The Promised Neverland Fanbook: Vol. 0 Mystic Code - (4)

 Pages 101-156 

Chapter 1 . Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6+7

Chapter-4

Search for the Seven Walls and Bunker Raid

~: Commentary (ch. 98-117) :~

[Kaiu Shirai: TPN manga's author | Sugita Suguru: TPN's editor in charge | Posuka Demizu: TPN's artist] 

The concept of "supporter demons" that disappeared

Regarding Bunker life, Demizu sensei drew everyone's relationships and shelter life in her character designs for the two-year timeskip, so I added them to my storyboard. Plenty of ideas were from her, such as Nigel being in charge of the machines.-Shirai

 

 

TPN's last arc begins after leaving the hunting ground. 

In their meetings, Shirai and Sugita had a discussion regarding adding some demons who supported Minerva's agenda. Norman's paradise shelter was originally owned by a group of demons who opposed the current system. However, the idea of supporter demons wasn't developed further, and the background of paradise hideout was only mentioned in a single sentence. Developing concepts like these could be compelling, but it could make the story more branched and complicated.

 

The hooded person in chapter 98 was originally intended to be a supporter demon. Shirai asked Posuka to draw the final panel's silhouette in a way that could be either a demon or a human figure. This idea was lost at some point, though, and the hooded character was changed to Smee. Other than Smee, only a few people knew about the bunker's location.

Smee's story wasn't mentioned a lot in the main narrative. Sugita asks if Shirai has any plan to write a side chapter about Smee, Shirai replies it'd be nice if he can write one. For the time being, a Vol. 20 extra (here) reveals a little more about him. 

A more fantasy-oriented worldview

Cuvitidala was introduced in chapter 99. Jailbreak arc and Goldy pond had fantasy elements but they were still grounded in reality. However, fantasy was more prominent from Vol. 12 onwards. Shirai himself was unsure about what to do with Cuvitidala when it was first mentioned as a hint left by Minerva.

Emma's gradual change in mind

During the search for Cuvitidala, there were glimpses of Emma's reluctance to kill the demons. Writing Cuvitidala and the Seven Walls was difficult. Emma aimed for the most difficult option left by Minerva with a goal to save all cattle children. It was a spontaneous development for Emma because she wouldn't want to leave anyone behind.

I wrote Andrew's appearance in chapter 100 thinking "Wouldn't it be fun if Andrew appeared in front of Phil?" But it seems many readers were curious about this development, asking what type of conversation they had or if Andrew had killed Phil. Actually, all I wanted was to make the readers feel a little uneasy. -Shirai
(T/N: fun fact: Phil and Andrew appear to be Shirai's most and least favorite characters, respectively.)

Two reasons why Emma had to be a girl

[Audio]

Shirai elaborates on two of the main reasons why Emma had to be a girl. The first reason was to let her call Isabella 'Mom'. It's okay for the boys in real-world to call their mother a lot, but if a male protagonist keeps saying "Mom" all the time, in a manga it may seem unusual and mother complex-like. That's why Shirai didn't pay an effort to write and develop a male central protagonist. 

The other reason was the ease of expressing a so-called soft idealism; such as "I don't want to kill the demons" or "Demons and humans are alike". There are many readers who think men saying such things is uncool or naive. It's easier for them to accept a girl's compassion. So, Shirai reckoned it's better to let the male readers sympathize with Emma as a hero and to let her express herself. But he wished Emma's words were acknowledged even if it came from a male protagonist instead of having the stereotypical expectations of what a man should be like.

Actually, I drew two different storyboards for announcing the popularity poll results. Sugita san OK'd both, but I thought the readers would like to see the demons colored for the first time, so this one was discarded.- Shirai
[T/N: Discarded storyboard for popularity poll+two year anniversary extra. Here's the selected extra.]

