Title: The Promised Neverland Vol. 17
Author: Kaiu Shirai (Story), Posuka Demizu (Art)
Publisher: Viz Media
Language: English
Format: Digital
Pages: 192
Genre: Horror, Drama
Publication Date: November 3, 2020
The Story
Volume seventeen of The Promised Neverland began Norman’s assault on the capital during the Tifari celebration. Emma and Ray have returned from the seven doors after making the new promise and a race is now on to get to the capitol in order to try and stop Norman after it becomes clear to everyone that his true plan is to annihilate all of the demons, including the Royal Family.
Together, Normal and Geelan’s groups move in on the capital and seize it. Norman’s calculations were spot on (as expected) and that made it almost too easy for Norman’s plan to come to fruition. The bulk of the volume deals with Geelan’s backstory in addition to his battle against the Royal Family as well as the Queen herself.
The end of the volume comes when Emma makes it to the capital and comes face to face with Norman.
A bit of a short description here but this was a pretty straightforward volume of The Promised Neverland. In short, Norman’s plan was put into action, Emma and Ray go to stop them, spoiler things happen, and then Emma and Norman meet. Despite it being a straightforward story, a LOT happens that I didn’t summarize. We get some nice insight into the demons and their hierarchy, the history between the Queen and Geelan, and then some. We still don’t know the real reason WHY Norman is doing all of this. He revealed his hand for some time now that he wants to kill all of the demons but the big question of why still remains. Perhaps with Emma meeting him, we’ll find out next volume as there are only about 30-ish chapters left before we say goodbye to this series.
Characters
Obviously, the big focus of this volume was on Geelan. We took a look at what happened t him 700 years ago between him and the Queen and the events that led him to being banished from the city and thrown out into the wilds. We also learn of an ace up Geelan’s sleeve when it comes to the Royal Family and how that came to be as well. Geelan was, for the most part, an interesting character that was definitely fueled by revenge and his own personal vendetta against the Queen. Despite that, he was oblivious to the fact that Norman made him a pawn in his scheme to kill the Queen and the Royal Family.
Norman received more development here as he launched his attack on the capital. There was a moment during this invasion where we got a peculiar clue to something happening with Norman, though. It’s kind of a story trope we’ve seen a few times over in other series but once it happens, you start to understand just a little bit more why Norman might be carrying things out in such a manner. We also got to see a bit of interaction between Norman and the Queen which answers another question of why Norman was spared after being shipped out from Grace Field House. Even though it wasn’t a huge spotlight moment, its subtle reveal was kind of like an “ah, makes sense now” moment.
Final Thoughts
This was definitely another great volume of The Promised Neverland. Things heated up in the action front but look to simmer down in Volume 18 but it doesn’t mean that the series is taking its foot off the gas. We have, what I’m sure is going to be, a very heated meeting between Emma and Norman coming next volume that could decide the fate of everything. While some might look at this and just see it as a one on one confrontation, it holds more weight and gravity than that.
Emma’s desired future as well as the new promise that was made are all on the line with this conversation. If Emma can’t reason with Norman, everything that she worked for could be in jeopardy. The manga doesn’t flat out state it but you can definitely get a sense of that just by the context of the story thus far.
Also, it was nice to see Sonju and Mujika reunite with Emma this volume! You could definitely tell how passionate Emma is in her vision of a world where nobody has to suffer. Hopefully, in Volume 18, things will happen to allow Emma’s dream to come true!
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This item was provided for review by VIZ Media.
