The Promised Neverland Season 2 Ending Explained

Contains spoilers for "The Promised Neverland"

The anime series "The Promised Neverland" started off with overwhelming praise from fans. Based on the popular manga by the same name, "The Promised Neverland" centers around an orphan named Emma (Sumire Morohoshi/Erica Mendez), a smart and kind young girl. She lives with her fellow orphans in the Grace Field House and they're looked after by their "mother" Isabella (Yūko Kaida/Laura Post). While life at the orphanage at first appears to be fine and dandy, Emma and her friend Norman (Maaya Uchida/Jeannie Tirado) one day realize that they're actually being raised as livestock to feed to demons outside the walls of the property.

Season 1 follows the kids as they attempt to escape from Grace Field House, and uncover the truth about the world around them. The first season was positively received by fans and also boasted impressive ratings from critics, leading to much anticipation for Season 2. Unfortunately, the second season of "The Promised Neverland" didn't fare as well as the first. In fact, many fans think it may have ruined the whole show. Let's take a look at exactly what happened with the ending of Season 2.

Since the first season of "The Promised Neverland" was so successful, it came as a shock when the second season started to veer off from the manga it was based upon. In fact, Season 2 skipped over entire arcs that many fans enjoyed in the manga, such as the Goldy Pond Battle. While the first couple of episodes followed the events in the manga, the show soon felt rushed as we saw unexplained plot resolutions and time skips — including a sudden change in the children's ages in the middle of the second season.

To add insult to injury, rather than add another season or find a way to flesh out all the events in the manga, the ending of Season 2 featured a slide show of sorts, with stills of different adventures the kids went on after defeating their foe. While those watching the anime without having read the manga would likely just be confused at the random sequence of events, fans of the manga recognized many of the scenes as huge plot points that were not included in the anime. No explanation was given for the scenes, which made the unfortunate montage feel like the showrunners just wanted to cover everything as quickly as possible to end the show.

The underwhelming ending and rushed conclusion did not sit well with fans. In a Reddit discussion of the infamous Season 2, one user named Legendaryskitlz wrote that they "never want to see an anime series get butchered like The Promised Neverland did ever again. This was too painful to go through." Another Redditor, Gabistan, confessed, "You know, the first half wasnt that bad but the second half completely ruined everything."

Critics also had overwhelmingly negative reactions to "The Promised Neverland" Season 2 ending. Jairus Taylor of the Anime News Network noted that "the end result here is really disappointing, because while it certainly wasn't faultless, The Promised Neverland manga was easily one of the most interesting and thoughtful entries to the Shonen Jump lineup. It's a shame that its anime counterpart failed to live up to its potential." Steph Donaldson of OTAQUEST listed a number of grievances with the season, including how the plot seemed "hastily stitched together," before advising would-be viewers to "do yourself a favor and think it over ... very, very carefully."

Since Season 2 of "The Promised Neverland” seemed to cover all the material from the manga — albeit very briefly — another season isn't likely. There could be a possibility for future projects down the road, such as standalone films or even a better reboot once fans have gotten over their disappointment from this first manga adaptation — but it doesn't seem like it's anything to get your hopes up for. At this point, it looks like we'll just have to accept what we've gotten and leave it at that.

Those who were disappointed with the ending of "The Promised Neverland” may have more luck reading the manga, though some have pointed out that it has its own issues. Nevertheless, there are tons of exciting anime projects coming to streaming platforms in the upcoming year, so there will be more than enough chances to find something with a much more satisfying ending.