>I'll admit, I'm not really super into the story of this series, but I really love the side characters and character designs, so I made this to collect some things I like for it. (Written sometime c. 2019)
>This page is for collecting various manga and anime I really liked that don't really warrant their own page.
>Black Jack is a classic manga by Osamu Tezuka starring the titular doctor, a mysterious unlicensed surgeon who takes on the most difficult and impossible cases for exorbitant sums. He is accompanied by his small assistant Pinoko, who has declared herself her wife (though he sees her as his daughter).
my black jack tag
Black Jack, interestingly, has one of the first trans characters in manga! The character talking to Black Jack in the above is Kei Kisaragi. He works as a ship's doctor and is one of the few recurring character in the series. He was a fellow medical student alongside Black Jack and they had a short romance. Then Kei was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. In order to save his life, Black Jack had to perform a complete hysterectomy and ooectomy (removal of the ovaries) on him. After this, Kei decides to live as a man. Part of this is due to scientific understanding at the time that believed that the lack of estrogen from the ovaries would cause one to masculinize, but even then Kei is happy to live as a man and is treated as a man in modern official art, such as this card set from 2003 that features him as the King of Hearts.
After Kei transitions he and Black Jack break it off, but Kei does later admit that he still has feelings for Black Jack, and perhaps if the manga had been written today this love could have been requited or at least have a bit more closure for Black Jack. But yeah, he's great!
Official art of Phos hugging Pinoko, drawn by Haruko Ichikawa in 2013 for Black Jack’s 40th Anniversary
I love how fuckin feral Black Jack and Pinoko are all the time
>It's a fun series with fun characters, even if it's probably never going to actually conclude... ShinRan is one of my very few Acceptable Hetero Ships™ (even if they're absolutely bi4bi).
> I'm not a super huge fan of the orignal Devilman manga, but DEVILMAN crybaby, Devilman Grimoire, and Devilman Lady are pretty good.
>I'm currently working my way through the series, starting with the original Mobile Suit Gundam. I really like it! I even got a little model kit of the White Base and a little gacha figurine of the Guncannon.
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“I'm sorry, Lalah. I still do have a place to go home to... and nothing could make me happier...! I'm sure you understand. We can be together any time we want... Lalah...”
I like to sit down and think about how good Bright Noa is- like, we joke around a lot about how he constantly goes around clocking people but honestly? he’s a wonderful person. He found himself, super young, in charge of a ship full of refugees and a super important weapon, with a crew that was mostly civilians, constantly threatened by the enemy, without asking for any sort of authority. And he just. Went for it. He saw what he had to do and did it. He just went “I guess I am the dad now” and took whole responsibility for everything
Of course he has no fucking patience. He is about as subtle as sandpaper. But he is honest, responsible, brave and he only knows one way and it’s forward. I love that he has no qualms to throwing down with Amuro. A lot of other people would take time to try to talk to him and coerce him slowly into getting back in the Gundam, but Bright doesn’t have the privilege of time and no patience. Bright, like Amuro, acts by impulse and his first tought is telling Amuro that he thinks he’s a fucking worm. And tbf it’s effective, even if it doesn’t really help their relationship, it spurs Amuro back into action because Bright has shown himself to be worthy of respect and nobody wants someone they look up to to think they’re a coward.
I love that Bright has his heart in the right place even when he is super blunt. I love his integrity and conviction and determination. I love how quickly he adapts to the situations he’s thrown into, his discipline and how he tolerates exactly zero (0) bullshit from anyone, whether it comes from adults or children. I fucking love Bright Noa and he’s more of a parental figure to me than my actual dad
> I love this dumb group of found family morons.
Hey, remember that time Arina Tanemura made a magical girl manga where the main character was told that she needed to be a virgin to keep her powers, and if she was no longer ‘pure’ she’d lose them, but then she had sex anyway with the guy she loved, and not only did she still have her powers afterwards, but she realized that in the end she didn’t even need her powers, she actually managed to win because she decided that she didn’t want to use her powers but only needed to be herself.
Remember that? That was awesome.
