The Promised Neverland: Special Pilot Chapter - We Were Born

nathandouglasdavis Sep 14, 2021

4

"How the hecken does this relate to the main series?" I asked myself as I was reading this, while still expecting an answer to be given by the end. But much to my surprise, no clear connection was ever discernible. So I looked for answers on the internets and discovered that this was apparently the first iteration of this story which the authors came up with. It's just such an unrecognizable first take that it doesn't feel related at all to what the series eventually became. I suppose some of the same subject matter is still there, such as the seemingly kind orphanage that ends up being shitty, but it's based in the real world and the motivation behind the caretaker selling the children was a lot more crass. The setting is a country torn apart by civil war and gang violence. Death around every corner. The main characters are Leo, a gangster with a penchant for killing, and Rita, a kindly young girl raised in a church orphanage. The problems are solved with pure violence rather than any sort of battle of wits. The ending is feel-good cheesy, but the story still holds together well enough. We don't get to know the characters very well (probably partially because of the short length) and they don't have a strong presence or memorability. Leo sometimes has sunken-in eyes, and has a facial structure that sometimes reminds me of Bellamy from One Piece. The proportions can feel fluid and inconsistent, but that often just helps contribute to a sense of intensity and movement within the scenes.