Yakusoku no Neverland

Story: 8
Extremely slow paced with sharp twists and turns; it's like Mario Kart on 50cc! Its slow pacing allows for slow, thoughtful development of the world the children are moving through, leading to fascinating locations and struggles. Many of the side characters are morally gray, making every encounter tense. Recommended for those who like detailed worlds.

Art: 7
The art, though quite good most of the time, can be smeared or too cluttered in some places, confusing the reader. Art critique is not my strong suit, so all I'm going to say here is that it is a little more than serviceable.

Character: 9
Easily this series' best feature. The aforementioned moral ambiguity of certain side characters leads to long contemplation on their actions, the leading cast is your classic Freudian trio, though it does change later in the story, which is unexpected and welcome (I won't give details to avoid spoilers). The other children who accompany the main cast, I must say, are very poorly developed and progressed. After over a dozen chapter many of them are still just faces you see in the background who chime the occasional quip. Hopefully this changes in the future.

Enjoyment: 9
The story's hyper-dynamism conjoined with classic psychological thriller tropes make this manga immensely fun to read after finishing up other manga from Shounen Jump. Think of it like desert after a large, action-packed Shounen dinner.

Overall: 8
I'm quite optimistic about this manga, I've been proselytizing it like mad for the past several months. It's getting better and better with each new chapter, hopefully it won't trip up.

Note: This review have minor spoilers

The Promised Neverland, a series written by Kaiu Shirai and Illustrated by Posuka Demizu, without a doubt, has one of the best and most unique concepts I have ever seen in manga, however, It's also one of my biggest disappointments of the year, to see one of the most promising manga serires roll straight downhill.

Story/Writing 3/10

TPN did really well at the start, the first arc is by far the best arc in the whole series showing constant mindgames between Isabella and the children of the orphanage while they were planning their escape. It felt very thrilling, mysterious and also very intense at the same time. The setting of this arc is also one the reasons of why this arc is so great, as chapters go by, you grow more and more familiar with Gracefield, the place really grow an ominous aura and you can feel that as you go through the story.

After the fist arc, the story took a different approach, now the priority is the survival of the children in the forest and the search for a mysterious entity and I certaintly enjoyed how there was a new major element of discovery on the table, the progress was still very solid in the Goldy Pond arc but it started to feel very repetitive sometimes

Past the Goldy Pond arc, the series really started to fall apart. The Promised Neverland has it's merits and redeeming qualities, it explores a small range of things that other mangas couldn't but at this point of the story I really started to miss all the things that made the start of the series so good because it started to lack in several ways.

Every twist felt meaningless and unnecessary, the writing got really lazy, the cliffhangers were bad and on top of all that, the final chapters were completely rushed and the ending is one of the laziest tihngs I've ever seen. All the details were gone, there were no mindgames whatsoever, there was no world development whatsoever and there is no redeeming qualities to the ending whatsoever since Shirai just made a poor excuse to close everything up instead of tying the plot knots to make at least a decent/interesting ending.

Art 9/10

The art is one of the major redeeming qualities for TPN. Character design is on point, all the cover arts are outstanding with gorgeous color schemes, all the locations are very well put together especially Gracefield, which in my opinion is the best place in terms of art. There's almost no inconsistencies with the art, It's very good and expressive

Overall, it's one the things I enjoy the most in TPN.

Characters 5/10

At first the main trio was very interesting we've got Emma, the highly optimistic girl, we've also got the boys, Norman and Ray, the two incredibly intelligent and smart and they were the 3 heads of the escape plan alongside Don and Gilda which are good characters too. The villan in Isabella is a very well written one aswell, the one responsible for all the children in Gracefield.

The characters were very well written and set up from the start and at the end of the first arc you had an amazing and unique cast, however, as the story goes, the writing just gets lazier and lazier and with it, a stupid amount of characterization for future characters that appear along the way on the Goldy Pond arc is just thrown out of the window, there are very few characters that are well written like the ones that firstly appeared in the escape arc. All the antagonists, with the only exception being Isabella, are very underwritten and uninteresting. The main characters ran into some major inconsistencies aswell and the best two examples of that being Emma, that simply couldn't change and evolve despite all that happens in Goldy Pond and Norman which goes on the contrary direction and becomes one the most unlikable characters in the whole series.

Enjoyment 4/10

The enjoyment of the first half was a solid 9 for me but a 2 at the end because of all the writing issues that started to show up every single chapter which led to the plot being very bad, the characters being poorly explored and the end being a one the most frustrating. At the end of the day, The Promised Neverland is a huge pile of wasted potential

Overall 5/10

I would like to just simply have a pros and cons style approach to my review since it will be more easier and accessible to the readers.


- Has a more mature approach to shonen manga, contains pretty disturbing imagery, tackles pretty gruesome concepts which we have in real life too
- Sublime art that sometimes even scared me although they don't have lots of lines, this is overall where Yakusoku No Neverland stands out to me.
- Characters are not the best, but certainly interesting. They behave like kids but do have a little 'too smart' side to them which can be a little unrealistic at times.
- The enjoyment I had was great, there were no parts where I felt bored and just wanted to read something else.
- Overall I think this Manga deserves a 9 out of 10 so far, the story might become more ground breaking and original than it already is, when the protagonists will get out of the 'farm', I might change the score and see if it became any better.

