The Promised Neverland (Japanese: 約束のネバーランド, Hepburn: Yakusoku no Nebārando) is a Japanese manga series written by Kaiu Shirai and illustrated by Posuka Demizu. It was serialized in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from August 2016 to June 2020, with its chapters collected in 20 tankōbon volumes. In North America, Viz Media licensed the manga for English release and serialized it on their digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. The series follows a group of orphaned children in their plan to escape from their orphanage, after learning the dark truth behind their existence and the purpose of the orphanage. The Promised Neverland was adapted into an anime television series produced by CloverWorks and broadcast on Fuji TV's Noitamina programming block. The first season ran for 12 episodes from January to March 2019. A second season ran for 11 episodes from January to March 2021. A live-action film adaptation was released in December 2020. Amazon Studios is also developing an American live-action series. A musical stage play adaptation is set to run in Q4 2026. In 2018, the manga won the 63rd Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category. By August 2023, The Promised Neverland had over 42 million copies in circulation, including digital versions, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. The manga has been overall well received by critics, particularly for its storytelling, characters and world-building. The first season of the anime series was well received, being considered one of the best anime series of the 2010s. Reception for the second season, however, was overwhelmingly negative, mainly due to its rushed pacing and simplification of the original manga's plot.
Synopsis
Setting In a strange world filled with sentient creatures of different species, an agreement called "The Promise" was made to end a long war between humans and the so-called demons. "The Promise" was an agreement where each would live in their own separate "worlds": the human world, free from the threat of demons; and the demon world, where human breeding farms were set up to provide food for the demons. By eating humans, demons take on their attributes which prevent them from degenerating into mindless monsters. In the demon world, a special breeding program was set up under the guise of orphanages; there, a human "Mother" would oversee the children to make sure they grew up as intelligent as possible. These children had identifying numbers tattooed on them and had no knowledge of the outside world. They believed that they were orphans and once they reached a certain age or intelligence, they would be taken out for adoption, but were fed to high-ranking demons instead.
Plot
In 2045, 1,000 years after the formation of "The Promise", the bright and cheerful Emma is an 11-year-old orphan living in Grace Field House, a self-contained orphanage housing her and 37 other orphans. They lead an idyllic life, with plentiful food, plush beds, clean clothes, games and the love of their "Mom", Isabella. Their education is seen as an important part of their development, and Emma, with her two best friends Norman and Ray, always excels in the regular exams. The orphans are allowed complete freedom, except to venture beyond the perimeter wall or gate which separate the house from the outside world. One night, a girl named Conny is sent away to be "adopted", but Emma and Norman follow with her favorite stuffed animal toy. At the gate, they find Conny dead and discover the truth about their existence in this idyllic orphanage—to be raised as meat for demons. Emma and Norman plan with Ray to escape from Grace Field House with the children, but Norman is taken off to be "adopted". Emma and Ray then decide to escape with some of their other siblings, leaving half of the younger children behind. The escapees find life outside Grace Field House is filled with dangers, but under the leadership of Emma and Ray, they become determined to return to free their remaining siblings, along with children from the other Farms. They encounter demons of all descriptions, including Mujika and Sonju, who aid them in their quest. Emma and Ray later meet up again with Norman and together with their allies, they fight a battle for freedom against the demon queen Legravalima and the human Peter Ratri, who manages the Farms. Eventually, through her own determination, Emma secures the freedom of all the children and re-forges "The Promise", bringing all of them to the human world, but at the cost of her own memory.
Production
Development The series was first conceived in late 2013 from a draft titled Neverland; the title was later changed to The Promised Neverland due to copyright concerns. Kaiu Shirai submitted the 300-page draft to the Weekly Shōnen Jump editorial department. Editor Suguru Sugita described it as an ambitious work atypical for Jump, blending bright and dark scenes within a suspenseful fantasy world. Shirai noted that Sugita suggested limiting the series to around twelve volumes, comparable in length to Death Note. Finding an artist whose style suited the story proved challenging. Shirai and Sugita considered Posuka Demizu a leading candidate due to her artistic fit for the series’s imagery. Several other artists declined, citing the story's deviation from typical Jump manga or its perceived lack of commercial potential. Demizu's agreement was met with enthusiasm. Sugita compared the creative synergy between Shirai and Demizu to that of Death Note creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. Prior to serialization, Shirai and Demizu published the one-shot Poppy's Wish (ポピィの願い, Poppy no Negai) on Shōnen Jump+ in February 2016. Its positive reception confirmed to Sugita that they were the right team for The Promised Neverland.
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