The Promised Neverland Movie

The Promised Neverland is a live-action adaptation of the manga of the same name which was created by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu. The film is directed by Yūichirō Hirakawa, who is also known for directing films such as the critically acclaimed live-action film ERASED and the live-action Rookie film series. The script is penned by ERASED's scriptwriter Noriko Gotou. The film stars Minami Hamabe as Emma, Rihito Itagaki as Norman and Kairi Jyō as Ray. The Promised Neverland was released on December 18, 2020.

The film was a commercial success, grossing over ¥2.03 billion ($17.7 million) in its theatrical release, making it amongst the highest-grossing films of 2021 in Japan. The Promised Neverland was also well received by critics, it was praised for its story, cinematography, themes and soundtrack.

Plot
Grace Field House is a paradisaical orphanage filled with happiness. The orphans who live there with their “Mother”, the caretaker, Isabella, all look forward to the day they grow old enough to be adopted. Emma (Minami Hamabe), Ray (Kairi Jyo) and Norman (Rihito Itagaki) also believe they could lead an even happier life once they get to live in the outside world… only until "that day". After Emma and Norman see Conny off, who smilingly leaves the orphanage to be adopted, they find the stuffed toy Conny always kept in her arms left at the dining area of the house. To take the toy back to Conny, the two head to the "gate" which Isabella strictly has taught the children to stay away from, where they find Conny dead and ready to be shipped out as "food". The orphanage which the children thought to be was idyllic, was actually a "farm" to grow edible children to be offered to demons. Furthermore, the "Mother" they had all loved like their actual mother was actually a "cultivator" whose role was to raise the children to be premium feed. Finding out that everything was all but a fantasy, Emma, Ray and Norman begin their reckless attempt to break out of Grace Field House along with their other siblings.

Cast

 * Minami Hamabe as Emma
 * Rihito Itagaki as Norman
 * Kairi Jyō as Ray
 * Yamashiro Ruito as Young Ray
 * Keiko Kitagawa as Isabella
 * Deguchi Natsuki as Young Isabella
 * Naomi Watanabe as Krone
 * Miyu Andô as Gilda
 * Santoki Soma as Don
 * Asada Halo as Conny
 * Matsuzaka Tori as Peter Ratri
 * Yurito Mori as Phil
 * Shibazaki Fuga as Nat
 * Leilani Matsumoto as Anna
 * Motota Mizoguchi as Thoma
 * Kousei Kimura as Lannion
 * Adinan as Dominic
 * Kit Furuhashi as Mark
 * Misora Shimura as Alicia
 * Girard Sara as Yvette
 * Rupert Palmer as Chris
 * Shizuku Ota as Sherry
 * Haruka Sato as Jasper
 * Sayuki Miyajima as Marnya
 * Risa Kaneko as Nina
 * Ariana as Jemima
 * Nbaiare as Chamberlain
 * Svediozas as Damdin
 * Domerichi Eden Kina as Naila
 * Dahlia N as Vivian
 * Touma H as Hans
 * Ishizuka Rikuto as Tom
 * Poésie Yano as Carol
 * Mita Yoshiko as "Grandma" Sarah
 * Seki Toshihiko as Demon (voice)
 * Tajiri Hiroaki as Demon (voice)
 * Sasaki Hiroo as Demon (voice)

Announcement
The film was announced on September 26, 2019, with a planned release date in December 2020. It was announced that Yūichirō Hirakawa would direct the film with Noriko Gotou handling the film's script. A broadcast advertising the movie was aired on September 27, 2019 one day following its announcement on Japanese TV network. The official poster and website of the movie are made available so as to market the movie. Following the movie's announcement, the actress who plays Emma, Minami Hamabe, self-professed herself as a fan of the series, and bought the print volumes and the e-book version of the manga. The actress also praised director Yūichirō Hirakawa and the staff for realizing the world of The Promised Neverland. She vowed to do her best in portraying Emma for everyone who loved the manga.

The authors of The Promised Neverland manga, Shirai and Demizu, commented on the upcoming movie, with both of them being generally positive about it. The two have interacted with the staff members behind the movie as well.

Development
The film was announced in September 2019, with a planned release date in December 2020. it was announced that Yūichirō Hirakawa would direct the film, Ken Murase the producer with Noriko Gotou handling the film's script.