EDIT: Uhm, sadly, I really got bored from this manga after the 30th chapter, and the kids exploring the outside world. It's very average at times, and made me drop the manga at the 35th chapter. I hope it'll get more interesting after a while, please tell me if it is.

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? THE PLOT TWISTS. Some I can predict, but they are few, and this is a good enough indicator by 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.

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.

TLDR: If anyone asked me for the definition of rushed, I'd point them to this manga.

After the 1st season of the anime ended I decided to pick up this manga from the beginning. It was great and I couldn't stop reading it until I'd catch up. I remember rating it a 7 here. The first 60 chapters were well written, although the cliffhangers annoyed me a bit but no big deal (the anime was strong on cliffhangers too). Then, around chapter 85 it all went downhill. It has always been a bit rushed but it also started being lazy, badly written, and for some reason, after creating such a bold story, the author decided to take zero risks and gave everyone godlike plot armor. It continued being rushed, the stupid cliffhangers happening EVERY CHAPTER only to be solved in the first panels of the next one. It was especially so in the last 20 chapters. Still, I kept reading it until today when it finally ended... I have no words for the final chapter.

I'll never re-read this manga and even though I enjoyed the first few arcs I don't recommend it to anyone.

The Promised Neverland is a relatively new addition to Weekly Shonen Jump, but it has very quickly proven why it is deserving of a spot among the best series in the history of the magazine. Tense, well-paced, manipulative, precise, and thoroughly entertaining, this manga is without a doubt worth a read to the fan of psychological thrillers.

The story tells us of the plight of three children who have lived their entire lives in an enigmatic orphanage, the Grace Field House, and the shocking secrets they discover of its inner workings. The psychological tension the writer is able to conjure in his writing is relentless. Each chapter offers new surprising revelations, prompting the user to keep fully engaged with the story, to try to figure out what could possibly happen next. Despite the oppressive atmosphere of the story, the twists, turns and reveals never get stale, all is calculated and expertly paced. With very thorough attention to detail, and subtle hints at possible outcomes, the story results in a very rewarding reading experience, one that can enjoyed by both hardcore manga fans and the casual reader looking to blow off some steam with a fun series.

The art style is paramount to a manga or comic; a fitting art style can help to augment the story, and a poor art style can take away from it. Though the artist of the series is relatively inexperienced, their work helps significantly to improve the experience of the series. At times surreal, and at times frightening, the art sets the perfect atmosphere for the the confusing and spiraling plot. The line art is not bad, but the coloured pages are deserving of their own praise; beautifully coloured and composed, these colour pages capture the tone of the series better than most. Though it is evident that the artist has much room to improve, I'm convinced that it'll be easy for them to do so as the story continues.

This series offers an experience seldom seen in the field of shounen manga, a field over-saturated with stereotypical fighting series, repetitive sports stories, and ecchi filled, mind-numbing harems. The Promised Neverland is a product of serious thought and consideration, and is a product most definitely worth acquiring.

It is hard to conceptualize suspense and "horror" into a manga opposed to a motion picture and Neverland as excelled greatly at capturing these elements without the need of competing in the contest of "who can draw the most creepiest creature" or jump scares.

Starting off with the Story(1010):
The story is suspenseful. As the time of writing this,(25chapters or so), weekly this series DOES NOT fail at the slightest in chapter quality, maintaining the suspense and keeping you wanting more and more. Humans are fed to monsters and are raised in a "farm" where they have to take tests and such. Our protaganists, Emma, Rey and Norman are all trying to escape with EVERYONE, without knowing anything about the world.
There is sooo much mystery , which is primary what reels you into the story. The plot is minimal, simple, but it has potential to open so many doors. I would say Neverland is the perfect balance between simplicity and "complexity".
Similar to Death Note, if you like brains vs brains, you'll definitely like how this story is handled.

Characters(10/10):
Our characters are very unique and mysterious. From a psychological standpoint, it is very interesting to see how they interpret the truth of the situation about being cattle.
What matters in this category really is if they are distinct and that you can set them aside from other series. Not going to write too much since the series is still in it's early stages.

Enjoyment(10/10):
A PAGE TURNER. Itching for the next chapter, constantly delivering quality spot on chapters that leave you shunned in suspense. An intense battle of wits, a huge cloud of mystery that awaits!

Overall(10/10):
Death Note fan? Brain vs brain? read this. This series excels in capturing horror, suspense, and delivers blow after blow of suspenseful quality chapters.

Well let's begin.

The promised Neverland has the potential of becoming an extremely popular series. Even though I doubt it could be as popular as One Piece it will probably enter the classics like Death Note.

It all depends on one factor, the length.(Considering the quality is consistent) If it is going to be a lengthy series it might be the next Jump King if it's shorter it would end up being the same as Death Note popularity wise.

There is also an external factor, the anime. If it gets a good anime like MHA then it will become extremely popular.

This manga is original because it's fresh in the manga world. You can clearly see some inspiration of this series with the Movie Chicken Run. Heck, even Isabella is in both. Don't miss-quote me, TPN is not a rip off of Chicken Run but we can see some similarities.