>I ended up watching this on a whim and was very pleasantly surprised. The vast majority of the cast is nonbinary, the character designs are so damn amazing, the anime is really cool and I love the soundtrack, I love Sensei so much, and the color spreads remind me of some of the artsier Sailor Moon color spreads.
you, confused: hnk doesn't seem that fun to read because things just get progressively worse and man why do you keep reading it? you must really enjoy it
me, desperately clinging to the pages via my laptop screen: i'm the only friend phos has left. if i stop reading they'll be alone
>Welp, this series had a lot of potential. Too bad it tripped over its own dick after about the battle of Kamino Ward. I still hate Bakugou and the pile of wet diarrhea that was the ending where previous themes were ignored in favor of victim-blaming status-quo worship.
>I'll admit, I'm not really super into the story of this series, but I really love the side characters and character designs, so I made this to collect some things I like for it. (Written sometime c. 2019)
>Who would win in a fight, jonathan joestar or all might?
you fool, they would shake hands like gentlemen. they both win because they won each other’s friendship
Look, I'm going to be level with you all. Unless something amazing and drastic happens between now (03/03/19) and the time you're reading this, I fucking cannot stand Bakugo. Cool, I don't give a damn if he's secretly really nice with a marshmallow center. Actions are what matter, and even now after character development he's still a fucking asshole. If he's so goddamned insecure that he has to constantly lash out or whatever, he needs to see a therapist, not be allowed to continue training to be a hero, where he's going to have to interact with all sorts of people.
I honestly don't understand why anyone in-universe can stand him. He's loud, rude, and such a fucking sore loser asshole that he has to be chained to get a winning medal because he doesn't like how exactly the battle turned out. Part of what really turned me off from the actual story was how Bakugo was somehow charismatic and sought after, even though he actively insults and denigrates everyone around him- it just felt like some sort of blue-and-orange morality thing because in real life that sort of person would have zero friends or admirers. And this is ignoring his years of bullying Deku. If I was in control of the BNHA universe, I would make him take a gap year or something to get a fucking grip.
Literally everything about him just makes me angry and miserable because so much of his 'character' is just straight up the bullies I grew up with and abuse from my parents. A lot of the time, I can't even stand him in fics unless it's severely AU or he's getting comeuppance because of just how upsetting he is.
Edit 27/1/25: LMAO yeah no this series is over and I still fucking hate Bakugou.
i’m just so full of love ok
i love them all
yes or no, do the students of class 1-A sleep with stuffed toys?
Assorted Headcanons I have for BNHA
I like to headcanon Izuku, Bakugo, and Satou as trans guys, Jirou, Ochako, and Hagakure as trans girls, and Kaminari as nonbinary. Kirishima's def gay, as is Jirou and she's also Momo's girlfriend. I also like h/c-ing Deku and Todoroki as some flavor of ace and arospec so that they have a queerplatonic relationship. Deku, Iida, Kouda, and Aizawa are also all autistic. I'll also admit I'm not insanely into Shinsou so instead of Mineta I like Shiozaki taking his place in Class 1-A. Aizawa and Present Mic are also married, with Aizawa being ace and homoromantic and Present Mic being pan. I don't really have any other strong headcanons for the rest of the class, except maybe a bit of love for Ojiro and Hagakure as a ship...
What does Class 1-A smell like?
bonus
Let's Talk About the Bakugou Problem
1. Consequences
This is a big one among Bakugou critics, so I think it's a pretty good place to start. Bakugou has almost never faced actual consequences to his actions (there's a difference between something bad that happens to happen to him and the world around him not accepting his behavior). There are two instances that I can think of that there was a direct ramification to something Bakugou has done. The first was during the Deku vs Kacchan fight where Bakugou does get suspended for four days while Izuku gets suspended for three days. The other is when he and Todoroki fail the provisional licensing exam. However, there's a problem with these two instances I mentioned.
