But Emma doesn't realize how happy I was with her feelings and consideration for me. That's why I was able to smile, even though it was tough and I was scared. That's why I can smile as I go to meet my death.— Norman to Emma in "Resistance"
Norman (ノーマン, Nōman?) is one of the main protagonists of The Promised Neverland. Like all the other children, he is an orphan.
Norman is a math prodigy and a model student of Grace Field House, with intelligence that surpasses his peers and even adults. Norman lived in Grace Field under the parental care of Isabella and is close friends with Emma and Ray.
Being one of the smartest children living in Grace Field, Norman is considered as one of Grace Field House's three "Premium quality goods"[4] next to Ray and Emma and even achieved a full score of 300 in Grace Field's series of tests consecutively.[5]
After Norman sacrificed himself in order to let Emma and the other orphans escape Grace Field, Norman now resides in Λ7214 under the supervision of Peter Ratri.
Later, it is revealed that Norman escaped Λ7214, and has adopted the "William Minerva" alias. Now Norman hopes to rally other escapees to completely annihilate all demons and create a sanctuary for all humans living in the demon world.
History
Norman was born on March 21, 2034, and he was sent to Plant 3 located in Grace Field House a year later in 2035, growing up alongside with Ray, Emma, and several other children.
Plot
Introduction Arc
Taking daily tests, playing a game of tag, eating scrumptious homemade food and having a good time – Norman went through the same routine every day in Grace Field, an orphanage where he lived since the day he was born. Under the loving parental care of Isabella and the companionship of Emma, Ray, and the other orphans, Emma spent a pleasant childhood in Grace Field.
Norman and Emma upon seeing Conny's corpse.
When the day came for Conny to be sent off to foster parents, Norman, and the other orphans gave a tearful goodbye as they bade farewell to her. Sometime after Conny left with Isabella, Norman accompanied Emma to return Conny's beloved stuffed toy, as the two proceeded to the gates of Grace Field to search for the toddler.
Instead of finding Conny, Norman and Emma found Conny's corpse within a truck instead, as they stared in pure horror upon seeing their friend dead. The two later hid under the truck as they witness two demons inserting Conny's dead body into a jar. Isabella is revealed to be working for the demons, as the two witness in shock of how Isabella turned out to be evil. Norman and Emma returned to Grace Field unnoticed, the stuffed toy, Little Bernie, was left behind, which was eventually found by the two demons and Isabella.
Emma collapsed onto the ground in despair, as she recalled the traumatic scene she and Norman just witnessed, which soon led her to break down in tears. Norman consoled Emma and told her not to speak of the incident to anyone. During the next few days, Norman and Emma remained silent and secretive about Conny's death and the existence of demons; put on an innocent and childlike façade whenever they interact with Isabella, who was suspecting the two.
Ray choking Emma and Norman, demanding them to tell the truth.
With the introverted yet intelligent Ray's involvement, the three started to devise an escape plan to rescue the orphans from Isabella and the demons' clutches. The three learned and gathered every possible information they could get about the outside world and to aid in their eventual escape. Ray helped in plotting the escape plan.
Isabella eventually got Krone appointed as Grace Field's second caretaker (as the orphans' "Sister"), an additional obstacle for Norman, Emma, and Ray to deal with. Krone tried to get in the way of the trio, much to their dismay.
Jailbreak Arc
Norman lies on the ground after Don punched him.
Norman, Emma, and Ray eventually recruited Don and Gilda into the team as additional help and told them about the secrets behind Grace Field, Isabella and the existence of Demons. Along the way, the five faced obstacles and issues whilst working together, such as the interference of Isabella and Krone, suspicions of Gilda being on the enemies' side, Ray's double-crossing, and Don's unhappiness towards the limited trust Norman, Emma and Ray had on him and Gilda, whom they did not tell the entirety of their plan and motives to.
When Norman and his team finally managed to put Ray's escape plan into work, it was, however, foiled by Isabella, as she fractured Emma's leg and revealed how Norman will be the next to suffer the same fate as Conny did (sending him off to the demons).
Norman returned to Grace Field.
Norman took care of Emma and her broken leg during his last few days at Grace Field.[6] When Emma and Ray attempted to rescue Norman by getting him to escape alone, the plan failed, as Norman returned with the news of how steep cliffs lies beyond the walls of the plantations, making his escape impossible.[7] He soon made a tearful goodbye to the two, as he reminisced the happy childhood he had spent with them.[8]
Norman comforting Emma before being sent off.
