Shounen Yakusoku no Neverland by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu

[Tommi]

This comic is getting more and more interesting, it simply is great.

 

[ProGoddess]

The development gets better and more exciting. Even the cover page is just as interesting.

Chapter 10 is out - thanks to MS for the Edited Manga.

 

[Spirit]

A well rounded chapter and a great way to start off the first major arc of the manga. The plot is certainly thickening, and I like the insight that we're getting on Isabella's tactics and sheer genius. She's not going to be an easy enemy to defeat, and this being a Shounen, I can actually see her joining the children if not at the end of this arc then later on. Connie's devotion to Emma really is sweet, and If there's ever a timeskip, which is likely, then I want a sponsored ship there

 

[ProGoddess]

The Promised Neverland - Chapter 10

"Control"


The chapter cover is very interesting - we have the children trying to escape through the spiral of stairs like going through a labyrinth. Is this a foretold of the plot, that this is the escape route? Or there may be some hidden secret buried underground, while awaiting for the children to find out?

No one knows what lies beyond the farm. What will the children discover while in their home - Grace Field House? What will they encounter when they escape? Is the House safer, or the outside? What if the outside world is more dangerous than where they are now?

The story continues with the kids playing tag, just like what they have planned - to train their "escape" skills like physical and mental agility, gaining stamina, alertness, endurance, strength and strategic-planning. The division of their tag-team is a good plan, so that majority, if not all, of the children will be able to escape safely, and with minimal casualty. Ray even comes out with ten methods of team formations. Wow! No wonder Mama keeps emphasising that her children are special. They are truly gifted kids and they are on survival course.

Don and Gilda have been mentioned in the past chapters and they will be given some used later on. If the two join, there will be five leaders to lead five teams. In this way, they will be able to split into smaller groups containing 6 or 7 children which will then make the escape easier and hopefully smoother.

Ray and Noman are quite the scary ones, while Emma is more innocent. If they are plotting to kill Krone and Isabelle, they probably can start with Krone since she is closer to them, in term of her being part of their tag game. However, as much as it may seem logical, the main threat appears to be Isabelle. By separating the two adults will probably be the best way to tackle them individually. It may not be advisable to kill them since they are closely monitored by the demons. This is pretty obvious. They do want to know how their products are processing and when they will be delivered.

Looking at a different point of view, Isabelle does not hide her true intention of "hiring" Krone and tell her outrightly on her face. She also shows off her superiority over Krone by belittling her. However she does offer her a promotion to "mama" level if she obeys her. I guess this could be a trade-off if Krone is able to swallow her pride and goes along with Isabelle. Though Krone may not have displayed her discontentment in front of Isabelle, she is secretly resenting her. I suspect that she may lose it sooner or later, and kill Isabelle instead. For some plot twist, it will be interesting to see how the two "sisters" go against each other and try to get rid of one another. Who knows at the end, one of them may turn out to side with the kids.

The idea of having a spy in the midst of the children looks like a good development which then allows the three kids to check and see if they can find out who that is. It can be anyone or even the ones they decide to recruit - Don or Gilda, or both. Of course it can be one of the little kids who spills out info without knowing, just like what is speculated.

If Mama has already known who her targets are, then the ten days will be very crucial for both parties. Mama wants to weed them off while the kids want to destroy her. I wonder where does Krone stands, or where does she wants to stand? If she intends to take over Isabelle's current position, then she has to get rid of her. Or she can help the children to escape so that the higher-ups will get furious and punish Isabelle. At the same time, Krone can play as a "double agent" role. On one hand, she sets Isabelle up, and secretly helps the children, then once the demons get to know that the children escape, she will then turn around and go after the children. When she finally captures all the kids, she will be able to ask for promotion to run Grace Field House and be the new "mama." To think about it, if Krone ever has this thought, she probably will not succeed, or unlikely so.

The ending pages seem to show how "unadjusted" Norman is. Is he going to lose it or is he just thinking of new ways to counter Mama's plan? The concluding conversation to carry out the escape plan seems to have been overheard by one or some of the kids. Are the main trio in danger that their plan will be reported to Mama? Perhaps this will be a great chance to explain to the older kids, and get them to assist in their plan.