With the D vs K fight, Bakugou was the one who goaded Izuku out of the dorms and instigated a fight. Izuku was trying to get him to go back to the dorms so they could settle their "issue" under adult supervision. He was trying to do the responsible thing. For Izuku to only receive a day less of punishment seems unfair. Though, you could make the case that he should have ignored Bakugou, it's still very clear that one was way more at fault than the other and there was barely a difference in their punishment.
The provisional licensing exam actually did well with failing Bakugou. It was almost a great lesson; that he can't say and do whatever he wants and expect the world to roll over for him. Unfortunately, it's undermined by Todoroki failing as well. Yes, Todoroki failed because of Inasa. But a) Inasa attacked him first which should have resulted in disqualification (what was Todoroki supposed to do, not fight back when he was being assaulted?) and b) Inasa's entire character seems shoehorned into the story. He doesn't really add anything to Todoroki's character as most of his problems with Todoroki were already resolved back in season 2. He also contributes nothing to the overall story. Shindou, for example, has a hand in testing 1A and forces them to work together congruently. Inasa seems like he was put in the story simply to make Todoroki fail. Why does Todoroki have to fail? Because Bakugou does.
It seems like Horikoshi always softens the blow for Bakugou in a way, if he's dealt any blow at all. By not allowing Bakugou to face consequences on his own, he might as well not be facing them at all.
Why are consequences so important? Because Bakugou's privilege is a problem.
I don't think I've seen anyone address this. The root of Bakugou's behavior comes from the fact that he was allowed to do all those terrible things because the world around him was tolerant of it. Teachers turned a blind eyes when he bullied Izuku because he had a great quirk and Izuku was quirkless. He's allowed to do and say whatever he wants because he has a great quirk. While people seem to be harder on Izuku because of either having no quirk or not being able to fully control his quirk. This is a huge part of the story that was set up in the beginning, but was almost never addressed despite being persistent throughout. And it's the most present with Aizawa.
Bakugou attempts to attack a fellow student the first day of class? Simply restrained, no repercussions. Bakugou uses excessive force against a classmate despite his teacher telling him to stop? Nothing more than a few not-so-nice words. Bakugou assaults his partner and refuses to cooperate? No words at all.
Now look at Izuku. Doesn't have full control of his quirk? His teacher attempts to humiliate and expel him in front of his classmates on the first day of class. Saves a classmate in an admittedly risky rescue mission? Said teacher proclaims he lost his trust and labels him a problem child (despite the orchestrator of said mission- Kirishima- being in the same room and not getting spoken to at all).
(I don't know if Aizawa's projecting, but pandering to the kid with the strong quirk while simultaneously disliking All Might isn't a great look.)
Even before UA, Bakugou is praised by the heroes for his strong quirk against the sludge villain despite the fact that his quirk made everything worse while Izuku is scolded even though they were the ones who did nothing while he did what he could to save someone.
"All men aren't created equal." That's one of Izuku's very first lines and a central point of the story. It's something you expect it to address multiple times, especially in regards to Izuku and Bakugou. But Bakugou being spared from consequences every single time he does something terrible means that the statement is validated, but the problem still persists and is never rectified or solved. Even if you think Bakugou "changed," that doesn't make his privilege go away.
2. Plot Compensation
The story goes out of its way to make Bakugou seem like a better person than he is. We're constantly being told one thing by the other characters, but Bakugou's actions tell us an entirely different story.
And what's worse is this is something that's happened repeatedly.
Aizawa tells the audience Bakugou respects Uraraka as an opponent. Bakugou a) tells Uraraka she should have given up and b) assumes her plan was Izuku's.
(Note: the only thing in Bakugou's favor is it's probably not because she's a girl. He just naturally looks down on everyone who doesn't immediately stand out to him with a show of power like Todoroki)
Aizawa says that Bakugou will never become a villain because he's so dedicated to being a hero. Bakugou rejected the LoV because they're losers he looks down on.My thing is, however, the League targeting him in the first place. Why would they do this? Bakugou clearly has a heroic quirk. He scored first on the entrance exam. If they did any research at all beforehand, they would know that Bakugou was at the top of his class before UA and is in the top five currently. And they'd know he has wealthy parents.
