The Promised Neverland Episode 5 Review
These kids are going to have a serious problem ever trusting anything anyone says if they actually live long enough to grow up. Ray admits he’s been lying and spying for many a year but it was in order to ensure Emma and Norman’s survival. Whether that’s true or just a great line he came up with on the spot is hard to figure out. Then again Norman has proven already he is well and capable of lying when the occasion calls for it.
With Ray laying down an ultimatum in exchange for helping with the escape if might seem like Norman is just going to have to give in. However, where would the fun be if we believed it would be that easy. More importantly, Emma isn’t likely to allow things to go as either Ray or Norman are planning.
I do have to mention that Ray’s facial expressions were a little over the top, almost Sister Krone level silly during some of this exchange. For an anime that usually does a superb job on atmosphere I found this a little off putting as it made it harder to take the conversation seriously.
Still, with that reveal and conversation out of the way it is now time for Don and Gilda to show off why bringing more kids into the fold was a bad idea. While Emma, Ray and Norman are all relatively restrained in their actions as they all fully understand the stakes, Gilda is quite obviously timid by nature though managed to pull through last week. The bigger issue is Don who the whole way through the series has been portrayed as impulsive and not a deep thinker. It sets the scene for some disastrous decision making though whether things will end badly of whether we are getting another false alarm I guess we’ll find out next week.
A little of the shine of this series is wearing off as it progresses but I’m still really enjoying it. Given the progress I finally read the first volume of the manga and absolutely loved it. It filled in a few details that were skipped over by the anime and I’ll have to write a review of it soon. Regardless of how the anime goes I’ll probably end up reading the manga because it was great fun.
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The Promised Neverland, Vol. 2
- The Promised Neverland Series Review
- Episode 1: The Promised Neverland’s First Episode Promises Much, Will It Deliver?
- Episode 2: Why Emma’s Lack of Compromise is Both Foolish and Brilliant
- Episode 3: How a Simple game Can Become Ominous
- Episode 4: The Best Way To Catch A Liar…
- Episode 5: The Friend of My Enemy Is… Maybe a Useful Information Source
- Episode 6: The Promise of a Traitor Times 2
- Episode 7: Playing With Fire (Or Trying to Deal With Sister Krone)
- Episode 8: After Making Us Wait, The Promised Neverland Is Going To Deliver
- Episode 9: The Promised Neverland Promises Yet More Pain
- Episode 10: Where to Without The Promise of Tomorrow?
- Episode 11: Someone Tell Ray That Self-Immolation Is Not A Plan
- Episode 12: The Great Escape
- Images from: The Promised Neverland. Dir. M Kanbe. CloverWorks. 2019.
I will concur the opening with Ray and Norman did drag a bit, but for me, this sort of show is one you have to allow for ebbs and flows in the pacing and narrative, a bit like When They Cry, otherwise the big developments won’t have a much impact when they finally hit.
Plus it still has seven episodes left to bring it home so no need to panic just yet! 😉 🙂
True, even this weaker episode is still very good compared with a lot of other anime. Just not quite as striking as previous episodes.
Yeah, I found Ray’s facial expressions to be too much too. It didn’t help that the conversation between Ray and Norman in the bedroom took up the first ten minutes of the episode. Then there was the conversation in the trees, then in the library. There was a little too much standing around and talking in this one I think.
I think there were some good points raised but this episode definitely didn’t quite hold up the standard for this series and I’m hoping it isn’t the trend for things to come.
There’s a lot of standing around and talking in Neverland… I’ve learned to just grin and bear it.