Yakusoku no Neverland
The Promised Neverland

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(This is a reupload, due to it being falsely tagged as preliminary)

When it comes to the subject of “series that disappoint”, most people talk about how much potential X series had. And while that’s not totally wrong, I feel like this is a somewhat inaccurate term, since a lot of series that supposedly had potential were actually good for a while. It’s just that they couldn’t maintain that momentum. And nowhere is this more present than in The Promised Neverland. Neverland, from the outset, was already capitalizing on its potential very effectively.

Back in late 2018, to early 2019, I got back into the hobby of ... reading manga. And one of the series that had me jump back into said hobby was The Promised Neverland after a combination of a cool premise, and hearing people rave about it. Among others, like Hero Academia Vigilantes, but that has nothing to do with this. Point is, Neverland had quickly become one of my favourite manga of all time. And for good reason! See, this series has one of the strongest arcs in shonen that I have ever, and since read. I’d go so far as to say that it’s one of THE all-time greats, along with Soul Society, Chuunin exams, Frieza, and even Enies Lobby, for fuck’s sake. Yes, I’m praising it to that extent, because I really do think it was that good.

The first arc of Neverland is intense, and full of thrills. Characters coming up with insane gambits, outsmarting each other, and resorting to the most desperate of tactics. Our villain, Mama Isabella is really threatening, and does have a very intimidating presence. Our main cast of Emma, Ray, and Norman are interesting, and while yes, a lot of their dialogue, and their ideas sound way too smart for 12-year olds, it can be explained in-universe with… Well, I won’t spoil it, but considering the world that the characters live in, it makes sense. I think the strongest aspect about the characters at that point is despite them being really smart, they are, at the end of the day, 12-year old kids. They can be irrational at times, and make bad calls. They make mistakes. Quite a lot. So when they actually manage to win at the end, it really feels earned, as a proper underdog victory should.

The following arcs, while not quite as strong as the first arc, are still good. The sort of ‘interlude’ arc that comes immediately after the first arc allows for us to slow down a little, adds plenty of effective world-building, introduces a few new, and fairly important characters. In general, it’s very clearly meant to be a setup for things to come much, much later on. It does it’s job, and it does it well. No real issues here.

I know Goldy Pond is a somewhat divisive arc, and a lot of people like to point to this being the start of the fall of the series, but I argue that it’s a damn fine arc. If this was in about 80% of other shonen series, this is where they would peak, and this is the part that everyone would talk about. It’s certainly a lot more action-packed than the first arc, and leans closer to the classic shonen setup of characters splitting up, and fighting their own fights, but there’s still plenty of interesting strategies and a lot of interesting revelations here. The new characters that are introduced, while not as compelling as our main cast, still serve their purpose here pretty decently.

And now, this is the what virtually everyone agrees on: The good things REALLY start faltering. After a certain character that I won’t name dies, the story starts to take another dip. There is some good payoff early on in this arc, and it does set up a few mysteries, but the fact that they timeskipped a journey that could’ve been it’s own arc (And just told us what happened) contributing more to the worldbuilding of the series was the biggest red flag. And it becomes a huge problem, when later on in the arc, all the emotional impact and payoff is counting on us to care about these details that could’ve been explored in this timeskipped segment.

I could go on and on about the problems with the first half of the final arc. I could talk about how rushed it was, how a whole bunch of characters end up being relegated to the background (Including Ray, one of the MAIN TRIO), the bullshit talk-no-jutsus, the complete absence of interesting strategies… Really, it’s not good. At all. It’s totally mediocre, bland, and forgettable. But the real meat of the problems comes in the second half of the final arc.

I’m going to jump into spoilers in the next paragraph, so if you’re interested in reading it, then don’t continue.

At this point in the story, it’s basically being carried by the titular “promise”. That was the mystery that this final arc had set up in the beginning. This final bit, however, is about tying up the loose ends of the first arc. We’re going back to Gracefield house, the setting of the first arc, and dealing with Mama. Kind of like what the song Return to Hangar is to the song Hangar 18. Only problem is, that this part is, similarly to Return to Hangar, completely inferior to what it was meant to follow up on in every single way. There are some absolutely pathetic attempts at “redemption” arcs that are so rushed, and weak, that they might as well not even have bothered. A particular spot that stuck out to me was what was meant to be the completion of Mama Isabella’s arc; That is to say, her sacrifice, and death. But there’s absolutely no emotion, no buildup, NOTHING to make it compelling. It just comes out of nowhere. Saddest thing was, that the chapter where we actually see her die is actually well-executed, well-drawn, and is a good example of a death scene. But with so little buildup, and development, it doesn’t hit even an twentieth of how hard it should. Oh, and I forgot to mention that they also have to tie up the loose ends of the first half of this arc though, so they end up just using some plot contrivance to handwave all that. Did that last sentence feel like it came out of nowhere? Yeah, that’s how about 90% of this arc felt.

Believe it or not though, it gets worse STILL. The promise that they’ve been building up to is supposed to be essentially, a free wish that has been heavily implied to require a sacrifice. And everyone’s betting that it’s gonna be the main cast, or something. But nope, they're all going to the human world! And no one has to stay behind. By that point, any remaining semblance of stakes in this series have been completely thrown out the window. They pretend there are some stakes after by claiming that Emma lost her memories of her family, and will totally never reunite with them! Except she does, and still remembers them to some extremely vague degree, so she may as well have just gotten all her memories back, for all the difference it makes. This ending is just so, so, SO weak.

Now I think I should talk about the characters. The main cast, Emma, Ray, and Norman, are pretty clearly archetypes. Emma’s the bright, athletic type, Ray is the serious, less athletic, somewhat cynical guy, and Norman’s somewhere in-between. They’re cliche, but they’re well-executed, and do the job really well. They never were the most fleshed-out, or interesting cast, but they’ve got their flaws, and are certainly developed enough for me to care about them. But later on, Emma becomes the SOLE focus of the trio, and she’s just a flat, boring power of friendship shonen stereotype. Norman’s basically nothing, and Ray may as well not exist. It literally feels like the author kept forgetting that Ray existed, and then occasionally remembered to write a couple of lines for him, and then told the artist to draw him into the panel. I’ve already talked about Isabella throughout this review, and as for the rest of the cast, there’s basically nothing to say about them. Sonju and Musica are basically just plot devices that are there to pull solutions out of the ass dimension, and the other side characters are so forgettable, I’ve literally forgotten all their names, as someone who followed the series absolutely religiously, weekly.

