The Promised Neverland is one of the most promising titles to jump to anime in quite some time. With a popular manga backing it, the title is set to become a must-see event of 2019, and its premiere proved that was the case when it dropped a major bombshell on fans.
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So, you have been warned! If you have not seen The Promised Neverland‘s debut, there are spoilers below!
This week, the anime’s premiere went live, and it introduced audiences to the Grace Field House. The orphanage houses scores of young children including a girl named Emma, a playful ginger who tends to mother those around her. Along with her friends Ray and Norman, the trio head up the orphanage as their caretaker Mama Isabella prepares children for their adoptions. However, it doesn’t take long for the anime to reveal not all is as it seems.
In the final moments of the premiere, The Promised Neverland makes good on its promise to traumatize fans. The ordeal begins when a little girl named Conny is taken away. She is set to be adopted, but Emma is aghast when she learns the girl left her favorite stuffed rabbit behind. She and Norman try to return the doll to Conny before she goes away for good, but they never find the girl.
Instead, they find her corpse.
As it turns out, Conny was not adopted so much as she was murdered. The girl was used as a human sacrifice to feed the demons which populate the outside world, a place the kids of Grace Field House have never seen. Emma and Norman are left to run in terror as they learn their true life purpose is to be cattle for demons, and the girl makes the decision to flee the orphanage while she can. However, she is not going to leave without her siblings in tow, a task that will surely prove to be difficult for Emma and Norman to complete.
So, will you be keeping up with this anime as its first season continues? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @MeganPetersCB to talk all things comics and anime!
Originally created by Kaiu Shirai with illustrations provided by Posuka Demizu, The Promised Neverland joined Shueisha’s Weekly Shonen Jump magazine in 2016. It’s been a key series ever since its debut, leading to selling over 4.2 million copies in such a short time.
The Promised Neverland is licensed by VIZ Media for an English language release and is described as such, “Emma, Norman and Ray are the brightest kids at the Grace Field House orphanage. And under the care of the woman they refer to as “Mom,” all the kids have enjoyed a comfortable life. Good food, clean clothes and the perfect environment to learn—what more could an orphan ask for? One day, though, Emma and Norman uncover the dark truth of the outside world they are forbidden from seeing.”
