From 9.8 to 2.8, The Agreed Neverland scores behind diving.

Author | Wei Xiaolin

《appointNeverland personally smashed the myth it had created:

　

The second season was just launched, with a start of 9.8 points; After three episodes, the score plummeted to 6 points; By episode 6, the score had dived to 2.8. If ranked from low to high, this score is enough to "take the lead" in bilibili.

　

"Reverse rush?" The audience’s ridicule is dissatisfied, but more shocking and incredible. The agreed Neverland animation is adapted from the comic book of the same name, which is one of the "Four Little Kings" in Weekly Youth JUMP. The original theme is novel, the characters are distinct, the plot is ups and downs, and the atmosphere is well created. In the first season, the animation basically continues the comic story, even in the strict Douban, it has won 9.3 points from 50,000 people, with a double harvest of word-of-mouth popularity.

However, after the second season of animation, it was a big surprise. For the original party that has seen cartoons and then made up for them, if skipping 50 words and deleting 20 characters is a first-class crime, then a large number of original plots that are unintelligible, role-building that goes against people’s design, and even "5.5 episodes" that simply rely on memories to kill water are a crime. Many viewers have issued "Copying with full marks, can you still fail?" Sigh.

　

At first, unknown so, an animation party that had never seen cartoons, even felt that the original party was so angry that it was a little fussy. However, the broadcast of the fifth episode made the animation party and the original party stand on the same front for the first time. At the end of episode 4, the children were chased by ghosts, and they were at a critical juncture. In episode 5, the story timeline was pulled to a year later without any preparation, and a group of people parachuted into the ghost society, leaving the audience completely confused.

Even from the perspective of IP, the hasty arrangement and "waste" of this IP by the production Committee including Weekly Youth JUMP and Aniplex is puzzling. As the "Four Little Kings" officially promoted in 2019, "The Agreed Neverland" can’t be said to be not excellent, with high ratings at home and abroad. It also launched movies and games of the same name, and held overseas activities six times-even in the history of Aniplex, such achievements are not rare.

　

"The promised Neverland", why did you miss the appointment in such a hurry?

From 9.8 to 2.8

The plot behind the scoring diving turns sharply.

　

"Neverland that stood me up."

　

In 2020, the second season of The Agreed Neverland, which was originally expected to be broadcast on Fuji TV in October, was postponed. This may be affected by the epidemic in 2020. This year, many animation companies in Japan changed to telecommuting, and the production schedule was delayed, which led to the postponement of many hot new animations.

　

To some extent, this made January 2021 a fairy fight comparable to the domestic Spring Festival stalls: BLACK at Work, Horizons and Miyamura, The Age of the Stone 2, The Bride in Five Divisions 2, Animal Rhapsody 2, The Story about My Reincarnation as slime 2, Horizon of Records 3 and more than 50 new works came out together.

　

-and the second season of The Agreed Neverland.

　

This animation is adapted from the comic book of the same name of Weekly Youth JUMP, which began to be serialized in 2016, and was jointly completed by newcomer Shirai カィ and painter Shuishui Asuka, and ended in 2020. In January, 2019, the first "The Agreed Neverland" was broadcast, which became a well-known work at home and abroad with the psychological warfare, continuous reversal and tense and high-pressure atmosphere. It also won a high score of more than 9 points and a high degree of discussion on various platforms in China.

　

Therefore, since the official launch of the second season on January 6th, the works were expected, with bilibili’s score of 9.8 for painting and Douban’s score of 9.5. However, the broadcast of the third episode made bilibili’s score drop by 4 points overnight; After the introduction of the sixth sentence, the original high score of 9.8 was only 2.8.

　

The tucao video of the up owner was praised countless times: "I had a nightmare a few days ago, and" The Agreed Neverland "came out in the second season. I don’t know which black-hearted workshop stole the author’s manuscript, deleted 70 words and dozens of characters, and pretended to be an original animation and wanted to do something big. Fortunately, I woke up in an instant, and this nightmare did not last. "

On the screen, the agreed Neverland, which continued the creative team of last season, did not appear such conditions as painting collapse or "insufficient funds" visible to the naked eye. On the contrary, whether it’s OP, ED or feature film, the picture has maintained a consistently high level, which makes it difficult for people to criticize.