Though the plan is to escape on the tenth day, but I doubt it will be so smooth sailing with just training with tag game. Krone and Isabelle are also on the move. The only thing is, what are they plotting? Are the demons going to get involved? Is someone going to die?

We shall see.

This is really a good chapter with a reasonably good pacing. A lot of information pertaining to the different characters and how the various parties plan and carry out their plan are given. Everyone seems to be very confident in whatever they are doing. However as they move along together, their paths are going to cross and the incoming events may cause a huge commotion among them. There may even be bloodshed. How are they going to tackle their individual problems? What if the demons intervene?

With such great chapter, it gains a rating of 8/10. All thanks to the authors for planning the story well and with good illustration. Thanks to MS for the Edited Manga too.

 

[Hermit]

Calling it now, the spy is Ray...the least obvious answer is the correct one..
Also Krone will team up with the kids since they share one common enemy

 

[Kurara]

I wonder who the spy is... Either the older one or the younger one...

The day is set, but I don't think they can runaway without casualties...
They need to run because one of the three oldest will be sacrificed at the festival if they don't run...

Wondering what await them beyond the wall, a series of human farm?
How many percent of the earth are occupied by demon?

 

[Spirit]

Chapter 11 spoilers are out.
https://www.spoiler.net/spoiler/9e.1-the-promised-neverland-chapter-11
It looks like they tell those two other children about their plans. But the girl with glasses is Krone's informant?

 

[shionoro]

Honestly? I LOVE this.
I just started reading it by accidently clicking on it on the mangahelpers mainpage and being interested.

I mean, the beginning was heavily modelled after 7 seeds (team summer A) and i knew exactly what would happen.
Once i saw the codes, it was clear to me that mama had to be evil and even before i heard it i knew the kids with bad scores would be abducted (seeing that conny mentioned her bad scores).

But....when the MONSTER!!!! came in, then i admit, i was surprised.
No sleep for me tonight, reading up.

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 17, 2016, Original Post Date: Oct 17, 2016 ---

So, I have read all chapters by now, and i am really thrilled by that thing.

The manga seems to unite a lot of good things from different series (arguably even deriving a lot).

It is refreshing to have one more series in which the maincharacters are smart but still not too smart to screw up sometimes.
It is a bit like HxH in that regard: The children make plans, and when those plans are foiled it is often very subtle. There is no big 'i manipulated you' speech, and i like that subtle way of proceeding.

I am also pretty sure the mangaka has read 7 seeds and liked it quite a lot. I get a lot of 7 seeds vibes.

The manga also offers some nice twists on the usual formulas:

First of all, it is rare to have a female lead for a shonen, exspecially nowadays.
And clearly, emma is the audience surrogate because she is the one learning stuff and now knowing everything from the get go.
She is the one younger kids are meant to identify with. She is very capable, yes, but like in your usual shonen, she is in need of some mentoring in the beginning.

The interesting thing is that these characters seem to mentor each other in some regard. While Emma learns a lot from the two boys, she is the heart of the group which motivates them. And not only as a plot device (giving one big talk or being in need of saving), but by convincing them and actively helping.

It is made clear very early what the different mains admire at each other: Norman admires that, unlike him, emma was not even afraid of the monster. She was afraid of it harming her family. He is also in love with her, which is REALLY refreshing for a character to admit it from the get go without all the 'will they won't they' bullshit.

Emma admire's the other's intellect, while Norman can make insanely good strategies and Ray has a vast knowledge.
While Norman was already ahead of emma in searching for cams, ray knew at once something was wrong and figured after a second that this must be why the windows are blocked.

However, both of them were not able to come up with emma's plan of playing tag, because essentially, they are both loners while emma is conanstly thinking of others.

And i really like that setup.

I also love that 'mama' is not just some goon to overcome. She is an insanely smart woman, and even sister krone is (less than mama, but still).
The manga also seems to make it clear that 'mama's' life is on the line. She seems to be motivated by survival instinct, which makes for a more interesting villain than just having her be a monster too or stuff like that.
Sister Krone however seems to be more geuninely evil tho, she thought to herself that the work will be 'interesting'.

Another thing that I really loved was that the two boys thought killing mama and krone.
I constanly thought to myself when all their plans were foiled 'well ya, why not just kill her?'
At first i thought 'oh well, probably just a shonen being a shonen (even if tbh i get more shojo vibes from this work)', but the manga exceeded my exspectations when it adressed the thought and eventual plan to kill.