The art’s good. It always remains good. This is something that Neverland never fails to deliver on. Characters are consistently well-drawn, as are backgrounds, and the cover art for the tankobons is consistently wonderful. Posuka Demizu really did the best with what she could. BUT… And this is really not something I say often, her skills were sadly wasted on the later parts of this manga.

The biggest question I have to ask is WHY? Why is this all so rushed? Why did we skip over important worldbuilding? Why did this drop so hard in quality? Like, were they afraid that it was going to be axed, so they just wanted to complete the story? Were there declining sales? Health issues? Was the author bored of writing it? Did the author just run out of ideas? I have no idea, but regardless, Neverland’s final arc is a disaster that will go down in history in the same way as something like Bleach, or Death Note did.

You might be arguing now that a bad ending doesn’t necessarily ruin a good series, but I disagree. A bad ending indeed CAN ruin a series, and will absolutely hurt your impression of it, since this is what you remember; It doesn’t always, but it is totally capable of doing so by rendering what was set up earlier pointless, or not delivering on the promises it made. And this was far more than just a bad ending, this was a bad final arc.

Then you combine that with the sting that I felt reading this compared to the others I just mentioned, because this used to be one of my favourite manga of all time. Frankly, that’s enough to drag down what was originally for me a 10/10 manga down to a 4. To get the most out of this series, just read up to the point that the certain character that I mentioned dies, then stop. And make up a better, more fleshed-out ending in your head that actually required some serious sacrifice, and had some proper emotional payoff.

It starts off great.

You get what is essentially a prison break style story line involving kids escaping their fate using their wits to outsmart enemies. The mind games and twists and turns that went into the first two arcs (~37 chapters in total) almost catapulted this manga to what could be considered a great manga. Unfortunately, those 37 chapters represent the high point of the series. The quality would slowly diminish over the next ~75 chapters. There were good moments in these other 75 chapters, but I began seeing the series lose the qualities that made it initially stand out as a good manga. ... Early on the story was all about the kids struggling to trust each other, trying to survive against great odds using their brains, and having to face tragedy due to the futility of fighting against vastly superior enemies. Unfortunately, that's all absent in the remaining 69 chapters the manga.

For the final 69 chapters, the manga transitions from a survival story with an emphasis on mind games to a battle story with mindless action. The children begin brazenly going on the offensive and repeatedly succeed against their enemies despite the early arcs painting the world outside the farm as being incredibly hostile and dangerous to them... As if they had insurmountable odds to over come. And yet, every time the children are exposed to a scenario that would result in the children coming out on the losing end, or surviving with great losses, the author became unwilling to commit to tragedy and resolved the issues without the children losing much. This kills all the suspense built in first 112 chapters because it never again feels like there are any stakes genuinely at risk.

Promised Neverland is the most amazing manga that has come out this year.The story starts with a bunch of children staying at a orphanage they are all happy and they have this loving person who they call MAMA who takes care of them.Everything seems normal but is it ?

Story:Promised neverlands story progresses in a really nice manner.As the story progresses you start noticing strange things that makes you think something is wrong with this orphanage, the nos around there neck and the daily high level test.At the end of the first chapter the story takes a dark turn and the main characters finds out the ... real purpose of the orphanage and the real face of MAMA.From there on its a battle of wits between the main characters and MAMA who are trying to escape from the orphanage.

Character:The story has three main characters Emma,Norman and Ray but i would say its 4 because MAMA is the most badass antagonist.All the three characters are different, Emma is atheletic,loving but is a bit naive,Norman is the brains of the series,though weaker than others he uses tactics to win everytime.Ray is also similiar to Norman smart ,cunning and always taking the optimal route of doing things.All these characters come together in a really nice way and the stories side characters are also not just for show.

Enjoyment: Promised Neverland is one of the few mangas that is a real joy to read there all these twists and turns and you are left wondering what would happen.The battle of wits between characters and MAMA is just amazing i was reminded of Kira and L from death note.Its not a joke or hype i would definitely call this a BABY DEATH NOTE.

Verdict: Promised neverland is a great manga to read and i hope it continues in this way.I have a lot of hopes for this series.One of my concerns is that it is a shounen manga but has some mature contents that is suited for seinen.Lets hope the story is not censored in such way that it will become boring.So anyone who is looking for a great manga should definitely go for it.

I see people comparing this to Bleach. I have little experience with Bleach, watching only 95 chapters of anime (and dropping it then) and barely reading any manga, but it is enough to say that Bleach, Naruto, Death Note and other super-popular series can't compare to this. At least it has little chance to last that long and fall into the trap of fillers and sidekicks.

My review is as cryptic as possible so as to avoid spoilers, but I'll try to make it useful nevertheless.

Based on 118 chapters (frankly speaking, even on just 18, otherwise I would not add 100 more and a strong ... urge to follow it to the end) I give it a resounding TEN. I am still in doubt about the anime (actually, manga attracted my attention after watching the first episode), since despite my rather ripe age compared to the majority of MAL users I'm not a fan of monster depictions in anime, as you can guess from my list. At that, at least at the beginning anime keeps up to a standard set by the manga, and hopefully will add to it.

This manga though keeps me captivated to the point of writing this review at 4:40 am after swallowing another 30 chapters. Why? PLOT TWISTS. Some I can predict, but they are few, and this is a good enough indicator in and on itself. I'm really sorry for those who had to read it as an ongoing right from the start (or starting from any other chapter), because chapter 118 is critical for the plot as I see it, and hopefully in a good way. I haven't seen such twists neither in Hunter×Hunter, nor in Shinsekai Yori, nor in non-Japanese fiction stories I am partial too. And that means a praise. A huge praise.

