This year's New Year, someone recommended me an adult animation.
Good reputation and high ratings.
When I first started being at Amway, I didn't really care.
After all, drama fans and fans generally brush the rating of such works very high out of affection or love for certain genres.
Not to mention, its manifestation is animation.
When it comes to animation, Japan's performance over the years has been really unsatisfactory.
Cookie-cutter routines, fantasy themes with a bad taste nature, people can't move the idea of brushing.
Until I finished watching this new work yesterday, I must say:
True fragrance.
The Promised Neverland
the promised neverland
As the saying goes, everything is seen on two sides.
The high score of "brainless" fans in the circle will certainly inject water into the true level of a work.
But if it really sucks, it will fall off very quickly.
Last year's "Born for Me", which set the eyeballs by selling positions, is a vivid example.
Although Douban was on the cusp of the previous scoring incident because of the small broken ball, for "Neverland", there is no need to worry about the problem of malicious black trolls.
Because you will find that it has indeed made some of its own characteristics in the environment of compromise with the audience everywhere today.
First, let's take a look at the performance of this new fan in Douban.
It has been strong from before and after the Spring Festival to the present, and the score of 9.3 still reflects its strength.
In the short review, some people have praised this work as a January god fan.
Teenagers who often watch jump (Japanese manga weekly) have directly named him one of the four pillars of Shueisha.
The word of mouth of the masses can be seen.
Being able to make the audience so favored is not unrelated to its previous market performance.
Yes, Neverland is based on the comic of the same name.
Last year, it sold more than 8.7 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best in 18 years.
In terms of awards, it has also been very rewarding.
18 years "This comic is really great! In the minds of male readers, the results of no.1 and "Next Comic Awards" no.2 allow the filmmakers to see commercial potential.
In May last year, the manga was announced to be animated and began airing in January of this year.
People who have seen the original work say that the new work perfectly complements the comic and re-injects it with new features -
The expressiveness of the dynamic picture has been qualitatively improved.
In addition to the excellent picture performance, the word that many viewers mentioned the most was that the atmosphere was positive.
As for the atmosphere, let's talk about it later, but first introduce the story synopsis of "Neverland".
In other words, there is such an isolated orphanage, which adopts many children with unknown codes on their necks.
▲Film source: bilibili
Among them, the three protagonists are the oldest children in the orphanage.
The 11-year-olds are Ray, Emma and Norman.
Like the other children, they are orphans, but they are all in love with the "mother" (the dean).
The intimacy brought about by long-term time together makes up for the difference in blood.
Adults and children live in harmony like relatives in this land of utopian nature.
At the same time, however, some of the visions displayed by the orphanage also show that its background is not simple.
For example, "moms" stipulate that children are not allowed to cross doors and fences outside the yard, warning them that the world beyond their boundaries is dangerous.
For example, when children reach the age of 12, they will be sent away by the hospital under various names, without exception.
Before that, some children will be taken away early at the age of 6.
Another example is the flow of orphans in the hospital.
However, none of the friends who left sent a letter back to their companions.
In addition, in the orphanage, children are regularly tested.
In the normal world, tests are answered within a specified time, but the tests at this orphanage are accurate to every question.
All kinds of depressing settings paved the way for the dark tone of the film in the first episode.
Sure enough, after the first half of the years, the anime soon began to exert its strength in the second half of the first episode, revealing the earth-shattering truth of this orphanage -
On the day of the first episode, a 6-year-old girl named Kearney is about to say goodbye to everyone and go to live in a "foster family".
In the process of being sent away, he is found by Emma and Norman because of the doll.
Ray proposed that while the person had not gone far, he quickly took the doll to chase.
However, Emma and Norman, who cross the threshold outside the courtyard with the doll to break the taboo, find The Unknown Kony in the garage.
Just as the two are in shock, a monster called "ghost" breaks in, which once again exacerbates their fears.
Even more horror is yet to come.
The two children noticed that Kony was nothing more than a commodity traded between the court and the ghost.
Children who are sold as commodities to ghosts will eventually become the dishes of the upper classes in ghost society.
The representative of the hospital responsible for the handover is the "mother" who has been showing a kind image before!
Emma and Norman, who learned the truth, understood the cruel truth that they were just lambs to be slaughtered.
At the same time, they also noticed the real purpose of the test arranged by the hospital:
The quality of the children's grades will directly determine the speed at which they are shipped.
The better the grade, the greater the chance of survival.
This is also the reason why the two of them have survived with Ray to this day (all three are academic bullies).
Judging from Kearney's previous test results, Norman's speculation is not empty.
Even so, Norman and Emma knew they weren't out of the woods.
Because there is only 1 year left before the deadline for them to be sent away.
In order to avoid the fate of sitting still and waiting for death, Norman and Emma discuss privately and plan to lead the remaining companions to escape from the cave.
However, in the specific implementation process, they encountered unprecedented difficulties.
First of all, the biggest problem is that the average age of children is very small.
How to lead this group of weak orphans out of danger is the first problem they need to solve.
Secondly, because he fled the trading scene in a panic that night, the "mother" found the lost ragdoll.
The revelation of the truth doomed her to become the enemy of her two children.
And she, without exception, made older children suspicious.
How to avoid suspicion without changing his mind is undoubtedly another challenge for Emma and Norman.
In addition, in order to strengthen the surveillance so that the plan is not revealed, the black nun invited by "Mother", and the inner ghost who hides among the children and regularly reports to her the dynamics of Norman and Emma...
They all push this seemingly extremely cruel story into a darker abyss.
In this sense, Neverland is really not an anime for children.
The involvement of adult elements has directly made this dark animation into a child's inappropriate that adults can understand.
It is precisely because of the release of the scale that the story of "Neverland" appears particularly three-dimensional and real.
And when you think of children who should be innocent and are forced to rise up against the sophistication of adults, the tension that accompanies powerlessness and despair deepens.
After introducing the synopsis of the story, focus on several reasons why this series is worth pursuing.
As mentioned in the previous short review, the most powerful thing about "Neverland" is its atmospheric portrayal.
The last TV fan that made me goosebumps because of the weird atmosphere can be traced back to the update of hundreds of episodes, and the actual story line is only more than five months, and I may not see the end of the little fart child until death.
When it comes to "Neverland", in addition to the pictures that make people's hearts skip the shot.
The use of ambient sound to create a silent effect in space, and the setting of the soundtrack, all portray the tense atmosphere of this play quite well.
Combined with a suppressed close-up that expresses the panicked emotions of the characters,
and frightened by twitching body language.
The portrayal of many details brings out the emotions that the work wants to express, so that "Neverland" has a very good sense of substitution in the perception.
Excellent atmospheric portrayal is on the one hand, this new series also has a very solid character image.
In addition to the three protagonists with distinct personalities, Emma, who is good at sports and kind-hearted, Norman, who is smart and steady, and Ray, who is deep and resourceful, the description of supporting roles is not ambiguous.
Each character relies on their own personality characteristics to promote the development of the plot at key moments, making the subsequent plot full of suspense.
In addition, in terms of the overall tone, "Neverland" does not infinitely magnify the evil side of human nature because of the cruel theme.
Not abandoning or giving up this setting may be criticized, but it also somewhat saves the show's overly obscure tone.
▲ Emma said that she would leave with the inner ghost
As a story about escape, there is no passive waiting for death like "Don't Let Me Go", nor is there a radical unscrupulous means like "Battle Royale".
"Neverland" takes a middle value to show the sinister and ugly face of the adult world.
Will Emma and her partner be able to rescue the orphans as they wish?
I don't know if you're chasing me, but I'm sure I'm going to chase it anyway!