the promised neverland was truly a ride. i started off the manga a bit confused, to say the best. to some extent, i'd expected this to be an odd example of some sort of pro-veganism thing... not that there's anything wrong with veganism, but the whole cattle and farm bit definitely seemed a bit similar to the human consumption of meat. as the story progressed, i became more and more interested. i found that the main three (the top scorers? if that's how they're referred to) were very interesting characters.
i'm not the best at keeping track of arcs, so as much as i'd like to, i can't sit and individually review each one. the manga was off to a beautiful start, and the death of norman (ie where the anime left off) was something that i didn't see coming. some sort of a desperate hope remained within me, and i kept on hoping that norman would show up at the right time, whenever it was convenient enough. this did eventually happen, but i didn't expect for him to be trapped in some sort of a super-lab, lead a rebellion out, and then for him to be vehemently pro-extinction (of demons).
emma herself wasn't the most interesting main character to me for a while- maybe this is because i just in general have a preference for more tactic-based female characters, but i found that she as a character grew SO much throughout the manga that i couldn't help but love her at the end.
norman was probably my favorite of the three- i admired how patient he was and how even despite his circumstances, he always continued to push on. emma and norman definitely weren't similar in every way, but his intellect combined with her positive mindset toward life, despite the very world that they lived in being founded upon ideals that were against them. emma was the perfect main character for this story, and norman reflected this very well, being your classic, genius male character that some may have expected to be more fitting of a lead for the story of the promised neverland. where norman was all about tactics and intellect, and eventually where he was stone-cold and focused on revenge, emma was optimistic and caring, searching for what she'd deem as the true answer to a problem that should have been solved a thousand years ago.
ray was a very layered character; when i started the manga, i couldn't help but think that he reminded me of the one bird kid from boku no hero academia (my apologies, i don't remember his name) because of his hairstyle. as time went on, especially within the first 40 chapters of the manga, i grew to love and appreciate ray so much. sure, he was some sort of a classic tsundere character, but the promised neverland allowed for him to grow so much as a person. yuugo had felt similar to him in a way, and the time that they had spent together seemed to be very beneficial for ray.
the ending of the promised neverland was very honestly a bit disappointing and rushed. while the story most definitely could not have gone on forever, i found that the whole memory-loss ending was exhausting for me as a reader to comprehend. i wouldn't say that this trope is an overdone one, and very realistically it made sense to me, so maybe i was just caught in the same bout of selfishness that emma had described when speaking to the one, hopelessly dreaming for a "perfect" ending. the open ending, thankfully, wasn't as bad as i've seen in other forms of media. no specific description as to how bad emma's demonic memory erasure was as well as the general positive note that the story ended on leaves me hopeful, although i do wish that norman, emma, and ray's friendship had been able to shine a little more. once again, this may just be due to my own selfishness- given their circumstances, it only makes sense that they were busy, which just brings me back to the sadness of knowing that emma was never able to fully sit down and chat with her friends, relishing the joy of battles well fought and a war justifiably won.
the promised neverland is something that i definitely hope to not forget; it was an array of emotions and a display of how far one will go for their found family, showcasing love, loss, growth, and war- all through the eyes of those who were barely (if not at all) teenagers.
oh- and just a separate note: i have to say that i found it absolutely hilarious when the kids ended up in new york in the human world of all places.
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