WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Promised Neverland Season 2, Episode 10, now streaming on Funimation and Hulu.
The Promised Neverland Season 2, Episode 10 has three credited directors (Ayako Kurata, Ryō Kodama and Shigeru Fukase) but no credited screenwriter. Toshiya Ono, who wrote the first four episodes of the season, is still credited with the overall "series composition" but not as the individual episode's writer. Nanao, the writer of Episodes 5-9 this season as well as the manga's light novel adaptation, isn't credited either. Perhaps most damningly of all, the "series composition" credit for original manga creator Kaiu Shirai is gone as of this episode.
As of this writing, no official explanation has yet been given for the lack of any writing credit and the removal of Shirai's composition credit. Either Episode 10 of The Promised Neverland Season 2 was somehow produced without a script, or (more likely) the show has gotten so bad that nobody wants to be credited for it.
The problems with The Promised Neverland Season 2, Episode 10 are numerous. The cliffhanger from last week, with the "reveal" of Vincent being a traitor, turns out to be merely a misdirect, making its inclusion completely pointless. If previous episodes seemed rushed, this is the most rushed episode yet, with developments like the kids' sudden access to a fleet of hot air balloons coming completely out of nowhere.
Unless some very significant changes are made to the ending of the story, the rescue of the younger kids from Peter Ratri is the big action climax of The Promised Neverland, and it all goes by so fast that nothing about it makes an impact beyond the cuteness of Emma's reunion with Phil. Peter Ratri is underdeveloped as the series' ultimate antagonist, Isabella's heel-face turn is so rushed it becomes comical and the demons coming to Emma's aid might just be the worst-executed twist in a series of badly-executed twists.
Perhaps The Promised Neverland's biggest problem in Season 2 is that the show seems way too scared to let itself be, well, scary. If any conflict got the chance to breathe rather than being instantly resolved in an overly-convenient fashion, maybe there could actually be some suspense. If the kids endured any real on-screen hardship beyond their initial escape from Grace Field, maybe even a somewhat-cheesy ending could have felt rewarding rather than eye-rolling. If the show engaged with the oppressive structures of the demon world beyond throwaway exposition, maybe it would actually have something meaningful to impart to viewers.
Instead, The Promised Neverland Season 2 has just further cemented itself as the most disappointing follow-up to a great season of anime in a long time. At this point, watching the final two episodes sounds a lot less interesting than reading a tell-all about what exactly went wrong with this production.
New episodes of The Promised Neverland premiere Thursdays on Funimation and Hulu.