During the day for Norman to depart, a desperate Emma was still keen on rescuing him, as she made her one final attempt to save him by disabling the tracker in his ear, Norman immediately prevented her to do so, as he called her naïve. When Emma explained how she did not want Norman to die, Norman was touched by Emma's words. As he cupped Emma's cheek, Isabella interrupted the two, as she urged Norman to prepare to depart from the orphanage.
Whilst walking to the gates of Grace Field with Isabella, Norman questioned her whether is she happy. Isabella was in shock and hesitated for a moment, before replying yes. The two reached the gates when Isabella opened a door, Norman looked inside, as he looked surprised.[9]
Search For Minerva Arc
Norman agreed to aid Peter Ratri with his research.
What lied behind the doors turned out to be Peter Ratri, who warmly greeted the much surprised Norman. Isabella introduced Ratri as Norman's new foster father, as Ratri convinced Norman to address him by his name instead. Ratri later asked Norman to help him with his research at Λ7214, Norman agreed as he shook his hand.
In the subsequent months, Norman lived in Λ7214 in an enclosed room as he went through daily tasks, which includes solving a Professor's Cube and taking IQ tests. During his time there, Norman thought about Emma, Ray, and his other friends who were left at Grace Field, as he vowed to make his escape.[10]
Norman was resting in his room in Λ7214, as he glared furiously towards a distance.[11]
Appearance
Norman's full appearance.
Norman is a small boy with short, pale gray hair that’s worn parted to his left, a prominently longer piece curving upwards on the side of his head, and narrow, inward-tilting blue eyes.
He wears the standard orphanage uniform- a white shirt and trousers along with plain shoes. The number "22194" is tattooed across the left side of his neck.
Personality
Norman is the most intelligent child in Grace Field House, having a perfect grade in Litany of Intelligence Tests. He is calm, optimistic, polite, and friendly.
He likes to apply what he learns to his day-to-day activities, even in a simple game of tag. He is known to be strategic, analytical, rational, and possesses logical deductive skills. However, underneath his friendly exterior, Norman is prone to being apathetic at times. His apathetic personality is portrayed when he saw no issue in killing Krone and Isabella in order to escape.
Abilities
Intelligence
Norman putting his strategic skills into use, just like a game of chess.
Being one of the top-ranked orphan (in other words: premium quality) of the orphanage, Norman possesses a very high level of intelligence for his age. Norman excels in his studies and was noted to achieve a full score of 300 in the orphanage's daily test.ry[12] Norman also has excellent strategic skills and frequently put them into use when playing a game of tag with his friends. Norman also possesses an incredibly high level of mental calculations, proven when Norman received a heatstroke, Isabella asked the then-unconscious Norman a complex Mathematical equation, which he immediately answered as he recovered from heatstroke.[13]
Norman was the only person to decipher out Ray being Isabella's spy. He can easily plan his actions in advance and he anticipates on other's actions. He demonstrates this intellectual prowess and foresight by calculating every plan to the finest detail, which allowed him to formulate the ultimate gambit for escape.
He also discovered that the Promised Pen won't access other pages unless it is opened on the location of that page.
Physical Strength
Although he is considered the child with the least physical ability at Grace Field, Norman can manage to catch the other children in a game of tag by using strategy. Norman was also able to outmaneuver sister Krone while playing tag, whom the latter thought of him as a weak child she could capture quickly.
Leadership skills :
Relationships
Emma
I want to do the things that'll make Emma happy...because I love her. I won't let her die. If it's for her sake...I'll use myself to do anything...and everything.[14]— Norman telling Ray that he "loves" Emma
Being adopted siblings, Emma and Norman have been close throughout their entire lives. Despite their drastically different personalities (with Emma's reckless and carefree nature to Norman's well-reserved and attentive one) Norman is able to tolerate Emma's eccentricities and reckless behavior and has even supported it at times. Norman wants to see her happy and will do anything to accomplish it. During their planning of escaping the orphanage, Emma and Ray were initially the only people in the orphanage he was willing to put his trust on.
Norman consoling a devastated Emma.
When Norman sacrificed himself and got shipped out of the orphanage to save Emma and the other orphans, Emma was left depressed and helpless for a long period of time after his departure.
When Emma shared several photos of her and her friends during their times in the orphanage with Mujika, Emma was shown to be rather emotional when she starts talking about Norman with her. During Norman's months of being experimented on under Peter Ratri 's control, Norman had always been thinking about Emma, Ray and all of his siblings which he had been separated from. As he vowed to break out of the laboratory and find his dear siblings again.