(You would think Dabi especially would draw parallels to Endeavor and would be aware that Bakugou's ambition and heroic quirk don't make him similar to the League who have been discriminated against, shunned, and abused for most of their lives. Even with his behavior at the Sports Festival, Endeavor isn't the noble and kind type like All Might and most other heroes. So I'm not sure why Bakugou's behavior immediately screamed villain potential).
Nothing about him suggests he's had a hard life like most of the League. Nothing about him suggests he'd want to leave his comfortable life and secured future to become a villain.
This scene sets up Bakugou's redemption, right? It leads us to the Deku vs Kacchan fight and All Might's advice is what makes him take on his "save to win" mentality. But not only does this seem like a convenient plot device, it decidedly ignores the uglier part of Bakugou's decision.
Bakugou rejected the LoV because he saw them as losers. But what if they hadn't been losers? What if they had been doing as well as they were at the end of season 5? Merging and becoming the MLA front, organized teams, wealthy, successfully recruiting members right under the heroes' noses.
Maybe Bakugou wouldn't have outright joined them. But at this point before shifting his perspective, his answer might have been very different.)
Bakugou says that Izuku wouldn't leave him alone and that's what caused him to lash out. Their first interaction showed Bakugou confronting Izuku while Izuku does his best to make himself seem smaller.
All Might tells us that Bakugou has dedicated himself to helping Izuku succeed and get better. The only thing Bakugou ever actually did in regards to OFA was attempt to force Blackwhip out.
But the story goes out of its way to hammer in Bakugou's scarce good traits to take your focus away from his overwhelming bad ones.
3. Bakugou's Character Shift "Development"
The way Horikoshi wrote Bakugou in the beginning is very different to how he is portrayed later in the show. No, I don't mean his development. I mean the major shift in his character between seasons 1 and 2 and seasons 3 and 4.
Bakugou in the beginning of the show is cruel, meanspirited, and violent. And he's still all of those things throughout the show. The one difference is that it's played for laughs in later seasons.
Bakugou's actions and words in seasons 1 and 2 are portrayed a lot more serious than in later seasons. He's an antagonistic force, one that Izuku has to strive to overcome not just to be a good hero, but for himself as Bakugou has been one of the most prominent obstacles in his strive to become a hero.
Look at his behavior during the battle trials. It's something serious, something that has even All Might worried. Bakugou knew he could have very well killed Midoriya and didn't care. It's brutal and almost hard to watch because at this point in the show Midoriya is weak and tiny (visually, we know he's never really been weak) compared to Bakugou and can really only outsmart him to win.
We never see Bakugou display anything close to this level of violence in later seasons. Not in the Sports Festival or 1A vs 1B or D vs K or the licensing exam or even against literal villains. Season 1 went out of its way to show Bakugou's cruel behavior even using it as something Izuku has to learn how to overcome even if he has to risk everything.
By season 3, the perspective has changed. Bakugou name calling people, belittling people, yelling, and his acts of violence are now exaggerated for comedy. None of his actions are taken as seriously as they were before, despite some being almost or just as bad.
(It's worth mentioning that this was also around the time Bakugou began to get popular among fans)
A great example of this is in season 5 when he throws his headpiece at Izuku and makes him bleed. His casual act of his aggression towards his lifelong victim is present to make the audience laugh, despite the fact that Izuku was bleeding and the 1A boys are (rightfully) horrified.
(I'd like to add that there was no real reason to do this. Nothing he was saying would have exposed OFA and even if it had, he was done talking by the time Bakugou threw it)
If Bakugou had really changed at this point, this would have never happened in the first place. I can't call this changing or development, I call this his actions shifting into comedic relief and away from the serious connotations they previously held. By taking that away, it allows Bakugou to continue to do the same things he has all his life while under the guise of development. It undermines what's supposed to be his redemption arc.
4. Other Characters
Bakugou isn't the only one who gets a character shift. It's approximately the moment that Bakugou begins to get more attention that the other characters lose the substance they had at the beginning of the show.
