This review pretty much spoils the whole manga, beware anime only people.
When the anime adaptation for Promised Neverland came out, i was suprised with the level of quality it brought to the table, considering i was expecting it to be something decent but nothing really noteworthy. The music for it was great, the pacing was well done and the creepy scenes were excellent. As my interest peaked, i made sure to check out the manga for myself to see if it was the same deal and honestly, i am quite dissapointed with the direction it went, from being a thriller series to a political survival story which had many opportunities to do well, but failed.
One problem i had was the antagonists. Though Isabella appeared to be very cruel at first, she ultimatelly did it for her own survival and to be a great "Mama" to her future children when she was given a choice, which in itself humanized her alot more and in turn, made me appreciate her character more.
Though it is another thing with the other antagonists. All the other antagonist do it for their own survival aswell, but the way the author tries to make us feel bad for them, even after the unimaginable things they have done is straight up stupid. How you expect us to like Lewis, a cold-blooded killer doing messed up games for killing humans and try to humanize him in the end stages of the series? What about Peter Ratri you ask, which is the MAIN antagonist of the series? This dude played a big role in the event of the series but at the end, he just plays out to be a minor setback for Emma and the gang, which just straight up seemed stupid considering his name is a big deal.
Without great antagonists, there really isn't a suspense in the story and makes the trip to overcoming the Demon World boring.
Another problem i had was with Emma. Even though her mindset is not something i'm against, it is straight up pathetic how she takes the spotlight from the other great, more developed characters like Norman and Ray. Norman and Ray could be setting up a plan for 24 hours and here comes Emma in with her really annoying optimism about how "we shouldn't kill demons, we are the same".
With this being a thriller series, you also expect there are risks to Emma's plans and how she is constantly in danger, but that doesn't matter. Why? Because she is a Mary Sue character , in which she does not get harmed AT ALL. Literally the only 2 incidents i can remember in which she ACTUALLY gets hurt is in the 1st Arc and Goldy Pond around chapter 93(?), but thats about it. She always gets off scoff-free or there are others who take damage for her which is just annoying.
As i mentioned above aswell, the good side characters get pushed to the side which is a bummer. Ray especially gets shafted to the side and has no impact on the story, which is a huge downgrade considering he is the 2nd smartest character in the story, and his plans which are well put toghether. After Normans incident in the lab and him becoming smarter, you expect him to put in plans which he does with the plans of making demons fight each other but nah, Emma comes in and does her shit.
What about the ending, which people got annoyed about? Well, it was a bittersweet ending which felt very rushed, a big shame. Yes, the kids get what they wanted but questions were unanswered like why Peter Ratri though of Julius as a hero, lack of conclusion for Andrew and Phil. It also felt very rushed due to the fact that they just dropped Emma and literally 2 pages later she is found lol.
With me shitting on the manga alot, did i hate it? Definetly not, no. There were some great moments like Mama interogatting Emma with a really creepy and suspenseful panel. I also liked most of the fighting scenes and while the world-building was lacking, it had a good base of what it could achieve.
With that out of the way, what is my consensus on it as a whole? Well, it did things very well in the beginning and art was great, but later just devolved into a mess which i had no reason to really remember. It is really a shame, considering the author had many opportunities to suprise the reader in many ways. Still tho, i do reccomend watching the anime adaptation, which i think is excellent and Season 2 which is on the horizon, its going to be good!