What is interesting is that TPN is another confirmation of the rule: To make great manga, one must take influence outside manga/anime.

JOJO and DBZ weren't inspired by other manga before them, they were outsiders. Toriyama took inspiration of Jackie chan's movies for Dragon Ball and Hirohiko Araki took inspiration from culture and fashion from different par of the world for his manga JOJO.

Those mangas revolutionized the manga world and I expect TPN to have the same influence.

We can even draw more parrallels with Dragon Ball and JOJO both having extremely unconventional artstyle. In TPN's case it is the character design that are that much atypical but the world around them illustrated with an unique style.

So now we have 2 clues that can let us try predicting the series success :
1. Original story inspired by nothing in the manga medium
2. Atypical Art style

TPN have the pleasure to present use with 3 likeable characters that are immediately recognizable and that would make great figurines. It also has appealing cover art making it possibly more likely to achieve success by intriguing the masses.

Anyway that wasn't much of a review of the product but more about trying to identify it's possible success.
Hope you enjoyed.

See ya... English is not my mother language too, so sorry for any potential grammar or spelling mistakes.

You want to feel the blood rush coming through your body? You want to be mind-blown both from the character and the story? You want non-generic shonen storyline? You want an outstanding main character which still a children? You like to speculate so much? You like to guess what will happen with the character and expected a different turn?

This manga is for you. Seriously. Go read it. One of its genre is psychological. If I must add an add-on to its psychological genre, it would be psychological horror. Feel free to feel being with or as one of the kids in this manga when you read it, it will make your life completely better (heck yeah).

The first time I read it, it was amazing. Start reading from 10pm up to 5am non-stop. It just deadly amazing. 10/10 would become one of the top re-read.

I will focus more on what I found to be bad about the manga. This is because many find it to be great. Therefore I felt like pointing out the bad, would have more usefulness, as many before pointed out what they found to be good.
*Big spoilers ahead, proceed with caution.*
This manga is described as horror, and in other places but not here as psychological thriller. The anime is described as psychological thriller, and I quite honestly would more describe it as such, and not horror. Only the first season of anime, and corresponding manga chapters can be described as such.
That being said up to their escape Promised Neverland is great. It really does deliver what it promises. You do feel a sense of tension. You are scared because you don't know if the children will die because of shipment, die due to being caught, or just die in the process of running away. Isabella is a great character. She is the entirety of the psychological thriller in those chapters, and does it oh so well. Her facial expressions, fake smiles, and in the end showing her true nature are really indeed scary. I still like sister Krone, and found her death scene, as morbid as it sounds. One of the best parts of the anime. I still find the portrayal of her character as racist. Call me sjw police all you want, but you cannot deny the fact, that her features get bigger when she is to be scary. This is only a small portion of the manga, so it doesn't save it. So what happens after that? Well they decided to put some nice plot armour on the children. They can't get too cold can they? The hole horror/psychological thriller aspect dies, when the children cannot. The fact that Norman survives, also takes away from the impact of first chapters. You might say well other characters die, but I never felt while reading it that they mattered. Only Yuugo's and Lukas's deaths, and Krone's I guess. Does it matter when you know that no matter what happens main characters will stay untouched? Emma cuts of her ear? No impact on plot, and gets immediate help when fainting. They almost get caught and Emma faints? Immediate rescue. Emma gets injured in Goldy Ponds and needs immediate help? No problem, no further effects on her health or anything. Here I have to say that the Goldy Ponds or w.e its called was good, I enjoyed it. Their base blows up? Immediately found by Norman's group. Someone needs medication? Let's break into a plantation and get it. Here I will stop to point out how easy destroying plantation/raiding it is shown to be. In this particular moment they are just running around, while Emma and the other one gets the meds. Just running around is enough for the demons to not be able to do absolutely anything. Have to kill the entirety of the royal family? No problem for them. The story also poops on Normans death, and its importance to the plot. Norman should've ended up being Adam, if they wanted him to stay alive. Norman just is alive, and yeah it was suggested he went through hell in Lambda. In my opinion it wasn't shown enough, meaning it doesn't have any impact on the reader. AND ALSO he just goes out of there seemingly unscathed. They don't actually show any psychological trauma. They do say "oh he had disease", and show spasms of someone else. Just to say 'SEE? SEE? THEY SUFFER!". When in reality it's not much shown how much it's affecting them or how bad it is. ON TOP OF THAT they find a cure to it. Can't remember how long it took them from mentioning to finding cure. All I can say it felt pretty damn fast to me. Again ScArY spasm disease? No impact on anything ever. The queen has two cores? Don't worry she immediately dies herself. Musica and Sonju Captured and about to be executed? Don't worry some bad guy from goldy ponds had a change of heart! I really could write out more instanced, but its getting long. I liked how they explained why the demons would even step away from eating human meat. I found that to be a decent explanation. Grandma being killed instead of Isabella is a joke. Just another way of giving a children a way to make it to their goal. Another joke of a scene is when the queen is about to die or dead, and all of the faces of characters who died are shown and they say "my name is...". Why? They were eaten? How? Whats the purpose? It only looked dumb. Another joke is that Emma just without any thought process, or emotional turmoil goes into "no genocide". I get why she took that approach, but we didn't see her getting there. It would be interesting to see. Considering what she went through with the demons. Yeah she be like that, but still. "No genocide" should not be such an easy approach to her, they should've shown her something to cause that. The price she has to pay for the promise? Fanservice. She doesn't pay a price, they find her anyway. The entire point of this review is to say Promised Neverland is not horror nor psychological thriller. Calling it that is offensive to those genres. Considering they gave their characters plot armour, and build the entirety of the world to fit their goal. Example the way demons work. There was no way they would not succeed. By doing so they very effectively stripped away all that could make it those genres.