　

For the original cartoon party and animation party, the main reason for the low score is the magic change set by the plot and people.

　

When adapting comics, some changes will inevitably be made to the original. For example, in the first season of The Agreed Neverland, a large number of inner monologues in comics were deleted and put into the actions or lines of the characters. However, because most of the cartoons still use wonderful original works, and the rhythm of each episode is well controlled, comic fans not only fail to criticize this, but also score high.

(Speech by CloverWorks producer Kentai Suzuki at Aniplex Online Fest 2020)

　

However, in the second season, the production team encountered difficulties when adapting.

　

At the end of the first season animation, the children escaped from the orphanage in an unexpected way, which became the most memorable highlight of the work. At this time, it corresponds to the 37th sentence of the comic book, and the original has 181 words. If the whole comic book is to be completely adapted, it may take 3~4 seasons of animation. However, for some reasons, the production team decided that the two seasons of animation would end in a hurry, which made it inevitable to delete comic scenes.

　

It is necessary to review how comic stories develop. Starting from the 38th sentence, children will enter the ghost society for the first time. The children who successfully entered the shelter not only found "poacher" and "help" written on the wall, but also met an uncle who was both good and evil. Uncle has repeatedly tried to kill children with ghosts, while Emma and Ray, with their wit and cooperation, not only found the weakness of ghosts, but also understood the difficulties of uncle living alone for 13 years. After entering the golden pond, Emma went directly to the hunting ground and became the hunting object of ghosts. Ubis, a villain who is keen on hunting, staged a "catch me if you can". In this duel, Emma grew up at a high speed and quickly became a girl who could compete with powerful ghosts.

　

Following the "Prison Break", these two chapters have become a part of many comic book fans, and Emma, the protagonist, is growing up at a high speed after facing death. However, the animation not only directly deleted these two chapters, skipped more than 50 cartoons, but also completely deleted important characters such as Uncle, Le Ubis and Yuge. After the children successfully entered the shelter, they not only did not meet their uncle, but also settled in a basement that was highly similar to the "human breeding farm" without doubt, and once forgot the plan to go back to the farm to rescue other children.

　

(On the day of the first broadcast, the audience is still looking forward to the appearance of the villain Ubis)

　

The skipping of important plots has also deleted Emma’s growth arc. In the animation, Emma didn’t really face the death threat brought by ghosts, but she just muddled along for a year. However, when Norman, a friend who was brutally abused by ghosts, decided to destroy the whole ghost world, she proposed to save the ghost world. In the absence of a comic book, this move made many viewers feel too "virgin", which is far from the image of kindness but not blindness in the first season.

　

What is even more paradoxical is that the production team deleted the original comics in a large section and launched the original plot. From the second half of the third sentence to the first half of the sixth sentence, the crew used a lot of space to describe the children’s leisurely daily life, and even the relaxed bridge of going out to catch fish collectively. What is even more puzzling is that when the sixth sentence was supposed to be released, the animation released the fifth and fifth sentence, and once again reviewed the first four sentences of the first season and the second season, which became a meaningless work.

　

Judging from the narrative rhythm, such an approach not only completely collapses the tense rhythm of "full-time high energy" in the first season, but also weakens the originally exciting Zhidou bridge, making it impossible for the audience to feel the same sense of crisis, and greatly reducing the charm of the work.

　

(Many comic characters have been deleted)

Starting from the sixth sentence, the story turns back to the original plot again. However, this still failed to rejuvenate the score. On the surface, this work seems to be similar to "The Attacking Giant" and "From the New World"-in a closed place, children find that the original peaceful daily life is behind the surveillance and conspiracy of adults. However, compared with the masterful descriptions of the grand world outlook in the later stages of these two works, The Agreed Neverland began to look a little overwhelmed after the children began to face the intellectual struggle between people and ghosts, and the focus of description also changed from the initial intellectual struggle to adventure, and the suspense and tension atmosphere was not as good as the original one.

