The Promised Neverland Chapter 123 Review by Elusia
Overview:The chapter continues the conversation between Emma and Ray as Emma is facing a tough choice. He stoically said that he has no idea, agreeing with her that the Seven Wall arrangement would end in the same way and adding that if they go to the route of going to the human world would result in another war between humans and demons. He also noted that for the demons, the kids are essential nutrients, and that Norman’s choice would be the most viable solution as there are no other solutions found.
Emma is upset by his reaction and asks him more about his thoughts, but is met with silence. She then asks why is he making her say everything, and Ray tells her about her feelings deep inside that hiding such feelings at all would mean burying it deep enough to not provoke it at any time. Her thoughts would eventually come out, telling everything at a worst possible time to a person she would not tell otherwise and making the situation a lot worse, endangering her and others more. The consequence would be detrimental to Norman’s plan and would be a pain for Ray to deal with it. He warns Emma that at that point, if she keeps on doing it, she’ll regret it and carry it for life. He understands why she acts that way and doesn’t want her to keep it to herself, so he advises her to recount her situation to make it clearer. She realizes this and says yes.
Ray then asks her what she wants and her clear answers are avoiding the extermination of the demons and the war. But she still doesn’t know what to do and claims that the kids would be against such an idea. She notes that if she does something foolish, she would end up endangering them again. Her utmost priority in the end of it is the safety of the children, but because of the situation, she doesn’t know the right thing to do. He suggests talking to Norman, but she was surprised, considering that she doesn’t know the right answer, but he expresses that talking to Norman would be important since not taking it through will be bad and that he’s their trusted friend. She completely agrees. Furthermore, he says that things would be a lot clearer when they talk to him, like taking precautions of a non-preventable war and acknowledging one key detail to Norman’s info: Sonju and Musica and both in a concession that they don’t fit in Norman’s new information. She asks if the effect takes a long time, but Ray rejects it, and states that it would be weird for them to preserve their human shape when they don’t eat humans at all. He hypothesizes that either they lied or they were special cases. She comments that it would wishful thinking if all demons would be like them, but asks again if Norman knows it. Ray doesn’t know this, but concludes that if Norman doesn’t know, then he’ll be in danger as there might be more of Sonju and Musica’s cases and most of them might want to eat humans. Destroying farms will not affect them and will be their enemy. He also remarked that if Norman knows it, then he knows why they do that. They can get hints from it and find a way to coexist with the demons. She’s happy after hearing this, but he reassures her that the chances are slim, but absolutely needed for Norman to hear them. He expresses at first his doubts as well, but because demons like Sonju and Musica exist, he guarantees that whatever choices she takes, he will take her side and trust her completely. She thanked him and both went their way to Norman’s room, keeping mind of all the things they talk through.
Emma knocks and goes inside Norman’s room when they see Norman’s henchmen there. The woman was confused, but Emma greeted and introduce her and Ray to them. The tall man revealed that they were fugitives that joined yesterday and the girl realizes that they from Grace Field. The girl offered them some food, but they declined. Emma asked where Norman is, but the other guy answered that he is currently busy. Emma then says they are going to come back, but the henchmen insist them to stay and want to know more about them.
Thoughts:After a very conflicting last chapter, I was quite skeptical going into this, but thankfully this chapter addressed a lot of things that the fans have been wanting to read for a long while: the mystery behind Sonju and Musica.
Besides those mysterious two demons, Ray was definitely the highlight of the chapter. Seeing his interactions with Emma here shows how much he grows as a character. He went from disagreeing with her from the first arc to completely siding with her and it’s really awesome to see that. Their relationship grows as well. Emma’s also great in this chapter.
I’m personally not a big fan of Norman’s group as they just present themselves as a cliche shonen group archetype. They could grow into more interesting characters, but it’ll take me a while to get used to them. With that being said, I’m looking forward to their talk.
Overall, I give this chapter a solid 7/10.To discuss and share your thoughts on the manga, you can visit our Yakusoku no Neverland section.