So what is it?
1. The setting. Manga and anime seemed to dip into all possible kinds of settings, but this is something new. It is a parallel world — but not an isekai, fantasy, Sengoku Jidai or sci-fi. Nor it is a slice of life, but some people probably can relate. It is not a classic action, but there is enough of those for connoisseurs of this genre too.

2. This thing does have its antagonists, but they are not your average yokai, criminals or aliens. Those familiar with Hunter×Hunter, think of Meruem (the Chimera Ant King) and make him even more ruthless even if less intelligent. At that, sometimes those who look like antagonists are not them, nor all seemingly positive characters are positive... and the authors are masterful in keeping the reader in the dark about their true nature to the last possible moment.

3. The situation the protagonists and their supporting characters got into requires a huge leap of imagination. Yet they have a clear objective and that, hopefully, will prevent the creators from falling into traps of an over-twisted plot that even J.K. Rowling and Togashi Yoshihiro did not avoid.

4. There are a lot of “deus ex machina” (not Deus Ex, of course!) situations, but that's what plot twists and cliffhangers are about.

5. The characters are vivid, deep and charismatic.

The Promised Neverland is one of the most recent manga series to have exploded in fame and popularity, and after a nearly 4 year stint in Shounen Jump, it has finally come to a close. This sci-fi thriller mystery has been a great joy to read, so what did it do well?

TPN has a very unique and well-developed world that you don’t often see in other series. Imagine a world where you are brought into and raised, only to be harvested as food, just like livestock, where the world the orphanage resides in is dominated by demons. The main goal for the main trio is ... to escape Grace Field, but what lies ahead of them will prove to be their greatest challenge yet. Throughout the 180 chapters, we get to see them explore different locations such as the orphanage, the bunker, Goldy Ponds, Seven Walls, and the Imperial Capital, each location adds a lot of world building and mystery to the world’s lore. Each location is used efficiently and implemented naturally to further progress the story, enough information is held back to keep the sense of mystery and curiosity intact, rather than info dumping unnecessarily and ruining that sense of surprise.

The story is split into 11 different arcs, and each one of them focuses on a different event which all tie into each other. As everyone is enjoying their lives at the orphanage, Norman and Emma go out towards the entrance of the facility only to find that they are all in serious trouble. They plan to escape, but they are challenged by the staff members who work at the orphanage, Isabella and the other mothers and the demons who stand guard. The first arc has everything a perfect thriller has to offer, though the later arcs presents the story as a more sci-fi post-apocalyptic story rather than purely as a horror thriller, the story is still enjoyable as we see the characters strive to escape back to the human world. If you don’t mind the tiny dip in quality in the story, you can find a lot of enjoyment out of this.

The artwork isn’t what you’d call great, but it isn’t bad either. At its high points, where the horror and dark scenes are highly expressed, the artwork can be really really good, highly detailed and capturing the essence of the moment. In other times, like in non-important frames or often times when the frame features a character, it feels more like a doodle than a good drawing. Though it might be unique to the artist’s style, I think it still suits the series very well and you’ll get accustomed to the different art.

The characters are very unique and very good. We have the children from the orphanage, we have Musica and Sung-Joo, we have the nobles, and we have the other escapees and harvested children. The characters are all well-written and don’t go to waste. Lewis is best boy, Isabella is a great and sympathetic villain, and Phil is the MVP. I won’t write anymore about the characters as it could lead to potentially massive spoilers. Just know that there are some very likeable characters.

Overall, I’d say this has been a very fun and interesting ride. The manga was able to keep me intrigued and drawn in as the story develops, and it has the right length to present enough information and story to start from beginning to end. If you want a good sci-fi thriller series, check out The Promised Neverland, definitely worth the read.

8/10

I want to start out with the fact that this is my absolute favorite manga in the whole world. period.
To start out with is that I really love the first arc. It was great with andc got me hanging on to every word. Then... it ended. I will admit that it did get a bit worse from there and I was really disappointed in *COUGH* a certain person coming back to life *COUGH* but I did enjoy the goldy pond arc. I don't really feel like writing an entire essay so I'll just say this. Although it might be overrated, I do believe it ... is definitely worth at least the first few volumes and if you don't like it? Fine. But, I do think that this is still a great story and deserves more credit then some of the reveiws give it.

HAS SPOILERS
the promised neverland is a perfect manga
grace field was undoubtedly the best part of the manga, it was very well done there was always something to discuss always something that would prevent them from running away to the great escape and the arrival to goldy pond. rushed but it's still amazing everything is explained in an incredible way, there are many ups and downs but nothing to influence it to get worse, some things like Isabella's death happened because it had to happen in a very emotional way, but always in her highs and lows. after goldy pond it was much less dangerous for ... the kids but there was always something happening something good exciting and well explained maybe less worked out but it always ended well. the ending was a little worse than the rest of the manga's development but still good.

Ah, The Promised Neverland, the manga that got WAY to much, be it undeserved, hate! Lets see why i think this is:

-SPOILERS (duh)-

1) The story:
I admit, after the grace field arc, the story doesn't get much better. It starts off with the children running away from the demons, and while doing so, finding other demons names Mujika and Sonju, that have gone past the need to eat humans, and so they help the children. We don't get a full explanation on how and why yet, that comes later on. After they meet, the demons help the kids escape the forest and towards William ... Minerva's Hideout.

After they escape the forest, they manage to find the hideout, and when they go inside, they find FOOD, WATER, GUNS, BEDS!! and a crazed lunatic with a gun, referred to as ''geezer''. They make a deal, if the loon helps them find William, they will leave the hideout forever, to which he ''agrees'' on. They make a plan to head to goldy pond, a place where the old geezer says William Minerva is . They start making there way to the pond only to have Emma get kidnapped by the demons at goldy pond,A hunting ground- free for all between the humans and demons. Emma gets split from geezer and ray and has to fend for herself, along with the other kids, and Adam, who are stuck in the grounds. In doing so, they need to defeat the demons of the grounds, Bayon, Nous, Nouma, Luce and Leuvis. Suprise Suprise, they manage to defeat 'all' of the demons on the farm, along with the geezer and rays help, who manage to find them. While at the farm, they discovers the secrets of who Minerva is, and that hes been dead for years....yeah.

