(Some light spoilers in the first paragraph; nothing specific, but a general topic concerning some of the world building.)
Later into the story, the manga seems to read more as a criticism of the livestock industry. The kids in these "orphanages" are "higher quality", but there are other facilities for "low quality children" that seem to be modeled after the criticisms of the living conditions of livestock animals.
My interpretation while reading it was that the story was written this way to make a political statement, using human children to dramatic effect. That was about a year and a half before I'd heard of Q, and longer still before I'd heard of adrenochrome and child harvesting - something that I'd never even considered to be true until actually looking into it for myself. This was the first show that I'd thought of after learning about that, and it put a few other aspects of the story in a different light as well.
Japan has a long history of myths that depict demons killing and eating humans, and some of their legends are quite dark and brutal. But then you get more recent shows (such as Tokyo Ghoul, Bleach, Slayers, D. Gray-Man, Attack on Titan, and so on) there seems to be more focus now on depicting stories of humans (or human derivatives or humanoids) consuming other humans, as though there's a statement to be made. On the other hand, stories such as One Piece have arcs that seem to showcase striking analogies to the current state of society, with a decent level of depth if you know what you're looking at.
With this in mind, Japan has become a topic that I've been curious about lately. Where do they fit into all of this evil, if at all? Is Japan independent of it? Were they caught up by Germany and later the US around WWII? Or are there any indications that they're involved in something else? I've heard very little about Asia's place in the shadows, and most of it is concerning China.
From what little mentions that I've heard about Japan in relation to all of this, the Japanese people seem to love America more than some Americans do. At the same time, however, some of their media makes almost blatant statements and references, as though they're trying to bring something to the light, or else to normalize it - such as in the case of The Promised Neverland, a story that's built around the idea of children being raised as cattle for consumption.
(Some light spoilers in the first paragraph; nothing specific, but a general topic concerning some of the world building.)
Later into the story, the manga seems to read more as a criticism of the livestock industry. The kids in these "orphanages" are "higher quality", but there are other facilities for "low quality children" that seem to be modeled after the criticisms of the living conditions of livestock animals.
My interpretation while reading it was that the story was written this way to make a political statement, using human children to dramatic effect. That was about a year and a half before I'd heard of Q, and longer still before I'd heard of adrenochrome and child harvesting - something that I'd never even considered to be true until actually looking into it for myself. This was the first show that I'd thought of after learning about that, and it put a few other aspects of the story in a different light as well.
Japan has a long history of myths that depict demons killing and eating humans, and some of their legends are quite dark and brutal. But then you get more recent shows (such as Tokyo Ghoul, Bleach, Slayers, D. Gray-Man, Attack on Titan, and so on) there seems to be more focus now on depicting stories of humans (or human derivatives or humanoids) consuming other humans, as though there's a statement to be made. On the other hand, stories such as One Piece have arcs that seem to showcase striking analogies to the current state of society, with a decent level of depth if you know what you're looking at.
With this in mind, Japan has become a topic that I've been curious about lately. Where do they fit into all of this evil, if at all? Is Japan independent of it? Were they caught up by Germany and later the US around WWII? Or are there any indications that they're involved in something else? I've heard very little about Asia's place in the shadows, and most of it is concerning China.
From what little mentions that I've heard about Japan in relation to all of this, the Japanese people seem to love America more than some Americans do. At the same time, however, some of their media makes almost blatant statements and references, as though they're trying to bring something to the light, or else to normalize it - such as in the case of The Promised Neverland, a story that's built around the idea of children being raised as cattle for consumption.