Anime | Ethics
The Promised Neverland: A Case for Anti-Natalism
If Isabella is a villain, you could be too
Despite the versatility and limitless potential that animation gives to filmmakers and creatives, it is too often viewed as children’s media and devalued. However, it does not stop people from tuning in over and over. Media such as Arcane, Klaus, Spider-verse, and Puss in Boots force people to recognize the worlds that only animation could create effectively (Haerman, 2023; Motamayor, 2021; Ryan, 2021).
Another win for animation has been the expansion of Anime in North America, with its global market projected to reach 48.3 billion by 2030 (Blancaflor, 2022). Animation is a medium that cannot be ignored. It deserves to be analyzed just like any other film or TV show.
So, once again, we return to my bioethics in popular media series. This time, I am analyzing a show that took everyone by storm with its excellent storytelling, fantastic worldbuilding & characters, music, and cinematography: The Promised Neverland.
Short Synopsis
Written by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu, The Promised Neverland follows the adventures of the kids in Grace Field Orphanage. They live relatively happy lives until they discover that they are being groomed as food for powerful monsters that rule the world, and the woman they call mama is an accomplice to all of this.
From then on, we watch them devise a plan to escape the orphanage and maybe find a better life for themselves and the kids on other farms.
This manga (and consequently its anime) has been praised for addressing animal ethics by placing the human characters where the animals would be. Not only that, the story’s mystery and mind games kept millions coming back. But one of its most underrated qualities is the villain that it gave us: Isabella.
Mama Isabella works as a villain for multiple reasons. She is intelligent, cunning, caring and yet extremely self-serving. She is also a mother. This makes the matter extremely complex given the fact that she gave birth in this horrible world knowing what would happen to her offspring.
It is in that context that I will discuss the bioethics in The Promised Neverland. Not animal ethics as most would assume but the philosophy of anti-natalism and how, by this view, Isabella becomes one of the greatest villains ever. And so do we.
The Bioethics Issues — Overview
Both the manga and anime deal with reproductive ethics, the section of bioethics that examines the issues of human reproduction. While most of the conversation is centered around artificial insemination, abortion, surrogacy, and the myriad of health-related issues caused by pregnancy, I would like to focus on anti-natalism.
Drawing primarily from David Benatar, anti-natalism states that bringing people into the world is morally wrong because it always causes harm (Benatar, 2013). Although it may seem paradoxical to include this view in reproduction given its premise, it is in fact worth discussing because despite the fact not having kids has always been free, most of us have always treated it as folly.
Anti-Natalism Explained
Anti-Natalism is the belief that bringing life into the world is always harmful, however, it does not discriminate between what type of humans are better off existing or not. On top of that, it argues we can recognize how horrible life is without advocating for the discontinuation of those who are already alive, i.e. suicide. Most of all, it argues that the extinction of humanity is not such a bad thing but does not condone killing people to reach that goal. Instead it discourages the creation of more people (Benatar, 2013).
These points are particularly important if I am to argue that most of us are villains without assuming that we advocate for suicide, eugenics, or genocide of millions. At least I hope most of us don’t think that way. So then, what makes us so horrible? The answer resides in the story of Isabella.
Who Is Isabella and Why Does Her Story Matter?
Isabella, just like our protagonists, grew up in Grace Fields, had friends, hobbies, and even a boy she liked. But one day, she discovered the same dark truth: she was destined to be demon food. She tried escaping and failed. Consequently, she had to watch her friends — as well as her crush — die.
So, when she got a proposition that would allow her to stay alive as long as possible, she did not hesitate. She would bear a child and become a mother. She would become a monster if it allowed her to survive one more day.
Isabella has been called a goal-driven mother who puts her kids in danger. She had physically and psychologically abused her children and for the most part, she placed the blame on them. That qualifies her as a bad mother (Permatasari, et al, 2022), and I would agree with that assessment.
However, she also believed in giving them the best treatment for as long as she could. If they had not discovered the plot, they would have had a happy life and only experience the worst at the end. Besides, according to some schools of thought, you don’t truly experience your own death anyway (Sherefkin, 2016).
And when she had a chance to capture them after their escape, she let them go, willing to accept the consequences of her actions, something she couldn’t do as a child.
Isabella's situation is no different than that of most people who have children purely for selfish reasons. Between continuing their line, helping the country (economically or culturally), hoping for future care, fulfilling emotional or financial needs, or even because ‘God’ said so, our reasons never include the potential suffering of the child.
Discounting prejudice, poverty, or even disability (because people somehow become fans of eugenics when these topics come up), other troubles can and will plague the child. They could suffer a disease. They will have to work eventually and enter the economy and spend their entire lives in the service of someone. They might experience mental health crises, existential crises, and if the world continues to go in the same direction, they will experience the brunt of climate disaster.
Despite all of that, we still bring the child into the world. So, how are we different from the self-serving Isabella? Maybe we won’t physically abuse our children; maybe we will provide for them for as long as we can, but I say that it is not enough. Isabella did everything she could for them. If they had not found out her secret, they would have been happy until the end. Bringing kids into the world when we can afford not to makes us just as bad as Isabella.
Real-Life Implications
Personally, I agree that having children can be a harm sometimes, however, I am also an advocate of reproductive choice. This should not mean that we can have kids however we want because we can still enjoy life despite how horrible things are.
I am recommending more diversified solutions: education and available birth control and health care for everyone, making life easier for minorities and other marginalized groups, better economics that distribute resources fairly, adoption, foster care for the millions of kids who need parents, donating to orphanages, and finally, really evaluating why we want to have children and if it is in any way going to benefit them. Because bringing a child into the world when you don’t have to, knowing that life will inevitably be bad for them no matter who they are, is extremely selfish.
Unlike Isabella, we can make this decision as adults and with full autonomy.
Work Cited
Benatar, D. (2013). Better never to have been: The harm of coming into existence. Clarendon Press.
Blancaflor, S. (2022, November 30). Inside Anime’s rise to the Top of American pop culture. Morning Consult. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://morningconsult.com/2022/10/11/anime-rise-dragonball-z-crunchyroll/
Haerman, N. (2023, February 12). Puss in Boots: The last wish and the advent of stylized animation (spoilers). Yahoo! Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://sg.style.yahoo.com/puss-boots-last-wish-advent-030555510.html
Motamayor, R. (2021, December 29). How Arcane delivered one of 2021’s coolest animated sequences. Vulture. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://www.vulture.com/article/arcane-netflix-series-league-of-legends-animation-bridge-fight.html
Ryan, D. (2021, December 14). We seem to have entered the post-into-the-spider-verse phase of animation, and that’s great. /Film. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://www.slashfilm.com/707007/we-seem-to-have-entered-the-post-into-the-spider-verse-phase-of-animation-and-thats-great/
Sherefkin, J. (2016, February 4). Immortality and the fear of death. The New York Public Library. Retrieved April 25, 2023, from https://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/02/04/immortality-fear-death
Shirai, K., Demizu, P., Yamashita, S., & McMurray, M. (2019). The promised Neverland. VIZ Media LLC.