So once they all return to the base and Emma nearly dies of blood loss, oh, i forgot to mention that, They set out for a journey to find the demon god to make a new promise, as they find out that the demon world and human world has been split, and the humans made a deal with the demons to let them eat the humans on the farms....Confusing much? Anyways, after like, 2 years, they find and infiltrate it,and find out that to make the deal, they need to find the dragons mouth or some shit like that, sorry i forgot. Oh Normans alive by the way, anyways. They find the demonfdksfb and enter it, and it tells them where to ACTUALLY do the ritual. so they go.

The story gets confusing from there, all i can remember is them getting stuck ina forest and being found by some goons, who take them to William Norman Minerva, And they bring all the kids to meet him. They are all shocked at seeing Norman alive, but when he explains his plan emma tells him to fuck himself and she makes a new plan. So she and ray go out and do the ritual at the gates of Gate and emma turns into a baby. And then ray dies of old age, but doesn't. Then they manage to enter the place where the promise is made, except ray because he's not the main character. So emma makes a promise that the humans should be able to go to the human world and to let humans in the farms go. The demon says yes, in exchange for IWHWD BCERGUJ. We dont find out until later. So, they make the promise and head to the human world and THERE ALL FREE- no,

They have to stop norman, but in doing so, they fight the queen of the demons. Oh also the portal to the living world is at grace field, dont know if you knew that, Eh, who cares. Anyway after a fight with the queen and Krone cameo we head to grace field, where they need to go to the human world. After they succesfully infiltrate, the final boss appears. Mother Isabella. :000 . Anyways Grandma (not mother) Isabella betrays the big boss man and kills him and frees all the kids and live happ- no she dies. But the kids all make it to the hu- No emma dies. oh geezers dead by the way. Yeah. So is one of the kids. Anyways the others make it to the human world and- oh emmas alive. But she can't remember anything. so they find her and live together. yeah.

--Story 7/10, average--

Characters?

I enjoyed them really, Emma is fun so is Ray and so is Norman and the other kids are- barely memerable. 8/10

Art? Funky cute but creepy style. 8/10

Enjoyment? HELL YEAH. 9/10

Overall 8/10, not an amazing story but a hella good manga. Anyways, go buy it and i'm going to sleep. God dam reviews take too long, you won't see this anyway

THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS UP TO CHAPTER 45 OF THE MANGA (S1 OF ANIME)

Yakusoku No Neverland Review:
The intention of this review is to detail the manga to fans of the anime considering whether it is worthwhile to read the complete story. This review assumes you have read/watched up until the point when the 15 children escape Grace Field House farm, but not afterwards.


Story, 10/10:
The story of YnN is about the children of Grace Field House Farm, a farm specialized in raising high-intelligence children to be consumed by demons. Three children: Emma, Ray, and Norman are top scorers of the daily tests administered when they ... discover the truth of the farm, and vow to escape. With limited means of escape, and several massive roadblocks preventing them from fleeing; Emma, Ray, and Norman form a team to escape with every child from the farm. While hesitant at first from the task of saving every child from the farm, Norman and Ray eventually give into the idea of bringing them all along. After Norman is taken to be eaten as a sacrifice, Emma and Ray escape with the remaining children over the age of six, as the younger children will not be harvested for another two years, with the ambition of saving the rest within that time frame. The main plot of YnN occurs after the escape, (45 before/ 136 after) as they try to survive in the foreign world beyond the walls of Grace Field and eventually return to save the rest. While I cannot spoil events after the escape, if you enjoyed the first arc because of the plot, the rest is significantly better in my opinion.


Art, 9/10:
There is not much to be said about the art of YnN it is high quality as to be expected of Shounen Jump. While there are not many environmental shots, the “horror” elements of the first arc are done beautifully, and the battle scenes of the second half have the same level of quality. The character art is extremely emotive, and the slight growth of the main cast is shown well over the course of the series. The art was never an issue when reading, it is very easy to follow while still being very complex when needed. An important note is that the promotional art for certain chapters, and volume covers are extremely high calibre and a personal favourite aspect of the series.


Characters, 10/10:
The characters, which I at first thought to be rather static, are actually very complex upon further investigation, the main two in particular:
Emma: The main character of YnN, she has a huge weakness stemming from her naivete which causes her to yearn for peace in many situations. She cares immensely for the other children, and many other characters who appear in the series. Headstrong and assertive, her weakness shows itself continually over the course of the series and forces the group to adapt to unique circumstances forced upon them by her ideals. If you like Emma even a little bit, then there is no reason to not read the entire series.
Ray: He is a suicidal intellectual at first, trying to save Emma and Ray from the house before considering himself, soon after the escape he begins to realize that in order to properly repent for his sins he must live and strive to protect the group by not offing himself.
There other Grace Field House children get some spotlight after the escape as well, and each have specific strengths they bring to the table for each encounter with danger. Large groups of characters are introduced periodically in the Godly Pond and Lambda Farm arcs respectively, and the characters introduced in each are invaluable aspects of the story and form amazing interpersonal relationships with existing characters from Grace Field. While the characters in the series are very well written, the focus is clearly put unto Emma for the majority of time, and this is a nice payoff because she undergoes incredible personal development and is also straight up fun to follow in her perspective!


Enjoyment, 10/10:
If there is a single strong point of this series to focus on, enjoyment would be high on that list. This series is just fun to read through and through. Constant plot twists and developments break up the chapters nicely while also having a goal in mind to come back to. There are always new elements to the world which are introduced and keep things very fresh, and the two large character introduction dumps are very nice to adapt to. Emma constantly having to keep up with the other characters’ intelligence while somehow maintaining her assertiveness is a breath of fresh air to read every time. There are a ton of fight scenes, but they never seem to last too long and always have non-zero consequences to them, so they feel realistic. The Godly Pond arc, in particular, was the single best arc in manga I have personally ever read. I had a dumb smile on my face for most of it, and physically popped off several times.