The ones hit most notably by this are obviously Uraraka and Iida. They were Izuku's first friends, his original trio. More than that, they are set up as interesting characters with their own arcs and paths for becoming great heroes.
Even though I did have my complaints about her fight with Bakugou in the Sports Festival, it does turn Uraraka onto improving past her goal of becoming a rescue hero. She wants to become better in other aspects of being a hero so that she can succeed and keep up with her stronger classmates. She proved herself capable of this during her fight with Bakugou and it was the catalyst of her character development.
Iida was not only resolving himself with caring for Midoriya as a friend as well as being his rival and wanting to surpass him. There's also this darker side to him that no one expects from goody two shoes, straight-laced Iida that had so much potential for exploration.
Both of them are tossed to the side in favor of Bakugou. I would even go as far as to say that after season 2, they're almost irrelevant until season 6 and even then they're limited (before season 6 Uraraka's only character trait is that she ignores he feelings for Midoriya to become a better hero, which came out of nowhere and does nothing for her character). And they barley ever get moments with Izuku during time despite being his first friends.
Todoroki is a similar yet very different case. At the beginning of the show, he was intense and has strong feelings. (An interesting parallel is that if Iida was his friend becoming his rival, Todoroki was his rival becoming his friend and both relationships speak to Izuku as a character) Even if he didn't express them, we as the audience knew they were there. But as times passes he becomes flat and dull. Even though he's supposed to be part of the new trio, he's barley present (the dynamic between the three of them is uninteresting all around as it's basically Bakugou yelling at Izuku with Todoroki in the background. They never have any deep or heartfelt moments nor do they have good chemistry) and barely gets any one-on-one interaction with Izuku despite them being very good friends.
(I can't blame this all on Bakugou as the show also shifts from focusing to Todoroki to focusing on his own abuser which is part of the issue with his lack of character, but Bakugou's character does contribute to this problem of making the abusers more sympathetic than the victims).
Most if not the rest of 1A fade into the background after this, save for a few who have notable moments sprinkled in throughout the show. You can take this as a Bakugou prevalence problem, or it can be seen as Horikoshi just not knowing how to balance characters.
However, the character that suffers the most because of this is Izuku himself.
I don't think it's a bad thing that Izuku admires or looks up to Bakugou. I don't think it's a problem that he doesn't see anything wrong with Bakugou's behavior against him. Izuku grew up in an environment where that was normalized. That he's worthless because of his lack of quirk and Bakugou deserves to be on top because of his great quirk. Of course he internalized that, even though he knows that a quirk doesn't determine someone's worth. He was never given the tools or the means to beat that mindset.
What I despise is the fact that everyone around him enables it.
As I stated above, Aizawa is definitely the worst when it comes to this. Not only shoving Bakugou and Izuku together and making it Izuku's job to get Bakugou to cooperate, but hardly if ever condemning Bakugou when he lashes out against Izuku. Even without their history, what Bakugou does is wrong and should be treated as such.
Unfortunately and even though I love All Might, he's also guilty of this. It's true that he might not know the full extent of their toxic relationship, but All Might sees Bakugou instigate a fight with Izuku and decides it's okay to tell Bakugou about One For All. Bakugou did nothing to earn this honor: he hasn't shown Izuku support and hasn't been a reliable ally he could depend on. But even disregarding that, Bakugou had just been captured by villains who work for All For One. He was the last person on Earth who should have been entrusted with this secret.
The adults in Izuku's life enable and reward Bakugou's bad behavior and urge them into forming a relationship and partnership that frankly shouldn't exist (and only does to make Bakugou a better person and hero, it does nothing for Izuku). It's to the point where almost Izuku's entire character revolves around his relationship with Bakugou and how he improves because of it and how he helps Bakugou improve. And he further projects this when he "subtly" implies that Todoroki should forgive Endeavor, which feels like a justification towards the audience of his own feelings towards Bakugou.
5. Accountability
I mentioned consequences as my first point. But what many who want this miss, it goes hand-in-hand with accountability.
