English Dub Review: The Promised Neverland “Episode 6”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)
After a tearful reunion and some loving slaps thrown, Norman explains where he’s been. Back when he was seemingly taken to be eaten, he was actually shipped to a laboratory to be experimented on called Lambda 7214. Thankfully he was able to escape and destroy the facility, though not before learning why demons devour intelligent humans. They take on the intelligence of the humans eaten and so cultivate smart children to maintain this, but if they are starved of it for too long, they will devolve into mindless savages again. Norman has also made a drug that will directly dissolve and poison demons, which he plans to use on them all.

Ray and Emma seem to be on board at first, but a later talk reveals that Emma would rather that they not have to kill more if they don’t have to, especially since they were saved by a couple demons, Mujika and Sonju, before. They go to discuss this with Norman but meet his fellow escapees, Cislo, Barbara, and Vincent, who are all very vocal about wanting to kill all demons. Eventually they get to talk to Norman and hope that they can change his mind, mentioning that they had met demons that haven’t devolved despite not eating any humans. However, the mention of Mujika’s name enrages Norman, who calls her the Evil-Blooded Girl.

OUR TAKE
Okay, we are definitely in anime original territory now. Again, I haven’t read the manga to confirm this, but there is most definitely a shift here onto a different track, made most apparent by re-introduction of Norman and his new cohorts who all make very clear what the major thematic conflict will be in for the remaining half dozen episodes. In the original Japanese broadcast, a recap of the previous 17 episodes preceded this one, which thankfully they didn’t put on TV to make me waste a week trying to review it. But it seems like that was a way of getting people ready for this major change to the story trajectory. Although obviously this wasn’t just some sort of sudden decision that was made on the fly, at least as far as I can tell, as the OP clearly had some details about it that were clearly made to change later. Most notably was a shot of Emma in center and Ray farther back on the left, leaving an empty space on the right that is now filled by Norman starting with this episode, so clearly his return was planned, and apparently also happens in the manga, if at a later point.

But with his return and introducing his own crew with their own anti-demon agenda, we have a path laid out for us for the rest of the series. Emma and Ray’s plans have only ever been to escape with the rest of their family, even risking going back to Grace Field to rescue the rest of the kids, but never outright malicious against the demons who trapped them. And now that they’ve met seemingly kind demons (or at least not directly antagonistic demons like Sonju, who has his own plans) and better understand how the world came to be like this, they likely are holding to just surviving and not outright attacking. But Norman and his crew have been horribly experimented on, with major side-effects as we’ll see later, so their thoughts are understandably on revenge. So now, Emma and Ray are likely going to end up in total opposition to Norman’s plans, which is going to be very tragic to watch! As well as very tricky to develop and conclude satisfyingly in only a half a dozen more episodes. And based on what I’ve heard about the rest of this series, they probably don’t. But hey, let’s see how they manage anyway!