Overall, 10/10:
I would recommend this manga to everyone who read/watched the first arc, but beyond that I truly believe it was a very well written piece of fiction. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what makes this series as good as it is, but I believe that is because it covers its bases so well and diversifies its quality so well.

If you are going into the manga thinking that the well thought out and brilliantly executed game of chess from the first arc is going to carry over throughout the series, you’ll be disappointed. After the first arc, there is a change of focus, from an engaging game of cat and mouse to an apocalyptic survival horror story. After all, the circumstances have changed. The children no longer have a cozy shelter and need to learn to fight for themselves.

As the story progresses, the explanation of the monsters that govern this world does not get too complicated, which is where other mangas go wrong. ... It’s plausible and easy to understand. The art is fantastic, the action is engaging and the plot remains clear an easy to follow, but it doesn’t shy away from killing or severely injuring any of the characters, so don’t get too attached. ;)

There is one more thing I have to add, but keep in mind that this is my personal opinion, yours may vary. The many fight scenes are extremely long, spamming chapters, desperately trying to keep you engaged. They’re promising a false sense of security, only to take it back in minutes. This, to me, feels like too much. I would have enjoyed the manga, perhaps, a little more if it didn’t spend so much time on this rollercoaster of emotions.

Overall, the manga is fantastic. Despite, its flaws, it takes you on this thrilling world changing adventure. It is a story about friendship, about determination and logic and implies that sometimes, the most certain path is not the best one. You have to trust yourself and just take a leap of faith. And it also makes you think of the way we consume meat and other animal products these days and just how inhumane it is.

This manga may have a slow pace but it sure is enjoyable. It's only 16 chapters in so of course there's still a lot of development left but so far it's really good. It's different from the stuff we get in WSJ, definitely more dark and suspenseful like Death Note. The art is really good and it resembles the story well. The characters so far are great. The is also a lot of plot twists in this manga so be prepared. This is still ongoing so it has a chance to get even better and develop the characters more and develop the environment more seeming ... as it's the big mystery here. Hoping this gets adapted in the future, will sure make a great series.

So many twists and turns. Manipulation. Suspicion. Lies. Betrayals.

TL;DR
This manga is about three very different characters that tries to survive through brainwork and planning. The art style is great, the storyline keeps you on the edge of your seat, all that good stuff.

At first glance, I thought that it would be about an orphanage with an overall happy storyline. Boy, I was wrong.

They're stuck in an enclosed area and kept an eye on. If they keep staying, what awaits them is doom.

There are three main characters; to begin with. All of them are considered geniuses on certain aspects. One is an overly (I ... dare say) optimistic child, another is a calculative, cunning yet genuine character, and the other is an ominous character with a nonchalant attitude. So far, this has been what I could derive from each characters so far.

One enjoyable thing about this manga is trying to simultaneously trying figure out the ways of solving the "issue" they have to deal with whilst the main characters try to solve it themselves. It's amazing how the author has thought of with these interesting elements that may potentially threaten their chance of survival.

Although it can be sometimes confusing, because these "elements" jump at you, which is pretty much the major enjoyable factor in this manga.

Art; it has its babyish aspects, not going to lie. Expressions are conveyed well, and art mediums were altered well to fit its vibe or response of the characters. And angles. Wow, I do say that the artist was amazing with playing around with the angles to deliver emotions.

Well? What are you waiting for? Go read it.

26 chapters out so far.

I have that Manga a 10/10. I highly recommend it to everyone who is looking for a serious and dark but still beatufull story with a lot of mind games and depth. The characters are developing with the story and are very well and detailed. Nothing to complain about, unique characters and as "tropy" as they look after the first few chapters.

The pacing is very well, very fast but not too fast. The setting is unique, overall this Manga is bringing a lot of fresh ideas in the scene. You should give it a try. Just read the first chapter.

I ... am very impressed by the way the Manga is going currently, the last few chapters blew my mind!

Go out and read it! Its worth it!

The Promised Neverland - 1st Arc Review
Chapters 1 - 37

The first chapter of The Promised Neverland is one of my favourite opening chapters of any manga, it's so intriguing and fascinating and scary, it really has anything you could ever want. So I insist that you at least read that chapter before reading this review because I'm going to spoil the twist and the end of the chapter which is much much better if you see it for yourself.

Anyway, this is a really unique manga considering it's in Shonen Jump, it's not a battle manga at all, more psychological thriller, where a group of ... kids living in an orphanage find out they are actually living on a farm, to be fed to these strong monsters. The premise is really strong and thought provoking, of course the commentary on farming as a whole is interesting (maybe would be an interesting double feature with Silver Spoon) and really visceral, you can really feel the odds are stacked against Emma, Norman and Rey, our main characters.

It's also one that illicits a lot of sympathy from every character, even Mama (the lady who runs the orphanage) and Sister Krone (her assistant) feel very real. Despite Demizu's real eye for terrifying drawings of these characters, Shirai makes it very clear that these people are just part of the system, they are just making the most of the horrible circumstances they are in.

Chapter to chapter this is such an enjoyable read, it's vert well paced, with the build up of tension over multiple chapters becoming almost unbearable at points, and the twists are frequently jaw dropping and practically force you to read another couple of chapters before going to bed.

The tightness of this opening arc, just being about Emma, Norman and Rey wanting to get out of the home is a real benefit, there aren't too many options and they are always one step away from danger. It brings out a lot of moral dilemmas to deal with and really brings out a lot from these characters.

In conclusion I think this is a fantastic arc and a really exciting new manga, there are some fears that opening up the story, as this next arc implicitly has to do, could remove some of the razor sharpness of this arc but for now this is something really great.

While it's true that this is my first review I've written in my entire life, I decide it is time that that should change, and what better way than to write my first one about this fairly new series : Yakusoku no Neverland or the Promised Neverland.