Unlike consequences, Bakugou more or less does take accountability in the form of his apology. But the apology was lackluster for a couple of reasons. The main thing is that it feels like a list of excuses rather than simply owning up to the fact that he was shitty and there's really no good reason for it. But simply explaining why you hurt the person you hurt isn't giving them the apology they deserve. It's making it about you.
Another thing, though, is that the apology is very scarce. It skips over the worst of Bakugou's actions. Nothing he said was anything 1A didn't already know. They don't know about the suicide baiting which is one of the worst things he's done to Izuku (and that's only what we saw, who knows what Bakugou's been saying for years?). It also ignores everything he did in UA, which was a very big part of the problem. He treated Izuku poorly months prior to the apology and that shouldn't be ignored.
As far as accountability goes this apology isn't that great. But it's something. No, what's worse is that the other characters don't hold Bakugou accountable.
The other characters more often than not turn a blind eye to Bakugou's behavior. We've already covered Aizawa, but the rest of 1A is guilty of this too. No one says anything about the Battle Trials. Hardly anyone condemns Bakugou when he attacks or insults Izuku. Sometimes they'll chime in like Uraraka or Kirishima, but other than that no one outright tells him off. This is out of character for Iida in particular because he's such a stickler about rules and courtesy for others (he literally told off a six year old when he punched Izuku and tried to stop Mineta from perving on the girls, why wouldn't he do the same when it comes to Bakugou?). It's almost like the characters are blind to Bakugou's behavior.
What's weirder is that Mina and Kirishima- who were both stated to hate bullying- are friends with him. Why would the show go out of its way to tell us this only to saddle them into the "BakuSquad?" It doesn't make sense.
It's hypocritical that everyone in 1A is so tolerant of Bakugou but get annoyed with others; like Monoma for example. Or even Mineta because as much as I dislike him he's constantly being called out by 1A. It means that they know certain behavior is wrong and/or shouldn't be entertained, so we know they aren't completely unaware. But the fact that they largely ignore Bakugou's behavior and condemn Monoma's is so weird. You can't excuse one and not the other.
Conclusion
There's certainly more than this to my dislike of Bakugou. But I think I've mostly covered his negative impact on the story. Doing a deep dive into his awful personality is something I wouldn't wish on anyway. Many others have done that anyway, so I'm content to leave it out. But I hope you liked my little breakdown!
>I honestly have never read this series or watched the anime. I just like the memes and some of the side characters.
my naruto tag>I enjoy this franchise quite a bit. I've seen parts of Futari wa Precure, KiraKira, and Mahoutsukai; I've only completely finished Hugtto so far, but I plan on working my way through the rest of the series.
my precure tagi am a george kurai hater first and a human second
>God, I love this manga so much. The art is super beautiful, the story intriguing, and it has the perfect balance of horror, angst, and comic relief. Shame about the anime though...
my tpn tag
Another thing I love about The Promised Neverland is that Ray, Emma, and Norman are incredibly close to a canon OT3 triad, and I love them so much?
The Promised Neverland follows Emma and her foster siblings, who live a seemingly idyllic life with their foster mother Isabella as they await adoption. Their paradise is abruptly shattered, however, when Emma and Norman witness the truth: they're not being adopted, but shipped off to become high-grade food for literal monsters. Horrified, they and their siblings plan their escape.
The most effective horror stories aren't about the monster itself, but about the fear that monster represents. These fears can range from the neutral (death), the regressive (xenophobia), or the progressive (the effects of bigotry), but they're always tapping into some broader anxiety felt by the target audience. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but a good monster is never just a monster.
Because monsters serve as metaphors, they also have the potential to map onto a variety of ideas or concerns. The nightmare depicted in The Promised Neverland serves as social commentary, but that doesn't mean it's only one social commentary.
On a general level, the series addresses fears about growing up, entering "the real world," and realizing the adults in our lives aren't always truthful (or even good people). On a more culturally specific level, Neverland's competitive education system and concept that "smart kids taste better" likely reflects the pressures kids in Japan feel to succeed in school—only to one day be "devoured" by a job that might work them to death.
