God damn you guys I am watching way too much anime. It’s currently almost noon on Wednesday, and I still haven’t released the Week in Review because I tripped and got buried under a pile of new episodes. Sure, I could maybe have planned the week better and gotten this work done some time before now, but then how would have I found the time to watch the latest Mob Psycho four or five times? It’s a conundrum with seemingly no answer, and considering this post is already late, we’re certainly not solving it today. Let’s roll out the list and burn down another week in anime!
Tag Archives: The Promised Neverland
Why It Works: The Adapted Vision of The Promised Neverland
I’ve got a nice, meaty topic for this week’s Why It Works, as we dig into the complexities and unique priorities of anime in adaptation. While an anime that attempted to echo Neverland’s intricate fairy tale tone would have been very interesting, it’s clear that this team are instead focused on making a tightly wound suspense thriller, and their choices bear that out. I hope you enjoy the piece!
The Adapted Vision of The Promised Neverland
Winter 2019 – Week 3 in Review
There’s too friggin’ much good anime, you guys. We’re now over three weeks into the winter season, and I’m still so buried in worthwhile shows that I’m struggling to manage it all. I’ve been doing my best to cram in lingering episodes of Mob Psycho, my two CG-heavy properties seem to actually be getting better over time, and there are still plenty of things I haven’t even gotten the chance to continue. I’ve been hearing good things about Endro!’s later episodes, and Dororo could well be the best dang show of the season, but I am doing my best here. And I suppose Too Many Good Shows is always the best problem to have, even if it does turn all my Week in Review posts into monumental undertakings. Even if I haven’t caught up on everything, I’ve caught up on plenty already, and I have piles of thoughts to share with all of you. Let’s break down at least a slice of this season’s bounty in one more Week in Review!
Winter 2019 – Week 2 in Review
Hello all, and welcome to the new season’s first Week in Review! I’m still kinda scrambling to catch up on everything (I still haven’t watched Mob Psycho’s latest episodes, since I’m determined to trick my housemates into watching that one), but I’ve definitely got more than enough thoughts for a rambling Week in Review. So far, this season is looking to be an unusually fun one – that is, the proportion of shows I’m watching just because they’re propulsive entertainment, rather than harrowing psychological inquiries or whatnot, is pretty high. I suppose it’s not surprising that a season featuring both TATSUKI and Mizushima’s returns would be a particularly bubbly one, but I’m certainly enjoying it! Between that and the season’s many other contenders, all I’m really lacking at this point is a character drama on the level of After the Rain or whatnot. Fortunately, I’m also complementing this season with imports of Bloom Into You from last season, meaning I’m currently enjoying an extremely balanced diet of excellent anime. Let’s explore the bounty then, as we run down this season’s stars in the Week in Review!
Winter 2019 – Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective
Hello all, and welcome to the Winter 2019 Virtually Every First Episode Retrospective! As usual, my dedication to Anime News Network’s preview guide mean I’ve watched nearly every single new premiere this season, with I believe the exception of the slice of life mermaids show (I am sorry slice of life mermaids show). Aside from the mermaids, I’m pretty sure I caught every single premiere that was A. full length and B. not a sequel to something I hadn’t seen. That’s a lot of shows!
Having watched all these shows, I am clearly in the objectively best position to tell you all what is good and what is bad. Consider these words as law, their veracity as fixed and unchanging as the stars in the sky. Whosoever denies these takes, let them be cast out from our land, and condemned to forever wander with their terrible opinions.
Seriously though, these are all just my takes, and my own media preferences are pretty established – I like character stories, themey-wemey stuff, and occasionally well-executed action or adventure. I do my best to give everything a fair shake, but my own preferences and simple preview week fatigue mean something worthy is bound to get overlooked. In spite of that, I hope my thoughts give you something new to check out, and you can always click on any of the names for my fuller thoughts over at ANN (I’m Nick Creamer over there, incidentally). Starting with the absolute cream of the crop, let’s run down a full season of new anime!
Winter 2019 – First Impressions, Part Two
Hello folks, and welcome again to the madness that is preview week. The premieres are still piling up, and I’ve got a wide array of fresh reviews for your perusal AND DELIGHT. The season is shaping up pretty well so far, on the whole – there haven’t been any major surprises, but nearly everything I was anticipating has offered a fine premiere, and combining that with fall’s continuing stars should make for a solid roster. As usual, you can check out the full list of reviews over here, or scores and links to individual writeups below. Let’s get to it!
Winter 2019 Season Preview
It’s a miracle, folks – for once, I can’t really say “how are we already approaching the winter season.” By all accounts, 2018 has been one of the longest years on record, spanning for actual decades and leaving us all withered and creaking. Remember Violet Evergarden? That actually came out this year. Hell, remember Planet With? That only ended a couple months ago! With each new day in the real world offering some fresh disaster and further hastening the End of History, it feels like I’ve lived fifty years over the last ten months, and 2018 still isn’t over. Fortunately, though the real world may be perpetually on fire at this point, anime seasons have maintained a welcome solidity, and given us all something to look forward to.
On that note, let’s get to the shows! Winter anime seasons seem to have a tendency to have the lightest schedule and fewest heavyweight releases, but this one’s actually looking pretty rich on potential pickups. And with both JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Run with the Wind continuing into the new year, we’re certainly not going to be having an anime shortage any time soon. As usual, I won’t run down every show of the new season here – you can check out anichart for a list like that. Instead, I’ll just be covering the shows I’ve got genuine expectations for, along with whatever tipped me off to their potential quality. Starting with my most anticipated new shows, let’s see what winter 2019 has to offer!
The Promised Neverland, Volume 2 – Review
Today I’ve got a review of the second Promised Neverland, which dispenses somewhat with the thematic ambitions of the first volume to focus more closely on the tactical mechanics of the kids’ escape. It’s a fine enough volume, but its narrative ambitions make for a somewhat messy union with the shonen formula, as I discuss in my piece. Still very much enjoying the manga, though!
The Promised Neverland, Volume 2
The Promised Neverland – Volume 1
Even from the cover of the first volume, it’s clear that The Promised Neverland isn’t your standard Shonen Jump property. The base art style favors delicate, almost wobbly linework and evocative scribbles over the bold splashes of black and white favored by, say, My Hero Academia or Bleach. The cover is confident in this fraying delicacy, happy to let a clearly defined spiraling staircase fade into half-imagined detail, and in doing so evoking the visual style of something like a children’s picture book. This doesn’t feel like the steady work of a Jump veteran; this feels like the first manga of a dedicated illustrator, perfectly suiting its fairy tale storytelling.