[Honey's Crush Wednesday] 5 Ray Highlights from Yakusoku no Neverland (The Promised Neverland)

You’re correct, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed!

  • Episodes: 10+
  • Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Shounen
  • Airing Date: January 2019 – Ongoing
  • Studio: CloverWorks


Yakusoku no Neverland Preview (No Spoilers)

In an orphanage isolated from the rest of the world, children up to twelve years old live a challenging but fun and simple life in the care of Isabella, the house mom. Occasionally, one of the children is adopted, never to be heard from again despite the tightknit familial relationship they leave behind. When the latest child to be adopted forgets her stuffed bunny behind, two of the oldest children, Emma and Norman, hurry to get it to her before she departs. Although they make it in time to see her before she departs, her lifeless body unveils the fate of all children who are adopted from the orphanage.

Ray Highlights (Spoilers Beyond This Point)

1. He’s Great Under Pressure

Ray has a tough task throughout The Promised Neverland, one most of us probably wouldn’t be able to handle: he must be Isabella’s spy. Ray has lived his whole life knowing that Isabella was raising both him and his adopted siblings to be slaughtered for food, but he never allowed that to break him. This is especially impressive when you recall that Ray has known about this ever since he was a small child so even then he was able to resist cracking under pressure. Now, it would be even easier to just comply with everything Isabella asks of him as a spy, however; he’s not just complying but also plotting his and his closest siblings escape.

2. He Can Hold a Secret

As we mentioned earlier, he knew about the secret within the orphanage since he was a child and never told anyone. That means that throughout his decade at the orphanage, he was able to put on a brave face and act like everything was alright while developing bonds with his siblings. Even though he knew they were going to be killed eventually, he still went on having relationships with most of them to the point that Norman and Emma, two incredibly brilliant children, couldn’t even tell the dark secret he kept. He was so good at keeping secrets that he had to trick Norman and Emma into finding out about it, otherwise they’d never find out.

3. He’s Willing to Make Sacrifices

Ray makes it clear after revealing that he knows the truth about the orphanage and that he’s a spy for Isabella that he only plotted on saving Emma and Norman and no other children. For years he allowed Isabella to bring child after child away under the guise of adoption to become food for monsters. Ray is cold and calculating in his willingness to do what it takes to save the people he cares most about. A part of us wonders if he’d have sacrificed Emma and Norman for his own safety?

4. He Doesn’t Have Infantile Amnesia

The reason Ray knew the secret behind the orphanage when no one else did is that he doesn’t suffer from infantile amnesia like everyone else. Ray remembers bits and pieces in complete detail of his life since his birth, while we usually lose most of the memories from our youth, let alone our birth, over time. We think we prefer having infantile amnesia if it’ll help us forget our birth, though.

5. He’s Logical

While Emma is guided by emotions and Norman by his desire to keep Emma safe, Ray is guided by what’s logical and correct. From the very moment that Norman unveils what fascinates him about Emma, Ray outright disagrees with him because Emma’s caring about protecting others over herself doesn’t seem correct to him. He did the very opposite his whole life, and perhaps there’s a bit of guilt in that assessment. In any case, Emma and Norman are determined to try to help Ray stray away from the path of the best option and to act in a more selfless fashion.


Final Thoughts

Ray has lived his life with a chip on his shoulder because of the knowledge he had that no one else did. With every passing day, he’s struggling to know if he made the right decision with that knowledge. He’s allowed countless people to die and he’s starting to discover that the best option isn’t always the right option. Of course, plenty of fans will also side with Ray’s logic-over-emotion mentality, and we won’t blame you for that either. There’s still a necessity for a guy like Ray and his endurance over the years has proven he’s not all wrong in choosing the best option.

Yakusoku-no-Neverland-The-promised-Neverland-300x450 [Honey's Crush Wednesday] 5 Ray Highlights from Yakusoku no Neverland (The Promised Neverland)

Writer

Author: Jonathan Tshinanu

Graduated from Carleton University in the capital of Canada with a degree in Film Studies and English, which basically sums me up real nice. I’m a sucker for a good story – written or visual – wherever I can find it, whether it’s in anime, video games, movies, books, albums or whatever else you can think of. If I’m not consuming, then I’m probably trying to make them myself.

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