The idea to adapting The Promised Neverland manga series into a live-action film adaptation came up after Ken Murase, the producer of the film, read the series at the Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine, where the series is originally published in a weekly format. He thought that the story is very interesting and was admired by the imaginative skill of the original author Kaiu Shirai, so he decided to make it into a live-action film. He immediately contacted Shueisha, the publishing company of the original story, to get the rights done and start working on it. The production staff faced much difficulties for creating the visual world of dark fantasy that does not exist in reality, this being the same for most fantasy stories. So they were conscious right from the beginning of the need to recreate the beauty of Grace Field House by rounding up the right staff and crew members for this production.

The film stars Minami Hamabe as Emma, Jyo Kairi as Ray, Rihito Itagaki as Norman, Keiko Kitagawa as Isabella and Naomi Watanabe as Krone. The casting for Krone was met with controversy as the character is depicted being black in the manga and anime, while Watanabe herself is Japanese. Some things have been changed from the original story, such as the maximum age at which orphans are "shipped" being raised from 12 to 16 and the appearance of Peter Ratri, played by Tori Matsuzaka.

Filming
Production took place in Japan, and the filming occurred in the Important Cultural Property of Japan. The Grace Field House was photographed by adding a set to Tenkyokaku in Inawashiro Town, Fukushima Prefecture, the scenes such as the forest around the house was taken in Nagano Prefecture, Chino, Fujimi and Ina.

Visuals
The 3DCG and VFX production visuals of the monsters and the backgrounds were made by the Japanese creative group "khaki", using Cinema 4D. It took about half a year to finish the CGI production, shooting began in the summer of 2019, and after the filming was over, the concept design was started in the autumn or winter of 2019, and the production was done in January to July 2020. Even after that, they were making adjustments until the very last minute before the release date.

The main feature of this work's VFX is the monsters. Yasuki Miyano one of the production members was the one who undertook everything from the designs to asset production and even shot sculpting. At first, he started production with reference to the original manga. During the work, sketches drawn by the original author when writing the manga were provided as additional materials, and a concept model was created. They planned to make four monsters, but in the end they decided to make three from the viewpoint of balancing cost and quality. The production includes the creation of the background concept, from the concept design of the monsters to the modeling, to the final product. In addition to the gate and pillars, the Grace Field House is also added using CGI. The gate is made in Cinema 4D and rendered using Redshift, the inside of the gate also uses a lot of CGI as an addition to the set. Because of the budget, they were only able to build the first floor of the set, so they used Cinema 4D to make up for the shortfall.

Music

 * Main article: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Japanese rock band Zutomayo performed the film's theme song "Tadashiku Narenai" (正しくなれない, "It Can't Be Right"). Masahiro Tokuda composed and scored the original motion-picture soundtrack, which is compiled into one whole soundtrack.

Theatrical
The Promised Neverland was released nationwide in Japanese theaters on December 18, 2020. The film was also released in Vietnam on January 15, 2021 and in South Korea on April 7, 2022.

Television broadcast
The film was first broadcast on Fuji TV on April 2, 2022.

Home media
The Blu-ray and DVD for the film, including a special edition, was released in Japan on May 19, 2021. As of January 2022, The Promised Neverland is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video Japan.

Novel
A novelization of the film was released on December 18, 2020 in Japan. The novel was written by Nanao based on the screenplay of Noriko Goto.

Box office
The film earned 288 million Yen (2.49 million USD) in its opening two day weekend, selling over 219,000 tickets. The cumulative total of three days from the first day was 373 million Yen (3.22 million USD) with 284,000 tickets sold. As of 2022, the film earned ¥2,03 billion ($17.7 million). The film was amongst the highest-grossing film of Japan in 2021.

Critical response
Writer Hideyuki Nakazawa gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, and describes it as "Watched with zero prior knowledge of the original comic. I thought it was a fantasy full of dreams and adventures for boys and girls, but it turned out to be a hard-hitting allegorical dystopia. A cruel secret hidden behind a peaceful orphanage where the children's bright smiles never cease. It was a hell disguised as a utopia. Boys and girls who know the fact try to escape to change their future and destiny. A false paradise that literally preys on innocent young people is like a mirror of modern Japanese society". The film was also praised by the author Manabu Soma, giving it a 4/5 and praising its story and characters, saying " As a fan of the original work, I was worried about the age difference between the character settings and the actors, and the depiction of "demons", but the former was cleared by changing the settings, and the latter was overcome with CGI, and the story up to the escape from the house was skillfully summarized. It depicts in detail how difficult it is to escape, and is well-made as a thrilling escape play. The heroine Emma's strong feelings of "I don't want anyone to die" are also pulsating, and the drama is also very good. In that sense, the film adaptation accurately captures the spirit of the original work". The movie writer Kentaro Muramatsu also gave a positive review, by praising the performance of the main characters and the nature of the story. He added : "It is a movie of a genre that can be said to be a demon of demons even among Japanese movies, but it is quite worth seeing. I think that it is largely due to the persuasive power of Minami Hamabe, who plays the main role, and the presence of Keiko Kitagawa, who should be called the back star. This kind of films is a little, please try it".