Ray
Throughout the past 11 years of their lives, Norman has been the closest to Emma and Ray. Despite their contrasting personalities; with Norman being an enthusiastic and sociable person as opposed to Ray's sarcastic and introverted manner, Norman sees Ray as a brother figure and both deeply cared for each other's well-being. Both Norman and Ray acknowledged and understand each other's strengths and weaknesses hence seeing the opposite's skills to be useful in aiding their escape.
Ray being familiar with Norman's tactics during a game of tag.
Besides Emma, and later Gilda and Don, Ray was the only person Norman was willing to put his trust on during their planning of escaping the orphanage. However, their trust was later limited when Norman suspected Ray to be Isabella's spy, as the two's relationship got restrained for a period of time. Nevertheless, they resumed being friends and helped to aid each other during the escape.
When Norman was shipped out of the orphanage, leaving a well-established behind for Emma and the others to use to escape, Ray was utterly shocked and awed by Norman's plan and how it was carried out smoothly as most of the orphans successfully escaped the orphanage.
Gilda
Norman cares for Gilda like all of the other orphans.
During his departure out of the orphanage, he entrusted her to take care of Emma and Ray.
Don
Norman cares for Don like all of the other orphans.
Despite being punched by Don when he was infuriated by the fact that he did not trust him completely, he held no grudge. Upon his departure from the orphanage, he entrusted him to take care of Emma and Ray.
Conny
Conny was a precious family member to him. He along with Emma was distraught upon learning of her death.
Phil
Norman cares for Phil like all of the other orphans. In the special omake (Volume 5), he entrusted Phil to help Emma.
Isabella
Like Emma, Norman felt betrayed by Isabella upon discovering the truth about the farm. Isabella was the person who raised him, and he loved her very much. Norman's love for Mama vanished after discovering the truth about the orphanage. The discovery of Mama's role in the farm resulted in Norman's unemotional attempt in poisoning her in order to escape.
Krone
Norman distrusted Sister Krone, but he used her to his advantage. Norman was able to get intel on the farm and learn how to treat wounds from her.
Peter Ratri
While Norman is - on the surface - friendly with Peter Ratiri, even calling him doctor, he is secretly conspiring against him to plan his escape.
Gallery
Trivia
- A mini-game in The Promised Neverland official site revealed two manga pages for players who achieved high scores. The pages showed how Isabella named Norman after the American author, artist and illustrator Norman Rockwell.
- Isabella furthermore revealed how she was looking at a painting done by Rockwell which inspired her to gave Norman the artist's name. And how "Norman" is a masculine name of English origin, unlike Ray's which is a unisex name of no particular nationality.
Norman's line in the logo of Chapter 31 is gone after he was separated from Ray and Emma.
- The designer who created The Promised Neverland logo created the three lines in the logo to represent Norman, Emma, and Ray. When Norman was shipped out and separated from Emma and Ray in Chapter 31, the line which represents Norman is gone, leaving only the two lines of Emma and Ray.[15]
- Nevertheless, the manga continues to use the logo with the three lines in the proceeding chapters.
- Norman's dominant hand is left.
- One of Norman's favorite things to do is disassembling machines. With Ray, Norman likes to take things such as clocks apart when they were younger.[16]
- Norman's dream, when he can get into the human world in future is to be with Emma and Ray, as he is happy around them.[17]
- Posuka Demizu admits how she had trouble creating Norman's character, including his body type.[18]
- Norman has consistently achieved a perfect score of 300 points.[19]
- The following are Norman's rankings in some of The Promised Neverland's official popularity polls.
- Announced in Chapter 75, Norman achieved the 1st position in the Color Illustration Character Poll which was held on The Promised Neverland's official LINE account.
- Norman is ranked 2nd in the Popularity Poll that was announced in Chapter 88 of the manga.
- In Shounen Jump's 2nd popularity poll results announced in Chapter 102, Norman is in 2nd place with a total of 4763 votes.
See Also
Interlanguage Wikis
Other Wikis
- Norman on VS Battles Wiki. (Manga spoilers ahead)
References
- ↑ Volume 5 Authors' Notes
- ↑ Cast Announcement on @Yakuneba_staff Twitter (Japanese)
- ↑ Cast Announcement on Anime News Network (English)
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 38, page 2
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 1, page 43
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 26
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 29, page 10
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 29, page 17
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 30
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 74
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 97, page 17
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 1 Grace Field House, page 11 and 12
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 97 Omake, page 4
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga, chapter 4 pages 15-16
- ↑ The Promised Neverland 100th Chapter Commemoration Questionnaire #7
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Questionnaire #2
- ↑ The Promised Neverland 100th Chapter Commemoration Questionnaire #8
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Questionnaire #1
- ↑ The Promised Neverland Manga: Chapter 1