Yakusoku no Neverland (YnN for short) is a shonen manga published in the famous magazine Weekly Shonen Jump, it has so far 38 chapters. The manga had a rough start but begin to gain more fame as the story progressed, and for good reasons: This manga in unlike anything I've ever read before, and believe me, I've read a ... lot of mangas in my life, let me tell you why.

Story: 10/10
The premise in itself is not unique, a group of orphans from 1 to 13 years old lives in a house, happily with their "Mama", who takes care of them, love them as much as she could and also makes them take intelligence tests. They discover, after, the dark secret of the Orphanage, which sets the story in motion. What this manga does so well is taking this concept into a whole new level, by making the story follow a logical, fast paced succession of events, intelligent dialogue, and most of all, the tension that builds up in every chapter, making it hard to imagine a way for the MCs to "win" in the end. It then that this dystopian story distinguish itself from the realm of dystopian stories which grew a lot this years.

Art : 8/10
The art isn't anything special at all, but what I found very well expressed was the tension and the dynamics of character, I can understand why some people may dislike the art, but nonetheless, it does the job for this manga.

Character : 9/10
Characters can be a tricky thing to write for any story writer, making the story progress while maintaining a good character development is quit hard, and it's even harder when the story is this fast paced. YnN did that quite well in the last 38 chapters, it's a feat most mangas can't accomplish with much chapters. The key word to describe every character in YnN would be "Smart",and that is what sets this manga apart from the rest. The 3 MCs are very different from each other, their solutions to the problems are very different and very unique, and there what I'll call : "The logical will of fire", which I'll let you the joy of discovering it. a part from the main heros, the other characters we have a villain cast that is also very well written.

Enjoyment : 10/10
YnN is a very unique read, you find yourself in the shoes of the MCs whenever they encounter problems, you can relate yourself to any of them. It's a wonderful experience.

Overall : 10/10
YnN is the new best manga of this generation, comparable to the genius of Death Note
I recommend to anyone who hasn't read

I hope my review will intrigue you enough to go read the manga.

Okay so this is a rather complicated piece to talk about. "The Promised Neverland" (from this point will be discussed as TPN) is a fantastic piece of work that manages to be many things, but it's no great shock to me that the fanbase can be so divisive with many fans giving it low scores and some contrasting them to give them higher ones. Keep in mind this review will have some very minor spoilers.

I believe that reason that TPN is so divisive because it transitions to many different vibes and genres before it's completed. TPN starts off as a thriller/horror manga with dark ... fantasy themes and slowly transitions to high fantasy as the series progresses. For that reason, it comes to no great shock to me that many fans were disappointed with the series' evolution.

Not only that, but I think that the themes can at times starkly contrast with the tone of the story, and while in my opinion that's a huge benefit, it's can contribute to the fan's being upset at the direction it sometimes goes.

However despite all of this, TPN manages to pull off the genres and what it's intended purpose is very well. To me, I never had a doubt in my mind that I was reading what the author intended and it was executed well. That said, it's still a hard story to recommend because while the beginning will appeal to horror lovers, I can't say it will continue to do so as it progresses.

The character's are lovely and consistent, but don't always evolve in interesting ways (with some exceptions). The story can at times be a bit silly or convenient. While the tone is fairly consistent, the genre between arcs technically isn't. Also while the story was always entertaining and emotional, there was only a couple of moments that exceeded my expectations with pure excellence.

So why do I think it's a 9/10?

Because to me it nailed the most important things for the story. My favorite characters were the exceptions that were well developed or given great moments (Loved Yuugo, Emma, and Ray). The world is one of the best in fantasy (yes Fantasy, not horror). I think it had a bittersweet and emotionally satisfying ending. While it's several genres, it manages to transition well between them. And above all, it just made me feel a certain way I couldn't quite describe and even if the series failed to always be a 10/10 I was always interested in what would happen next and wondered what would happen to the characters.

But would I recommend it? ...maybe

The funny thing is this manga is difficult to recommend. The tone contrasts it's themes and it has more than one genre. While I thought it was excellent, I understand why some fans would be disappointed. A lot of the things it manages to do well in the beginning, it stops doing for the sake of new ideas and I think it's sometimes quite silly. However, if you're willing to have an open mind about where the story and characters will go, I think you can derive tons of enjoyment from this story especially if you're a fan of both fantasy, and horror. If you don't mind the series becoming taking these kinds of turns, I would give it my highest recommendation.

So if you decide to give it a read, I hope you love it like I did! It's quite the ride.

So, this is the first review of any series that I have done on this site for anime or manga. And I really hate that it is honestly. I don't normally feel the need to post reviews of the stories I have read. I just read and enjoy or dislike them as they are. The Promised Neverland is the first time I have ever really felt a need for me to go out of my way to write a review. And that is because it is such a disappointment that it went the way it did. It went from one of my new favorite stories ... to one that I appreciate for what it did well and loathe for ruining what could have been one of the potential new classics to define Shounen Jump going forwards. I will be trying to stay as spoiler free as possible throughout this review, so if I don’t really deep dive as much into things as I could that is why.
First, let me say that this series is worth reading. To a point. More on that in a bit. The initial arc is one of the best opening arcs in any series I have ever read or watched (for other anime, not this one specifically, to be clear). The art is fantastic, the premise is captivating, and the world building is interesting. Again, to a point (except the art, the art is great). If you are just trying to see if this series is worth your time, then you can ignore my score because while I have serious problems with the series as a whole, I cannot recommend the beginning of the story(the first arc specifically) enough and it is better to go into it with as little information and expectations as you can. That being said on to the review.

