Did The Promised Neverland’s second season skip over a fan favorite arc with its timeskip? The second season of the series has turned out to be a divisive one among fans as the original story spearheaded by original series writer Kaiu Shirai and the team behind the anime has taken major detours from the manga’s original telling. While this is not entirely a deal breaker in its own right among fans, the changes that have been made seem to be so drastic thus far that there has been a ton of debate and worry sparked about the future of the anime adaptation.
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While the first couple of episodes continued to adapt Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu’s original manga release, the changes began to creep in until Episode 5 made one of the most drastic shifts yet. With a timeskip that moves the anime six months into the future confirming that they had successfully escaped Minerva’s leftover base, does this signal the anime is skipping one of the most prominent arcs, Goldy Pond Battle?
The anime previously clued into the lack of Goldy Pond by removing not only a key character that helps lead into the arc itself, but a major tease for the variety of demon that comes into play during this arc. Goldy Pond Battle refers to a special area where demons hunt humans for sport, and it’s one of the best received arcs in the series overall so fans had been expecting to see it in the anime someday.
But while the timeskip undoubtedly moves the series far beyond where Goldy Pond Battle takes place, it does not mean it’s erased entirely. While the term “Poachers” has yet to be uttered in the anime, the leftover names on the walls do tease we’ll be getting that connection someday. The timing of the arc is also not very crucial to the fabric of the story as a whole.
Goldy Pond Battle results in a whole new group of allies and enemies being introduced while the demon world gets that much bigger, but it also just kind of happens randomly with the help of Mister, who is missing from the anime series at this point. There’s nothing keeping the anime from introducing this arc at a later point, and that could very well factor into the other major shake up in Norman’s much earlier return than expected.
It’s hard to gauge where The Promised Neverland’s second season will be taking its original story, but thankfully the Goldy Pond Battle arc is such a self-contained bit of action that it can be placed at a different spot in the story without throwing too much of a wrench into the overall narrative. In fact, maybe the cliffhanger of the second season will lead right into it? But what do you think?
Did The Promised Neverland skip over Goldy Pond? Would it make a difference if that arc happened later? Would the anime miss out without this arc? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or you can even reach out to me directly about all things animated and other cool stuff @Valdezology on Twitter!
