Summary

• The Promised Neverland manga and anime both have controversial endings that disappointed fans.
• The series ends with Emma making a new Promise in exchange for the safety of her loved ones.
• Despite the divisive ending, The Promised Neverland is still praised as a classic and successful franchise.

After four years and 181 chapters, The Promised Neverland finally reached its end in 2020. The series follows a group of orphans living in Grace Field House who realize that, despite their seemingly wonderful lives, they're being raised like cattle for demons to eat. Fans who only watched the anime may wonder if there were differences between The Promised Neverland's endings.

Written by Kaiu Shirai and illustrated by Posuka Demizu, the manga was first serialized in 2016. Three years later, it received a disappointing anime adaptation, which initially proved popular despite being ultimately unfaithful to the manga. This made many fans revisit the Promised Neverland ending, both in the manga and the anime. Given the quality of the latter as a whole, both proved to be controversial.

Updated by Timothy Blake Donohoo on January 16, 2024: The Promised Neverland is still one of the most popular anime, light novel and manga franchises in the past several years. This is despite the controversy about the anime adaptation's quality, which was disappointing to many. Likewise, even the Promised Neverland manga ending soured many, even though it was high quality up to that point. Years later, it remains a black mark on what was otherwise a beloved franchise.

Emma's New Deal in The Promised Neverland's Ending

After escaping the Grace Field House, The Promised Neverland's young heroes find themselves in danger after danger. They realize that there are two worlds: a human one and a demon one. In the process of finding a way to get to the human world, Emma and her friends discover that the reason why children are being fed to demons is the result of a "Promise" forged long ago. This Promise prohibited hunting between humans and demons, so in order to satiate the demons' hunger for human meat, farms were built to cultivate children to feed the demons.

But, just as there are good people and bad people, there are good and bad demons. Unfortunately, eating humans is the only way to avoid degeneration and eventual death. From that point on, Emma is determined to find a way for humans and demons to live in peace and decides to reforge a new Promise by Promised Neverland's ending.

The kids are sent to the human world after bidding farewell to their demon friends, Mujika and Sonju, and land on the shores of a dying America in the year 2047. Everyone's safe and together — all except Emma. Thrown into a panic, the kids wonder what exactly Emma offered as a reward to secure the Promise. These questions include her getting back to the demon world and whether she sacrificed herself. Seeking answers, the kids set off on a mission to find her, determining that because of the Promise, she has to be somewhere in the human world.

It turns out that Emma is in the human world, lying in a desolate, snowy field with no memories of who she is or everything she went through. Her serial number has also disappeared. In a flashback, viewers see Emma with the God of the Demon World in the middle of creating a new Promise.

In exchange for transporting all the humans, children, and adults to the other side, the Demon World God asks for a reward, the thing that is most important to Emma: her family. However, they reassure her that they won't kill her family. Instead, they'll take away her memories and future with them. Emma says that, to her, this isn't a sacrifice; it's only a means for settling her selfish desire to have the future she wanted where everyone was free. Therefore, she agrees to the new Promise.

The Promised Neverland's Emotional Reunion

With no recollection of the deal she made, Emma is eventually rescued from the snow by an old man. A month passes, and the only thing that remains from her past is an eye-shaped necklace. She also can't sleep because of recurring dreams of the shadowy figures of Yugo, Mama, Norman, and Ray. Although she doesn't recognize them, she feels an overwhelming sadness and warmth.

Two years later in The Promised Neverland, Emma accepts that she won't ever remember who the people in her dreams are and happily settles into her new life instead. In another part of the world, the Grace Field orphans have been frantically searching for her but to no avail. Left with nowhere else to look, a small team consisting of Ray, Gilda, and Phil heads toward a forbidden zone. Unbeknownst to them, they pass Emma, who's walking in the opposite direction with the old man. Empty-handed, they plan to head home when Ray feels a familiar young girl carrying a stuffed bunny dressed in Grace Field clothes pulling at his backpack, telling him to turn around.

This familiar Promised Neverland character is Conny, with the spirits of Yugo and Mama looking on. Without thinking, Ray runs back to the village. At the same time, Emma dashes back to the streets to search for the necklace she dropped and runs into Ray, Norman, and the rest of the Grace Field House orphans.

The reunion is a flood of emotion despite Emma still not knowing who they are. Norman says that he's thankful that Emma is happy, safe, and not alone and updates her on what happened after they arrived in the human world. They're all going to school, those from Lambda are recovering, and Chris has woken up. Their happiness was all thanks to Emma, but Norman wants her to be part of that happiness as well.

The callback to Conny in the Promised Neverland ending brings the story to a full circle: it was Conny's death that revealed the truth about Grace Field House and sparked the desire to create a future that was their own, so it makes sense, during this time of uncertainty and confusion, for Conny to be the one to bring Emma's family back to her.

The Promised Neverland Manga Ending Adds Extra Content

The final volume of The Promised Neverland covers Chapters 172 to 181, and it includes some additional pages to complete the Promised Neverland ending. Some add a little more context to the story, such as the reveal that Smee was ordered by Peter Ratri to kill his brother. A few are rejected scenes, but most of them are just bonuses, including one where Emma, Norman, and Ray play hide and seek as children.

In addition, the ending of The Promised Neverland adds a few extra spreads in the final volume that weren't in the original chapter release, most notably, one of a beaming Emma standing at the ocean. This is a sharp contrast to the opening page of the final chapter, where she's smiling sadly as she sacrifices her memories to save her family at the creation of the new Promise.

At the very end of the final chapter of The Promised Neverland, there's also a quick glimpse of what's happening in the demon world: Mujika and Sonju are buried under a frighteningly tall pile of papers as they get settled into governing a kingdom. Although they're far apart, Mujika still thinks about her friends on the other side.

The Promised Neverland ending is bittersweet, knowing that Emma will never get her memories back. However, The Promised Neverland has always been about the power of family. Emma's dreams and Conny, Mama, and Yugo being the ones to guide Ray to Emma are the manga's way of saying that your loved ones are never really gone. The love and faith you have in your family can do the unlikeliest of things. They have the power to change people for the better; they give you strength and even, every once in a while, the power to reverse destiny.

The series is still hailed as a classic, with many noting its dark nature and how it contrasted the seemingly innocent aesthetics. Given that so many of the most popular anime and manga properties are action-oriented battle shonen franchises, the success of The Promised Neverland was surprising indeed. This is the biggest reason why both the Promised Neverland manga ending and the anime version were seen as such disappointments. Nevertheless, the franchise as a whole will always be widely lauded in both of its main forms.

The Promised Neverland can be streamed through Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Funimation.