ADVANCED REVIEW: ‘The Promised Neverland,’ Volume 19

The Promised Neverland, Volume 19 is a fantasy thriller manga written by Kaiu Shirai and illustrated by Posuka Demizu. VIZ Media publishes the English-language release as a part of the SHONEN JUMP imprint. The Promised Neverland centers on the Grace Field House orphanage children who discover a dark and twisted truth. Their loving Mama has been raising them to be fed to demons. The children work together to escape their fate while they desperately try to find a place in the world where they can exist and be free from the threat of the demons.

Now in Volume 19 the final battle for the children’s future begins. with the queen of the demons now dead, chaos quickly breaks out across the demon world. Emma and her friends hurry back to their first home, Grace Field House in order to rescue the other children from Peter Ratri before he implements his sinister plan. 

Volume 19 covers chapters 146 through 159. The volume comes off the end of Imperial Capital Battle Arc and ushers in the Return to Grace Field Arc. While this is the penultimate volume of the series, the story feels like it falls a little flat and rushed. There are a lot of moving parts in this volume and it just feels like the story is jumping from one thing to the next as it approaches the end of the series.

Following the suspense and preparation that went into the previous arcs just felt more fleshed out and strategically written. Instead, this arc, just simply felt rushed. It would have been great for there to be more of a story and conflict with the new main villain, Peter Ratri, in this arc. However, towards the end of this volume, it is clear that this arc is going to be wrapped up and concluded fairly quickly.

However, I will say what continues to work for this story is that the mangaka, Kaiu Shirai, knows how to hold out on the twists and mystery in the series. This volume has a great plot twist that fans will be a bit shook. Additionally, the current and biggest mystery that Kaiu Shira continues to keep bringing me back to this series:  

The artist, Posuka Demizu, continues to do an excellent job with the action sequences throughout this volume. But something that really caught my attention in Volume 19 was the facial expressions. Particularly when it comes to the facial expressions of the demons. The demons in The Promised Neverland typically always have the top half of their faces covered to shield their only weak spots, their eyes. In this volume there are a variety of character designs for demon characters and the artists do an especially great job expressing an array of emotions. 

Overall, The Promised Neverland Volume 19 was a little be of a letdown story-wise. I can’t say I loved the pacing of this volume as it feels a bit rushed as the series approaches its end. The build-up and suspense for this arc’s conflict villain just felt like it was lacking compared to the previous arcs. However, the plot twist was a great touch that felt fitting and there are still some mysteries left to be revealed. The artist continues to do an amazing job with action sequences but what impressed me most in this volume was how they were able to make the demon characters so expressive even though only their faces are visible. The next volume will be the last of the series. As a long-time fan of this series, I am both sad and eager to see how this series will come to an end.

The Promised Neverland Volume 19 is available wherever books are sold May 4, 2021.