What was written from chapter 100 onwards

Even though it was unplanned at first, Politics and metaphors came a lot from chapter 100 onwards. It's easy to sympathize with a simple goal like "defeat the enemy". On the contrary, Emma's preaches make her more alien-like. But the story had to take this turn. Sugita adds, they could've pushed in poetic justice, but they wanted to properly explore the concepts from a more realistic approach (by considering different perspectives). It became complicated, but TPN could show these themes in a simplified and easy-to-understand manner. At the same time, it was very difficult to write.

Although it's black & white, the day and night paintings are neatly drawn. I ask a lot of unnecessary things to Demizu sensei, but she draws everything very beautifully.- Shirai

Both the floaty fish things and fancy speech bubbles were from Demizu sensei's ad-libbing option.-Shirai

Commitment to draw a different world and the lives of the demons

The demon town in ch. 102 was born from a concept to show the demons' day-to-day life - something that wasn't drawn before. Shirai asked Posuka to draw a culture different from human cultures. For example, eating insects is an existing culture in the human world, but some unusual items were added to make the readers think "what was that insect?"/"can these really be as big as this?" Shirai praises Posuka for her contribution, especially in the final arc. With more fantasy elements slipping in, there were more images that could only be drawn by her in high quality and every week.

Shirai wanted to show a scene where the children could live inside a demon town after two years; the scene was finally drawn. Shirai had this concept even before serialization. Their life spent in the demon towns could've been shown in detail, but the story was kept confined to more interesting events.

It's the scene where a child demon says "weird feet!"
The shoes Emma and the kids wore were different from the ones demons wear. At first, it was supposed to be "weird shoes", but I figured that a child is more likely to say "feet" instead. Some demons wear shoes. Sonju wore them, Leglavalima also wore shoes with open toes.-Shirai

A temple with sprinkled hints

The statue holding a child resembled Virgin Mary. The images in the tapestries were explained later by Norman (demons taking after the shape of what they eat). There were panels with hints sprinkled around. Posuka was asked to draw something chilling but exciting. The ceiling pictures were also drawn very realistically with a subtle feeling of decay. It looked like a real mural on the ceiling rather than cartoon paintings.

The motif was a Southeast Asian temple. There are real peeping temples that are separated by bars and have no entry. The demon world mixes various cultures so it can't be fixed to a specific culture from the human world. It also has its original cultures that aren't in the human world at all. By the way, the demon who was feeding the pigeon demons was Sonju's teacher.-Shirai

The creepy faceless demon

In an earlier draft, Posuka wrote "It'd be creepy if a demon is actually faceless if you remove their mask." Shirai thought it was an interesting idea and wanted to use it someday. It could be scariest if this idea was introduced when/if the Queen or the demon god appeared to have no face beneath the mask, but in this segment, Shirai wanted something mysterious and chilling. The faceless statue reminds of the demon god. A cube similar to the one Emma and Ray saw inside the Seven wall's maze appeared with the statue, which was a hint for what to come.

Andrew's bunker raid

Andrew appeared at the worst possible time. Shirai drew the details of bunker escape with a diagram. Sugita recalls, Shirai would often say "I wanna draw another jailbreak!", maybe this was something similar.

However, from the time Shirai decided Andrew would attack the shelter, it was confirmed that the adults, Yugo and Lucas- would die. So his sadness overshadowed the joy of being able to draw an escape again.

Yugo and Lucas were too strong

Thinking from a meta-perspective, when the children decided to aim for the human world in the final arc, the adults weren't necessary. Yugo and Lucas were too strong as soldiers, having them on the team would've made it easy for the children. The children used to rely on these two, so it was decided that they'd die protecting them.

Shirai says Lucas was really cool in ch. 104. Everyone loved Yugo after the hunting ground story. Shirai remembers the readers' reactions to his death.

Yugo, who became a "nice guy"

Sugita says he was glad Yugo and Lucas were introduced in TPN because most of the adults in this series were terrible people. It was nice to have ones who cared about the children in a world where the adults were stuck on self-interest and hatred. Yugo and Lucas's existence let the children have hope in adults who'd protect them.

