Discussion Yakusoku no Neverland Overall Series Opinion

[Belserion]

With the final chapter of Yakusoku no Neverland released, let's take a look back at the entire series. How do you rate the overall story? What was the best moment? Series MVP? What would you have liked to see? What would you have changed? Use this thread to share your thoughts.

 

[ValiantCielSquirrel]

I have more I can share of course, but I'll start with this for now.
Reading from beginning to end was quite the ride, emotional at times, quite compelling and inspiring. I think the compelling nature was largely due to how inherently interesting stories about a chase/escape can be. From the start of my reading and even recently, I couldn’t help but see strong parallels between TPN and A Series of Unfortunate Events. The latter was and still is to some extent one of my favorite childhood novels, and it was nostalgic/pleasant to see so many commonalities between the two stories: the eye figure, setting the house aflame, three clever orphans, working to escape tyrannic people, the theme of sticking together to overcome obstacles/find happiness, mysterious organizations, and a lone figure who secretly helped the children out. This was a special series to me partly for this reason.

I discovered this manga from recommendations of other fan readers online, while the story was into its second or third arc, about 70 chapters in, and all while I was working/living abroad with a host family for a year in Finland (2017-2018). I can’t forget that night I decided to begin reading and consequently couldn’t put the story down, binge-reading the first arc of the story for close to a week straight. There was such tension, anxiety, warm camaraderie, and clever writing that I ended up having dreams about how the story would play out, and I don’t regret missing out on some hours of sleep during that time. In my dream of the first arc, Emma decided to sacrifice herself to the people running the farms, for the sake of helping the others escape, and somehow began climbing up a huge tree. As she climbed up by herself, she met a mysterious figure who seemed to have miraculous power and agreed to help her. There may have been more to the dream, but those were the main points. Close enough to the story if I may say. I was quite baffled when I realized that one of my guesses about the story ended up coming true: the fire at Grace Field House for the initial escape. It was just one of those parallels to A Series of Unfortunate Events I never thought would actually happen.

 

[Seraph]

Rather than trying to write down all of my thoughts and feelings regarding Neverland's ending in a wall i figured i'm probably better off sticking to previously suggested categories. Such as MVP,Favourites etc.

Warning: The following Characters,Moments and Opinions have been mostly based on fanboyisms and hype. I'm not ashamed. At all.

Anyway,here i go:

Top 3 Female Characters:
Isabella,Musica and Ayshe.

Top 3 Male Characters:
Ray,Yuugo and Lewis.

MVP/s:
Ray and Isabella. Ray due to all of his contributions,quick wits and clever thinking througout the series. Isabella,obviously,due to her performance at the beginning and ending of the Manga. Never was i happier than when i saw Peter's reactions to all the Mom's betraying him,i won't lie about it.

Top 3 Moments:
>The "Death" of Lewis and the following Destruction of Goldy Pond.
>Yuugo and Lucas blowing themselves up along with Andrew inside the shelter. Both die, while Andrew(Though terribly injured) survived only to get eaten by a demon afterwards.
>Queen Legravalima(Had to google this tongue twister first-) revealing that she has 2 cores during her fight with Norman,his allies,Sonju,Emma and Co.

What i would have liked to see:
Ray and Isabella having a proper and heartwarming Mother-Son Moment,i also would have liked for Isabella to survive and travel alongside the kids to the Human World. She could have been a good Mom for all of them,including Ray. And a way better guardian than Mike Ratri.

What i would've changed:
Yuugo's moment of Death,if he absolutely had to die in the story then not at the Shelter. I would've preferred if Lucas had pulled some lone wolf suicide bomber shtick and killed all of the Soldiers+Andrew with the explosion,leaving Yuugo as the sole "parent" at the time. In my opinion, Yuugo should've died at the Capital Battle against the Queen while fighting alongside Zazie,Barbra,Cicero,Ray and Emma.

How i would rate the entire TPN Manga:
I'm not really good at giving proper ratings for concluded series/franchises i think but for the sake of this thread i'll try and do it anyway, i'd rate The Promised Neverland a clean 8/10.

(Cover Art from Volume 8)

I thank the Author and Artist for all the memories i have of Neverland as well as all the fun i had while reading it,loved writing the Reviews for the Chapters and i loved reading the Manga. Some things didn't go like i wanted them but for the majority of this Manga i was satisfied and happy about it. Thanks a lot for that Shirai-Sensei and Demizu-san!