You could also read anti-capitalist and pro-diversity stances in the series, given that the children feed "the rich" and the foster family is comprised of kids from a variety of racial backgrounds seeking a world where they can live together in peace. There's a lot going on in Neverland, which allows its monster story to resonate with different readers for different reasons.
But for Emma (and much of the series' female audience), there's another, even more specific fear bundled up in this horror story: the traditionally limited options available to women, and the restrictive gender norms many girls must fight against to live the way they want.
As a protagonist, Emma stands out in the landscape of Shonen JUMP, not just because she's a girl but because she has a lot of traditionally masculine qualities. Rather than serving as the level-headed "brains" of the group, as is often the case for female characters in action-oriented series, Emma's greatest strengths are her athleticism, courage, and conviction.
Like Deku in My Hero Academia, Emma is The Protector and Moral Core, the one who refuses to lose hope or compromise her values. She's clever, yes, but she's too honest to manage all the twists and lies required of the team's escape plan.
Instead, she entrusts Norman and Ray, her closest male friends, with the bulk of the scheming. And, when one of them hesitates or tries to give up on saving the whole family, Emma's there to push them forward again.
Emma is undeniably admirable, but also not what many people think of when they hear the words "female character in a shounen." Her "tomboy" personality also stands in sharp contrast to the ideal of the "good wife and wise mother" that's been pushed onto women in Japan (and much of the world, though maybe not in those exact words) for over a century.
So it's no surprise that, in Neverland's dystopia, that's exactly the role offered to her.
A few volumes into the series, we learn that not every child is destined to become food. The highest-performing girls are given a "choice": they can die, or they can help the monsters with their harvest. (The highest-performing boys likely have a similar option, given that we see adult men working with the monsters, but as of chapter 155 it hasn't been explicitly confirmed.)
Through flashbacks, Neverland depicts an academy where the "elite" girls compete to survive. Those who make it become "Sisters" and, if they continue to excel, give birth and become a "Mom" on one of the farms. They then spend their lives raising new generations of children to eventually turn over for consumption, thus continuing the cycle.
It's a dramatic but emotionally effective representation of living as a girl in many parts of the world. Even today, there's a tremendous amount of pressure placed on young women to marry, bear children, and teach their kids the "right" way to live. And while literal death might not be the alternative (though sometimes it is), economic and social barriers often make it feel that way.
What really makes Neverland's social critique so sophisticated and terrifying, though, is how well it understands the mechanisms in place to keep its oppressed characters in line. Not only are the girls provided with a non-choice ("join us or die"), but that choice doesn't even guarantee their safety. They aren't automatically selected as Sisters and Moms, but rather as "candidates" who must battle each other for those positions.
The forced competition turns them all into enemies, ensuring they'll be too busy fighting a fake opponent to band together against the real one. Sister Krone demonstrates the effects of this conditioning when she arrives on the farm and immediately starts plotting against Isabella, hoping to take her Mom position.
Krone's relationship with Isabella contrasts sharply with the camaraderie between Emma and her foster sisters, further highlighting the fabricated nature of the adults' antagonism. There's nothing "natural" about the stereotype of catty women forever in competition with each other, and the series takes pains to show that.
Yet while the adult women in Emma's life have done undeniably monstrous things, The Promised Neverland depicts them as distinct from the actual monsters. Over the course of these early volumes, the audience learns that Krone and Isabella hate the system as much as Emma does; but, unable to escape it, they found ways to justify their participation within it.
Although there are significant issues with Krone's character design and position as the only prominent Black woman (which I, a white person, am not qualified to really comment on), she is ultimately written as a fierce survivalist and sympathetic figure. The same is true of Isabella, who decided the best she could do was help the kids live as happily as they could before their deaths.
When first Krone and then Isabella realize they've failed in their tasks (and failure in this world always means death), they reveal their true feelings and throw their support behind Emma. Their last acts are ones of rebellion, as they provide what help they can to increase the kids' chances of escape. With their final lines of dialogue, they pray that Emma's family finds a way out of this broken world.