Some people, when they like an anime or manga, they want it to be as long as possible. Unfortunately, at this manga latest chapters, I wished it would come to an end.

The Promised Neverland to this day is one of my favourite mangas. The certain problem it has, is that the idea is well exploited in the first half of the story, and the unique atmosphere of the story, fades as we go with the next chapters. I still think there was a way to fix this problem, but since the story was finished, lets review, what was given.

Story 3/10

I hate myself for doing that, but I don't think, that in summary this manga deserves any better.
Before I started this manga, I haven't checked its genre, or read anything about it, and I'm glad I didn't. In the very first chapter when I still was fooled by it's cute art, I got amazed by how well we were introduced to the main plot, and how good was writing in those chapters. The same "orphanage" looked so different, and I loved how the first chapter made the atmosphere of this piece so dark and mysterious.
It made such a good psychological thriller, that I read the whole arc in the less than a day, and I still think that the way children tries to outsmart mama is genius. All encounters with mama are tense, and when we think that our protagonist, are getting one step ahead of her, she proofs to be two steps further.
Also something that I loves about the jailbreak, and goldypound arc, is that story is progressing by killing characters. Our protagonist are getting mature by the pression of death, and unfortunately we won't encounter that in later chapters. That also gives the story such a dark and mysterious atmosphere, that makes things more tense, and pushes story onward.
The biggest problem with this story, is definitely the ending. While it should summarize, all the hardships and encounters the kids has gone thru to become mature, and change their fate, it feels more like coming back to square one, but this time everyone is happy, and we can live a happy life. The atmosphere is gone, there is no tragedy involved, mystery is forgotten, and answeres are now obvious. But even tho it was going all the way down here, there was one thing that keep me reading.

Characters 9/10

If there is any reason I was able to accept this ending, that was because I loved the characters. Maybe it was because we've seen them growing. Maybe because most of them were introduced early, while the writing was still on a really high level. regardless of the reason I really liked all the characters from orphanage. The only problem I had was with latest antagonists. While reading I found 4 antagonists pointed out in the story;
- Mama
- poachers
- queen and aristocracy
- Ratri clan
The last one being mainly Peter Ratri, and worst at the list. To don't spoil anything I won't tell you why I dislike him so much, but lets just say, that to make villains look better, story often make them sacrifice themselfs, or change sides, and that can be very destructive to the story.

Art 9/10

I'm not an artist, so it might be a bad assumption, but I thought the art of TPN was wonderfull I loved how it changed to make a mood and how good it was at fooling you at certain situations, so I think I should really give some credit to the artist Posuka Demizu.

Enjoyment 8/10

Well as long as I have mixed feelings regarding this manga I really enjoyed reading it, and at the same time was reallly pissed when it dropped on quality. Still, I know people who didn't feel this drop and really enjoyed the story, up to the last arc, so I won't judge you if you think the story is still 10/10 that all depends on you.

So my final rating is still 7/10, it is still my favourite manga, regardless of its fall, and I know a lot of people who enjoyed it as well so I recommend you give it a try.
Thanks for reading my review. Have a nice day!

*THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*

Sometimes receiving various influences to create a story becomes something very good and advisable, as a way to further expand your creativity, even though you have learned a lot about some more well-known titles. Usually imagination and reality become a step of coming together to cover what we call fantasy, being a simple fantasy or a dark fantasy, and in this environment of dark fantasies, it common to always have those that stand out, but even with a dangerous and violent universe, like Berserk for a more famous example, stands out for leaving a message for the reader to absorb, or at least questions that can generate discussion.

In a way, these discussions can be present in our daily lives, and we would have a very timeless work, in fact we have several ancient mangas that plunge into the dark fantasy in search of a critical message to human beings, it was something that during times of Cold War has become very present and solid, we can have Devilman (1972) as an example of this, a manga that in turn is famous for carrying these same criticisms, but it is understandable, although some of them are no longer useful in the context of our world, it becomes something that we can fear in the future, and this impact generated in mixture with the gore makes for a unique experience. Although Devilman's manga is not as solid in writing, and often borders on a tremendous exaggeration from a cartoonist point of view, and sometimes with so many problems, he manages to stand, and his criticism, however exaggerated, was quite subtle. Subtlety is the important step to make a general analysis of human nature that could be exposed in fiction, subtlety can also generate a bit parallels within the work and within real life, so that when the viewer could finish reading something, it reflected a lot , and this becomes a rich consumption of reading dark fantasies, and what they can tell us, even with flaws, we always need to look at old mangas of this type as examples, of what was for their time and also as a study of things that they must be done nowadays, to leave a comfortable reading and very flexible to what a manga proves audacious.

