By Dustin Cabeal
There are too many things to compliment about The Promised Neverland. It is a story best enjoyed by diving in and reading it and not by getting information from this review. The reason being is that the biggest twist and turn of the story is also the only way to tell people what the story is about. Any misdirection would make a review confusing, and so with that, I implore you, stop reading this review and start reading The Promised Neverland.
For those of you sticking around because you need to know more than that, I get it, I understand. You won’t regret it, but you’ll kick yourself a little. I did start by saying there are numerous compliments for this series and the first is the plot. Last chance.
The story starts in an orphanage. We meet Emma, a young girl that loves her family. She walks us through a typical day at the orphanage, from the chores to the playing and the intense testing that takes the place of their schooling. And she introduces us to Mom. Mom is obviously not their mother since there’s damn near forty kids. No, she runs the orphanage, but she allows everyone to call her “Mom” which gives them all a greater sense of family and trust. One of the kids gets adopted. She gets new clothes and is all set to leave. It should be a done deal and a bittersweet moment until Emma notices that the little girl has forgotten her favorite toy, a stuffed bunny. Norman picks the lock to the door, and out he and Emma go to return the bunny.
They’re not allowed to go to the gate, that’s an off-limits area, just like the end of the woods that they play in. But they’re young kids, and they care about their little sister being sent out. What they discover is the murdered body of their sister. They hear people coming and hide under the car, only it’s not humans that come… it's demons. From their conversation, they begin to figure out that it’s not an orphanage, but a farm and they’re the product being shipped out. Now, Emma and Norman need to escape from the only place they’ve called home, but they have so much working against them. They enlist the help of Ray, the only other kid their age living at the farm.
The first compliment I have for this story is the title. With what you now know, let’s break this down. The kids can only stay at the farm until age 12 when they’re shipped out no matter what, with that in mind that’s the promise. Neverland is an obvious reference to Peter Pan in which the kids never grow up which is basically true for these kids; they’re never going to grow up because they’re food that is harvested at a certain age.
The twists are the big reason to read this series. I’ve laid out the basic idea; you know that the kids need to escape or be eaten, but there are so many other complications to deal with, and the biggest is Mom. Mom knows the game and has been running it for years, by the time the kids figure out what’s happening they’re easily outmaneuvered by her adding many degrees of difficulty to the plan. Worse is the fact that Emma doesn’t want to leave anyone behind. Remember, I mentioned there were damn near 40 kids living on the farm, and only five of them are older, so bringing everyone along seems damn near impossible. Even worse, there’s a rat among the kids, be it intentional or unintentional. All Emma and Norman know is that for whatever reason, Mom is stuck in this game as well and can’t simply turn them over to the demons just yet. In that way, it’s a spy thriller full of lies, espionage and every character acting. Emma, Norman, and Ray are all forced to flip their switches and be the sweet loving kids they were before they learned the dark secret waiting for them.
The writing is spectacular. I have never read a story with so much genre meshing that worked as brilliantly as it does here. Its one-part prison escape, one-part dystopian future, another part sci-fi, a big part of it is the espionage aspect, and then all of that is jumbled together with this big ass mystery of what the fuck is going on in this world! It’s never confusing, nor does it make you feel dumb. Instead, it cleverly reveals everything as the story goes on. Now, some might call bullshit on the kids being so smart, but they’re not. They’re smarter than average kids, but they’ve been given a lot of knowledge as well. Even still, something that they fully admit is that Mom is smarter than they are and several moves ahead.
The only downside to the trades is that the writing is incredible at recapping the story as it goes along. I started reading this series around the end of the third volume on the Weekly Shonen Jump app and not only was I able to jump onto the series easily but again, I never felt lost. Reading in trade I realized how many smooth recaps there were, but I’m sure some will find that annoying. It is just a product of weekly writing, but it's still incredible that it’s able to do that as the story goes along.
The artwork brings it all together. These kids look like real kids. They’re not shrunken adults that look awkward standing next to actual adults. The setting is fantastic; the building looks rustic and yet beautiful. It makes the theme even scarier because it’s a quaint little house of murder. What stands out the most for the artwork is the facial expressions. Posuka Demizu has this brilliant way of showing the face the kids and adults are “acting” with and then their true face. Essentially one panel will show their poker face, the face that the other characters are seeing. The next panel will show how they’re really feeling, which can range from stern, to rage-filled. There’s a third level to this though because then the story will have characters at different times completely break character and reveal their true selves for the first time. Moments like when Emma thanks Ray for something, but at the same time tells him if he causes anyone pain that she’ll be the one to kill him, not the demons. It’s moments like this that elevate the story and make the art so important. There are times with comics and manga in which the story feels like the afterthought of the story, but not here. The cohesion between the writing and art is amazing and makes you think that it’s all one person when it’s not.
The Promised Neverland is unique in many ways. It is not some tall tale or review fluff when I say I have never read anything like this before. It’s a rare gem to find. I stopped reading it weekly because my heart simply couldn’t take it anymore. Everyone dancing on the edge of a knife all the time is amazing but also wears you out. What was particularly amazing about these trades, was the fact that even though I knew everything that happened for the most, it still hooked me with every word and panel. It still surprised me and built the drama to absolute perfection. Now, don’t you wish you had listened to me in the beginning and just gone and read the series? Or do you think that I played you like Mom and made sure you made it to the end of this review? Guess we’ll never know.
Score: 5/5 (All three volumes)
The Promised Neverland vol. 1-3
Story by Kaiu Shirai
Art by Posuka Demizu
Publisher: Viz Media