”This is what we thought could never happen”
Creative Staff
Story: Kaiu Shirai
Art: Posuka Demizu
Translation/Adaptation: Satsuki Yamashita
What They Say
Life at Grace Field House is good for Emma and her fellow orphans. While the daily studying and exams they have to take are tough, their loving caretaker provides them with delicious food and plenty of playtime. But perhaps not everything is as it seems…
As Grace Field House goes up in flames, Emma and the other children make their run for freedom. With Mom refusing to give up and an army of demons at her call, this escape from captivity won’t be easy. Just what will Emma have to sacrifice to pull it off…?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I have absolutely no idea how fans are able to follow this series on a weekly basis. Each chapter creeps at such a fantastically slow pace, masked exclusively by its end-of-chapter cliffhangers that try so earnestly to keep you satiated until the next chapter where the cycle repeats.
Immediately picking up where we left off, we have Emma and the rest of the gang escaping from Grace Fields. It should be this over-the-top, grandiose affair. We have spent four whole volumes building up to this point in time where all the kids are to escape from their prison, and yet we spend very little time actually seeing the events of the escape go down. Instead, we’re primarily treated to a long series of “gotcha” moments where we backtrack with a character to explain just how they were able to execute their escape in the first place. It’s a nice twist to see Emma’s family being so stupendously prepared for every obstacle in their way, but to backtrack for the sake of a “you thought they couldn’t do it, but just look at them now!” type of moment really breaks up the momentum of the escape itself in such a way that feels clumsy and slower than it should be. This feels especially ill-fitting when you consider just how many times this sort of twist has been pulled off in the series already.
This isn’t to say that the creative team of Shirai and Demizu treat the escape with any less importance than it deserves. It’s just that they go about it in such an overly shonen manner that doesn’t directly contribute to the story in the slightest. A lot of the escape is less about the literal act of escaping Grace Field House and more about getting into everyone’s headspace while the escape occurs. This would be a lot more interesting, if any of the cast had anything original to say. And yet we’re again treated to endless internal monologues filled with encouragement and fighting spirit. It’s meant to be this touching moment as we finally see the escape plan go off without a hitch, but author Shira’s writing can get so dense with platitudes that I can’t help but roll my eyes when some of these characters talk. Everyone has so little to say, and yet every word is treated with such gravitas that it comes off as more obnoxious than anything else.
But hey. This is a series published in Shonen Jump. Of course it would be filled with moral-tastic “never give up!” messages. It’s fine.
Or I should say it’s fine because these shonen tropes are offset by the handful of truly solid moments this volume, particularly from Phil and Mother. Phil is an interesting character because he’s one of the youngest kids in the house and yet the series never treats him as such. He’s able to handle just as much mental trauma, if not more than the other kids, and is thrust with infinitely more responsibility than our main characters. Likewise, Mother and her final goodbye to the escaped kids feels like it could have been milked far more than it actually was. We see this character as a villain to the kids, and yet throughout the escape, we begin to learn so much about her that justifies everything she’s done. She isn’t a pure villain, but a human that’s making the best of a rough spot. Both their moments during the escape, albeit brief, really do save the scene from coming off as too angsty and meander-y.
All this and we’re not even halfway through the volume yet!
What finishes out the rest of the volume is the gang venturing through a vast forest. A far cry from their forest at Grace Field (literally, and figuratively), this bizarre forest has trees gargantuan in size, alongside strange plants, and straightup monsters. It gives off a very fairy tale vibe that’s in-line with the series, so the change of pace still feels familiar enough. And while the added intrigue of a mysterious author leaving clues in a book to aid the kids in survival provides plenty for future chapters to take on, other moments are again bogged down by shonen-tastic inner monologues. Ray figuring out how to escape and the options he has feels less like he’s trying to escape, and more like he’s stalling for time while the author figures out exactly how he’s gonna write himself out of this fix.
It’s frustrating at times, but there is definitely enough intrigue to keep you reading.
In Summary:
The Promised Neverland is the least shonen in plot, but the most shonen in execution. Its major plot point of escaping the orphanage is riddled with unnecessary backtracking and soliloquies of nothing, and yet the volume as a whole still comes out in one piece. There’s some missteps, yes, but still plenty of intrigue to keep you reading without having it come off as too much of a tease.
Content Grade: B-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Teen
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: August 7, 2018
MSRP: $9.99