Skipping the essence of the original work and going straight to the later period of the comic book with average quality has also surprised many comic book readers. Today, the animation serialization process is over half. In the remaining four sentences, whether the score will hit a new low or bottom out is still something that fans can’t help but worry about.

　

After NeverlandWhere is JUMP going?

　

The most puzzling question for many viewers is why the production team is in such a hurry to finish the animation after the launch of the first season with rave reviews.

　

Japanese netizens also have this question. At first, a large number of netizens first questioned the unfavorable adaptation of the animation production company CLOVER WORKS.

　

However, soon an animator related to the production team tweeted in early February, saying: "The audience’s criticism of Neverland is completely understandable, but it is not the will of the company, but the will of the original author, so I have opinions to say to the author."

　

Observing the staff list, we can find that Shirai カィ, the original comic author who did not participate in the animation adaptation in the last season, participated in the screenwriter of this work, which even became a highlight of the official publicity before the animation went online. However, in an industrial system where even the original author can’t control the progress of comics independently, but only depends on the audience’s rating to decide whether to survive or not, it is obviously doubtful to what extent the author’s will can affect the direction of an animation.

　

Therefore, a more widespread saying is that it is not the original author or production company, but the production Committee including ANIPLEX, Fuji TV and Jiyingshe that holds the power of life and death of animation. The decision to end "The Agreed Neverland" in two seasons is probably due to the will of the production committee.

　

This may be due to the decline in the quality and popularity of comics in the later period. The first chapter of comics, "Prison Break", attracted many fans because of its excellent psychological warfare description and depressed world outlook. With the story changing from "intelligence fighting" to "adventure", the popularity of comics gradually declined, and it ended in 2020 after four years of serialization. Although it is a happy ending, it makes many fans feel a little "unfinished".

　

And the choice to end the animation in 2021 happens to be the time when the IP popularity of The Agreed Neverland is the highest. In June, 2020, producer Suzuki revealed that Neverland was very popular overseas, and had held six overseas activities, the number of which was rare even in the history of ANIPLEX.

In terms of movies, a live-action movie named "The Agreed Neverland" is being released in Japan recently, and Amazon in the United States also revealed that it has purchased the copyright of comics and will shoot a live-action drama series by director Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In terms of games, the animated comic drama was launched in conjunction with Netease’s "Fifth Personality" before and after its launch, and the game of the same name in Japan is also being developed.

　

However, for "Weekly Youth JUMP" and the Jiying Society behind it, the hasty ending of the second season of "The Agreed Neverland" is somewhat meaningful.

　

In 2019, in order to cope with the situation that popular masterpieces have come to an end and there are no successors, Weekly Youth JUMP officially decided to use the term "the new four heavenly kings" and put Blade of the Ghost, Agreed Neverland, Stone Age and We can’t study together! "As a new generation of" pillars ",it was launched. Among them, The Blade of the Ghost and The Agreed Neverland have been serialized since 2016, and The Stone Age and We Can’t Learn Together! 》 has been serialized since 2017.

In 2019, "The Agreed Neverland" and "The Century of Stone" came out with an animated version, which gained a good reputation and scored over 9 points in both bilibili and Douban. In 2020, The Blade of the Ghost Destroyed surpassed Spirited Away in one fell swoop and became the first box office in Japanese film history. Subsequently, "Ghost Destroying Economy" and "Ghost Destroying Harassment" became a social phenomenon that the whole people talked about.

　

However, among the "Four Little Kings", only these two works are really popular. Although the animation word-of-mouth of "Stone Age" is high, it has not been translated into comic book sales in the end, and the popularity has always been flat; We can’t study together! When it was adapted into an animation, it suffered exactly the same fate as The Agreed Neverland: both Aniplex and Jiyingshe served as committees, and were greatly changed by the producers when the second season animation was launched, and the ending was directly set before the cartoon was finished, which caused great controversy.

