Spiritually, a distant relative of Duke Devlin/Ryuji Otogi.
Demon characters are a bit harder with how many cool designs Demizu came up with.
The Grace Field Boss Demon only shows up at the beginning and end of the series (barring S2 teasing me by having him show up during the Cuvitidala Arc), but he's such an imposing figure in that initial appearance when the kids are the most vulnerable that he stands out to me, particularly with the tubing that looks like it's from a gas mask. Gives him a clinical feel.
(Concept art from The Promised Neverland Art Book World | Chapter 176 | S1 Episode 1)
Yverk has such a grand, regal bearing to him and one of the sickest mask designs.
(Concept art from The Promised Neverland Art Book World | Chapter 147 | Chapter 7 | WSJ Issue #41 2018 Popularity Poll for Chapter 102 | Chapter 131)
I wish he got to be at the forefront more, but I can appreciate him as a constant background presence maintaining the status quo for over a millennia.
Bayon Sr. continues the trend of having one of the coolest mask designs, and I like how spindly he looks.
hi sorry feel free to ignore this, do you know if there are any fics out there that focus on ray's memory?? idk if he has an eidetic memory or just lacks infantile amnesia, but either way would be cool if there was a fic about it somewhere out there
You could make a case for him having eidetic memory with instances like these:
(Chapter 100 | Chapter 102)
But Shirai never confirmed it one way or the other, so one is free to take it as far as they want with their headcanons.
As for fanfics, do you mean where the narrative is shaped around his memory as the focal point or as a substantial part of the backdrop that informs his character?
I can't recall anything that would fall into the former, but for the latter I think of SuddenWhispers/withlovehaven's Tethered
and @hylialeia's hoping you're someone i used to know.
Repeating myself from this post where I recommended them before, but it's always a treat when you find fics like these. Delivered in gorgeous lyrical cadence, such loving attention is paid to sentence composition that the words aren't merely a means to an end, but a reflection of a deep appreciation for both these characters and the craft itself, the weight of them meant to be lingered over and savored. Among my gold standard for TPN fanfic, and canon in my heart. <3
[Other FSS fanfic recs found here, here, here, here, and here]
Yes, hello, I love your blog, you're my only window into what the fandom is doing and I could always completely skip the manga and just stick to reading here. So, about your poll of popular theories, I saw something about the demon world being underwater, would you mind elaborating, please? It's for research. For a fanfic 👀
[The poll in question]
I'm always going to advocate for reading the manga, not just because of what happened with S2, but also to see all the gorgeous detailing Demizu puts into her work that's lost in the transition to TV animation, along with her playing with perspectives/proportions in relationship to power dynamics.
(Chapter 1 | S1 Episode 1)
But thank you! <3
My understanding was the theory of the demon world being underwater was introduced by @couldnt-think-of-a-better-name, who was mainly active during the series' heyday (February 2019-July 2019, between the releases of chapters 123-142 during the King of Paradise and Seven Walls arcs and when S1 premiered in Japanese and English).
• Main post about the theory
• Secondary post about Lambda-7214 being a coordinate
• Neat edit of chapter 7's, chapter 16's, and chapter 2's cover art
• Volume 13 Special Edition mini-artbook art hinting at the trajectory of the series
I think it's interesting in how the Seven Walls search party traverses what we're presented with as the entire demon world to find clues about Cuvitidala and the Seven Walls, yet the largest body of water we see anyone interact with is a pond. Nothing close to an ocean that would present them with difficulties such as building a boat or buying one from demons.
Shirai also confirmed the elevator at Goldy Pond takes one to "a certain forest in Australia" (out of 458 forest communities).
(Mystic Code Book Chapter 3 Q&A)
While the stairs under Grace Field headquarters seem to land one somewhere on the east coast of the former United States of America.
(Chapter 178 | Chapter 179)
There's the imagery of the Statue of Liberty, leading me to believe the North American headquarters for the Ratri clan are located in (former?) New York City, but I don't know if I would necessarily say they wash up on the city's shores since Mike takes a jet out to meet them and the children aren't freezing in the November weather there. There's also the impracticality of after coming back from the demon world to transport goods or just traverse between the worlds you conspicuously land out in the open on the beach, so I believe it was the demon god's meddling that sent them to this beach, and the proper exit in one specific, singular location like the Goldy Pond one is somewhere else in the area. Two specific locations located in opposite hemispheres in our world, yet in the demon world you could potentially travel between the two passageways on foot in approximately a week based on the time it took the kids to reach the shelter at B06-32 (one day of initially wandering through the forest, five days traveling with Sonju and Mujika, and one day walking through the wasteland) and how long it took Yuugo, Emma, and Ray to reach Goldy Pond (four days) if it was a straight shot.
(Chapter 49 | Chapter 60)
It all leaves me very curious about how large the demon world is compared to the human world and how the demon god decided to split the two worlds up.
It's also interesting how despite all the water imagery in the series, we don't see any rain in the manga outside of the chapter 28 cover art (mentioned in the fourth post of that list):
But the anime chose to have a very light rain overlay during the second episode while not animating the ground or characters getting wet:
It rains in the light novels.
(TPN Light Novel 1: A Letter from Norman [June 2018] - "The Day Emma Cried")
(TPN Light Novel 4: Films of Memories [December 2020] - "Operation Stormy Night," originally published in Minerva Confidential Report Report Volume 1 that was packaged with the first volume of the Japanese S1 blu-ray in March 2019)
And we see the children playing in the snow in the past.
Rambled about this before on this post, but I really wish they would explained how the search party is able to see out of their masks, even if it was a single panel of Emma pointing out something like nearly imperceptible eye slits.
(Chapter 147 | Chapter 149 | Chapter 150)
Older, classical masks like those of the elder Bayons (compared to those of Bayon II's wife and children), Yverk, and Geelan's clan incorporate a pair of symmetrical, horizontal, and frequently vacant eye holes among their designs.
In the chapter 90 bonus sketch, this is mentioned as respecting tradition, which I interpret as a holdover from the days of demons hunting humans, and the intention of that incorporation was to play on pareidolia-enhanced fear among humans who, out of habit, would look toward the horizontal pair of eye holes first when gazing upon demons in combat and would frequently be treated to an unflinching, menacing abyss. It's a good subtle tactic to unnerve them before they take in the rest of the mask.
Once the farm system was instituted and demons weren't regularly warring with humans anymore, it became unnecessary and seemed to fall out of style among the general population who weren't banished like the Geelan clan.
I assume this is the main reason the kids don't opt for horizontal eye holes. There's also the issue of demons potentially catching sight of their human eyes, but there has to be some black cloth to work with in the bunker that could have lined the masks if they couldn't get whatever magic Bayon and Yverk use for no other eyes or skin to show through their horizontal mask sockets.
Either way, it's one less thing to make them stand out from the crowd when they're already contending with their comparatively short statures, human hands and feet, and having to wear perfume.
