The Promised Neverland: Volume 13 manga review

The Promised Neverland Graphic Novel Volume 13 cover image

At the orphanage, Grace Field House, it is a wonderful life for the children or so it seems...  The orphanage's three brightest children are Emma, Norman, and Ray, all 11-years-old.  Like the other orphans, they enjoy the daily studying and exams, and also the delicious food and plentiful playtime.  However, the children's loving, but stern caretaker, “Mom,” hides the fact that everything is not what it seems, a fact these three bright children will discover upon turning 12.

As The Promised Neverland, Vol. 13 (Chapters 107 to 115; entitled “The King of Paradise”) opens, armed men have invaded the safe, underground shelter that Emma, Ray, and the children of “Goldy Pond” (the place Emma knew as “A08-63”) called home.  Now, as Emma and Ray spirit the other children away, the shelter's two adults, Lucas and Yugo, remain behind in a bid to kill the invaders, who serve the Ratri human clan.  While Lucas and Yugo fight, learn the story of these last two survivors of the children who escaped from the farm known as “Glory Bell.”

Later, Emma and Ray lead their band of 55 towards “the King of Paradise,” the man they know as the mysterious William Minerva.  Have they found a path to him?

THE LOWDOWN:  The Promised Neverland manga is one of the best young adult graphic novels series transplanted to North America from Japan.  It is always a riveting read, and I practically tear through each volume.

The Promised Neverland Graphic Novel Volume 13 is a standout volume in a series in which many of its entries are exceptional reads.  This time, series creators, writer Kaiu Shirai and artist Posuka Demizu, give us a glimpse of life at another farm and tease perhaps, a look at the workings of still another farm.  Thirteen volumes in, Shirai and Demizu continue to be creative and inventive, making the world of The Promised Neverland always seem new and mysterious.

Translator Satsuki Yamashita weaves a magical web that ensnares us in this story's sense of mystery.  Mark McMurray's lettering keeps up the story's breakneck pace and probably makes it difficult for readers not to tear through Vol. 13 in one sitting.

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

A+
10 out of 10