　

In addition, The Blade of the Ghost and The Agreed Neverland all came to an end in 2020. For a time, there was a lot of bad singing about where the weekly magazine would go after the popularity serialization ended. Others have noticed that the "serial life" of the "Four Little Kings" is getting shorter and shorter-from 2016 to 2020, it is only four years.

　

Super-long serials like Huo Ying and Silver Soul, which have been serialized for more than ten years, are disappearing. Some readers make statistics on comics serialized on JUMP: in 2010, only 8 new serials appeared on JUMP, and this number will reach 14 by mid-2020. It is roughly estimated that in the first half of 2020, about 3/5 serials will be new serials, and the unit cartoons of sand sculpture and funny will account for 1/4.

　

JUMP has always been guided by "readers’ voting". The reduction of super-long stories and the sharp increase of short stories and units indicate that the overall thinking is tilting towards the market demand of "short, flat and fast". Internet rambling, which is more suitable for mobile phone screen reading, easier to understand and follows the logic of new media fragmentation, is becoming the new favorite of young people.

　

On the one hand, paper publishing companies represented by Jiying Society, Lecture Society and Primary School are facing the influence of digital media. Although in 2019, the appearance of "Blade of the Ghost" made the sales of comic magazines rebound, the total sales volume was still lower than that in 2018; On the other hand, in 2020, online platforms LINE Manga and PICCOMA from South Korea accounted for 70% of the Japanese online market. Although publishing houses such as Jiyingshe have also launched their own online platforms and mobile apps, they are still hard to match.

　

Compared with the traditional Japanese Man, Han Man’s plot, which is more vivid in typology and more suitable for fast-food culture, has a faster rhythm and more reversals, which is easy to make people addicted. According to a survey conducted by a Japanese TV station in a middle school in Fukuoka, in a class of 40 people, only two people read monthly comics, but almost no one does not know that South Korea’s Internet is full of "Appearance Supremacy".

　

However, the sudden emergence of Korean Internet has not fundamentally shaken the solid foundation of Japanese comics. After the "Four Little Kings", in 2018, "Weekly Youth JUMP" began to serialize "Spell Back to War" and "Chainsaw Man", which also became a rare excellent work. In October, 2020, after the animation "Curse Back to War" produced by MAPPA began to be broadcast, it became one of the hottest topics in the year, which not only had a great response in China, but also reached the level of 130,000 people and 9.8 points after being broadcast in bilibili.

　

Fujimoto Shu, the author of Chainsaw Man, previously published Yan Quan, which is famous for its freedom and irrationality, on the network serialization platform "Junior JUMP+" under the Japanese society. After his fame, he serialized Chainsaw Man for the first time in the Weekly Junior JUMP, with the same strange brain circuit and huge bleeding. In December, suddenly announced the end of the first "Chainsaw Man" at the same time released a message, which will be animated by MAPPA, and the next part will return to "Youth JUMP+" to continue serialization. .

　

Many readers believe that the explosion of "Chainsaw Man" is a kind of rebellion against the traditional long and bloody king, and this kind of short cartoon makes readers shine. In the future, there may be more and more such works.

　

("chainsaw man" hot stalk "I gradually understand everything")

　

However, no matter what kind of market environment the Weekly Youth JUMP is facing, no matter how innovative the subsequent works are, the story of The Agreed Neverland is doomed to fall apart, and the damage to the audience has become a fact.

　

In January, on the eve of the launch of The Agreed Neverland, the data survey results of Japanese website Filmarks showed that the second season of The Agreed Neverland was the most anticipated parody in the winter of 2021.

　

However, to borrow the saying of "wild deadwood" from bilibili audience is:

　

"It will not live up to such expectations."

　

　

References:

1, three entertainment, Japanese network diffuse observation: half-year sales exceeded 9.5 billion yuan, PICCOMA share nearly half, in January 2020.

2, Zhihu’s "Wonton Huajuan" column, quickly popular science about the current serialization of jump.