#Also yes I do very much so enjoy depicting fma characters who would never search for the damn thing with it

[amanitacurses]

Ouroboros

[stray-tori]

The Promised Neverland: An adaption with a different approach

Some infos before I start:

I am anime only. I have read the manga alongside the anime until (including) episode 5, then I stopped because I wanted to stick with the anime's experience.

Anime deserve to be judged as stand-alone works. When compared to the original source, an anime can be bad (FMA because it doesn't follow the manga's plot) but the anime itself can still be good or even better.

I am biased. I saw the anime first. You are most likely biased as well. There's nothing wrong with being biased.

Opinions can't be wrong. Let’s just respect them ^__^ 

Things I've constantly seen being critized about TPN's anime all seem to belong to the same motivation: Being more grounded in reality and distrust. The things I'd group in this "explanation" are:

No Inner Monologues/Thoughts

No flashbacks

No Thoughts

Okay, so this one is the first one I noticed this trend on. In case you didn't know: TPN basically scratches all inner thoughts or has the characters say them out loud instead. Why? I think I know: Trust.

I'll abuse Ray as an example for this: I didn't trust Ray after and during Episode 5. Can you really blame me? LOOK AT HIM:

The anime overdid it, even if it's mainly because movement emphasizes his  gestures. I was inclined to trust Ray but after THAT I wasn't so sure anymore. He SAYS he did it for them. But who can tell if he says the truth? The only place people are honest is in their head. But we can't see in his head. It's not very likely, but it could still be that he lies to Norman. We can't know for sure. But the thing is, when I read the manga content of episode 5, it's really clear where Ray stands, because he thinks it very clearly.

You might say “It was obvious Ray thought this way” but you can always say that afterwards. Fact is, it planted doubt in my head and therefore it could have been both. And the Anime presumably makes this change to make instances like this more extreme and suspenseful. We can only judge Ray (and everyone else for that matter) on how they can judge each other: on what they say and what they do. Not what they think.

Think about it, the anime REALLY tries to put us in the character's shoes: There are all these weird perspective shots around weird corners and angels, it feels like someone is watching them, at all times. We feel anxious about it. Just as they probably do about being found out. These shots are also mostly when they do something in secret or talk about the plan directly. 

They can't know what the others think. They can't see in their head. Neither can we in the anime. We mistrust everyone as much as they could, if they wanted to. 

And I don't wanna say that it's better that way. It makes everyone a blackbox, which makes it harder to have easily understandable characters and harder to know what they are plotting in their heads. It doesn't feel like we know them very well, because we don't really do. MHA is the best example of me enjoying simple characters a lot more. I have trouble understanding very complex characters, so I'm the last person to be against inner thoughts but I think not having them is an interesting choice here.

And lastly: The flashbacks. Some people have said the anime is cutting content (which from what I've seen I've only noticed in instances that weren't too important to me or where important information was conveyed differently, for example: Mama playing chess with the trio. It was in the manga, I saw it and it wasn't in the anime, but in EP1 they said that they never were able to beat Mama at chess. Information covered, also it's less in your face). 

Listen, there's no way they CAN'T cut content. They have to press like 40 chapters into 12 episodes. That's a lot. I won't deny it. A few more episodes wouldn't have hurt this adaptation. But honestly I'd rather have a somewhat closed arc than a random cut somewhere in the middle. So far I don't feel like we've missed stuff that was integral to the story, but I also don't know if some of the stuff was foreshadowing something.

But I think this also ties in with making us feel more like the characters: Flashbacks don't happen in Real Life. If I talk to someone and they tell me about something I wasn't present at, I won't just start to see it. I can visualize it, but that's it. AND If you see somehting, you're more inclined to believe it. That’s why TV News work better. That’s why when you see a dead person on photos it’s more impactful than reading “Someone died”. In that way, it makes us distrust the statements/stories more because we have no reason to believe it actually happened.

I think this approach is amazing and it works on me. I stopped reading the manga because it confirmed/denied (don’t wanna give it away) my doubts about Ray. I felt like this wasn't the way I wanted to experience this story.

BUT. there's a problem. It's tonally interesting and makes for a much more suspenseful experience imo (something else the anime really likes to emphasize: suspense) BUT it creates problems when there's important information in these flashbacks or inner thoughts that can't naturally be converted to be conveyed differently. And that's how Krone becomes stupid; screaming out her plans for everyone in the house to hear.

Yes, it's annoying. But these changes are too consistent between each other, all adding suspense and distrust and somewhat putting us in the character's shoes, to not be intentional. I don't think this is shortening things or trying to ruin the manga. It's a different way to experience a story and I enjoy it a lot personally.