Story 5/10
Again, remember that this is a score based on the story in its entirety. The story is one that had great promise. The setup is very interesting and very well done. The stakes and goals are immediately established, make sense, and make you want to know more. It is initially a tense and at times horrifying read as the villain and protagonists interact and try to outwit one another. As the story continues, the mysteries of the world continue to unfold very well and build out the world to be a very believable and thought out fantasy world. There is a small dip in quality immediately following the first arc, but it didn't bother me much and picked back up soon after for the Goldy Pond arc. The action was usually very well presented and easy to read, the villain was interesting and threatening, and the character interactions and character development were very well done for the most part. However, we then get to the arcs following Goldy Pond. Around chapter 100 of the manga, the quality takes a sharp nosedive. The characters don't progress(I'll address that later), the way the story progresses makes no sense, and the reveals to mysteries the story has been building up since the beginning end up being either very underwhelming, nonsensical, contradictory to previous info, or not utilized to the fullest extent they could have been. The stakes end up being nonexistent as no one really has to sacrifice anything and people who by all rights should be dead don't die. The villains are poorly introduced, poorly written and developed, and meet their ends before they really do anything of importance. And if they do anything of importance, it is for very, let me repeat, very stupid reasons. By the last chapter, everything is wrapped up nicely with no real reasoning as to why it should have done so and the manga ends with everyone living happily ever after save one small caveat that is introduced literally a chapter before the story ends and is then resolved in the finale chapter, kind of. Even when I say everything is wrapped up, I am exaggerating since there are still large gaps in our knowledge of the world the story takes place in and story lines that were set up and just never go anywhere like the aforementioned caveat introduce in the second to last chapter.

Art 8/10
So really all I have to say about the art is that, in general, it is fantastic. The character designs are very distinct and original, especially the villains. It is slightly inconsistent as can be expected from a weekly manga but never really dips below good. The cover pages are a personal favorite aspect of mine and are very well composed and penned. I have nothing but praise for artist and excitement to see what they do next.

Character 3/10
Ok, onto my main issues. Again, like with the story, the beginning sections of the manga are great with good developments in the main characters, villains, and even a bit of the supporting cast. The main cast of Norman, Emma, and Ray are distinct from your generic run of the mill shounen protagonists at the start. They are all very intelligent with each of them specializing in some ways that makes them different from one another. Emma is very optimistic, sporty, athletic, and has great instincts. She can come off as very naïve but has real moments of growth and depth that hint to a slightly darker side to her. Ray is a straight-line pragmatist that knows things are not likely to go their way. He has a deep understanding of the challenges he and the others are facing and what they will need to sacrifice to do it. There are also a bunch of really cool layers to Ray that I’ll leave out here due to them being spoilers for the story, but he is a very complex, layered character that is one of the key parts in making the first sections of the story as engaging as they were. Then we have Norman, my personal favorite of the three in the opening segment. He is without question the smartest of the three with a deep understanding of strategy. He cares deeply for both Ray and especially Emma and will go to any lengths to help them. He is very optimistic but in a much more tempered and realistic fashion than Emma is. He is the main push throughout the first arc for the story going forwards and does his part there beautifully. But if my earlier segment has given you any indication, this great character setup and writing doesn’t extend past a certain point. Minor spoilers ahead if you want to avoid anything further into the story than the base descriptions of the main cast. Leading up to the Goldy Pond arc, the characterization of Emma and Ray continues to expand with them developing in very interesting directions. But after Goldy Pond, this is thrown out. After Goldy Pond, Emma becomes very much a standard, stock mold shounen protagonist with the powers of talk-no-jutsu in full effect. No problem presented to Emma after Goldy Pond is able to stand a chance of not submitting to Emma talking it away. Ray I honestly forgot was part of the story after a while with him only being involved peripherally for the large majority of the last 80 or so chapters. And Norman…well Norman is a special case. Without going into specifics for spoiler reasons, Noman’s character was assassinated in the later sections of the story. The ramifications of actions that he takes are either so convenient it is honestly laughable at points or made no sense as a logical progression of what had happened leading up to that moment. The one path that could have been taken to somewhat salvage his character was cut off in one chapter with a 30 second talk-no-jutsu session with Emma in the middle of a literal battlefield, throwing away literal years of planning and choices he had made to get to that point. And none of this is going into the what happened with the ending and the shenanigans that happened there.

Enjoyment 6/10
This is difficult section for me. I joined in pretty late into the manga’s run so can’t say that I’ve been following from the beginning or anything. I started when the Goldy Pond arc was getting close to wrapping up around the chapter 80-85 mark. Being able to binge read that section of the story available is some of the most fun I’ve had reading or watching a story. It quickly became one of my favorite stories that had come out in years. But when I caught up is, like I have mentioned in other sections, just before the collapse of the story. Reading the back half of the series was an absolute drag at times. There was a point that I got 20 or even 30 chapters behind because I just couldn’t be bothered to keep up with the story. Even when the series ended, I was 10-15 chapters behind and had to catch up to just finish out the series. It was legitimately painful reading through that last 10 or so chapters with only the last 2 chapters even coming close to being any semblance of tolerable. It is just such a shame that such a promising start ended so poorly.

Overall 5/10
Like I said initially, I would still recommend people to read The Promised Neverland. It has some the best visual storytelling, directing, and panel layouts that the medium has to offer. The characters are fantastic, the world and story are captivating. You just need to know going in that there is likely going to be a point where you will notice a severe departure from what you might have liked in the beginning. I was in complete denial that the story’s quality had dropped until somewhere around the chapter 120 mark where I just couldn’t ignore that the series I had come to love had lost its way to complete mediocrity.

Not enough people are giving this masterpiece of a book 10/10

I've decided to read on from the point where the anime went anime original and can say that both versions are just as beautfiul.

However, the manga has much more emotion and character depth with new characters being introduced and attachment bonds. Being reminded of Emma's goal consistently is some what cliche but I enjoyed that and it had a very satisfying end with everything coming full circle. The political strucutre of this show as well as idealogies is very reflective of real life.

I dont wana talk more because of spoilers but i highly recomend ... this manga

*No spoilers*

Summary:
The Promised Neverland is a manga I learned about through its anime adaptation. I bought the entire set and read it all at once. The manga tells the story of orphan children raised on a farm from which they are sold as meat to aliens. Although the first arc is excellent, the quality of writing and story-telling declines over the length of the story. If you are interested in the horror or thriller genre, this may be of interest to you.

