felt way too rushed for my liking. If you've got a mystery to reveal, I like some time to be spent actually building up a sense of suspense beforehand, it doesn't mean a lot to me otherwise. I didn't feel the kids' sense of betrayal because we'd spent about ten seconds with "Mama" (the subtitle translation of the already English loanword into "Mom" also grated) and offing the cutesy little girl (who we didn't spend enough time with to care about either) seemed like such a cheap and easy way of trying to get me to care. I'll keep watching because honestly it's pretty and I like my genki girl Emma (and it gets weirdness points for being the first anime ever to feature a protagonist called Norman) but it needs to slow down and take its time a bit more to hold my interest.
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Agreed, this season does seem pretty edgy what with Boogiepop and this.

I probably should've used the word 'briskly' rather than 'well'. I'm just not sure how else they would've done it though, if they don't rush the start they have to rush the end I guess? (I suppose they're potentially going to do that as well anyway...).

And while folks like you and I probably would've carried on with the series even if all of the first episode was world building, I imagine a swathe of people would give up if there wasn't an immediate pay off (note: not inferring 'dead kids' is synonymous with 'pay off')? I'm probably talking nonsense though, I don't know what the viewership at large is like at all.

Actually, just to counter my own point... Made in Abyss' first episode jumps to mind, that was basically all world building, but it was still really engaging and didn't hamstring the series length.
 
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