Title: The Promised Neverland Vol. 13
Author: Kaiu Shirai (Story), Posuka Demizu (Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Genre: Horror, Drama
Publication Date: January 7, 2020
The Story
Volume thirteen of The Promised Neverland brings us the conclusion to the hideout raid where Lucas and Yugo stay behind to allow all of them to escape. Emma and the others do just that and pick out a spot that they believe isn’t known by the Ratri Clan or the demons. Despite that, Andrew finds them and the reason behind how he found them leads them to realize that their safe haven isn’t so safe.
William Minerva left them a message to travel someplace which, after decoded, is The Lion’s Jaw. They believe it’s a 10-day trip there but, at this point, it is their only option. They begin the journey where they run into two humans, Jin and Hayato, who is being attacked by demons. After they save them, they realize that they are agents of Mr. Minerva sent to find them once he got word that the shelter was attacked by the Ratri Clan.
The volume ends when they realize that they’re not going to make it to the shelter in time before Chris could die from his injuries. They decide to take a detour by raiding a nearby farm for its medicine.
This felt like a transitional volume as we get the conclusion of one story and a bridge into another. Now, it seems that we’re getting a side quest to help save Chris’ life as he is in pretty dire straits. The new characters seem legit but as with anything in this series, you kind of have to take things with a grain of salt. You never know what twists and turns may happen… especially since this series has had a long history of swerves.
Still, as a bridge volume, it had a pretty good pace that moved the story forward. Looks like we’re heading back to some action or maybe some good old stealthing next volume.
Characters
We ended up getting a nice flashback for Yugo which showed the events leading up to when he met Emma and the others, bringing his backstory full circle. We can finally fully understand the reasons behind why Yugo was the way he was and how he progressed as a character. Wish we could have done a bit of a deeper dive on Lucas but with the whole Goldy Pond incident and his association with Yugo, his story tied into Yugo’s so well that he didn’t really need a major deep dive. Still, Yugo ended up being a great character.
Jin and Hayato are a little on the overexcited side when they realize who Emma, Ray, and the others are. They seem pretty legit and helpful and I guess moving into this new arc, we needed some new characters to associate with so it makes sense to add them to the pile. Like no, really… this cast is getting pretty huge but the thing is, unlike other manga like Assassination Classroom, The Promised Neverland only focuses on the main, important characters while using all of the supporting characters as plot devices. While this is usually frowned upon as it makes them feel worthless, Kaiu Shirai does an outstanding job keeping them on the back burner and using them in ways where it actually matters!
Final Thoughts
This was a volume that gave us a little bit of everything. We had great action, some shocking (or maybe not-so-shocking) moments, a bit of story progression, new characters, some character development, and everything else in between all wrapped up into a transitional volume. Most transitional volumes exist in order to let you breathe and digest everything that has happened and while this volume does so, it keeps you entertained and interested in everything that is going on all at the same time. This series just keeps finding ways to keep you hooked and reading with each and every page.
Even though the series has gone a bit Call of Duty-ish, it still fits the overall premise of the story… unlike 7th Garden which completely changed the landscape in the most jarring way possible. There is a great flow from beginning to end in this book and it gets you amped up for the next volume as a good manga should.
I also like how they touched on the Ratri Clan and we even did get another brand-new character but we didn’t get much about him… just a name. His name is James. There was another group with a character in it named Zazie and just reading that caused me to have flashbacks to Tegami Bachi (another phenomenal series if you want a recommendation). Although this Zazie is completely different. Who these people are remain a mystery but I like how they were quickly introduced with little to no information. It’s a great hook to keep you coming back for more and that is exactly what I’m going to do once Volume 14 hits!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
