Norman
The genius strategist who accepted his own shipment to deceive Isabella and let the others escape.
Norman (Japanese: ノーマン, Hepburn: Nōrman) is a character in the manga series The Promised Neverland, created by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu. Norman is an 11-year-old boy living at Grace Field House. Like Ray and Emma, Norman consistently gets perfect scores on his daily exams. He is known for being a genius strategist and planner, as well as unbeatable at the game of tag. He discovers the truth of the orphanage with Emma and teams up with Ray to devise a plan to escape. While he knows leaving with every child in the house is near to impossible, his love for his beloved friend Emma pushes him to continue trying.
- Role
- Former Top Child / Human Revolutionary
- Affiliation
- Grace Field House (Past), Demon World Resistance, Human Alliance
- First Appearance
- Chapter 1 of the manga / Episode 1 of the anime
- Status
- Alive
- Key Trait
- Strategic Genius and Empathy
Lore & Background
Norman was born on March 21, 2034. At the beginning of the story on October 12, 2045, Norman is 11 years old. He has blue eyes and short white hair that is parted to his left, with a longer piece curving upwards on the left side of his head. An authentication number, 22194, is tattooed on his neck. As the most intelligent out of the three, he is the first to find out Ray's true identity as Isabella's spy and prepare various back-up plans and escape routes. After Ray is betrayed by Isabella, Norman is forced to be shipped before his 12th birthday, accepting his fate of inevitable death to deceive her and let the rest of the children escape. However, instead of being put down, Norman is sent to a special research facility called Lambda Λ7214, created to try to create higher quality human livestock in a faster and more efficient way than the Premium Farms for the tifari ceremony. He escapes from Lambda and destroys the place after leading the other children held there in an uprising. Afterwards, he establishes a place called The Paradise Hideout for children they rescued from Lambda to live at and prepares a plan to wipe out all demons.
In Their Own Story
Norman is the mainstay of the group and had a "lighter" mood compared to Ray and Emma, according to Kaiu Shirai. For his character design, Shirai asked for something like angelic, and a bit ethereal, with a simple design philosophy — making him look like a moon or a knight of the story. Posuka Demizu had difficulties creating the character design of Norman, including his body type, face and hair. Norman was supposed to be slender in his original design, but it was difficult to show the difference between him and the other children since all of them wear the same clothes, so she decided to maintain the current design. Scholar Kei Toda described Norman as a perfect example of The Myth of Masculinity, noting that at Grace Field House he is depicted as a physically weak boy with a genius mind, and that his transformation highlights the masculinity he was trapped in. Toda also noted that Norman was written as a boy who is not masculine, contrasting Emma — a girl who is not feminine. Toda concluded that Norman sealed off his angelic and feeble past self and turned himself into a manly leader by taking the identity of Minerva. From the eyes of members from Λ7214, Norman appears as "serious", "winter", "emperor" — an image far from the Norman Emma knew: "kind, smart and smiles warmly".
Reader's Guide
Norman appears in three of four light novel books of the series written by Nanao, illustrated by Posuka Demizu and supervised by Kaiu Shirai, as well as appearing in the comedic spin-off manga, Oyakusoku no Neverland, written and illustrated by Shuhei Miyazaki. Norman appeared in two drama CDs released along with the anime series' first season Blu-ray disc, titled GF House Ghost Disturbance and Gift from the 39th Girl. The stories were originated from the novel A Letter from Norman. Norman also appeared in two other drama CDs titled The day Emma cried and Voice Time Capsule, released along with the anime series' second season Blu-ray disc. Norman is a playable character in the mobile game The Promised Neverland: Escape the Hunting Grounds released on iOS and Android. Norman is also a playable character in the crossover collaborations between The Promised Neverland and the smartphone video games Identity V, Jumputi Heroes, Dragon Egg, Vivid Army and LINE POP 2. In the anime adaptation, he is voiced by Maaya Uchida in Japanese and by Jeannie Tirado in the English version. In the live-action film adaptation, Norman is portrayed by Rihito Itagaki.
Did You Know?
- Norman was nominated for the Best Male Character category at the 41st Anime Grand Prix in 2019.
- Norman ranked at first place in the Color Illustration Character Poll of the series in 2018.
- In the Weekly Shōnen Jump's popularity poll of the series in 2018, Norman is in second place.
- Norman took second in the second popularity poll of the series, with a total of 4,763 votes.
- Good Smile Company launched a Nendoroid figure based on Norman in September 2019.