I feel that this manga is going somewhere and it has a good pace.
The make-it-or-break-it point will be when they get out of the institution. Because i feel the thing that could screw this manga over the most is if there are done mistakes in the world building.
Too many factions of which many are not interesting?
A timeskip into all the children being battlehardened warriors fighting in resistance?

Both could have horrible effects. Also the author has yet to prove he can rise over the works he or she is deriving from.
I could see this thing becoming a lot like attack on the titan, but i really hope not.

So, i am very excited to see which direction this manga will go into.
For now, i have absolutely no complaint. Great work.

_____________________________________________________

I think this is the first time that i have actually taken up a manga at its very beginning and was so excited about it.
The only other work i took up near the beginning was ToG.

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 18, 2016 ---

_______________________________________________

Just read chapter ten.
Donnie seems to be a mole definitely, but i still hope gilda is none. She might be my favourite character so far.
There was suspicious behaviour between donnie and gilda tho, and gilda wanted to ask emma one time about what happened.
It might really be that she and donnie are manipulated into this under false pretense.

Anyway, another great chapter. As a Berserk and HxH fan, i get happy when i think about this series being weekly.

The art is pretty grea too when the 'evil faces' are drawn. It is a bit like in detective conan when people are suspected.

Also: This series is pretty dark and it seems like what can go wrong, does go wrong.
I doN't think all children will be saved. At maximum, i can see like 8 of them getting out of this.
Maybe it will be a twist to make them plan to come back later for the rest?

 

[Spirit]

Just read the latest chapter.
I just love the way that the characters all go through these thought out processes in order to come to theses conclusions. It's an early sign of great writing.
So Don is the spy eh? Gilda's pretty fishy too if you want to be thorough.

 

[WilliamK]

I am not calling up arms against Mangastream, however I would like to make it aware that they are changing the skin colours on particular characters. Don and Phil are meant to be tanned or dark-skinned. If you check the leaked RAWs over the past few weeks, it is very apparent. Similarly, in the latest chapter alone you can see on pages 3 for Phil and 7 for Don, they forgot to get rid of the tones used to indicate skin colour.

Edit: I feel like I'm detracking without putting my opinion on the chapter. With recent revelations, Don is clearly Mama's informant. However, is this really the case? I was initially suspecting Ray, however in all honesty that suspicion has strengthened. The author made it clear to not show Don giving this information to Mama. Similarly, if Ray is aware of Norman's plan, he could give the note to Mama to frame Don. I think this is the case, as from a writing perspective Don and Gilda had been set up as suspicious from the very start and this manga is clearly too smart for that. Similarly, I believe Gilda is just meeting Krone to obtain help from Krone, since they specifically highlighted Mama as the enemy. This of course, will likely lead to Krone outlining Gilda as one of the people who saw what happened, resulting in Krone reporting to the demons about Gilda. Basically, shits about to hit the fan. Overall, great chapter. However, that's a standard for this series at this point.

Small plothole, they said in earlier chapters that children weren't given scores unless they scored perfect marks, however Norman and Ray obtained this information. With the current children, we can assume they asked them, however for Hao/Cedi/Conny's scores (in fact, with Conny they made it a point that they assumed her scores based on her saying she isn't good at the tests), it should be impossible for them to know their scores. We could assume they made the scores up to convince Gilda/Don, however it's more likely this is just an oversight. A minor one at that.

 

[Hermit]

Okay, I just have one thing to say about the latest chapter:
HOLY.FUCKING.SHIT.
Whoever is doing this manga
Needs a freaking Oscar.
This shit just keeps on getting better and better.

 

[Belserion]

I like how the chapters are getting more intense now. Not too convinced Don is the spy, because why not show us his face like they did when Gilda went to see Krone? I think there's a plot twist here somewhere . @Emperor Spriggan might be right and the Spy is Ray, or one of the other main characters. Ray was a bit too out of character this chapter. Like he seemed to be a bit panicky and that surprised me. Norman was calm and collected and made really good points, especially the point about leaving before winter, things that I expected Ray to also have concluded given they've always been on the same page strategy-wise. Anyway "Spy" seems to be a 2 or 3 parter so next week will shed more light. Overall I really like the direction this manga is going in.

