The Promised Neverland: Volume 14 manga review

The Promised Neverland Graphic Novel Volume 14 cover image

Grace Field House is an orphanage.  There, the children have a wonderful life... 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. 14 (Chapters 116 to 124; entitled “Encounter”) opens, the children of Grace Field House and the children of Grand Valley (and of “Goldy Pond,” the hunting ground) have lost the most recent place they called home and also a way to contact their human supporters.  One of the children, Chris, is also near death.  They are not, however, without help, as they have made friends will children who are connected to the legendary hero, William Minerva.

Emma and Ray join two of them, Anna and Hayato, in deciding to raid a nearby farm which the latter two have previously forayed into for supplies.  The mission is fraught with risk and requires smarts, stealth, and luck, but the mission will also lead Emma and Ray to a shocking reunion.

THE LOWDOWN:  The Promised Neverland manga continues to be 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 so that I can get to the surprises and shocking reveals.

The Promised Neverland Graphic Novel Volume 14 is another standout volume in a series in which many of its entries are standouts, especially those published over the last year or so.  Series creators, writer Kaiu Shirai and artist Posuka Demizu, offer so many surprises this volume that I must make this entire review as spoiler proof as possible.  I can say that Shirai and Demizu make the chapters contained in Vol. 14 seem like the beginning of a paradigm shift for this series.  We are getting deeper into the mystery as much as we are getting closer to the truth.

Translator Satsuki Yamashita creates page after page of dialogue that reads like it all came from a potboiler thriller novel.  Mark McMurray's lettering continues to keep up this narrative's breakneck pace and once again, makes it difficult for readers not to tear through Vol. 14 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