As Emma, Ray, and Norman begin to finalize their plans to escape they are met with two calamities: Mom breaks Emma’s leg to keep her from escaping and Norman has been selected to be shipped out! With their deadline to escape now bumped up a few months, the pressure on these three pre-teens is even greater than ever if they want to live.
The Promised Neverland is a weekly series, but I think it might actually be a series that works better if it’s read in large chunks. At the end of volume three I was getting antsy waiting for the kids to escape but this time, even though they don’t escape until volume five (which is even called “Escape!” on Viz’s website) the drawn-out nature of the wait didn’t bother me at all. TPN has spent its time so far creating a precarious balance, weighing an immediate danger against a real need to spend time planning, so I’ve always vacillated between being annoyed that the story seems to be taking so long to “get to the point” and being fascinated at all of the plans these overly-smart pre-teens are making. I once again found myself wondering how the upcoming anime adaptation this winter will handle this pacing, especially since the pacing can make or break a show and either draw new fans in or push them away.
One other element which I worry will be a dealbreaker, for new fans to either the manga or the anime, is just how clever Emma, Ray, and Norman have become. Even if they are all incredibly intelligent, and even if Ray has a “shounen jump ‘science'” reason for why he was first able to discover what was going on at the Grace Field House, the kids are just far removed from any preteens I’ve ever known; if you can’t suspend your disbelief completely then you won’t be able to enjoy the story, I fear. Norman seems to have predicted everything Ray and Emma will do to a creepy degree and Emma’s acting skills are terrifying; at least Ray’s tunnel vision feels more appropriate for his age (i.e., his limited life experience), although again it’s coupled with a far greater ability for strategic thinking than any 11 year old should have. By this point I’m along for the ride, and I love how TPN is one of the very few shounen series to have a female lead character, but there were multiple times in these two volumes where I found myself thinking “Really? REALLY really?”
Once the kids have escaped all bets are off about what the outside world is like; it’s a strange new world unlike anything the kids had ever seen in books — except in one of the adventure novels left behind by William Minerva! The descriptions in that book seem so close to what the kids encounter that it’s clear to everyone that it was left behind as a guide; I must confess that the mystery behind William Minerva is actually a bit more interesting than wondering what happened to the world to make it change into an alien, primeval forest (I still think the story is set on Earth but that could certainly be a future twist). It’s clear from the reactions of the demons that the Grace Field House was not set up as a secret test of character to see if any children could escape, the demons are in too much of a panic and it also seems like escapes happen very very rarely. Yet everything that William Minerva touched seems to have been perfectly calibrated to help future children in Grace Field House, Plant 3 escape. I find that all incredibly suspicious and I can’t wait to see what new things the kids will discover beyond the walls now that they’re on the run. We do see a mysterious figure beckoning to Emma and the rest as they are being chased by demons at the volume’s end, so there are at least some friendly forces out there, but who knows if these children will saved or further betrayed.