DEBUNKING : The Promised Neverland (Let’s get into iiit)
- NOTJUSTANIME
- Oct 9, 2021
- 5 min read
Hi! My name is Clarity but you can call me Clair. Listen, WHY YOU BEING WEIRD TO ME... I know this isn’t a TikTok video but still, you seriously haven’t seen this anime yet? Let’s talk about it.
SPOILERRR ALERRTTT. Ima break apart an anime called The Promised Never Land!! if you haven’t seen it yet or need a refresher please watch the video below.
^ **P.S I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CONTENT DISPLAYED IN THE VIDEO ABOVE! STRICTLY FOR REFERENCE ONLY.**
Now, this was such an interesting anime series to watch. My best friend and I were toooootally on our toes. When I first started, I didn't know what to expect of the title. I thought at first that it was a bunch of children growing up and not liking adulthood (sound familiar) since you know.. being an adult ain’t what we thought it would be as kids. IT WASN'T!
So essentially, this was about a variety of kids being brought up in a foster home like setting (which is basically a plantation tbh) called Grace Field House. They were taught extremely well and were very smart. HOWEVER, children who got to leave were given away to be harvested by these 'demon-like' creatures and their brains and organs were either harvested or eaten by the demons.
As the story progresses, some of the kids find out about this and escape... then their true journey begins. The children go through many trials and are forced to grow up almost over night. They learn how to hunt, seek and build shelter, gather water, delegate tasks, think critically and problem solve, etc.
ARD, SO WHATS TEA?
KEY CONCEPTS;
-BACKGROUND
Okay so BOOM. Basically, the demons wanted to eat all of the human but people wanted a way to live comfortably And safely. So the human struck a deal with the demons that said, we will provide you with kids to eat and harvest in exchange for some of our lives. The demons agreed. The younger children who weren’t as smart often got harvested first and the smarter ones were aged like beef and got harvested at their prime.
The Characters…
Isabella is the foster mother and owner of the plantation the kids live on. She is the most popular because she raises the smartest children and they are considered premium stock (YakuSoku).
Emma is the main female character. She is, funny, charismatic, and optimistic. A ray of sunshine if you will. She is very smart and is the first to help get the kids up in the morning, prepare food, etc. She’s the big sister of the group. Being one of the smartest children living in the Grace Field House, Emma is considered as one of Grace Field House's three ’Premium quality goods’ (YakuSoku).
Norman (her counter part and considers him FAMILY) is similar but has more of a leadership mentality. He "is a math prodigy and a model student with intelligence that surpasses his peers and even adults. He is also known for being a genius strategist and planner, as well as unbeatable at the game of tag" (YakuSoku).
Ray is the odd one out. "He is also a loner who consistently gets perfect scores during the daily exams. He is known for being an avid reader with high intellectual abilities, blunt skepticism, and cunning. Despite his distant disposition, Ray is able to interact well with the orphans and is fiercely loyal and caring to particularly Emma and Norman." (YakuSoku). PSA He is Isabella‘s son and doesn’t know it.
-THE IMPLICATION BEHIND BEING ’ADOPTED’
Typically, we define adoption/being adopted as “adoption is the social, emotional, and legal process in which children who will not be raised by their birth parents become full and permanent legal members of another family while maintaining genetic and psychological connections to their birth family.”
In this anime being ‘adopted’ meant being sold to individual demons or demon families and then eaten like cattle. The bodies, and organs of these children were highly valuable (and tasty to the demons) and grew even more valuable as the children grew up and their brains matured they were more desirable (more tasty.. think USDAA BEEF instead of the store bought kind).
Similarly, when the kids were sent out (as it is in most foster-homes IRL), the children say their good byes. It is implied here, that you will never see them again (and you didn’t. Since they were brutally killed). But to the kids, their fellow family member was chosen to be in a wonderful family and everyone hopes to achieve that one day.
-MANIPULATION
I previously alluded to how the children were forced to believe that they’d be adopted into some magical and happy family. Manipulation is simply defined as ‘to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means especially to one's own advantage." The mother, Isabella, has mastered the art of manipulation in how she uses these children’s hopes and dreams to stay alive and become the best ‘farmer’ of these ‘premium products’.
-The Truth Revealed
In the first few episodes, a few of the children find out about what’s really happening when they follow their mom to a meet up point and see first hand what happens when their brother and sisters get adopted. As the series continue, the children find out more about how the outside world works as well. For example, a new adult by the name of Sister Krone was originally supposed to be Isabella’s assistant. She wanted to become a ‘mom’ like her and used the kids to gain their trust. She told them some secrets about how ‘being a mom’ works and what it means. Afterwards, the kids began looking for ways out. They scoured the library to find clues and found a book series caller ex libris which was written by William Minerva. ‘The books were very subtle messages for the kids, from what the orphanage wants to do with the kids to how to survive should they manage to escape’
-Finding Freedom and independence
The children devise a plan to break free. They weren’t able to take everyone with them but they took the strongest of bunch and those who knew about it. They used Minervas books a clues to find the hidden shelter he had built just for them. Along the journey to find this shelter,they ran into demons and had to fight them but also ran into other problems like getting sick, loosing people, learning to cook, fight, etc. They find a few safe havens along the way and eventually find the shelter. They fell in love with their new found independence. UNFORTUNATELY, it was quickly taken away from them as they were bombarded by demons who were hunting them the entire time. The series ends here for now.
So how does this connect to Child Trafficking?
The series is still being developed but lets talk about this in the real world for a second.
Sex and human traffickers typically get their victims through the use of physical force, threats, psychological manipulation, and other tactics. In the United each year, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders (U.S. Department of State. 2004. Trafficking in Persons Report. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of State.). On average about 50% of those who are trafficked are children. Similarly, Organ trafficking is also very popular world wide.
When we think about how this connects to this anime, we can see how human trafficking plays a non-conscious role and even more so how one can break free from those experience but still have it affect them physically, mentally, and emotionally. This anime does a great Jon at desensitizing this issue in a kid friendly way however it is important to remember #ITSNOTJUSTANIME
REFERENCES:
https://www.ncjrs.gov/ovc_archives/ncvrw/2005/pg5l.html
https://yakusokunoneverland.fandom.com/wiki/The_Promised_Neverland_Wiki
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