Writer Hideyuki Nakazawa gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, and describes it as "Watched with zero prior knowledge of the original comic. I thought it was a fantasy full of dreams and adventures for boys and girls, but it turned out to be a hard-hitting allegorical dystopia. A cruel secret hidden behind a peaceful orphanage where the children's bright smiles never cease. It was a hell disguised as a utopia. Boys and girls who know the fact try to escape to change their future and destiny. A false paradise that literally preys on innocent young people is like a mirror of modern Japanese society". The film was also praised by the author Manabu Soma, giving it a 4/5 and praising its story and characters, saying " As a fan of the original work, I was worried about the age difference between the character settings and the actors, and the depiction of "demons", but the former was cleared by changing the settings, and the latter was overcome with CGI, and the story up to the escape from the house was skillfully summarized. It depicts in detail how difficult it is to escape, and is well-made as a thrilling escape play. The heroine Emma's strong feelings of "I don't want anyone to die" are also pulsating, and the drama is also very good. In that sense, the film adaptation accurately captures the spirit of the original work". The movie writer Kentaro Muramatsu also gave a positive review, by praising the performance of the main characters and the nature of the story. He added : "It is a movie of a genre that can be said to be a demon of demons even among Japanese movies, but it is quite worth seeing. I think that it is largely due to the persuasive power of Minami Hamabe, who plays the main role, and the presence of Keiko Kitagawa, who should be called the back star. This kind of films is a little, please try it". Bryan Tan from ''Yahoo! Life gave the film a positive review and a 4 out of 5 stars, citing: "The Promised Neverland'' movie adaptation imitates its manga counterpart with great surgical precision; every twist and turn in the plot was followed religiously by director Yuichiro Hirakawa with very little creative deviation. It is perhaps the most respectful homage one can pay to a series that has succeeded superbly in the manga/anime world, standing in stark contrast to other live-action movies like Bleach or Death Note that have flopped miserably."

Writer Hideyuki Nakazawa gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, and describes it as "Watched with zero prior knowledge of the original comic. I thought it was a fantasy full of dreams and adventures for boys and girls, but it turned out to be a hard-hitting allegorical dystopia. A cruel secret hidden behind a peaceful orphanage where the children's bright smiles never cease. It was a hell disguised as a utopia. Boys and girls who know the fact try to escape to change their future and destiny. A false paradise that literally preys on innocent young people is like a mirror of modern Japanese society". The film was also praised by the author Manabu Soma, giving it a 4/5 and praising its story and characters, saying " As a fan of the original work, I was worried about the age difference between the character settings and the actors, and the depiction of "demons", but the former was cleared by changing the settings, and the latter was overcome with CGI, and the story up to the escape from the house was skillfully summarized. It depicts in detail how difficult it is to escape, and is well-made as a thrilling escape play. The heroine Emma's strong feelings of "I don't want anyone to die" are also pulsating, and the drama is also very good. In that sense, the film adaptation accurately captures the spirit of the original work". The movie writer Kentaro Muramatsu also gave a positive review, by praising the performance of the main characters and the nature of the story. He added : "It is a movie of a genre that can be said to be a demon of demons even among Japanese movies, but it is quite worth seeing. I think that it is largely due to the persuasive power of Minami Hamabe, who plays the main role, and the presence of Keiko Kitagawa, who should be called the back star. This kind of films is a little, please try it". Bryan Tan from ''Yahoo! Life gave the film a positive review and a 4 out of 5 stars, citing: "The Promised Neverland'' movie adaptation imitates its manga counterpart with great surgical precision; every twist and turn in the plot was followed religiously by director Yuichiro Hirakawa with very little creative deviation. It is perhaps the most respectful homage one can pay to a series that has succeeded superbly in the manga/anime world, standing in stark contrast to other live-action movies like Bleach or Death Note that have flopped miserably." Cezary Strusiewicz of Crunchyroll wrote, "In Yuichiro Hirakawa’s The Promised Neverland, hopelessness and resignation are alluring and tempting, and it is heartbreaking watching such young characters seemingly give in to them. At the same time, it also makes it that much sweeter when it turns out that they stood strong and still retained hope. These emotionally packed scenes are also when the actors deliver their hands-down best performances in the movie. The Promised Neverland is a story about the triumph of hope, which feels exactly like what we need right now. If that sounds like something you would enjoy, definitely check out the live-action The Promised Neverland."