The smartest social commentaries understand that most of the people who perpetuate a harmful system are themselves victims of it. While Neverland never excuses Krone and Isabella's complicity, it also offers them sympathy and a form of redemption. They might have been forced into this system, but that doesn't mean they have to be loyal to it.
(And, as a cheerier aside, there's a bonus comic where Krone and Isabella, freed from their constant anxieties about survival, sit down, complain about their jobs, and soon become friends. It's a joke comic, but it's also an effective depiction of how quickly barriers fall when the forces that erected them are no longer present.)
While it's hard to fault Isabella and Krone for wanting to live, they still serve as cautionary tales about the dangers of giving in to a toxic system and becoming a part of the very thing that's hurting you. They thought their options were "join or die," but in truth their hopeless rage was a kind of living death—and, in the end, they were still destroyed by the monsters they'd tried to appease.
Emma sees these non-choices for what they are and rejects them both. When Isabella, in a skewed attempt at kindness, suggests that Emma "accept despair" because it's less painful than fighting a doomed battle, Emma flatly refuses her.
Emma won't die, nor will she submit to a restrictive role that continues to destroy others. She won't resign herself to being defined solely by her place within a traditional family structure—to being a Sister or a Mom and nothing else.
She may get hurt along the way (and she does, both physically and emotionally), but she'll keep fighting even so. Unlike the adults around her, Emma will find a better path.
And, with the help of her foster siblings and some unexpected assists from her Sister and Mom, she does exactly that. After four tense volumes, Emma and her family make it to the outside world.
They almost don't make it all out together, though, because Emma isn't the only one struggling with gendered expectations. During their escape, the oldest boy Ray tries to violently sacrifice himself to help them succeed. It's as if he's attempting to slot into the traditional role of the absent father- or brother-figure who nobly gives his life (whether on the battlefield or at the office) "for the sake of the family."
Emma rejects this role as soundly as she did her own narrow options. She stops Ray from killing himself and encourages him to live as an active part of their family going forward. Instead of a one-sided sacrifice, both Emma and Ray give themselves the same injury to ensure their escape.
Once outside, they promise to protect and build their family "together." It's a vow that suggests a new familial structure based on equality and mutual aid, rather than the narrow (and harmful) gender roles of "breadwinner" and "homemaker."
Emma's story is far from over and her family's journey just beginning. If the outside world is synonymous with freedom, then freedom has its own share of dangers and (sometimes literal) pitfalls. But they have a choice, and they have each other, and that means they have hope. This new path may not be easy, but it's a damn sight better than the roads they took before.
This meta was taken in part from this article, with my own commentary added in.
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Here’s the thing regarding the season two Emma, Norman and Ray reunion- (if a second season of the Promised Neverland anime existed, which of course it doesn't, I mean)
In the manga, Ray and Emma have gone though so so much together before they meet Norman. It makes their bond stronger, and really sets their dynamic in stone. This also leads up to the eventual seven walls arc and the moment where Ray says this to Emma:
Not to mention they took out all of Emma’s character development, individuality, and personal strength.
it’s more like:
Oh? Norman’s back? Great.
Emma is “saved” from her misery. Emma and Ray were hopeless on their own anyway.
There were no badass Emma moments; the anime did not give her a chance to shine and to show that she is capable of taking care and providing for herself and all her family (and found family).
(This is why the goldy pond arc is so important: the responsibility of Emma taking and leading the 40+ children, defeating lewvis on her own, doing this without ray, learning to cope, etc.)
so now is Emma just going to sit back and let Norman take the wheel? it’s like to the writers, it’s not a girl's job to fight. EMMA DOESN’T NEED TO BE SAVED. SHE SAVES HERSELF (with the help of others, but by herself nonetheless)
I am so mad at the anime for taking our real Emma away. The Emma who is wholeheartedly devoted to protecting her family. The Emma who is optimistic in the worst of circumstances. The Emma who doesn’t rely on Norman or Ray to save her. The strong Emma. The real Emma.
The Emma we all know and love.
