She's an overly optimistic Mary Sue with an unshakable conviction and a resilient physique, a set of traits typical of a better half of Jump protagonists of the last three decades at least. But the way she's written into the story makes the whole thing a farce. She is very one-note but could potentially work in a supporting role, considering both Normal and Ray are deeper, more relatable characters with some inner conflict that could work as a premise for a proper character arc. Her goals are lofty but ultimately agreeable. And if I were to identify every little bit that went wrong, you'd probably be reading this all day, so I'll just call out the most glaring, deal-breaking issues.ĬORE PROBLEM #1: Emma is far too sterile to be a protagonist.ĭon't get me wrong, Emma is not a bad *character* in principle. Each and every time the plot itself would stretch a helping hand for the author to make a turnaround, they would high-five it and plunge deeper down the abyss of mediocrity. It was the first manga in many years that took relatively normal characters-without any sort of superpowers or the like-and put them in a relatively realistic setting where actions have intentions, words have meaning, and decisions have consequences.Īnd then it just.

And more than that, it was a story that really wanted itself to be taken seriously. Not perfect by any means-but damn impressive nonetheless. Wow, what's not to like?Īll of this, combined with Urasawa-esque cliffhangers, made the first arc of TPN one of the tightest pieces of writing to come out in Weekly Jump this entire decade. And not just that-right from the beginning TPN had established a gripping conflict with clear stakes, believable balance of power, and an awesome antagonist. For all the good reasons, too: it was, at the time, a competently done psychological thriller, something that Weekly Shonen Jump typically didn't feature, which immediately made it stand outįrom the endless conveyor of action and sports series, low-brow comedies, and various mixtures thereof. TPN became an object of hot discussion among the manga-reading crowd already after the first few chapters. (I'm sorry I couldn't LAND this joke better.)

It is really a twist of cruel irony that The Promised Neverland has lived up to its name in a way I did not expect it to: it continually PROMISED a clever, poignant story but NEVER followed it through. Skip to the last two paragraphs for the summary.

Norman the promised neverland manga