 

[Hermit]

With recent revelations, Don is clearly Mama's informant. However, is this really the case? I was initially suspecting Ray, however in all honesty that suspicion has strengthened. The author made it clear to not show Don giving this information to Mama. Similarly, if Ray is aware of Norman's plan, he could give the note to Mama to frame Don. I think this is the case, as from a writing perspective Don and Gilda had been set up as suspicious from the very start and this manga is clearly too smart for that. Similarly, I believe Gilda is just meeting Krone to obtain help from Krone, since they specifically highlighted Mama as the enemy. This of course, will likely lead to Krone outlining Gilda as one of the people who saw what happened, resulting in Krone reporting to the demons about Gilda. Basically, shits about to hit the fan. Overall, great chapter. However, that's a standard for this series at this point.

Pretty much this, Don and Gilda are pretty much red herrings at this point and I think Ray putting up that act showing that he cared about bringing them into the plan was just an act to throw suspicion of himself and make it look like the new kids are the ones at highest risk of being spies.
So essentially, Ray is using Don and Gilda as scapegoats while he continues feeding info to mama.

 

[shionoro]

I am not calling up arms against Mangastream, however I would like to make it aware that they are changing the skin colours on particular characters. Don and Phil are meant to be tanned or dark-skinned. If you check the leaked RAWs over the past few weeks, it is very apparent. Similarly, in the latest chapter alone you can see on pages 3 for Phil and 7 for Don, they forgot to get rid of the tones used to indicate skin colour.

Edit: I feel like I'm detracking without putting my opinion on the chapter. With recent revelations, Don is clearly Mama's informant. However, is this really the case? I was initially suspecting Ray, however in all honesty that suspicion has strengthened. The author made it clear to not show Don giving this information to Mama. Similarly, if Ray is aware of Norman's plan, he could give the note to Mama to frame Don. I think this is the case, as from a writing perspective Don and Gilda had been set up as suspicious from the very start and this manga is clearly too smart for that. Similarly, I believe Gilda is just meeting Krone to obtain help from Krone, since they specifically highlighted Mama as the enemy. This of course, will likely lead to Krone outlining Gilda as one of the people who saw what happened, resulting in Krone reporting to the demons about Gilda. Basically, shits about to hit the fan. Overall, great chapter. However, that's a standard for this series at this point.

Small plothole, they said in earlier chapters that children weren't given scores unless they scored perfect marks, however Norman and Ray obtained this information. With the current children, we can assume they asked them, however for Hao/Cedi/Conny's scores (in fact, with Conny they made it a point that they assumed her scores based on her saying she isn't good at the tests), it should be impossible for them to know their scores. We could assume they made the scores up to convince Gilda/Don, however it's more likely this is just an oversight. A minor one at that.

That's not cool, the manga clearly intends to be ethnically diverse on purpose (which is kinda rare in manga actually).
They even made it a point that ray as an accent when they introduced him.

It would make kind of sense for it to be ray. He wanted to be let in on the plan early on and he led their attention to gilda, don and even the little kids, maybe to distract. But it could aswell just be a plan of norman and ray which they didnt tell emma. Maybe they intend to feed mama false information.
Also: If you were Mama, would you trust Ray? He is a smart kid and a loner and seems to feel the least devotion to hear initially.
If i were mama, i would go for someone except the three mains who is easily to be manipulated by me.
Donnie or the little ones seem to be a good target there.

Lastly: Maybe the kids scoring 300 were shown the full scores of all kids on a sheet and not only their own. I could imagine that to be true.

 

[Bigbootyjudy]

Ya'll are talking about Ray and Don and Gilda and I'm sitting over here thinking "OMG what if it's Norman, what if it's Emma?!" I don't know who to believe anymore.

It's a good manga if it's already making me super paranoid this early in the run. I sincerely hope the quality stays up.