From the beginning, Shirai wanted to let Yugo grow into a better person, but he had no idea Yugo would become "such a nice guy." It was good development from his earlier tsundere self.

The end of the two adults

Yugo had survived in the demon world for 13 years and was really strong. Just as the soldiers thought he's done, he shot a man's head. Sugita considers Yugo and Lucas's battle to be the best bout from TPN manga. Shirai would've liked to take the adult duo to the human world, but he liked their final scenes. Meeting with the adults helped Emma and Ray to form a slightly different personalities from Norman.

Yugo's words resonating within troubled Emma

Ch. 109 slowed down the pace of the story for an emotional sendoff to Yugo as well as to show Emma's anxieties. Shirai received many fan letters praising Yugo's advice to Emma.

Yugo's actions just before meeting Emma

'Emma and the children's arrival prevented Yugo's suicide' - Shirai was determined to reveal it at Yugo's last scene. A hint was left from the beginning to let the readers wonder why he had a pistol with him at that time. 

It was painful to draw the scene where Yugo said "This one year had been fun." But Shirai was glad Yugo was happy to be alive. Shirai himself didn't support suicide, but it was even better because these thoughts came from Yugo naturally. Yugo didn't want to die during the monologues, and a near death experience reminded him of the small and precious moments in his life. The final deployment was to finally let him reunite with Dina and his other old friends.

Sandy: is he actually popular?

Worrying about their comrades, Ray and Gillian got into a quarrel. Both of them were kind. Shirai praises Sandy for being a nice guy. At a first glance, Sandy doesn't seem popular. But Shirai thinks Sandy is actually popular and good at understanding the girls. He's very kind and didn't hesitate to wear a funny eyepatch made by the children for him. 

The person on the other side of the unclear phonecall

There was a phonecall before abandoning the Bunker. The speech here was the same as the speech from IQ test bonus comics (reference) which came out 7 or 8 volumes prior to this chapter. In both cases, 'William Minerva' was Norman. In ch. 110, an adult silhouette was drawn in order to make Norman look as close to Minerva as possible. Shirai could've simply revealed him to be Norman, but misleading his identity was convenient for writing the next few chapters. Due to noise, Lucas couldn't suspect the difference in voice.

Horrifying Andrew and the exchange behind the scenes

Audio

Ratri side didn't have many dangerous enemies, so Andrew was made as intimidating as possible.

At the end of ch. 110, Andrew appeared with a terrifying face. Posuka was asked to make him look heavily injured. His grotesque appearance was to emphasize the madness.  Sugita often asked Shirai and Pouska to make the series darker. But he jokes that Andrew's face was overdone (Shirai remembers him saying "It's too scary! The children will cry!") Sugita asked to blur his face with a shadow in chapter 110. Shirai and Posuka were upset ("Eh? But isn't this a great art?"). Sugita says he wanted to pull the brake but Shirai and Posuka stepped on the accelator (with full body gore in ch. 111).

Oliver, who made Sugita san ask repeatedly ask "Why did you have to add such an appealing role?" Not being able to make him very active during earlier GP-arc, worked hard with his character design to make him stand out...so this happened (laughs) On top of that, at first I wanted him to be a character with a good aesthetic. I chose a good-looking character from Demizu sensei's unused drafts. But eventually, he was given a refreshing and youthful design. It didn't feel right to keep his character just as eye candy either. -Shirai
(T/N: Left: Unused character draft by Posuka that Shirai wanted to use for Oliver
Right: Oliver's post timeskip draft design)

Andrew's finger tapping habit was Sugita san's advice: "Let's give him a weird habit!" Few weird habits considered, such as weirdly stretching his body or scratching his face. But we settled with finger tapping; similar to officer Lunge from Monster or Officer Wong from Infernal Affairs- Shirai

A memo from Shirai that roughly summarizes the direction of Andrew's character born from the meeting. There's also the habit-search plan (weird stretching)
(T/N: Panel quotes given below. Thanks @14thNeah for helping me to decipher them!
"Dispose all of them. I'm counting on you, Andrew."
"Yessir!")

