Much to everyone’s shock and disappointment, The Promised Neverland’s second season fell short. Not only did it rewrite the manga for the worse, but it also served as an abrupt series finale no one saw coming.

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What went on behind the scenes may never be known, but what’s clear is there were creative liberties taken. All these changes did, though, was cement this second season’s legacy as an unforgettably botched adaptation on par with Deadman Wonderland and Tokyo Ghoul A.

Warning: Spoilers ahead.

10 Entire Story Arcs Were Skipped

Return To Grace Field Arc

The most obvious divergence was the scrapping of whole arcs. This started slowly but surely, when the Grace Field kids got to William Minerva’s secret bunker with no Yugo in sight. The absence of someone the fandom referred to as “Best Boy” wasn’t just an indication that the beloved Goldy Pond Battle arc was gone, but so was almost everything after it.

Without exaggeration, Season 2 crammed nearly 140 chapters into six episodes. Besides the lack of the clash in the Goldy Pond hunting grounds, the anime skipped important arcs such as King of Paradise arc or heavily rewrote others like the Imperial Capital Battle arc. In the latter, Norman attempts to wipe out the Demons in their capital city, not a random town like in the anime.

9 None Of The Setting’s Surrealism Was Adapted

Emma & Ray Fall Into The Maze

As an anime, The Promised Neverland is a relatively grounded dark fantasy. Demons may roam around, but the setting is still fairly realistic. The manga, on the other hand, isn’t chained by such burdens and gets surreal when it wants to.

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The Demons’ supernatural nature forces the kids to face otherworldly dangers, not just mortal ones. Aside from the reality-bending maze Emma and Ray suffer during the Seven Walls arc, a key element missing is the divide between the Demon and Human worlds. In the anime, they’re an elevator ride apart but in the manga, they’re separated by astral planes.

8 The Demon Royal Families Never Factor In The Anime

Queen Legravalima Rules The Demons

One of the most egregious exclusions from The Promised Neverland is the Five Regent Families, the aristocratic Demon clans that rule Demon society. Led by Queen Legravalima, the families hoard human livestock while letting their people suffer. Each family also has its own goals, and their infighting helps and hinders Emma’s revolt.

Literally, none of this is in the anime, where all they get are scant mentions and a very brief appearance in the finale. Their downfall in the manga also changed everything, whereas the only thing that fell in the anime was Grace Fields’ security department. By removing the monarchy, the anime also ignored the social commentary and political intrigue that defined the manga's second half.

7 Peter Ratri Is More Complex & Tragic In The Manga

Peter Ratri Introduces Himself

He may have appeared late in the manga, but Peter Ratri still remains one of the story’s darkest villains. Born into the family cursed to maintain the shaky truce between the Demon and Human worlds by managing the farms, Peter is torn between fulfilling his duties and doing what’s right. In the end, the former wins and the guilt drives him to take his own life.

Peter’s backstory and final actions are the same in the anime but in a very broad sense. Because of how little time he was given to develop, Peter’s angst and motivations were dumped onto audiences in the finale. Instead of being a compelling villain and personification of a banally evil system, he just seemed like a really annoyed supervisor who suddenly stabbed his own neck.

6 Sonju & Mujika Aren’t Major Political Linchpins

Sonju & Mujika Defy The Queen

In the anime, Sonju and Mujika are little more than a pair of helpful Demons who aid Emma and co. Even though her special blood could end the Demons’ dependency on human flesh, Mujika doesn’t do much other than conveniently bump into Emma. This is generally the same in the manga, but Sonju and Mujika are more important than walking Demon antidotes.

Because of her blood, Mujika was actively hunted down by the royals. This is a constant threat in the manga, and it comes to a head when Sonju and Mujika actively participate in Emma’s anti-royal rebellion. Mujika even kills Legravalima before she’s declared the new queen by Leuvis. Her coronation is shown in the finale’s montage, but with none of the weight and context.

5 Isabella Lives & Is Easily Forgiven

Isabella Hugs Her Kids One Last Time

Back in Season 1, Isabella was praised for being one of the most tragic villains of recent anime history. This sentiment didn’t resurface for Season 2, where she barely factored into the plot. Here, she came back just in time for the final battle, where she betrayed Peter Ratri, got her kids’ forgiveness after Emma said a few platitudes, and started anew in the human world.

RELATED: 10 Villains Anime Characters Just Forgave (& Why)

Not only is Isabella more layered in the manga, but she dies to atone for her sins. After the closure of the farms, a stray Demon lashes out at Emma. Isabella takes the fatal injury and uses her last moments of life to beg for her kids’ forgiveness while declaring her genuine love for them. Her last chapter was an emotional gut-punch, while her last anime episode fell flat.

4 Norman Doesn’t Become The Second William Minerva

Norman Adapts The William Minerva Personality

Like in the manga, Norman’s experiences at the Lambda facilities broke his idealism and radicalized him into a bitter anti-Demon revolutionary. While the broad strokes of his plans and his allies remain the same, an interesting part of his story the anime dropped was his becoming the second William Minerva.

By the story’s present, William is long dead but his actions still inspire people. Seeing the power of this legacy, Norman remade himself as the new William Minerva to lead a revolt against mankind’s oppressors. His internal conflict of becoming William or remaining as Norman is absent in the anime, where Norman instead has a brief moral dilemma that Emma snaps him out of.

3 Emma Stays To Free The Other Farms

Emma & Friends Return To The Human World

The manga ended on a bittersweet note, as Emma and her family successfully ensure better futures for the Demon and Human worlds. However, Emma paid a great price in exchange for this outcome. Everything wraps with an epilogue in the Human world, where Emma reunites with her family after two long years.

In the anime, Emma stays in the Demon world with Ray, Norman and the Lambda rejects to free the other farms. If Emma took down the Demon nobility like she did in the manga, staying behind wouldn’t have been necessary since the monarchs’ fall automatically freed the farms. The anime also has an epilogue and reunion in the Human world, but it felt tacked on at best.

2 Emma Never Makes A Deal With The One

The One Fulfills Its Promise

The Promised Neverland’s original ending was polarizing, to say the least, because of how it simultaneously felt unfair and too convenient. Here, Emma strikes a deal with the Demon god known as The One. In trade for her memories, The One will grant Emma’s family safe journey to the Human world. Two years later, everyone reunites even if Emma doesn’t remember anything.

Since all The One got in the anime was a quick cameo during the finale’s montage, Emma never had to make this transaction. Instead, her journey ends in a very saccharine way, without the need for any sacrifices. As divisive as the manga’s conclusion was, fans still agree that it would’ve been better than what the anime gave.

1 Many Characters Were Left Out

Yugo & Leuvis From The Manga

A side-effect of large chunks of the manga not getting adapted is that many characters never made it to the anime. For example, the lack of the Goldy Pond arc doesn’t just remove Yugo but that of the location’s residents. This includes the Demons’ human prey, such as Lucas, Sandy, and Violet.

On the antagonists’ side, characters like Peter Ratri’s subordinate Andrew and the Demon headhunter and archduke Leuvis. The latter’s absence was heavily criticized, since he’s one of the manga’s most complex and interesting enemies. The trade-off was the inclusion of new characters like the Vylk, a plot device Demon grandpa.

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