Sonju

''This article is about the Manga version of Sonju. For alternate pages referred to by this name, please click any of the icons above.''

Sonju (ソンジュ) / Sung-joo (ソンジュ, Sonju) is a demon that ventures around the Demon Forest with Mujika. Sonju belongs to a religion known as Heathens, which are shunned by other demons for their behavior of restraining themselves from consuming human flesh. He is the younger brother of Leuvis and Queen Legravalima.

History
Over a 1,000 years ago, Sonju was into the demon Royal Family as a prince and the youngest son of the former king. At a young age, he was taken in by a priest and taught the ways of the old faith which believed all life, including the lives of humans, was sacred and created by the Gods. At some point, the Demon King had reached an agreement with Julius Ratri which came to be known as The Promise. As a result, the old faith that Sonju's master preached and practiced was deemed rebellious and the priest was arrested and executed despite Sonju's pleas for mercy. Though his master was dragged away to his death, he encouraged the prince not to despair and to follow his king as it was his duty.

Sonju continued to obey his master's last command, supporting the Royal Family even when his older sister, Legravalima, murdered their father for the throne. At the same time, he continued to practice the old faith against the objections of his family. His adherence to it was so great that he refused to consume meat from the farms. Due to this Sonju slowly degenerated, losing his humanoid form. However he still retained his mind and was able to reimpose turning into a full wildling due to his training. However his family saw him as a disgrace after he lost his form and became more bestial. Sonju was then sequestered in the dungeons of the Royal palace where he was forgotten by the family and the servants. Due to his sorry state the royalty lied to the public if Sonju’s fate claiming he had died.

However, Sonju reached his breaking point 700 years ago when Legravalima and the Five Regent Families massacred the Heathens, whose Evil Blood could potentially save all demons from degeneration, and kept it for themselves. Mujika who had been captured and awaiting to be made as the main dish for the queen offered her blood to captive Sonju who she assumed to be a demonic hound.

Her blood restored his form and his mind. Together they escaped the dungeons when Lord Geelan’s followers attacked the palace to free their accused lord. I’m the commotion, Sonju was confronted by his brother Leuvis. Initially thinking the older demon was there to stop him, Sonju attempted to fight his brother but was soundlessly defeated. To his shock Leuvis spared both him and Mujika, giving Sonju his spear and his favored mount and allowed them to escape.

Sonju having disobeyed his duty and instead chose to free the last carrier of the Evil Blood, meant he cast his title as a prince. He became a fugitive leading to him and Mujika being on the run for centuries.

In the present day, Sonju and Mujika are travelers who wander across the Demon World offering up their blood to any demon who wants or needs it. Along the way, they were notified of the "goods" that escaped from Grace Field House. Sonju refused to take the children back to the orphanage, as he wanted the children to be free so that he can hunt their descendants, "wild" humans outside the farms, once they reach a good population.

Appearance
Sonju is a relatively tall and lean demon with dark gray skin. He wears black pants with a belt, a brown hooded cloak tied to a golden pendant in the front and a silver plated mask that covers his entire face. The bottom part of his mask can be taken off to reveal his abnormally sharp canines. He has a single spike at the center of his foreheadon his mask and two polydactyly hands (six fingers per hand) that are completely bandaged. Under his hood reveals what seems to be black markings across half of his abdomen. He has short spiky dark red hair that sticks up in all directions with two long strands on each side of his face. He wears black pants secured by a belt. Sonju is often seen carrying a spear.

Personality
Sonju acts stoic and composed, sometimes refraining from interacting with the orphans. During his interactions, he would use his appearance to intimidate them. Nevertheless, Sonju shows some care for the orphans' safety and believes they will succeed in breaking the Promise.

In truth, however, Sonju is strongly motivated by his desire to resume eating human flesh. Sonju believes in the same religion as Mujika, which forbids eating farm-raised humans. However, Sonju believes this ban does not extend to humans naturally born and raised in free human-settlements. He sadistically and gleefully thinks about the day he can hunt humans in the wild again.

Promised Forest Arc
After the news of several Grace Field orphans who had escaped reached Sonju and Mujika, the two run into Emma, Ray, and the other Grace Field escapees by coincidence as they were lost within the forest. When Mujika tells Sonju about how if they capture and return them back to Grace Field, it could grant them an "easy life" for half a year. Sonju, however, denies her idea and instead insists on saving them.