Andrew's end and the reason he was alive

Andrew survived the explosion by doing the opposite of what Yugo and Lucas did: using his subordinates as a shield. Shirai praises Posuka's handwritten speech bubble "Die, you pigs, you lowly food!" The stray demon's appearance was also amazing. With the momentum of Emma running and the air stopping for a moment, silence and dynamic feeling coexisted.

The Andrew-demon plan

There was a plan to let one of the children (Don or Oliver, etc.) shoot Andrew. But it was more satisfying to let be eaten after he called the children 'food'. Thanks to the stray demon, Ray didn't have to become a murderer.

After eating Andrew, the demon says "huh?" -which was indicative of the demon gaining intelligence from a human.

The demon that ate Andrew was supposed to reappear by the end of the chapter. Andrew had a habit of tapping his fingers. If a demon did the same, it could be recognized as the Andrew-demon. Chapter 112 was supposed to end with this cliffhanger, but Shirai ran out of pages.

Further plans with Andrew-demon included a plot theory: it was originally a great old demon who was banished by the government and became a stray (similar to Geelan); he returned to his humanoid form after eating Andrew. But the plot would've become complicated, so this idea was scrapped off.

Shirai picked Andrew's name randomly, but he regrets not naming him "Bernard" or making him a female character named named "Bell"  (both for Tinkerbell reference). 

Vincent calling Norman "James." Here, Vincent was being playful because Norman was pretending to be James at that time. Usually, he calls him "Boss." It also serves as a mislead, but Vincent was just playing around.-Shirai

Lambda team's cool appearance

Lamba team's cool appearance followed a formula similar to Tite Kubo's Bleach or Quentin Tarantino's films: a casual conversation in the middle of something terrifying. Shirai says he can't draw the cool imageries like Kubo nor write nifty exchanges like director Tarantino, but he tried his best and added the momotaro (demon extermination) song. Sugita wonders what the song would've been like in English.

Appearance of the messengers: Jin and Hayato

Chapter 114 was a reminder of the younger children's growth. They've been doing different things from Emma's group. Emma's side was good at traveling around due to their search for Cuvitidala and the younger kids were more proficient at collecting foods for many people.-Shirai

Hayato looks like a protagonist; he was supposed to have a cooler personality. His character was originally designed as the resistance leader who'd meet Emma soon after jailbreak (explained here). Though the resistance army plotline was gone, Shirai wanted to make use of Hayato's design because he liked it.

At first, Shirai wanted to make Hayato more sincere and serious. But when he started drawing the storyboard, Sugita suggested making him like Bartolomeo, a character from One Piece who was active during the time Sugita worked with Eiichiro Oda. Making him an in-series fan of the characters could also reflect on how amazing Emma and her friends were. The readers could relate with him as fellow fans.

Shirai wanted to choose Japanese-sounding names for Jin and Hayato. "Akira" was a contender for Hayato's name. It was one of the most famous Japanese names and well recognized by foreigners for a renowned anime series. But later, "Hayato" was chosen because it goes well with "Jin." The name similarity with Hayato from Getter Robo was a coincidence.

Hayato's cheeks are adorable, aren't they? He's like a child you can't hate. I couldn't add many comedic scenes because TPN is a serious story, so Demizu sensei's comedy arts were the best, I love them. -Shirai

Anna, finally active

Anna ranked quite high in the popularity poll, but she almost never played an active role. Shirai and Sugita wanted to give her some proper screentime for once.

 

Shirai added a scene of Ray worrying about Anna's safety for Sugita, who liked them as a couple. Sugita jokes that he used his absolute authority as the editor to make the two interact. As the author, Shirai had no intention of making Anna and Ray a thing. Rather, he once considered making Ayshe a partner for Ray, but ultimately he opted not to take that route.

 

The chapter extra of the boys praising Anna was born from Sugita's enthusiasm about her ponytail. Shirai jokingly comments, it makes one's heart pound if a girl ties her hair in a ponytail for the first time. Having a girl like Anna around would've purified everyone's souls. 

