Volume 8

The Forbidden Game (禁じられた遊び) is the eighth volume of The Promised Neverland series.

Synopsis
With their guide working against them, Emma and Ray find themselves surrounded by deadly demons in an unfamiliar forest. They’ll have to learn how to fight quickly to have any hope of surviving and making their way to Goldy Pond. But what awaits them there…?

Plot
The Promised Neverland Vol. 8 sees Emma, Ray, and our nameless guide fending off the demons. The man hides and lets Emma and Ray deal with them on their own. They formulate a great plan and escape but when they let their guard down, Emma is suddenly kidnapped by the Poachers. It appears it was the man’s plan all along to lure them close to Goldy Pond and let the Poachers take one of them. Satisfied that Emma will, most likely, die… the man swears not to harm any others. Ray won’t have any of that and decides that he’s going to Goldy Pond to rescue Emma no matter what the cost. Meanwhile, Emma finds herself at Goldy Pond and the truth about that area is revealed: it is a secret hunting grounds for the demons. Children are not always used for the Gupna ritual and are, instead, shipped to Goldy Pond where a group of eccentric demons hunt them for sport, unbeknownst to the rest of the world. If word got out, it would violate the treaty with the human side of the world. There, Emma is thrown into a game of survival where she meets Violet, a girl who finds her optimism rather annoying.

The rules are simple. The music plays… you’re hunted until the music plays again, and then you wait three days for the next hunt. Once the hunt is over, Violet takes Emma to their base of operations and introduces her to a bunch of kids who were shipped there. However, there’s one more person she wants Emma to meet. Here, we are introduced to Lukas, the only adult who has survived the hunts for 13 years. Together with Emma, he wants to abolish the hunting ground but most-importantly, he values Emma because she has the key to William Minerva’s door!

Cover and Volume Illustration
The cover shows Emma and Ray running away from the Demon's plates and set of cutlery in the back, with their weapon at hand.

Chapters

 * 062. Indestructible Monsters (不死身の怪物)
 * 063. Help (HELP)
 * 064. Could Have Been Me (もしもの私)
 * 065. The Secret Garden (シークレット・ガーデン)
 * 066. The Forbidden Game, Part 1 (禁じられた遊び①)
 * 067. The Forbidden Game, Part 2 (禁じられた遊び②)
 * 068. This Is How It Is (こんなもんだよ)
 * 069. Introduction (会わせたい人)
 * 070. Hide-and-Seek (かくれんぼ)

Author Notes
When I was a kid, I went finishing in a small pond and I accidentally cut my hand with a lure. I remember thinking how much it must hurt for the fish who are caught.

The children of Goldy Pond know that someone will be sacrified every time. Do they wonder how much it will hurt for the one being sacrificed?

I'm sure they do.

Okay! The arc about the horrible village will continue in the next volume. Until then…try imaging how someone could survive in this village.

Writer Shirai's interesting tidbits for The Promised Neverland fanatics, part 3!

The maximum age for those who will leave the nest (be shipped out) differs depending on the farm. For Grace Field it's 12 years old. For Glory Bell it's 15 years old.

In this volume, there is a place where you can find out the Geezer's general age. Was it what you thought it was?

Please enjoy this volume! (By the way, did you notice the "umeboshi in the shelter" in volume 7?)

Critical Response
Volume 8 garnered positive responses from critics. Nick Creamer from Anime News Network gave the volume an A grade for its story, A+ grade for its art and an overall grade of A. Creamer describes the Search For Minerva Arc/Goldy Pond Arc chapters to have embraced both the series' classic conflicts and Shounen staples to excellent effect. A negative response of Creamer is how the return to a prison break narrative would have strike some readers to be repetitive.

Eric Cline on the website Adventure in Poor Taste gave the volume an entirely postive review and a total score of 10 out of 10, and went into depth in praising the writers' way of introducing the antagonists in this volume, especially Leuvis. The critic also praised Posuka Demizu's art, saying how it impresses him with countless small details.