Sonju and Mujika successfully rescue the Grace Field escapees from several demons as they bring them to their secret territory within a cave. The two aid in Emma's ear injury and provide hospitality and shelter for the orphans for the next couple of days. During that time, Sonju tells Emma and Ray the history of the demons and how the world is divided into two worlds, the Human World and the Demon World, as made by the promised contract. Later on, Sonju teaches Emma the knowledge and basis of hunting and survival.

Sonju guides the orphans to exit the forest. As the orphans are about to depart in search of Shelter B06-32, Sonju tells them to head southwards to look for it. After Emma and the orphans depart, Sonju tells Mujika how he had hopes on Emma and her friends in bringing an end to The Promised Forest. He then expresses his desire for breaking free from the restraint of eating humans due to his and Mujika's religious views as Heathens. Mujika does not respond and stares emotionlessly at her friend.

Cuvitidala Arc
Sonju notices Mujika's odd behavior when she stares towards a distance and questions her. Mujika replies how she was fine as she proceeds to ride the Sleipnir horse with Sonju.

Archery
Sonju has proven himself to be an expert at archery. Being highly skilled, he was able to precisely hit targets from great distances, such as shooting down a bird in the sky when he demonstrates his ability to Emma.

Fighting
One of Sonju's weapons is a spear, which he uses as self-defense and to attack enemies. When Sonju met a group of demons of a different race, he eliminated all of them with ease using his spear, demonstrating his excellence in fighting.

Evil Blood
Due to ingesting Mujika blood, Sonju retains the characteristics and sapience of humans without requiring to consume them. He is also able to spread this unique body composition as shown when Leuvis consume his blood.

Emma
Sonju sees Emma as a brave and strong-willed girl, who is also very cautious. Emma was scared of Sonju when she first met him, but as she got to know him, along with Mujika, she began to trust him. She sees Sonju as helpful, strong and brave. She looks up to him and definitely sees him as a trustworthy companion.

Ray
Ray is a very protective boy who cares about his family. Sonju notices since season 2, episode one, Ray has been very worrisome of his family, and is willing to do anything for them. Sonju also sees him as a small bit of an airhead, yet very smart and strong. Sonju shows a lot of respect for Ray.

Mujika
Both are of the same religion of exercising the restraint of eating humans, hence the two share a common denominator of being shunned and looked down by the other demons. Sonju considers Mujika to be a close ally and often ventures into the forest with her to hunt for creatures he describes as "pests". Despite the two having a close relationship, both of their intentions occasionally clash, such as when Mujika is seemingly defiant of Sonju's desire to resume his practice of eating humans and how Sonju prefers to protect the orphans from getting caught by the farm demons despite Mujika wanting to capture them and return them back to Grace Field.

Leuvis
Sonju and Leuvis have a cold and distant relationship. When Leuvis was shot in the eye by Mister, his life flashes before his eyes as Sonju (and Mujika) were shown to be a few of the demons he met.

Grace Field Escapees
Knowing of the Grace Field orphans' escape, Sonju helps rescue the orphans from getting caught by the farm demons. His main reasons were to allow the orphans to eventually break the Promise, and/or remove his religious restraint from consuming human flesh. Therefore, in the orphans' presence, he adopted a friendly and harmless façade that hid his ulterior motives.

Sonju refrained himself from interacting with the other orphans and preferred to remain quiet when he was around them. When Sonju actually talked to them, the orphans showed fear and discomfort and would listen to his commands and warnings. This was shown when Nat, Thoma and Lani stuttered when Sonju warned them not to enter the Demon forest or get close to a body of water, as they frantically obeyed him.

Legravalima
Sonju feels no familial love towards Legravalima even as his older sister. He calls her a "monster" and has no qualms about killing her.

Trivia

 * The following are Sonju's rankings in some of The Promised Neverland ' s official popularity polls.
 * In Shounen Jump's popularity poll results announced in Chapter 88, Sonju is in 59th place.
 * In Shounen Jump's 2nd popularity poll results announced in Chapter 102, Sonju is in 15th place with a total of 301 votes.
 * Sonju has an eight-legged horse which he and Mujika use as a form of transportation. The horse is known as a Sleipnir, an animal in Norse Mythology and the steed of Odin.