Ray (The Promised Neverland)
Ray | |
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The Promised Neverland character | |
First appearance | Chapter 1: "Grace Field House" (GFハウス, Gurēsu Fīrudo Hausu) |
Last appearance | Chapter 181: "Beyond Destiny" (運命の向こう岸, Unmei no Mukōgishi) |
Created by | |
Portrayed by |
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Voiced by |
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In-universe information | |
Alias | Sleepy Cyclops |
Species | Human |
Gender | Male |
Title | 81194 |
Relatives | |
Age | 11 |
Eye color | Dark Green |
Ray (Japanese: レイ, Hepburn: Rei) is a character in the manga series The Promised Neverland, created by Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu. Ray is an 11-year-old boy living at Grace Field House. Like Emma and Norman, Ray consistently gets perfect scores on his daily exams. He is known for being an avid reader with high intellectual abilities, blunt skepticism and cunning. Being the only biological child of their caretaker, Isabella.
He did not experience childhood amnesia, confirming his suspicions about the existence of demons and true nature of the house later when he was 6 years old. Ray becomes Isabella's spy in exchange for goods and the promise that he, Norman, and Emma will not get fed to demons until their 12th birthdays. He pledged to use the remaining years of his life to orchestrate an escape plan that would lead to his two sibling finding out the truth themselves. After a confrontation with Norman, he becomes the children's trump card just as Isabella betrays him.
Although initially unwilling to accept Emma's unrealistic goal of escaping with every child, he vows to never give up on them after their escape succeeds. In the anime adaptation, he is voiced by Mariya Ise in Japanese and by Laura Stahl in the English version. In the live-action film adaptation, he is portrayed by Kairi Jyo.
Creation
According to Kaiu Shirai, Ray unlike his siblings has an opposite and darker personality. He is more extreme than the rest of his family. He is the darkness, compare to Emma the sun, and Norman the moon. Ray is the favorite character of Kaiu Shirai, according to the author, they have few things in common, explaining how the way he tends to get desperate and throw in the towel is a lot like the personality of Ray. Shirai revealed that In his original script, Ray was originally going to die. Seeing as how he nearly burned himself down with Grace Field in retaliation against Isabella and the demons, he could have died before his siblings even escaped. But he avoided this idea.[1][2]
Posuka Demizu considers Ray to be an easier and fast character to create as compared to Norman and Emma. Even if he is the most deep and dark character of the main characters trio of the series. According to Demizu, The proposal where his eye was hidden was a casual sketch. She thought that it might give him more flow, a sort of shadowy air and make him look cool.[1]
Casting
In the anime adaptation, the character is voiced by Mariya Ise in Japanese;[3] and Laura Stahl voices the character in English.[4] In the live-action film adaptation, Ray was portrayed by Kairi Jyo.[5]
Appearances
Ray was born on January 15, 2034. At the beginning of the story on October 12, 2045, Ray is 11-year-old boy living at Grace Field House orphanage. He has dark green eyes and messy short black hair with long bangs that are parted to the right and cover up much of the left side of his face. He wears the standard orphanage uniform- a white shirt and trousers along with plain shoes. An authentication number, 81194 is tattooed on his neck.[6]
Reception
Ray was awarded the Joint Character Wildcard and was nominated for the Man of the Year category at the 6th Anime Trending Awards in 2020.[7] Ray achieved the 3rd place behind Norman and Emma in the Color Illustration Character Poll of the series in 2018.[8] In the Shōnen Jump's popularity poll of the series in 2018, Ray is in the 3rd place.[9] He also took the third place in Shōnen Jump's 2nd popularity poll of the series, with a total of 4651 votes.[10][11]
Allen Moody of THEM Anime Reviews described Ray as "As for Ray, he is also taken some psychological damage from the place, and I was wondering how trustworthy he was- as apparently his pals Norman and Emma had been wondering too- but I liked Ray nevertheless (or maybe just felt sympathy for him); his soul was clearly damaged by the place, but maybe not damaged beyond redemption".[12] Brittany Vincent from Syfy praised the character by saying "Ray is an isolated child who typically shuns friends, but he is got a sharp intellect and a keen eye for his surroundings, a necessary skill in this bizarre world the group of orphaned children finds themselves living in".[13] Pauline Croquet from the french newspaper Le Monde said that the design of the three main characters, including Ray, is very original and comes out of the shōnen manga typical designs; and stated "The children of Grace Field House, the oldest of whom are 11 years old, have lived since birth in an idyllic setting and are treated with love by the director, whom they call "Mom". The intelligent and resourceful Emma, Norman and Ray, will understand that they are all in danger of death. They decide to run away with their siblings, but they are completely unaware of what awaits them outside".[14]
References
- ^ a b The Promised Neverland Volume 13 - Special Edition's Q&A interview. Shueisha.
- ^ ""The Making of a Jump Manga!" — The Promised Neverland". Project : Interviewing editors at MangaPlus (vol.2). Manga Plus. Shueisha. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved April 23, 2021.
- ^ Ressler, Karen (August 2, 2018). "The Promised Neverland Anime Reveals Cast, Staff, Character Visuals". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on August 3, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
- ^ Loo, Egan (April 5, 2019). "Promised Neverland Anime's English Dub Cast Revealed in Trailer". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on April 6, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
- ^ Loo, Egan (September 26, 2019). "The Promised Neverland Manga Gets Live-Action Film in Winter 2020". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on February 22, 2021. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
- ^ The Promised Neverland Volume 1 - Chapter 1: "Grace Field House". Published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on August 1, 2016 by Shueisha.
- ^ "Results of the 6th Anime Trending Awards". Anime Trending. Archived from the original on January 23, 2021. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
- ^ The Promised Neverland Volume 9 - Chapter 75: "Unyielding Reed (不屈の葦, Fukutsu no Ashi)". Published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on February 17, 2018 by Shueisha.
- ^ The Promised Neverland Volume 10 - Chapter 88: "Rematch (リターンマッチ, Ritān Matchi)". Published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on May 28, 2018 by Shueisha.
- ^ Loveridge, Lynzee (September 10, 2018). "The Promised Neverland Readers Put Faith in Emma in Popularity Poll". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on October 23, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2022.
- ^ The Promised Neverland Volume 12 - Chapter 102: "Found It (見つけたよ, Mitsuketa yo)". Published in Weekly Shōnen Jump on September 7, 2018 by Shueisha.
- ^ Moody, Allen (April 8, 2019). "The Promised Neverland (Season One)". THEM Anime Reviews. Archived from the original on February 27, 2021. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
- ^ Vincent, Brittany (May 13, 2019). "The Promised Neverland is your next anime action fix". Syfy. Archived from the original on May 13, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2022.
- ^ Croquet, Pauline (April 25, 2018). "« The Promised Neverland » : deux inconnus à l'origine du manga le plus attendu de l'année". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved September 19, 2022.
External links
- Ray at The Promised Neverland manga official website (in Japanese)
- Ray at The Promised Neverland anime official website (in Japanese)