 

[ValiantCielSquirrel]

Nice! I'll add some more thoughts.

I agree with the overall rating of 8/10. <: My favorite characters (in no particular order) were most likely Emma, Norman, Ray, Isabella, Phil, and Mujika, and it's difficult to further rank these characters, except for Phil and Mujika. I liked the main trio and Mom best. I had been hoping for a more proper ending for Isabella and it came true! Emma was/still is like radiant sunshine to me (who grew in ways I loved), Norman such a thoughtful, kind, multi-faceted kid, and Ray and Isabella both fascinatingly complex/mischievous. They all in some ways feel like role models, though I liked/appreciated many other characters as well.

My top three moments:
-Emma's talk with mom about giving up escape, shortly after Norman's "shipment". A quiet and original little moment of good storytelling.
-That ambush/attack by Andrew & his soldiers back at the underground base/nearby woods, that the kids barely survived. I did not see any of it coming and was genuinely afraid for the family for some chapters. It left an awful aftertaste for a little while.
-Emma and Ray's joyous reunion with Norman at the other secret base, followed by plans for war/mass killing/paradise. Also didn't see this coming, and was initially shocked and overjoyed, then later nervous/apprehensive about the direction Norman was taking. I feel I've come to understand his motives/circumstances much better since then.

I very much enjoyed the various pieces of promotional artwork, as well as many of the side stories. I was really surprised and happy too to see that the season 1 anime adapted one of the side stories into a flashback.

Favorite cover art?

https://dw9to29mmj727.cloudfront.net/products/1974708888.jpg

https://comicvine1.cbsistatic.com/uploads/scale_small/6/67663/7265426-18.jpg

Agreed, the scene of all the moms' backstabbing Peter was excellent! I also wished Isabella could've stuck around, much better guardian! I thought Yuugo's final moments were quite well-done/poignant, and was just a great older character/mentor in general. There isn't much I would honestly want to change within the story, except for maybe the way Emma and Ray confronted Norman at the royal capital palace, and perhaps the pacing of the GF infiltration leading up to confronting Peter. There was a lot more potential/details to delve into within the latter, despite pressures to end the story soon. I also thought a slightly more complex, emotionally-intense, and gradual talk to convince Norman to stop would've felt more natural, but I'm not that disappointed and found the outcome to be pleasantly unexpected. Lastly, I really wish the story would offer a bit more explanation into Norman's 1 1/2 year long journey before and after escaping Lambda. I was very curious about that. Maybe in the upcoming light novel...? An epilogue could also be added to the light novel. A backstory about... somebody, extra details on Norman's escape, and epilogue content can likely fit, it's more a matter of the author's decision I suppose.

Thanks again to the author and artist both for their brilliant story!

 

[Elusia]

And so, another manga from shonen jump has reached its end.

Long story short, I have been a fan of it. I went and register into this forum to discuss this in particular. I didn't exactly went through with that cause I've gotten bored reading this weekly, but I did stick through it. Was it worth it? Yea. I think the hatred after the big success of the first arc was warranted though they have a lot of good moments after. This series could have gotten a lot worse, but for what its worth, it didn't drag on for too long and ended where it needed to be. It was bittersweet and left me a bit satisfied.

We'll see if it lives through the anime adaptation and the eventual western live-action series though.

Best Moments: The Ray and Norman confrontation in the first arc, the grace field escape and the main trio reunion.
Best Characters/MVP of the story: Isabella. No contest. Yuugo would be my honorable mention.
What things I would have liked to see: The human world. Felt like it wasn't enough and would love to see more of it.
What would I have changed in this story: A lot. But the biggest thing is to have a lot of character deaths during the Goldy Pond arc.
Best cover art: Volume 12. Beautiful.

Overall, this series is good to me and I would give it a light recommendation, like between a strong 6 to a flimsy 7. Might give a 7 in the end just cause I do appreciate it, flaws and all. I give a big thanks to the author and the artist for this manga! \o/

 

[deyna]

8/10 rating.

fav arc: grace field escape arc, when emma, ray, norman meet again, and isabella appeared again
not much my fav arc: goldy pond arc. reason being; the kids who are gravely injured are not dead especially gillian's friends. they got badly injured after fighting nous and nouma but they still can survive all that. same with oliver.

i wanted at least yuugo or lucas to be alive after killing andrew's group.