day 9

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Surprisingly, I've quite a few favourite psychological anime but for this prompt I decided to choose The Promised Neverland. A quick summary about this series follows the story of the children living under the care of their 'mama' in the orphanage. They all live a peaceful life despite encountering some tough challenges in the form of studies. The kids are provided with every amenities they require but things aren't so simple as they seem. However, the peaceful life is just a facade and the greater picture is what lies beyond the walls of the orphanage. An unimaginable world filled with demons and untrusted encounters.

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This series has always intrigued me ever since I first heard about it. The plot, in my opinion, always carried an air of mystery around itself which I loved. When I started watching the anime, I fell for the "facade of life" concept we were introduced to. It seemed chilling the way the innocent kids were being lied to without having any idea of what would happen next to them in their lives. It was surely heartbreaking and chilling from the get go. The first season amazingly portrayed the tension built up, the horrifying scenes of revelations. The whole concept of The Promised Neverland series revolves around the psychological game played with the innocent minds of the young kids. It's a brutal way to ruin one's life and it is indeed horrifying and saddening to see them all come to a horrifying realisation after learning the truth. Like I mentioned earlier, I loved all the psychological aspects of this anime. It was amazingly written and shown which made me fall for it more and more.

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The first psychological part of the series that I found very interesting was Ray's relationship with his mother. The mind games that the two played with each was absolutely shocking to me when it was first revealed. It surprised me how a biological mom could be so cruel so as to manipulate her young son into tricking him to make him a spy. It must've taken such a mental toll on the young mind of Ray after knowing the whole truth of the orphanage and even so, being helpless and not able to do anything to save the children. It was supposed to be precious bond between those two, Isabella and Ray, but instead, they were so wrapped up in their own psychological games of gaining the upper hand that Ray barely felt the love of his mother and when Isabella was finally ready to accept and show her appreciation and apology to her son, it was too late.

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The next psychological aspect of the anime that I love is Isabella's role. I absolutely love her contradicting role in the whole series and it immensely interests me to know more about her thought process. As a mama of so many children, she had a responsibility of providing them with everything to make their life comfortable. She put forth the facade so wonderfully that no one ever suspected a thing. A lot of people would love to mention her as a monster, cruel and many more obscenities. However, this is where I find the psychological aspect of anime doing an absolutely amazing job. When we look more into her character, we find a helpless soul stuck in the same cycle of life and death with no solution at her hands. However, does it excuse her actions of cruelty towards the children? This question always left me with so many questions and I always found myself finding excuses to defend either side. I loved how Isabella's character was used to make us understand the world of Neverland in its truest sense. It is neither the world of sense and justice nor that of injustice and prejudice. It was simply full of people playing with each other's minds.

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Lastly, I'll mention yet again how nicely the plot has embedded the psychological themes. I knew I was going to love the series but I ended up not only loving it but becoming attached to it as well. The characters and their development is very much apparent and it feels very satisfying to see their growth throughout the whole series. I loved all the characters and how they each played an important role in unlocking different parts of the plot but Ray stole my heart. I loved his story of the past and relationship with his mother.  I also liked how there was always an air of mystery around it. It always reminded me of how you could never trust anyone in the series, not even if they seemed innocent enough. The second season did not serve the right justice to this amazing plot but I assure you that the plot is executed in a very nice manner albeit what was shown in the second season.

#31spookydays

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