The manga “Yakusoku no Neverland” is written by Kaiu Shirai and drawn by Posuka Demizu, and serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump. The story follows Emma, Norman, and Rei, boys and girls living in Grace Field House, a home for parentless children, as they learn that they are being raised as food for “ogres” who eat people and face their mortality.
The story begins with the “Escape from Grace Field House,” which is calm on the surface, but an intense psychological battle unfolds beneath the surface, and continues with a series of mysteries and tense developments that keep the reader on the edge of their seat week after week.
The fact that the work has been adapted into an animated TV series twice, in 2019 and 2021, and into a live-action movie in 2020, shows the high popularity and attention it has garnered.
In this issue, we will briefly introduce the story of this work up to the final episode! In fact, the second season of the TV anime is an original development from the middle of the story. If you have only watched the anime, please pay attention to the differences from the original story.
*This paper includes up to the final 20 volumes of the original comics.
Escape from Grace-Field House” (Comics vols. 1-5)
The end of a happy life
Grace-Field House (“GF House”), a small orphanage. The three elders, Emma, an active and athletic girl, Norman, a boy with outstanding knowledge and judgment, and Ray, a twisted boy with a brain comparable to Norman’s, lived a carefree life under the love of “Mama” Isabella.
One day, however, their daily life is disrupted. By chance, Emma and Norman discover that they are being raised as “food” for “ogres,” deformed creatures that eat people.
They tell the truth to Ray, who is also their elder, and the three of them begin to think of a plan to escape from this false paradise.
The plan is working, but ……
With the help of the mysterious “William Minerva,” who provides them with knowledge of the outside world and clues to escape through books donated to the house, the three manage to find a way to escape. Gradually, they reveal the truth and their plan to the other children, including Don and Gilda, who are the eldest after themselves, and prepare to go on with their mission.
However, tragedy strikes just as they are about to go through with their plan. Isabella’s trickery leads to Norman’s “shipment”. The two remaining children, despite their sadness and frustration, carry out the plan he left for them with Norman’s thoughts and feelings in their hearts.
Farewell to Mom
Finally, the operation is set in motion. The children’s hard work and teamwork successfully culminated in the escape from the house. Isabella, who herself once came from an orphanage and dreamed of the outside world, wishes for Emma and the children’s happiness.
Emma and her friends venture out into the outside world. With no shelter and the fear of not knowing how many demons are out there, they find a safe place to live and continue on their way to achieve their goal of picking up the young children they left behind in the House within two years.
The Goldie Pond Arc (comics vols. 6-11)
traveller of demons
In the outside world, Emma and her friends meet two ogre travelers, Musica and Sonju. Not only do they save Emma and her friends from the wild ogres and ogres chasing them from the house, but they also teach them about the origins of this world.
A thousand years ago, in order to end the war between ogres and humans, a promise was made that humans and ogres would not hunt each other, and that each world would be divided. They learn that they are in the “ogre world” created by this promise, and that instead of hunting humans, the ogres have created a facility called a “house = farm” to cultivate them.
Emma and her friends are shocked, but relieved to learn that there is indeed a “human world” that is not here. They set out for the location indicated in the message left by Minerva, who gave them the clue to escape from the House, and who must know how to go back and forth between the two worlds.
Shelter “males” and their “secret hunting grounds
At the point Minerva pointed out was a shelter where humans could live safely. There was a mysterious old man named “Hugo. Unfortunately, Minerva was not at the shelter, but we managed to win over the reluctant Hugo and asked him to guide us to the next clue, the Goldie Pond (GP).
However, Emma is kidnapped on the way to the GP.
Emma is kidnapped to the GP, which turns out to be a “secret hunting ground” for demons who want to “hunt” living people instead of processed human flesh, a hellish place where games are held every few days to hunt and play with children from farms.
Minerva’s Identity
By chance, Emma arrives at her destination, GP, and decides to cooperate with the children of the hunting lodge who are trying to defeat the demons. At their hideout, she receives a new message from Minerva.
Minerva’s true identity is “James Rutley,” a descendant of a family involved in a promise made 1,000 years ago. She gives new clues and encourages Emma and the others by telling them that she gave the children on the plantation clues on how to escape from the ogres because she felt guilty about offering them edible humans as “mediators” for generations, and that she would already be dead by the time she hears the voice.
Lucas, the leader of the children, thanks Emma for bringing them hope, and prepares to put into action the plan he has devised to destroy the farm.
Fierce battle at Goldie Ponds
The children of the hunting grounds have survived the infernal game over and over again. Their rebellion begins as they have endured the slaughter of many of their friends but have not given up.
The children carry out their mission with determination, despite irregularities and heartbreaking sacrifices. However, the power of the last remaining “Grand Duke of Leuwis” is tremendous, and Emma and her friends are driven into a tight corner.
