Post — Aaron Ngo

Major Spoilers are included in this manga review. Please read with caution.

On October 4, 2020, The Promised Neverland and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba dropped bonus chapters. The hype was real for these unexpected bonus chapters coming at the start of October, especially with those manga series having concluded earlier this year. For those interested, my manga review for the Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba bonus chapter is here.

While details about this one-shot were mostly unknown, I was still fairly surprised to learn it was a prequel on Ray’s background—similar to how Demon Slayer’s one-shot chapter was centered around Rengoku’s background prior to the start of the series.

The Promised Neverland bonus chapter is centered around Ray—prior to the start of the series—and his emotional journey learning and processing the truth about demons eating humans. While we were shown many scenes that were showcased in the manga, this one-shot chapter dove deeper into Ray’s mindset and why he isolated himself from the other kids to read his books. Secretly, he had been researching how long the kids had before they were shipped off and how they were properly selected.

As we continued through the pages, we fully start to understand why Ray became determined to save everyone—only to realize he couldn’t and resolved to only save Emma and Norman from the demon nightmare.

At long last, we were given front-row seats on Ray’s six-year heartbreak and how those isolated feelings accumulated over time—through the montage of his siblings being “adopted and sent off”—due to his inability to do anything but watch. The ending of the chapter—when he became a spy for Mama Isabella, his biological mother—was tragic and added to his loneliness and pain, but he swallowed it to save Emma and Norman at the very least.

Ray’s reaction to Emma’s “save everyone” idea is also given clear context on why he was against it. He originally wanted to “save everyone” too at one point, but he failed over the years and deemed it impossible, choosing to have less trust in Emma as a result due to her inability to give up on anyone.

Overall, The Promised Neverland’s bonus chapter had great insight into Ray’s determined resolve to save only Emma and Norman while dying inside for the siblings he chose to forsake. I teared up while reading the whole thing, and I would highly recommend reading it at some point to fully understand Ray’s character and motives. If you hadn’t finished the series yet, I’d read it probably after the first two arcs—or after season 1 for anime watchers.

Thanks for reading this manga review, everyone! I miss reading The Promised Neverland so much. It feels like a lifetime ago since I read the series—but it’s only been five months since I finished reading the series on June 20, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic made everything feel like a lifetime ago. But now let’s get ourselves hyped for season two coming in January 2021! The anime adaptation’s story is just getting started after all! Let’s keep it reading until everyone gets their happy endings!

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