THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS UP TO CHAPTER 45 OF THE MANGA (S1 OF ANIME)

Yakusoku No Neverland Review:
The intention of this review is to detail the manga to fans of the anime considering whether it is worthwhile to read the complete story. This review assumes you have read/watched up until the point when the 15 children escape Grace Field House farm, but not afterwards.


Story, 10/10:
The story of YnN is about the children of Grace Field House Farm, a farm specialized in raising high-intelligence children to be consumed by demons. Three children: Emma, Ray, and Norman are top scorers of the daily tests administered when they discover the truth of the farm, and vow to escape. With limited means of escape, and several massive roadblocks preventing them from fleeing; Emma, Ray, and Norman form a team to escape with every child from the farm. While hesitant at first from the task of saving every child from the farm, Norman and Ray eventually give into the idea of bringing them all along. After Norman is taken to be eaten as a sacrifice, Emma and Ray escape with the remaining children over the age of six, as the younger children will not be harvested for another two years, with the ambition of saving the rest within that time frame. The main plot of YnN occurs after the escape, (45 before/ 136 after) as they try to survive in the foreign world beyond the walls of Grace Field and eventually return to save the rest. While I cannot spoil events after the escape, if you enjoyed the first arc because of the plot, the rest is significantly better in my opinion.


Art, 9/10:
There is not much to be said about the art of YnN it is high quality as to be expected of Shounen Jump. While there are not many environmental shots, the “horror” elements of the first arc are done beautifully, and the battle scenes of the second half have the same level of quality. The character art is extremely emotive, and the slight growth of the main cast is shown well over the course of the series. The art was never an issue when reading, it is very easy to follow while still being very complex when needed. An important note is that the promotional art for certain chapters, and volume covers are extremely high calibre and a personal favourite aspect of the series.


Characters, 10/10:
The characters, which I at first thought to be rather static, are actually very complex upon further investigation, the main two in particular:
Emma: The main character of YnN, she has a huge weakness stemming from her naivete which causes her to yearn for peace in many situations. She cares immensely for the other children, and many other characters who appear in the series. Headstrong and assertive, her weakness shows itself continually over the course of the series and forces the group to adapt to unique circumstances forced upon them by her ideals. If you like Emma even a little bit, then there is no reason to not read the entire series.
Ray: He is a suicidal intellectual at first, trying to save Emma and Ray from the house before considering himself, soon after the escape he begins to realize that in order to properly repent for his sins he must live and strive to protect the group by not offing himself.
There other Grace Field House children get some spotlight after the escape as well, and each have specific strengths they bring to the table for each encounter with danger. Large groups of characters are introduced periodically in the Godly Pond and Lambda Farm arcs respectively, and the characters introduced in each are invaluable aspects of the story and form amazing interpersonal relationships with existing characters from Grace Field. While the characters in the series are very well written, the focus is clearly put unto Emma for the majority of time, and this is a nice payoff because she undergoes incredible personal development and is also straight up fun to follow in her perspective!


Enjoyment, 10/10:
If there is a single strong point of this series to focus on, enjoyment would be high on that list. This series is just fun to read through and through. Constant plot twists and developments break up the chapters nicely while also having a goal in mind to come back to. There are always new elements to the world which are introduced and keep things very fresh, and the two large character introduction dumps are very nice to adapt to. Emma constantly having to keep up with the other characters’ intelligence while somehow maintaining her assertiveness is a breath of fresh air to read every time. There are a ton of fight scenes, but they never seem to last too long and always have non-zero consequences to them, so they feel realistic. The Godly Pond arc, in particular, was the single best arc in manga I have personally ever read. I had a dumb smile on my face for most of it, and physically popped off several times.


Overall, 10/10:
I would recommend this manga to everyone who read/watched the first arc, but beyond that I truly believe it was a very well written piece of fiction. It is hard to pinpoint exactly what makes this series as good as it is, but I believe that is because it covers its bases so well and diversifies its quality so well.