Writer Hideyuki Nakazawa gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, and describes it as "Watched with zero prior knowledge of the original comic. I thought it was a fantasy full of dreams and adventures for boys and girls, but it turned out to be a hard-hitting allegorical dystopia. A cruel secret hidden behind a peaceful orphanage where the children's bright smiles never cease. It was a hell disguised as a utopia. Boys and girls who know the fact try to escape to change their future and destiny. A false paradise that literally preys on innocent young people is like a mirror of modern Japanese society". The film was also praised by the author Manabu Soma, giving it a 4/5 and praising its story and characters, saying " As a fan of the original work, I was worried about the age difference between the character settings and the actors, and the depiction of "demons", but the former was cleared by changing the settings, and the latter was overcome with CGI, and the story up to the escape from the house was skillfully summarized. It depicts in detail how difficult it is to escape, and is well-made as a thrilling escape play. The heroine Emma's strong feelings of "I don't want anyone to die" are also pulsating, and the drama is also very good. In that sense, the film adaptation accurately captures the spirit of the original work". The movie writer Kentaro Muramatsu also gave a positive review, by praising the performance of the main characters and the nature of the story. He added : "It is a movie of a genre that can be said to be a demon of demons even among Japanese movies, but it is quite worth seeing. I think that it is largely due to the persuasive power of Minami Hamabe, who plays the main role, and the presence of Keiko Kitagawa, who should be called the back star. This kind of films is a little, please try it". Bryan Tan from ''Yahoo! Life gave the film a positive review and a 4 out of 5 stars, citing: "The Promised Neverland'' movie adaptation imitates its manga counterpart with great surgical precision; every twist and turn in the plot was followed religiously by director Yuichiro Hirakawa with very little creative deviation. It is perhaps the most respectful homage one can pay to a series that has succeeded superbly in the manga/anime world, standing in stark contrast to other live-action movies like Bleach or Death Note that have flopped miserably." Cezary Strusiewicz of Crunchyroll wrote, "In Yuichiro Hirakawa’s The Promised Neverland, hopelessness and resignation are alluring and tempting, and it is heartbreaking watching such young characters seemingly give in to them. At the same time, it also makes it that much sweeter when it turns out that they stood strong and still retained hope. These emotionally packed scenes are also when the actors deliver their hands-down best performances in the movie. The Promised Neverland is a story about the triumph of hope, which feels exactly like what we need right now. If that sounds like something you would enjoy, definitely check out the live-action The Promised Neverland." Si Jia of Geek Review gave it a 7.6 out of 10 rating and called it "Despite suffering from some creative missteps, The Promised Neverland is a polished take on an anime live-action adaptation that delivers in the areas that matter." Jeanmarie Tan of The New Paper praised the film and gave it 4 out of 5, stating: "Aside from exaggerated performances and iffy CGI rendering of the monsters that inhabit their world, this dark fantasy wields a shocking premise that poses provocative questions and provides edge-of-seat twists and thrills."

Differences from the Manga

 * Main article: Live Action and Manga Differences

Trivia

 * In both the manga and the anime, Ray is the oldest among the trio, followed by Norman and then Emma. In the live-action movie, however, is the reverse, with Ray being played by a 13 year old actor, Norman by a 17 year old and Emma by a 19 year old actress.
 * It is noted that the live-action versions of the trio will be 15 in the movie, since the departure age for an orphan to leave Grace Field House was switched from 12 to 16.
 * This change is most likely necessary so as to better fit the ages of Emma's, Norman's and Ray's actors, who are 19, 17 and 13 respectively as stated in the previous trivia.
 * Emma's antenna-like hair is absent in the live-action version.
 * Norman's hair curl is absent in the live-action.
 * Several characters have different hair, eye, and skin colors than their manga and anime counterparts.
 * For unknown reasons, Rossi, Eugene, Dalia, and all of the two-year-olds are absent from the film.
 * In contrast to the manga and anime, Sherry is among the children who escape from Grace Field House in the film adaptation.

Japanese sites

 * The Promised Neverland movie's official website
 * Movie announcement on Twitter (1)
 * Movie announcement on Twitter (2)
 * Information of the movie on livedoor.com
 * Information of the movie on Yahoo Japan
 * Television announcement of The Promised Neverland movie

English sites

 * Movie announcement on Anime News Network
 * Still shots of the movie on Anime News Network