The Promised Neverland: Volume 5 manga review

The Promised Neverland Graphic Novel Volume 5 cover image

Life seems really good at the Grace Field House orphanage.  This is especially true for the orphanage's three brightest children:  Emma, Norman, and Ray, who are all 11-years-old.  While there is daily studying and exams, there is also delicious food and plenty of playtime.  However, the children's loving, but stern caretaker, “Mom,” hides the fact that everything is not what it seems.

As The Promised Neverland, Vol. 5 (entitled Escape; Chapters 35 to 43) opens, Grace Field House goes up in flames.  This is the diversion Emma and Ray need to lead a group of children in a bid for freedom from the orphanage.  Their mission is to escape across the wall and cliff and into a great forest, but Mom and an army of demons is determined to recapture them.

THE LOWDOWN:  The Promised Neverland manga reads like classic dystopian, young adult fiction.  However, its dark mood cannot eclipse the series' hopeful vibes.

The Promised Neverland Graphic Novel Volume 5 marks a major turning point for the series.  The remaining lead characters leave the orphanage, Grace Field House, which has been the primary setting of narrative up to this point.  Writer Kaiu Shirai and artist Posuka Demizu are moving the story forward in bold strokes, and the loss of Grace Field House does not feel as big of a loss as it could.

Satsuki Yamashita's excellent translation captures the breathless and desperate, but exhilarating nature of the children's escape.  Letterer Mark McMurray also letters with a sense that the readers should feel how fast the story in each chapter in this volume move.  Yamashita and McMurray's efforts make this entry in The Promised Neverland one of this graphic novel's series best.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers of dark fantasy graphic novels will find a terrifying story home in Shonen Jump's The Promised Neverland.

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9.5 out of 10