Title: The Promised Neverland Vol. 20
Author: Kaiu Shirai (Story), Posuka Demizu (Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Digital
Pages: 240
Genre: Horror, Drama
Publication Date: August 3, 2021
Final Thoughts
We have reached the end of a long journey. The final volume wraps things up with a bit of a bittersweet ending… one that I will not spoil for those who haven’t read it as of yet. I will make a comment on it, though, as when the ending came out originally in Japan, a lot of online readers scoffed at it… calling it a terrible ending; however, after reading it… I don’t truly understand what they were complaining about. Sure, it may not have been exactly what they wanted but I thought that it ended rather well. Then again, everyone’s opinion is different because everyone’s tastes are different but I didn’t really find much wrong with how it was handled.
As for the volume… being the final installment, we learned about everything except for one thing which I found rather odd… a certain name but I’ll leave it at that. We did see the fate of demons under their new royal regime that was set up in the last volume. In turn, we saw the fate of the farms as well as the conclusion to Grace Field standing up to Peter Ratri. We learned what kind of promise Emma made, and we saw the end of their journey.
Reflecting back, there weren’t any loose ends that I could immediately think of that they haven’t touched upon. The only thing would be how the demons were faring after drinking Mujika’s blood but they implied that everything was going to be fine so I guess we’re just to assume that without actually seeing the aftermath.
As a whole, The Promised Neverland was a series that first captivated me in television anime form. As they often say… the anime is a giant ad for the source material and that couldn’t be truer as it did get me to buy the manga. After buying and reviewing it in the beginning, I was fortunate enough to be able to review the rest of the series for VIZ.
At first, this series seemed like another Attack on Titan in the sense that we had people being treated as livestock behind a wall that contained them. They knew nothing of the outside world and wanted to reach it. That basic premise is shared between the two series but that’s where it stops. The children made their escape early on in the series and from there it took a hard left turn and went in a completely different direction. Rather than a series about wanting to escape, it was a series about surviving, discovering, and creating a better future for themselves.
Of all the arcs, I believe Goldy Pond was my favorite. This is where we really got a good grasp on the world, how it came to be, information on the demons, the Ratri Clan, who William Minerva really was, and so forth. That arc did an amazing job of just setting up and answering a lot of scenarios in the series. It baffles me to no end how that arc was completely cut from the tv anime, given how important it was.
Oddly enough, Mujika ended up being my favorite character in the series. Everything she did to help out Emma and the others, holding firm to her beliefs, and the hardships she had to face… all of it was really endearing to where you felt a connection to her. Emma was optimistic to a fault. While it’s rare to see a pacifist character stay true to themselves and NOT look like a wuss doing it is rare in this day and age and Emma pulled that off well but there were just some moments where that pacifism turned some situations into a facepalm moment.
After the initial Grace Field arc, Ray just seemed kind of there. Even during the Emma Rescue portion of Goldy Pond, Ray became a backseat main character. Norman, on the other hand, had some twists and turns in his journey and ended up just being a typical strategist character that always seemed to have a calculated answer to every situation. While the main characters were unique enough to stand on their own, I just didn’t feel deep connections with them. Maybe it was because that it was expected of them for having main character plot armor? Sometimes the things they came up with for solutions were a little too perfect? I don’t know… but I found myself attached to more supporting characters than I did the main cast in this series.
Overall, I felt this was a thrilling series. There were a lot of twists and turn developments throughout the story and the information dumps were all very interesting. Even though some of the plot points were predictable, there were a few others that weren’t. As I said in the beginning, the ending didn’t really bother me as I felt it tied everything up nicely and I’m okay with it. Then again, in my own books, I put my characters through mental torture and pain all the time so maybe something like this resonated with me and my own writing style?
Who knows?
My feelings on the anime adaptation aside, The Promised Neverland is definitely worth checking out in manga form. This is one case where the source material is far better than the adaptation and I think people owe it to themselves to give this series a read!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