Ray and Yugo, who have infiltrated the GP to rescue Emma, arrive on the scene. They hurl a hail of bullets at Grand Duke Leuwis, who has a history of killing many of their friends when he and Lucas escaped from the luxury plantation “Glory Bells.
The concentrated attack by the children of the hunting lodge, Emma, Ray, and Hugo finally kills Archduke Leuwis. The emergency destructive device left behind by Minerva destroys the hunting lodge without a trace, and the team is victorious.
Emma and her friends return to the shelter with the help of the children of the hunting grounds.
The King of Paradise and a New Promise (Comics Volumes 12-16)
Pursuit and Phone Calls
The new life by the children of the GF House and the children of the hunting lodge is going well, and almost a year has passed. The children are now waiting for a call from Minerva’s supporters to change the “promise” that caused the creation of edible humans, while conducting research on the “seven walls,” the key to reach the promise that Minerva and Musica had mentioned.
However, the respite is short-lived, as Peter Rutley, the current head of the Rutley family, who is fed up with the GF House, GP, and the repeated mismanagement of human beings for food, gets wind of the shelter and the rebels in it, and sends his men in pursuit. While managing to escape, several children died, including Lucas and Hugo, who served as protectors.
With great sadness, they find hope in a new phone call from “Minerva” just before their escape, and head for the point indicated.
King of Paradise
At the point of Minerva’s call was a huge safe house, a paradise, where many children live. They were children who had been rescued from farms, and Minerva, who had placed the call, was the leader of a group of children who were going around destroying farms all over the country.
Minerva was supposed to be dead. Emma and her friends are still wondering why Minerva is dead, when Norman appears in front of them.
Norman had been spotted for his brilliant mind, and instead of being shipped off as meat, he had survived while being experimented on at a research facility. He revealed that he used the network and knowledge given to him by Minerva’s collaborators at the facility to escape from prison, and that he called himself Minerva in order to gather his friends.
He also explains that demons are creatures that cannot maintain their current form and will eventually perish if they do not continue to eat humans, and that he has a plan to exterminate demons.
New Promises
Hearing of Norman’s plan, the children are excited that they will be able to destroy the ogres and have peace of mind. However, Emma is the only one who is unable to rejoice.
Through her encounters with Mujika and Sonju, Emma learns that even demons have families and loved ones, and she confides in Ray that she is too kind to kill demons. Ray accepts Emma’s feelings and they both decide to talk to Norman about it.
However, Norman counters that he has no intention of stopping his plan to destroy the ogres. However, he adds that he may reconsider if he can “renegotiate his promise” before the plan is completed.
Emma and Ray confide their feelings to their friends and leave the safe house to make a pact. After overcoming the challenges of the “Seven Walls,” which they have managed to grasp through their investigations so far, they finally arrive at the presence of the being they call God, who carried out the promise 1,000 years ago.
Emma wishes for a new promise: “All edible children must go to the human world, and once they have done so, they will no longer be able to go back and forth between the two worlds. God hears her wish, but demands a “reward” (a price) from Emma. Emma agrees, and a new promise is made.
The End of Destiny (Comics Volumes 17-20)
decisive battle of King’s Landing
Emma returned to her hideout with a new promise, but Norman’s plan was already in its final stages.
He attacked the royal capital, where the Queen Regulavalima, the ruler of the demon world, and the five regent families were all gathered. The queen seemed to have annihilated them all, but the royal family’s peculiar constitution transformed them into horrifying monsters, and they once again turned on her. In the midst of the fierce battle, Emma and her friends, Mujika, and Seongju rush to the scene and narrowly win the battle.
Norman, who has only a short time left to live due to the effects of the experiment, bears the burden of his own karma and tries to keep them apart, but through Emma and Ray’s rebuke and love, he finally reveals his true feelings and reconciles with them.
GF House, the site of the final battle
As Musica, a special blood, and Sonju, an exiled royal, work to end the chaos in the royal capital, bad news arrives.
Taking advantage of the ogre’s chaos, Peter has attacked the hideout of Norman, a rebel, in an attempt to take over the world for himself. The place where the children were taken happens to be the GF House.
This is where Emma and her family’s destiny began, and the final battle for the future of humans and ogres is about to begin.
Reunion and Separation
Peter goes berserk, even using an army of demons borrowed from the queen. Nevertheless, the children, who have defied adversity time and again, join forces to overcome the situation.
With the help of Isabella, who had risen to the top of the zoo, Peter is finally restrained. Emma does not kill even Peter as a “victim of fate.
Emma and her friends, despite the sad sacrifice, finally grasp their destiny to be free. They bid farewell to the demon world and go to the human world, but there is a secret in the “reward” they receive when they make a new promise.