Adorable Chris, who was eye-catching from the time of prison escape. Actually, someone was supposed to be seriously injured right after escape because I wanted to create a story that would set up a conflict: "Maybe they'd die sooner than their shipment age. Was escaping really the best option?" As a remnant of that idea, Chris played the role of the injured kid.-Shirai

Carefully adjusting the timing of information disclosure

It's a page I love a lot. Number 1 contender for a T-shirt with manga panel! (laughs) The demons hanging around and a pitch-black background. You can feel their appetite from their facial expressions. The power of this art...isn't it amazing?-Shirai

Shirai wished he could elaborate the story of mass production farm infiltration. But he couldn't afford to spend many chapters here in order to match the timing of Norman's reappearance with anime season 1 release. He had been counting the chapter numbers from Bunker raid arc. Similarly, Vol. 12's extra ("Merry Christmas, Vincent") was released around the time of Norman's reappearance in the magazine. Shirai had been calculating the timing of information release from the first volume to make both the volume and magazine readers enjoy a similar revelation at a similar time.

Zazie, overwhelming the demons

Zazie, the strongest human, appears in chapter 117. The impressive double spread of him taking down three demons at a time hinted his extraordinary strength and a potential war against the demons where humans could fight on an equal footing. 

~:Character profiles:~

(Profile TL credit to @14thNeah on Twitter!)

~: Shirai Sensei’s QnA Pt. 4 (Answering the Readers) :~

Q. Were there language tests in the House? Was it why the House children were able to read Bunker's Latin texts without a problem?

A. Ray knew about the existence of Latin, and there was a Latin dictionary among other books in the bunker. (Even though it was everyone's first time), they worked together to comprehend the Latin texts. None of the House tests involved Latin.

Q. In Leuvis's memories, we can see five demons visiting the Dragon's eyes of Cuvitidala. Are they the five reagents?

A. Probably the five reagents, the previous ones.

Q. Why do Peter’s men wear sunglasses?

A. Because Peter-sama is too dazzling.

Q. Why is Cuvitidala obsolete?

A. Leglavalima's pressure!

Q. The Ratri family seems to be extremely rich, how do they make money? There was a panel of the North American branch of the Ratri family in Vol. 20 pg.166. Are they some sort of corporates in the human world? (Because the building was huge!)

A. They're a clan of heroes, but they’re also secretly at the top of the underworld. They've succeeded in finance and various businesses (food, weapons, transportation, medical care, apparel, etc) in the front-society and continued to make fortunes all over the world. They also have charity. They have huge buildings!

Q. What was the design on Norman's back when he was calling himself Minerva?

A. It was a crest for the demons who once lived in that shelter. As for the design, Demizu sensei drew it thinking "Maybe a square with sharp edges (rhombus) suits Norman who is creating a new order~", apparently!

Q. Was Peter's purge (killing the supporters and his brother instead of putting them in prison) considered a crime in the human world? Are the laws of the human world not applicable in the demon world? Are the mediators the laws in the demon world?

A. The crimes they committed in the human world (acts against the laws of the human world) were revoked. The laws in the human world and the demon world are different. Human world's laws aren't applicable in the demon world. Demon world’s laws are decided by the demons, and if a mediator broke their laws, they’d be punished as well.

Q. What's the relationship between Andrew and Peter Ratri? Is it a family or relative relationship?

A. Peter is from the head family and Andrew is born in the branch family, both are members of the Ratri clan and thus relatives. At the same time, they're a master and his vassal. By the way, Andrew is a little older than Peter.

Q. How did Andrew know that Phil knows everything?

A. Actually, he didn't know that. He just tricked Phil to make him confess a thing or two...it was like that. Andrew learned that Phil was an intelligent kid and liked Emma, so he asked Phil a few things (such as what kind of people they were). By the way, he asked Phil first and Phil was his main interest, but he asked few other children as well.