And the reason why I'm talking about it? Because I have never seen in my life that there could be a manga that fails both in the genre and in the message itself, and that manga is called The Promised Neverland. I agree that he has a popular fan base and as soon as he got through his arcs many called him one of the best shounen of all time, it was a fame that I could understand at the beginning, but that after so many chapters I started to distance myself more and more from this story. First of all I have a little consideration for the first arcs, despite several problems I see that are fun to read, but from the time-skip the whole story fell apart, or better, since Norman came alive this manga got even worse.

The narrative structure carries several influences from Western children's books better known as Alice in Wonderland and Watership Down, as much as they were childlike in their way, carried a dense atmosphere and talked to the reader through more obscure figures, things that from time at times, many try to adapt but end up failing in their purposes. Bearing in mind what kind of work we are talking about here, The Promised Neverland nurtures inspiration but doesn't carry anything it needs, the dark fantasy aspect could easily be attributed here, since we find a dangerous world and we see children trying to survive, we can say that is a survival right? I would like to believe, but there is nothing here, since you are witnessing Goldy Pond, any conflict with demons doesn’t present any danger, there is no realism or consequence on the part of the children against it, you only see a bunch of worthy actions of a low quality Sony Pictures blockbuster movie, all tension is forgotten, no need to be suspicious all the time, but the manga forgets that there are demons even stronger than the children themselves and decides to exaggerate all of them by being super heroes in the end of the day. Can you see the situation? He managed to fail even in the genre of survival and there is no conflict about it, you just feel that the biggest enemy would be humans, and then history decides to return that the biggest enemy is a demon, and then repeat everything again...

Honestly he doesn't decide what a threat represents, some may say that both would be a bigger threat, but how can we have an idea of something bigger if the manga doesn't show interesting conflicts for the same to happen? I am repeating: you will find only generic and simplistic action scenes, even in the last arc where we see the villain hiring armed and trained men to face the children and they are just dumb as a stone, they are fucking trained guards and not pieces of paper, none of them dare to shoot because the children will always be stronger without having 5% of their training, it is stupid to raise protagonists so simple when they do not show cohesion in the face of a dangerous world.

The characters are in general: bad and stupid, Ray is one of the worst and most disappointing characters I have ever met, the one who carried a strong personality, had functions in the plot during the first two arcs, maintaining a good construction, only to become any person with no role in the story, can you notice that he would easily be replaced by another character there, a good part of your dialogues don't even become as important or shocking as they should, do you remember the construction in your first arc? Forget it, it doesn't matter anymore when a character didn't show purpose or function in any context during 150 FUCKING CHAPTERS, seeing one of the fans most loved characters being treated like a piece of trash was something that hurt me, because I was interested in his future , if someone skips all the dialogue that he decides to say he will not miss much that makes the experience worse, it is so simple and expository that you pretend it doesn’t exist, when you notice that even the character can be removable and be replaced it’s because you did a terrible job characterization on top of it.

Norman is another disappointing character that I had to see collapsed, from a time I can be fair that he is at a certain point, much more tolerable than Ray, his construction and purpose has a role in the story behind the threat of demons , but a good part are cliché executions, that centralist and idealistic character that needs to be the counterpart of the main character’s ideas just because: the script wanted to get to this point, this kind of thing is not at all original, but being well executed, it can be something very usable... If Emma were not a character that convinced all convictions and ideals, making everything a sea of roses, although at this point I cannot say that it is a criticism of mine but a dissatisfaction, because seeing idealistic characters can bring wealth to a work, we see them as solid characters and this becomes remarkable, but to see it succumb and fall into the same conversation as Emma is to waste even more the idea of opposite minds, something that you notice that it was inserted only in an arc and would stay there, but I say that he is the least evil of the characters here, but still his voice is lost to emphasize Emma again.

I have to admit that Emma is a good character, I would say that she is quite solid to build her morals and motivations, since she was a child, someone who cares about everyone, and who is open to understanding things, it is something I respect, and being worked on up to a limit it was something very cool, it is the character that most representative human parts, no matter how exaggerated I say this, having said that I don't have much to complain about the way it is done, but look to the entire script conspires so that the whole her adventure is always the lucky charm, makes me dislike even more, the conflicts are cheap and few inspiring to care about any danger, she will always be fine in everything that the manga provides, and the author cannot even disguise ''why'' from that, you notice that everything is about to go right, when it should least, it's a taking a trip without any pleasure wherever you want to see it as a dark fantasy.

As for the other characters: pathetic and forgettable. Gillian, Ayshe, Oliver, Adam or any other character in the Norman group are also forgettable, with terrible characterization and emptiness, a potential wasted on plotting based on various interesting points of view, construction, impact function, not that be a difficult task, but the lack of them here makes the whole narrative weak. Ayshe is the most disappointing character I ever met, because she had a good construction, she proved to be more of a human being worked on and then to be discarded like a piece of garbage, there is no disagreement about her since the story presents does not give her focus , but to alleviate part of this pain we have: Don, Yuugo, Gilda and Musica, which are the most recognizable, but they are memorable because you have been with them from an important momment, and because of their natural proximity makes you become attached. The role of Yuugo and Musica are the best as they showed progress in Emma, and I value that, but it does not support the ocean of weak characters that the work has, but instead of building and developing them in each arc, they prefer to focus in the construction of only our protagonists and villains... The worst kind of narrative that can be provided by living up to the focus between black and white, without any nuance that you can remove from the arc.

