Today I will introduce you to a popular anime named, The Promised Neverland.  The show started as a Japanese manga series written by Kaiu Shirai and was published in August of 2016.  The manga, meaning comic in English, was given an anime on January 10, 2019, and was deemed to be an award-winning show.  It was given a lot of credit for its work on the first season with its great animation and plot thanks to CloverWorks.  Soon after, they were given a second season and a live-action movie.  Sadly, they both went downhill, leaving fans with a devastating feeling.  Even so, the manga still picked up fans, gifting them with suspense, sorrow, and joy!  It’s truly a worthwhile show that showcases a great variety of thrill and action.

In the first episode, 121045, you are met with three small children.  Norman, Emma, and Ray.  All three are from an orphanage named Grace Field. They question what is beyond the gate that leads to the outside world.   A little later, you are greeted by Emma, who is waking up all of her 35 siblings.  She is shown to be very caring towards each and every one of them.  While everyone is making breakfast, you meet Mother Isabella.  She is a kindred spirit that everyone loves.  After breakfast, they went to do their weekly testing to measure how intelligent they are.  The oldest, Emma, Norman, and Ray, got perfect scores once again, and Don, their sibling, challenged them to a game of tag.  Everyone hides and Norman is “it.”  Don, being overconfident, underestimated Norman’s searching skills and soon lost.  Norman would then find all of the siblings, except for Emma, who has great athletic abilities.  He uses her kindness to his advantage, which would cause Emma to lose.  

Since everyone was found, they all challenged Norman to find him.  Norman agrees and runs off to hide.  After a short time had passed, no one was able to find him, except for Emma.  She realizes he’s staring down at the fence which separates them from the wall.  Interested in what Norman is thinking about, Emma decides to ask him what the matter is.  Norman questions why such a small fence would be used to separate them from the wall.  After everyone catches up to them, they talk about how none of their past siblings ever sent a letter to the orphanage.  They all solemnly agree that their siblings have forgotten about them and were having too much fun in the outside world.  Conny, who was being adopted that same day, promised to never forget to write back.  After such an exciting day of tag and games, she bids farewell to her siblings.  She leaves with Mom and forgets her toy bunny.  Emma, being the nice sibling that she is, decides to take it to Conny with the company of Norman.  They see the gate is opened with a truck parked.  They both inspect the truck hoping Conny would be inside.  Emma decides it would be best if she were to place “Little Bunny,” Conny’s toy, in the back where Conny would soon find it.  Emma opens the back to find Conny’s lifeless body resting there.  Shocked and confused, she motions to Norman to check it out as well.  While inspecting the back he would soon realize that Conny has passed.  The two hear the stomps of someone and would hide under the truck where they were met by two huge demons.  Both were trying to make sense of the situation and were trying very hard to not make noise when they heard the conversation about the kids being sold off as merchandise to demons of high status.  Mom and the demons were talking casually about the matter while Norman and Emma ran off to the field to mourn and think about their lives.  Emma and Norman agree to escape with everyone.  Meanwhile, Mom finds Little Bunny and concludes someone has been snooping around.

After the discovery, that’s where we get into the thriller of The Promised Neverland.  I believe the show has a lot to express just for the first episode.  The emotions and diverse personalities of the characters really do tie together well.  This show would be great for people starting in the horror/fantasy genre!  It gets you hooked early on which is great for people deciding whether or not they want to continue it.  I would rate this show a 5 out of 5 Little Bunnies.