To say that it has been sometime since I last talked about THE PROMISED NEVERLAND would be the understatement of the year. After thirty chapters of Jumps finest series, I've returned after a fearsome hiatus to share some thoughts on Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu's outstanding work.
As fortune might have it, Yoshihiro Togashi of HUNTER X HUNTER and YU YU HAKUSHO fame has just returned to his own hiatus. Perhaps it was then preordained that I'd be writing this article shortly there after because anime and the universe, as we all know, are widely connected. When last I spoke about Emma and company, they had only begun their duel against Archduke Lewis who was proving, at worst, to be a terrifying adversary. It wasn't without a lot of work and self sacrifice that the children managed to come together and defeat him. With the Poachers dead, the remainder of the Goldy Pond Resistance then made their way through the wilds to Shelter B06-32. At this point you'll notice that events begin accelerate significantly as Shirai sprints through a wealth of information. Is that information boring? Not necessarily. Shirai is a prolific writer, and he's shown that to be the case time and time again over the course of THE PROMISED NEVERLAND. Where other mangaka may try to soften the blows of their more malicious themes, there is a blunt force that accompanies Shirai's writing. The severity of his writing is then brought to startling realization by Demizu's artistic style which pulls together odd angles and shapes to create preternaturally unsettling visual. While the curvature of human characters presents itself as a softening texture, there is an undeniably jagged quality to how Demizu recreates scenes of violence and terror from words. In understanding this one can understandably be confused as to why Shirai seems to drive the story along at a breakneck pace. In weighing out the goods and the bads of this pacing, we begin to see Shirai's own thought processes hammered out on the page. Instead of focusing on the journey there is an emphasis placed on the goal. Instead of focusing on developing characters extensively through conflict the stagnation of their development is made less evident by focusing instead on the mysteries surrounding those characters. The key points are brought to the forefront while more obvious interactions between characters and the world that they inhabit are sidelined. By realizing this vision we experience are more concise story as readers, while still receiving the key information necessary to comprehend where the plot is going next. The direction is itself made aware to us, and with a goal in sight, the story feels more grounded going forward. At the same time, however, we lose out on developments that might have been equally interesting and decidedly more nuanced than what we have received over the course of these chapters. The trade-offs are profound, and hold consequences for how we'll see characters interact with the world around them in future chapters. At its root, we've moved on from the social commentaries about the human relationship between us and our food and where it comes from. While the paradigm itself still exists as an undercurrent, with the aging of Emma and company we find ourselves faced with new questions of morality and mortality. The shift in direction is made visually apparent in Emma's physical growth, and the ease with which the children from Glory Bell and Grace Field now care for and interact with one another. Over nearly ten chapters, Shelter B06-32 comes under attack by Ratri Family enforcers forcing the children to make a harrowing escape from their most recent home. Shirai details an emotionally charged escapade involving tactical maneuvering and communication as focal points for action and reaction. Where Emma and her companions have had a wealth of time enjoy the trimmings and trappings of their life at Shelter B06-32, we as readers are reminded once more about the threats of the outside world. The moments of peace and happiness shared amongst the children becomes so much more precious because of how quickly Shirai pushes from our heroes' downtime to their next crisis. Unfortunately, the loss of the shelter, Yugo, and Lucas, which is certainly discordant, is cheapened by our lack of association with these characters and places. In truth, whereas the children have spent years at the shelter, readers have barely known the place for the safe haven that it is. The loss of Yugo and Lucas, vital players during the Goldy Pond arc, is profound but again highlights that this story is focused on the ingenuity of children. All of these events coalesce to create a driving sense of urgency that was otherwise remiss leading up to this point. These factors together have set the stage for a potential rebellion that may yet change the very foundations upon which Emma's world is built. THE PROMISED NEVERLAND has come a long way from those early days at Grace Field House, and the journey has been more harrowing than I've ever dreamed possible. It's heartbreaking to think that we may have already arrived at the halfway point in a story that continues to amaze from week to week. With nowhere safe to return to we can already see that the road ahead is fraught with the kinds of perils that only Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu can pen. In the chapters to come we may find ourselves swept up in another round of rapidly paced single chapters leading into a Resistance arc. Personally, I'd prefer sometime be spent on the journey because while the goal itself might be our prize, it is the journey that really makes the goal feel worthwhile. Hopefully the Resistance will prove to be as formidable as the enemies they intend to take down. How does Norman factor into all this, and what happened with Phil and the others? These are questions that I hope will be answered in chapters one thirteen and fourteen! WRITTEN BY: ALAN "VIENNA" SINGH
0 Comments
|
Archives
July 2019
Categories
All
|