The message that TPN brings is lazy, stupid and totally contradictory. Sometimes I have seen futile messages, inconclusive messages, but I have never seen the combination of the two, which is an impressive factor for me, it is nothing original to make a parallel in which you have already witnessed a manga that 50 years ago brought another perspective, but we are always able to find new positions, and this manga has none. TPN at its climax to discuss the message that "humans are worse than demons", but you don't see any victimization behind the demons, you only see demons that in parts are more dangerous there, but never a presence that could make writing tangible and show that sentimental side that they are more '' human '', all the time the manga shows you more danger than humanization, even if there are characters like Musica is not enough to demonstrate that they are the victims, a character does not carry all the victims and good people that they could be. And in the final of the series, when she is discussing it, we never see images of demons being killed or injured by humans, the only thing we see is a lazy parallel to our reality, in which humans hurt other humans, and what kind of conclusion and impact can we have on this? That there is no victimization about them, and that everything the manga shows you in words is a lie that only the author uses as an excuse for a bad message, is totally contradictory, even more so that we could have images of Norman torturing a demon or even someone else, but instead of victimizing one side, he prefers to victimize those who were examples of awful humans.

Remember what I said about the subtlety that needs to be done in the criticism/message? The manga went well, we even have a big panel worthy of an imbecile journalist cartoon made by someone who thinks the world will change due to a drawing that "matches" reality, but neither is done naturally, all this flashpoint was totally played without any backbone, because as much as fiction shows us criticisms and parallel realities that discuss current themes, it would be risky to draw the same parallel of our world, both in date and in context, few know how to do it in a way good. There is no subtlety about this criticism, it is as if the author was calling the reader himself a dumb for not understanding simple reflexes of moral discussions and needs to appeal to this ridiculous flashpoint, try to imagine another fantasy manga going on in a period troubled by medieval wars and suddenly, they decide to bring an image of our daily lives just to give impetus to their criticism, the way it is done is lazy and totally insulting to the readers, when you hand over the characters talking about the “reflection of humanity in the demons” '', which was one of the most artificial dialogues I have ever seen in fiction, your criticism becomes invalid, because you demonstrate your intentions by talking more than a character could speak, there was no reason for them to say something like that, but everything is pushed because the author wants to and not because history should naturally progress to that.

I feel that the author reads one of those cheap newspapers every day and decides to choose what kind of image he should put in his manga in the greatest desperation so that his criticism is solid but it is not. It is not necessary to justify everything that the characters do, again, to do this work is to offend those who follow their work, if their decisions are already convincing enough, there is no need for dialogue exposure to reach an agreement, and I will enter in this aspect.

The narrative text of TPN is totally worldy and expository. Some may not care about this, because reading a manga with an even more open mind and caring more about the situations of the characters, this can be overshadowed, but I will have to be sincere, as I mentioned, I will continue, whenever a new information is introduced, still in a terrible way without a structure, it is always placed so that the reader himself does not feel convinced of this idea, you will see an excess of words repeating themselves transcribing stupid emotions and not so close to the situation than in a way whatever the ideal, it is tiring to have to read several pages of something that you do not know, but there is no interest in grammatical text providing artificiality and explanations that are not direct, but that jump from lines to more lines, and this makes part of the dialogues problematic when interventions are needed, it is the youthful style of writing, so to speak.

I need to mention a serious problem that this manga commits, which always relies on an artifice used in a terrible and exaggerated way: Cliffhanger, every time it needs one for the narrative to progress, and when we have the continuation, we see that it is useless and the situation was not impactful or tense, I know that a manga chapter needs to reach its momentum, but the way the author abuses it is terrible and offensive, it got to the point where I got tired of seeing it all the time, cliffhangers poorly constructed in contexts that do not need to be provided, execution is completely blatant.

You notice that when Emma is about to invade Grace Field again, we could have a plan being discussed there, but the author again abused a hasty reading, just to justify the characters acts by flashbacks... How low would it need to be to transpose the laziness of going directly with the chapter, ''show, don't tell'', because that is what the whole series ignores, what is important is treated in the most trivial way possible, and that makes a distance in writing and for me to care about a plan, without nuances, without argumentative oppositions, the fact of ignoring this, is because not even the author took the situation seriously, or we see the demon God '' lying '' only in the next chapter to reveal his promise, it’s fucking a superior life being, not a clown of riddles.

The forced victimization of TPN villains: Addressing a topic I already wanted to discuss about characters above, I want to first start that I liked Isabella being built in the first arc, but her return only made her character even worse, she is one of the worst characters I’ve seen, just notice Isabella pointing the gun at Emma when she just surrounded Peter, but in the next chapter, she turns out to be a “good” person (again a stupid and poorly driven cliffhanger) and all her actions are justified by flashbacks expository, not even natural in things, are ideas without execution just to make a "redemption", a terrible redemption that didn't even show the structure to be convincing, even the way she died was stupid, precisely the author created his eighth Deus Ex Machina to kill her, with a demon emerging from nowhere, only to immerse an artificial and forced danger, resulting in a silly and poorly characterized death, is so stupid that even the author doesn't it seriously, with the characters overcoming all that pain in minutes, without any form of shock, the author does not care about the characters, nor does he care about the work.

