English Dub Review: The Promised Neverland “Episode 10”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

With the help of surprise allies like Isabella and other mothers, as well as Mujika and the reformed demons, Emma and the kids are able to infiltrate Grace Field House and thwart the efforts to ship off the remaining children, cornering Peter Ratri. In a show of good faith, Emma extends a hand to give him a chance to change his ways.

OUR TAKE

As probably previously mentioned, this and the final episode have no credited writer. THAT should tell you a lot about what opinion the studio has about how they’re choosing to wrap up this story. Even some movies that directors are embarrassed put someone’s name on it, a pseudonym named Allen Smithee, even if it was discontinued in 2000. Heck, plenty of writers in anime and manga use pen names to hide direct involvement. But it seemed the best course of action here was to simply put NO ONE’S name on this so that no one could be given the supposedly great shame of being associated further with this story. But as writing does not spontaneously turn into a completed story (and boy I wish it would), someone definitely wrote this, and now we are here at the penultimate episode of The Promised Neverland. And I should point out that, even with all of this preamble about how the production has been somehow so troubled that it has reached this point, this episode is not entirely terrible. That comes next week.

If anything, the main problems going on with this episode in particular is that it rushes so many things to get to such an unsatisfying climax. We go from the cliffhanger of one of Norman’s team possibly leaking info to Ratri, to it turning out to be a ploy in Norman’s favor, so tension lost there. It felt somewhat rewarding to see all the kids reunited, but also confoundingly stupid to see them somehow storming the hideout with bows and arrows. Isabella’s return to the story as a possible threat was not consistently built up, but seemed to be becoming more prominent in recent weeks. Well, it seems all of that was just a trap for Ratri too, as she has been leading an unseen rebellion that also happened to reach fruition at just the right time. The demons arriving to save the day was at least established last week when Norman’s plot was resolved, but it seemed odd to not bring them with them from the start.

Also, you may have noticed I’ve only really mentioned Peter Ratri, the ostensible final boss of this whole series, in passing. Well, it’s because his inclusion in the plot is pretty sparse, to the point you could argue that making Norman the final enemy, forced and contrived as it may have been, would have fit better given how much focus it got. We’ll be getting more about Ratri in the finale next week, but that is far too late. But all good things must come to an end. On an unrelated note, this is ending too.