 

[Hermit]

"OMG what if it's Norman,

Honestly, if they make Norman the spy, that will be such a lazy option I might lose my respect of this story.
The problem with Norman being the spy is that their going to make him say something like," I did it for Emma's sake!"
I don't think I'll be able to handle that honestly

 

[Belserion]

Honestly, if they make Norman the spy, that will be such a lazy option I might lose my respect of this story.
The problem with Norman being the spy is that their going to make him say something like," I did it for Emma's sake!"
I don't think I'll be able to handle that honestly

I went back and read the first 3 chapters and Norman being the spy would be bad. Like from them finding the wall to finding out about the transmitter/tracker, he had all the right "expressions" from shock to fear to anger. He saw the demons with Emma so he knows what they're up against. That's the advantage they have over Ray. He came in after all the reaction chapters and was just fine with everything. No questions asked really. Which, if someone told me a story like that i'd call them everything from crazy to a liar, like Don did when they told him that human trafficking story. That was the right reaction imo. Not Ray's "take it in stride" reaction.

Still I don't want it to be him

 

[Hermit]

I went back and read the first 3 chapters and Norman being the spy would be bad. Like from them finding the wall to finding out about the transmitter/tracker, he had all the right "expressions" from shock to fear to anger. He saw the demons with Emma so he knows what they're up against. That's the advantage they have over Ray. He came in after all the reaction chapters and was just fine with everything. No questions asked really. Which, if someone told me a story like that i'd call them everything from crazy to a liar, like Don did when they told him that human trafficking story. That was the right reaction imo. Not Ray's "take it in stride" reaction.

Still I don't want it to be him

Pretty much this, like, he teamed up with Emma in the beginning, he loves her but rats out on them? Even if Momma promised something like Emma's safety if he cooperated, Norman has no reason to trust her in the first place. It will be some massive character regression honestly.
Also check this out:

Spoiler: Ray's introduction

He approached them nonchalantly and asked them what was up. Why didn't they suspect anything? Mirror it with Gilda's reaction in the latest chapter:

Spoiler: Gilda's reaction

Gilda knew something was up. But she never really bothered with it until they were approached directly by Ray and the others.
In this context, Ray's reaction seems a little offlandish.
Don't you think so?

 

[Belserion]

Pretty much this, like, he teamed up with Emma in the beginning, he loves her but rats out on them? Even if Momma promised something like Emma's safety if he cooperated, Norman has no reason to trust her in the first place. It will be some massive character regression honestly.
Also check this out:

Spoiler: Ray's introduction

He approached them nonchalantly and asked them what was up. Why didn't they suspect anything? Mirror it with Gilda's reaction in the latest chapter:

Spoiler: Gilda's reaction

Gilda knew something was up. But she never really bothered with it until they were approached directly by Ray and the others.
In this context, Ray's reaction seems a little offlandish.
Don't you think so?

I just found it weird that he was so quick to accept their story, and he was following them around/watching them. That's really creepy. But they're friends so maybe unlike Gilda he felt comfortable enough to approach them about their weirdness. I don't know. I'm gonna keep an eye on him lol.

 

[shionoro]

Ya'll are talking about Ray and Don and Gilda and I'm sitting over here thinking "OMG what if it's Norman, what if it's Emma?!" I don't know who to believe anymore.

It's a good manga if it's already making me super paranoid this early in the run. I sincerely hope the quality stays up.

Well, as i said, it could be a plan of norman alone or norman and ray to deceive mama by acting like that.
But i think mama is smarter than to trust norman and ray on that one.
I rule Emma out completely because emma is the type to tell at least norman about it and she would never endanger other children.

And ya, it is a great manga.
There will be a quality bump most likely because you cannot keep this quality up weekly. Or it goes monthly.
I don't wanna be negative, but usually, the author has the first 1-2 arcs planned out and then he gets into trouble. Those mindgames are probably not easy to write.
Except if he is a prodigy and also a machine like Oda. But i hope for every mangaka always that he has the choice to go monthly and deliver the things in a less tight schedule, elseways i feel kinda bad for all the work they gotta do <:

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 19, 2016, Original Post Date: Oct 19, 2016 ---

Gilda knew something was up. But she never really bothered with it until they were approached directly by Ray and the others.
In this context, Ray's reaction seems a little offlandish.
Don't you think so?

Dunno. It could be, it IS a bit strange that he chose to follow them arround when he usually does not even participate in their games.
He however seems to feel a conection to norman, so it might be due to that.

Gilda wanted to approach emma, too, but she got cut off.
It could be that gilda was asked by mama to keep tabs on emma for emma's sake and does want to know what is up now because she lost trust in mama.