Remember Lewis? It was a good villain right? Quite solid to his purposes, until the last arc destroyed his character, a character who was previously totally cold and had his own morals about humans got a 360 and quickly changed his mind about humans and so did his personality, and the shape how does the story explain this? It couldn't be less than an idiotic and lazy flashback that he became a cuckold for '' losing '' the battle and living like a lone wolf, WITHOUT EXECUTION, just because the mangaka wants the story to go his way and not that it follows a natural course that understands its own ideas, changes over decisions must be made carefully, providing a cohesive pacing becomes something common to make it part of the world, and here it shows us that an idea is nothing without its execution, this artificial construction is so damaging that it managed to destroy the impact that Goldy Pond had as an independent and solid arc, every threat made is transformed into the most stupid being existing in this manga. Peter could be a good villain, but deep down he is just a character from Sword Art Online, I could accept this whole psychopathy, but the author decides to victimize him... A complete nonsense shit, there was not enough reason to to try to do that, it is simply a coward to introduce someone so '' purely evil '' and then victimize him, which only demonstrates that the author wants us to feel sorry for him, and this self-pity does not convince me, in addition to further contradicting the ideas of '' demons are reflections of humanity '', after all only humans suffer, and demons none at all... The search for humanization of character tries to prove important, but every line of reasoning about them follows the same module: artificial speech of villain > reaction after the first conflict > after being cornered he shows himself to be more sentimental, then he will call it "humanization".

As for the non-victimized villains, despite being to some extent solid, they suffer from an outcome like Deus Ex Machina and exaggerations, like Andrew survive a gas explosion, and his glasses get 80% destroyed, yet he can get up to kill the characters, and even when he is about to kill, a demon appears out of nowhere just to be the "savior of the exact moment when he needed it", or we have the Queen of demons, who after losing all his sanity, stay on the edge of madness, seeing all his people die, about to destroy everything, and decides to stop to listen to Emma and die with it... That's exactly the level, but I guarantee that even if justified is ridiculous, the manga demonstrated that these types of demons do not agree with the feelings of humans, now imagine a 100% berserker demon, a solution being made in an imbecile way.

The lack of action and consequence makes me loathe all narrative progress, as much as there are holes in the script here and there, nothing would irritate me more than a story that ignores its own consequences or at least does not decide to do it. Because doing this is not taking on the responsibilities, just because you want to, resulting in bad writing. You don't have to be a genius to notice this with several cases where they face stronger demons, where Emma makes all the decisions of the group and there is no consequence of any of their actions, each dialogue must be taken seriously as the author wants it to be. that is, but not even working on divergences and questions is done with respect to the reader and history, if there is an idea to be followed no matter how moral it may be, someone needs to think otherwise, because this way you balance human relationships, even if the character doesn’t change because of that, it’s always credible to be done, but here it’s not a series that tried to do that, which makes each arc fall in its own way for me.

Normally I would say that the experiences are worth much more than last impressions, but when it is a story loaded with a lot of context and message, with a totally bad conclusion that disrespects the themes themselves, I don't see why I should believe that an experience could speak more loudly, I would have to lie to myself, but I can't hide what I spent reading this, I don't see any quality in the TPN script, even though there are few interesting and solid characters, they are not enough to carry the manga approach. I like Posuka's art, she is really a good artist, and deserves recognition for that, as much as her art is inconsistent in several chapters, I believe she has her own tom, and the whole production of her drawing is very good, if she were in a monthly magazine, maybe we would see her art coming out in a more natural and grandiose way, because working in monthly chapters requires less worrying than weekly workload, I I wish her every success, I will be more anxious for her own stories and what she thinks, is someone I support a lot and has a lot of potential.

The ending is the sort of convenient bittersweet ending you'll find, and even an ending it still surprises me with mestupidity, Ray having heard Conny to find Emma is one of the most senseless and stupid crap, at least it gave me some laughs, overall, I would never imagine that a mediocre character would serve not only as a tool in the first chapter but also in the last, this parallel is not pretty, it is just a lazy and meaningless resource, the fact that Emma meets everyone, in search of fanservice, without the weight that the promise should, if Emma had everyone's memory, even if the others are forgetting her, would be decent, there is no point in forgetting them, and they still being able to find it, but even though it this ending, it does not make this manga less bad than it already is.

i loved this manga to the death, even if some parts of it were a little bit boring, i enjoyed every friggin chapter of every friggin volume. this manga contains some of the most heart-breaking stories i've ever witnessed and some of the most sympathetic and interesting characters. i can't WAIT for the second season of the anime to finally be published and i will definitely rewatch the first season and maybe even reread the manga some day. i know this manga is not perfect and people who read this will know what i'm talking about but sometimes you can't even explain why you like something so much even though objectively it has some or a lot of flaws and with this manga it was exactly that. the only thing that was a little bit irritating was the ending but even that was perfect in its own way.
♥♥♥ i'll never forget this experience

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.