It also makes this somewhat unusual shonen even less shonen-y.

The Composition

This kind of ties in which the last one, but it's a smaller thing. Some shots of the manga have been changed or made less "visually interesting" in the manga, which I think it another part of trying to be more grounded and have less extreme moments animation-wise that takes you out of the usually pretty normal and dare i say somewhat "boring" shots. It's creating a different visual style with the 3D models and pans indoors, etc.

I really can't argue much here, I think this is mostly due to medium, though I won't deny this was probably an active change/choice by someone rather than adapting to a different medium. I like both styles, it's just in different mediums and plays to a different atmosphere.

Small thing but I wanna talk about it: The Nightmare (EP5)

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh boi. This exploded in my social bubble. If you don't know: Norman "hugged" (more like grabbed their faces) both Ray and Emma in the manga and the anime... yeah, made it about Emma.

I'm biased. I like them together so I screamed internally.

But it never bothered me, even after I knew. And at this point, I really like Ray (EP7 really sold me on him), and I'm still not upset about it. And I think I know why: I didn't trust Ray as described above.

But Norman does, somewhat. And I get that.

But he just got told that he'd have to essentially choose between Emma and Ray. And I think even without inner thoughts it's obvious that he wants to choose Emma in this thing, he wants to believe in her optimism. But if he "chooses Emma", she could die because of it despite wanting the best for her. I think this is what the dream wants to emphasize (since it seems to imply he did choose to not lie to Emma, since Ray says something about “I told you”), while the manga seems to go for the dilemma of wanting them both to be happy and for it to work out, but it won’t if he won’t decide. That he can’t have it both ways.

I won't deny it depicts Norman as someone who only cares about Emma and that's wrong and misleading. 

But honestly? I just saw Ray laugh and look like a psycho, and I don't trust him. Having Norman hug him in the dream would tonally contrast that. And since the anime (probably intentionally) made Ray less trustworthy, it would be weird to see it directly afterwards. 

Not to mention the scene alltogether changed a lot from the manga to the anime so to say they just changed this one thing for the sake of it would be wrong. For example the anime leads into the dream while it comes out of nowhere in the manga (another thing where the anime builds on suspense where the manga builds on surprise), also Ray doesn’t even fall down in the first place (so Norman doesn’t just leave Ray on the ground, actually Ray even dissappears in the wide shot) and so Norman doesn’t try to carry/drag him and Ray is also a little more creepy and guilt-tripping than in the manga (at least it felt that way to me). 

They actively chose to do this, obviously and they could have chosen to not do it, and I do agree it would have been important to reestablish the bond between Norman and Ray after that conversation and portraying Ray as creepy AGAIN isn’t helping trusting him. But at the same time I didn't think "huh, guess he doesn't care about Ray and everyone else", I thought "welp, there are some complications with Ray right now so it makes sense".

Plus, don't kill me, but I think the manga panel looks awkward. He essentially grabs their faces, it seems more DESPERATE which is fine emotion to have in that situation but it doesn't feel very careful and loving for the lack of a better word.

In the anime he really touches her carefully (that sounds so wrong save my soul pls), and I can’t even say it's better, it's different and I want to believe it was because of the contrast and the meaning it could have as well as symbolizing a different mindset about having to choose between them.

Or the one responsible for storyboards / directing really just likes Noremma WHO KNOWS.

But at the same time, in episode 1 they changed the way back to the house. Tbh there they toned down the ship, Emma isn't clinging to him and seemingly searching for physical support. Don't get me wrong, I was like "I was robbed of this moment" BUT I prefer the anime’s way of doing that. I like the moment, but I think for the overall tone and characters it's better the way the anime did it. I can't say the same with as much confidence for the Nightmare scene but I don't believe it was to emphasize Noremma or remove Ray actively. I think it was a choice to be able to animate it more easily, to portray the dilemma within the dream and to have more tonal consistence.

And that's really what I have to say. The anime does things differently and I prefer it. I'm biased, yes. 

And yes I get it I’d be frustrated too when anime leave out stuff I like (Noragami cough) but I don't feel like TPN did anything to lessen the experience, and if they did end up doing so, I believe it was in an attempt to do a different approach.

Even after having watched the Noragami Anime first, I mostly prefer the manga of Noragami in terms of plot and build-up, but I don't feel the same for TPN. 

I pretty much think they [the anime and the manga] are on equal footing but with different strengths and the anime deviating at times. But I won’t know my final opinion on this until the anime ends (I don’t want it to thoooo) and I have read the s1-content of the manga.

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.

if you excuse me I will prepare to be executed now.