Story: 4/10
The Promised Neverland tells the story of orphan children raised on a farm from which they are sold for their brains to aliens. ... The first arc, which focuses on an escape, is well-written and suspenseful because there are mind games between the caretaker and the children. After this arc, however, the story gradually declined in substance. There are some interesting settings, but the plot seems to meander until the end, which is incredibly anticlimactic due to the lack of consequences for the characters. By the end, it's hard to trust the writer due to plot twists and plot armor that impede the characters' stakes. It's one thing to make certain rules in a story and abide by them, but the author seemed to completely disregard them which is particularly troublesome because the first arc was built upon critical thinking. Overall, the first arc was excellent, but then the arcs gradually declined in quality and made the story bothersome to read.

Art: 7/10
The art is simplistic but fitting for the setting. It appears more like a children's book which brings out the child-like nature of the orphans, though it does limit the horror found in stories with a similar thriller and horror feeling.

Characters: 5/10
Characters are essential to the story, as the reader doesn't care about the plot if the characters are unremarkable or unrelatable. In the first quarter of the story, the three main characters are well-written and interesting. But, the story then diverges into a mix of an excessive variety of less interesting characters before focusing on the unnecessarily meandering plot. By the end of the story, the characters felt unbreakable in a bad way, and I didn't care about their success anymore. No matter what, their consequences were going to be minor, but not because they outsmarted the adults.

Enjoyment: 3/10
The first arc was excellent, and the anime adaptation is what drew me in. I was sadly disappointed by the end of the story because of the declining quality of the plot and characters.

Overall: 4.75/10

Have you ever imagined living in a world where another dimension different from our own existed? A world where the monsters you hear from scary stories told as a child and the bogyman hiding in various parts of your room are real?

Have you ever imagined a world where you may never grow up?

If you’re thinking about a certain J.M. Berrie children’s book with pirates, fairies and a boy who flies when looking at the title, you’re far from wrong. This is no fairy tale. The Promised Neverland you are thinking of is far from the truth.

Which is what makes this manga interesting. ...

Story:

At first glance, the story seems very uplifting and bright. There is laughter, smiles, cheerful children. There are children everywhere which is what makes the reader realize this is not a normal manga.

The story is broken in arcs, which follows three certain characters around. The start of the story has a very original plot to start and really hooks the reader well. The pacing and the excitement are there since we know the genre “mystery and thriller” is part of it all. The reader is at once wondering first chapter what is going to happen. Once it picks up and things start to happen, we are left following a group of children running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Things really do start heading downhill from there. A familiar trope is used in the plot to some disappointment at which most of the story is now based around. Not only are the characters trying to find this “new world”, but they are also trying to find what happened to their friend, and in the meantime trying to dodge and fight every single demon that attack them.

That’s pretty much it.

The world building is okay. The author did place some good political stands and religious values on what the culture seems to be like in the demon world. There are some good descriptions on what the place looks like and the setting that brings their adventure together.

The pace at first is good but it soon does become a mess. The author puts events in which can reflect the modern world and affect what happens to the characters, and it just becomes…a bit too predictable. I felt, myself, it lost that excitement and thrill it had beginning to mid plot and became a repeating action.
It leaves us wondering if anything would ever change.

Art:

This art style takes a bit getting used to. It’s a bit wild for my taste. The character design has some strange ways to create large heads and hair on the kids. Emma’s hair is just a massive cow lick that just doesn’t want to stay down. Ray’s design looks rather familiar too if you see what I mean. The faces of the characters also seem like someone stepped on their faces and their facial features got all scrunched up. It makes them look kind of funny and too silly to take seriously in some fighting scenes.

The demon designs are spectacular and what makes this story really eye popping. They’re so original! It seems like they used more inspiration from children’s picture books about monsters and original design then the demons/youkai you’d find in Japanese folklore.

The background art too is very detailed and shows how much the author has placed in the world building. Honestly, they put more effort into the background than the actual characters in my opinion.

Characters:

Children! Children everywhere!

The main characters are children. So if you’re thinking “well, they’re going to grow up maybe?” Well, no. And that’s where that “Neverland” and the Berrie inspiration of never-growing-up comes from. But however much you may think, “oh man, were going to suffer the immature acts of children this entire 181 chapters, then?” well, perhaps not. These kids aren’t too bad as characters at the start. They all do seem determined children! They have their own personality (although seem familiar in ways), but there are some things…

Yeah, there wasn’t a lot of growth in the characters. They do grow – but…how can I say…they just stay the same it seems. There just wasn’t any change from when the first major event happens to the last. Emma still has that determined (and annoying) personality to keep everyone safe no matter what, Ray is still the same “emo-ish” main character who slowly moves into the background, and Norm…well, I think he’s the only one who has a bit of character development I think.

There are also the monsters but they just do what they’re supposed to: eat and kill without care. The same with the adults, but there is one who does a switch near the end thankfully. Yay, character development and things happening!
But I do have to point out there are a lot of characters. And I mean a lot of character you will forget and then they’ll come back after a few dozen chapters for readers to be like “who are you?” and they’ll start doing something important. I had a few of those moments.

Enjoyment:

At first, I really enjoyed going through the chapters and seeing all this mystery and suspense. I kept turning to pages and realizing that I had more questions I wanted answered. Plus, considering I was going through a phase where I was reading every single horror like manga out there, this one really fit my mood. But over time as I finally caught up around chapter 110, I felt like my excitement levels just went down. Maybe it’s because I was waiting for the next chapter weekly that I didn’t get the thrill rush I usually got or maybe it was because, for me, the manga just went down hill after the first few arcs, but reading through the last few dozen chapters weren’t enough to satisfy my horror hunger.

Overall:

It wasn’t too bad overall. It has its ups and down of course. There were times where I was like “OMG WHHHHAAAAAAT!” and other times I was like “Hmmm…okaaayyy? But why?”. I know my decision to read the manga before watching the anime was more due to the fact I wanted to know what was happening as it happened than watch the anime and wait almost a year to know. Therefore, if you really want to know what is happening, I do recommend reading this now, as it has ended, then from waiting for each chapter to be released weekly or waiting for the anime to continue. Then you can go at your own pace than the pace the manga is set at.

I give this manga a 47.5% on the children's scale.