This is my first review so let's see how it goes.

So, recently I was craving a psychological manga and randomly picked this up.
What a pleasant surprise.

Story: 10/10*
The story starts off in our main setting: the orphanage. The sun is shining and the birds are singing and the big happy family is having a meal together. Well, almost. This does not last for long, despair and sorrow will soon follow. This is the day when the main characters stumble upon the secret behind their home and its origins. The story is unlike any other manga I have read before and shows great potential. There are many plot twists in this story and I hope it continues to surprise. It also explores themes of philosophical and ethical nature which make you question your own values.

Art: 9/10*
Clean, consistent and most importantly, very good at adapting its style to the emotions behind each scene. Of course, this is a psychological drama and whenever you need a reminder, it will remind you. The scenery is always beautifully drawn. The world that has been created looks intricate and original. I also want to point out something that I rarely see done right in manga/anime. That is, the way different races are represented. I feel that there is good detail given in racial features which makes the art more realistic and universal.

Character: 8.5/10*
I would like to give this a higher rank, however, the main characters are rooted in some almost stereotypical themes.
BUT! This is executed in such a way that it does not bother me. I will briefly talk about the 3 leads (of the same age).
The main character, Emma, has the typical "I will be Hokage" attitude and while not the smartest of the 3, she shows great insight in times of need. She does not lack any emotional or physical strength and it's a breath of fresh air to see that in a female lead.
The third lead, and probably one of the most complex, Ray, is the typical lost soul, smart soul gone emo. His backstory is explored a bit more and we get to see the reasoning behind his actions.
The second main, Norman, is this virtually perfect character. He is as smart as they come and acts almost as a mediator between the 3, meticulously choosing his course of action in order to reach the best outcome.
If you are hungry for sharp-witted characters similar to the likes of L and Light Yagami look no further. And yes, that was pun intended.
There are of course plenty of other characters and many of those play with your head in terms of being classified as good or evil.

Enjoyment: 10/10*
I found myself so intrigued in this story, bonded with the characters and in awe of what happened. The pacing of the story is appropriate to its complexity and every chapter kept me on the edge of my seat.*

Overall: 9/10*
What I would like for the future of this story is more character development and a chance to expand and explore its world.

*This rant is based on the first 56 chapters of the manga so please keep that in mind while reading this review.

Some recommendations:
~ Go blind into reading this manga!
~ As a comparison of similar themed stories, this manga is a grandchild of Made in Abyss + Attack on Titan. This is based solely, on their anime related content as I have not read their original stories. If you have enjoyed similar themes of survival and raw emotion then you will enjoy this manga.

This had great potential, but the story became very rushed, and every character besides Emma was thrown into the background, that is to say if she even had any development herself. The lore is (was) extremely interesting, yet the plot became weaker and weaker as the story went on, and Emma became more and more of a Mary Sue. Characters were introduced left and right, only to have maybe a few lines of dialogue for the rest of the entire manga.

Quite frankly the last chapters were a joke, and I like to pretend it was a fan-fic epilogue.
Towards the beginning and middle of this manga, there were all kinds of fan theories flying around, but the story just kept going the easy way out every single time - the progression became like playing a massive RPG like TESV and ignoring everything besides the main quest line.

This manga brandishes a spooky aesthetic, and death is constantly toyed with, but minor spoilers, nearly nobody dies. Maybe that's not the point, but don't let yourself be fooled.

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.

Each chapter is captivating and well planned. My god, before I read this I did not believe I could get jump scared by turning a page, but hell, I was proven wrong.
Its one of those rare stories that don't add fillers and fanservice so that it puts all effort onto maximizing its potential. It also introduces concepts and characters at a rate that doesn't make you want to pull out your hair. *ahem* snk.

Story: Not a single chapter has bored me so far, and that's extremely rare. Most stories usually require some more boring and relaxing chapters to make sure the suspense and action doesn't get boring. And that's completely fine, understandable. Yet somehow, this manages to remain suspenseful every chapter without fail and without breaks. Just a never ending roller coaster.

Art: There's lots detail put in the background, and especially, the expressions, its amazing. There's a great tension between the deceptively cute children and morbid situation. The artstyle really helps bring that idea out. On a side note, some of the colored covers later on are absolutely beautiful.

Character: Now here comes my one beef. Every single character, is so rich, amazing, and honestly human. All except one. Emma. Emma is your typical overly positive protagonist that somehow still gets lucky enough to get what she wants. There just isn't a lot of depth in her unfortunately and she's the main deal. Luckily, the other characters more than make up for it. What I really appreciate about the way the author writes most of their characters is how human they are. Selfishness, survival instincts and bravery are weaved into each character so well, much better than how in most stories, all the friends of the protagonists aren't perfect cookie cutter idealists.

Enjoyment: really ties in with how the story is paced, every chapter is done well. And the concept itself is provocative. The amazing part is, that despite how much ideas there are in the story, you don't get confused, because it presents itself with such clarity.

I 100% recommend the story, its the first time in a long time that I charged through a manga from start to end, non stop.

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.