 Q. In Vol. 13 ch. 107, who was the adult human talking with Sir Bayon and Grand Duke?

A. It was Mr. Minerva. But I didn't intend to make it look like he was interacting with Bayon and Leuvis, it was just him on the right side of the panel and the aristocrats on the left side of the panel. Hope it solves the mystery.

Q. It seems that Mr. Minerva (or his supporters) was searching for the Seven walls. What did they want to ask the demon god?

A. We don't know because they're dead, but shouldn't it be something like freeing the Ratri family (the future generations after Peter)? Stopping the sacrifice of the cattle children, too - as a part of it.

Q. After passing through the gates of the Seven walls, why were the images normal for GF House but distorted and hologram-like for the Bunker and Goldy Pond?

A. Mental confusion?

Q. I want to know the history of Cuvitidala. Also the color of the Dragon, the color of his eyes, and the body!

A. It's more fun to imagine a hidden history! I've heard of various colors from Demizu sensei. The eye color is the same as Emma's pendant. The body's color is like the clouds that melt in the sky (the whitish shiny scales are influenced by the color of the sky)! What- I wanna see it in colors!

Q. Mujika said, "It's true that our appearance has become warped in the last 1000 years.") The temple tapestry had five types of species (One of the species has become extinct? So 4 types). Did she imply the humanoid species when she said they became warped?

A. Yes, the humanoid demons have become warped.

Q. Do the non-humanoid demons such as the temple's pigeon demons or Mujika's horse demon degenerate if they don't eat meat and brain? Do they have to be carnivores anyway? Do these demons want to eat humans?

A. They eat the meats of the animals they take after. If they don't, they'll degenerate and mutate to various degrees depending on their species. So, their appearance will change. There are animals (and the demons that eat them) that retain a strong instinct to eat humans while other animals (and the demons that eat them) don't.

Q. The temple where the priests stayed dormant and the temple Emma and friends found the clues to the Seven walls have similar constructions. Are these the temples of old faith?

A. The demon faith from 1000 years ago is abolished, and now it's called the primitive faith. The temple where the great priests were enshrined was for the original faith. In 1000 years, the faith was recognized differently among Royals, aristocrats, and the people (such as 'it's okay to eat farmed humans'), but some remnants of the old faith are still there. That's why the temples look similar. Because they originally came from the primitive faith.

Q. Does the Royal family not know much about the ways to enter the Seven walls? It can threaten the power of the Royals if it's well known, even if it's taught, it seems to be limited to Yverk. Or was it because Golden water was difficult to obtain? Who left the details of the Seven Walls entrance in one temple that the former King and Queen Leglavalima wanted to keep a secret at all cost?

A. Even if they knew the ways to enter, usually they couldn't enter (Emma could enter but Ray couldn't). Actually, Yverk and Julius used a trick. Almost no one else from the demon world knows about these tricks. In the present time when Emma entered, the basic direction itself was kept secret and wasn't widely known.

Q. When Emma and her friends sneaked into the city of demons, they seemed to pass through a shopping district. Does the demon world have a monetary economy? Barter? Or is it the rationing system?  

A. It's a basic monetary economy. There are also villages where you can barter. Distribution depends on times. The day when Emma and friends went there, there was almost no ration.

~:From Demizu sensei: “This was amazing, Shirai sensei!” Pt.4:~

The Work Ethic

How he never gives up. Till the last minutes, he keeps adding corrections. I really admire his belief, "I'll surely bring a better result than the last time." This "I'll bring something better than last time" mentality is a huge thing. Usually, when I make corrections, I feel like maybe it was better the last time. So I always used to think it's best not to mess with my arts too much. But I changed my mind after seeing Shirai sensei. There were times I'd be surprised to receive a text message at 4 am (laughs) It made me worry if he was resting properly.

Jump Comics Vol. 1 pg. 167, uncorrected and modified storyboards, respectively. Krone and Isabella's lines and Krone's reactions are different.

CHAPER 5: PARADISE HIDEOUT & THE SEVEN WALLS