The Promised Neverland
The Promised Neverland is a Japanese manga series written by Kaiu Shirai and illustrated by Posuka Demizu. It was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from August 2016 to June 2020, with the individual chapters collected and published by Shueisha into eighteen tankōbon volumes as of 2020. The story follows a group of orphaned children in their escape plan from an orphanage.
An anime television series adaptation by CloverWorks premiered from January to March 2019 in the Noitamina programming block. A second season has been announced to premiere in January 2021. A live-action film adaptation is set to release in December 2020.
Viz Media licensed the manga in North America and serialised The Promised Neverland in their digital Weekly Shonen Jump magazine.
As of June 2020, The Promised Neverland had over 21 million copies in circulation. In 2018, the manga won the 63rd Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category.
Plot
Set in the year 2045, Emma is an 11-year-old orphan living in Grace Field House, a self-contained orphanage housing her and 37 other orphans. Life has never been better: with gourmet food; plush beds; clean clothes; games; and the love from their "Mom", the caretaker, Isabella. The bright and cheerful Emma always aces the regular exams with her two best friends, Ray and Norman. The orphans are allowed complete freedom, except to venture beyond the grounds or the gate, which connects the house to the outside world.One night, an orphan named Conny is sent away to be adopted, but Emma and Norman followed her after noticing that she left her stuffed toy, Little Bunny, back at the house. At the gate, they find Conny dead, and they realize the truth of their existence in this idyllic orphanage—to be raised, eventually butchered, and sold as meat to a species known as demons. Determined to break out of Grace Field House, Norman and Emma join with Ray to find a way to escape along with their other siblings.
Media
Manga
and Posuka Demizu launched The Promised Neverland in the 34th issue of Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump on August 1, 2016. It is Shirai and Demizu's second collaboration; their first series was Popy no Negai. It originated from a draft, titled Neverland, that Shirai brought to the Jump editorial department in 2014, which covered the series' entire first story arc in over 300 pages. In August 2019, it was announced that the series has entered the "climax" of its final arc. The manga finished in the 28th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump on June 15, 2020. Shueisha has compiled its chapters into individual tankōbon volumes. The first volume was published on December 2, 2016. The twentieth and final volume will be published in October 2020.On July 25, 2016, Viz Media announced that they would digitally publish the first three chapters of the series on Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. Thereafter, published the manga's new chapters simultaneously with the Japanese release. The first printed volume in North America was released on December 5, 2017. Shueisha began to simulpublish the series in English on the website and app Manga Plus in January 2019.
A comedic spin-off titled Oyakusoku no Neverland was published in the Shōnen Jump+ application from January 11 to March 28, 2019 and its compiled tankōbon volume was released on June 4, 2019.
Light novels
A light novel titled Yakusoku no Neverland: Norman kara no Tegami, written by Nanao, was released on June 3, 2018. A second light novel titled Yakusoku no Neverland: Mama-tachi no Tsuisōkyoku, written by Nanao, was released on January 4, 2019. A third light novel has been announced.Anime
An anime television series adaptation was announced in the 26th issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump on May 28, 2018. The series aired from January 11 to March 29, 2019 on Fuji TV's late-night Noitamina anime programming block. The series is animated by CloverWorks and directed by Mamoru Kanbe, with Toshiya Ono handling series composition, Kazuaki Shimada handling character designs, and Takahiro Obata composing the series' music. The series ran for 12 episodes, which covered the series' first story arc, equivalent to manga chapters 1 through 37. It simulcasted on Amazon Video, but only in Japan, contrary to the contract giving Amazon exclusive streaming rights to shows that have aired on Noitamina since Spring 2016, as Wakanim has exclusive streaming rights in France. UVERworld performs the series' opening theme song "Touch Off," while Cö shu Nie performs the series' ending theme songs "Zettai Zetsumei" and "Lamp".Aniplex of America streamed the series on Crunchyroll, Hulu, Funimation, and Hidive, starting on January 9, 2019. Madman Entertainment simulcasted the series on AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand. On March 28, 2019, Adult Swim announced that the anime's first season will be aired on the Toonami block starting April 13, 2019. Funimation added the series to its streaming service and it will began on July 1, 2020.
A second season was announced in March 2019, and originally announced to premiere in October 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was postponed to January 2021.
Live-action film
A live-action film is planned to be released on December 18, 2020. Directed by Yūichirō Hirakawa with Noriko Gotou handling the film's script, it will star Minami Hamabe as Emma, Jyo Kairi as Ray, Rihito Itagaki as Norman, Keiko Kitagawa as Isabella and Naomi Watanabe as Krone.Live-action series
In June 2020, it was revealed that Amazon Studios is developing an English-language live-action series adaptation of the manga. Rodney Rothman is directing the series and Meghan Malloy is writing the pilot. Rothman, Masi Oka, Roy Lee and Miri Yoon are the executive producers of the series. Fox 21 Television Studios and Amazon Studios are producing the series.Other media
In June 2020, it was announced that an artbook and a fanbook will be published, and an art exhibition will start in Tokyo on December 11, 2020.Reception
Manga
As of August 2017, the manga had 1.5 million in print. By October 2017, the number had increased to 2.1 million. As of January 2019, the first 12 volumes had 8.8 million copies in print worldwide. As of September 2019, the manga had over 16 million copies in print. As of June 2020, the manga had over 21 million copies in circulation. The Promised Neverland was the 8th best selling manga in 2018, with over 4.2 million copies sold. It was the 4th best selling manga in 2019, with over 7.4 million copies sold.The manga was nominated for the 10th Manga Taishō awards in January 2017, receiving 43 points from the Manga Taisho awards' "Executive Committee." The manga was also nominated for the 11th edition of the Manga Taishō awards in 2018, receiving 26 points in total. In January 2018, the manga won the 63rd Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category. The series ranked 1st on a list of the top manga of 2018 for male readers put together by Kono Manga ga Sugoi!. In 2019, The Promised Neverland ranked 35th on the 19th "Book of the Year" list by Da Vinci magazine.
Anime News Network's Rebecca Silverman enjoyed the first manga volume and gave it a A−, saying, "Tense pacing, interesting literary connections, art and story work well together, strong plot and foreshadowing." Barnes & Noble listed The Promised Neverland on their list of "Our Favorite Manga of 2018".
Anime
In February 2020, the anime series was awarded "Best Fantasy" at Crunchyroll Anime Awards, and the Grace Field House caretaker Isabella won the "Best Antagonist" category.In November 2019, Polygon named the series as one of the best anime of the 2010s, and Crunchyroll listed it in their "Top 100 best anime of the 2010s". IGN also listed The Promised Neverland among the best anime series of the 2010s.