Best Girl: Isabella from The Promised Neverland

Happy Mother's Day! Hopefully you don't have a mom like Isabella...

The Promised Neverland is an anime about family and overcoming seemingly impossible odds. Part of what makes The Promised Neverland such an entertaining and suspenseful adventure is the children's mother and the antagonist of the series, Isabella. Not only is she a terrifying antagonist who is just as clever as the children trying to escape her clutches, but she's also tragic and has lost a lot in order to survive.

Before the children find out that Gracefield is a farm that is raising them to be eaten, no one thinks for even a moment that Isabella is anything more than a kind and loving mother. When the children do find out the truth, Isabella's warm persona comes off as cold and sinister. Her kindest smile just seems condescending.

Even though Emma, Norman, and Ray are genius children, their every calculated move is thwarted by Isabella. She is capable of thinking several steps ahead of them and that's likely because there was a time when she was just like them: a child doomed to a cruel fate in a cruel world. Like Emma, Norman, and Ray, Isabella was able to find out at a young age that she was nothing more than livestock.

Isabella also made an attempt to escape and but unlike Emma, Norman, or Ray, she couldn't muster the strength to leave the farm. She accepted that the world is an awful place and children can never escape their horrid fate. The only for her to survive was to become a mother and raise other children to be eaten...even if it included her own son.

Isabella can definitely be called twisted for feeding children to demons, but it is also true that she loves the children in her own way. She accepted that she can't protect the children, but can love them and ensure that they'll be happy while they are alive. But it is also important to note that Isabella had become just as cruel as the world she once yearned to escape. When Emma attempts her own escape and tries to fight back, Isabella doesn't hesitate to break the young girls's leg.

The Promised Neverland is one of the best anime of this year and I doubt that the first season would have been as good without an antagonist like Isabella. Not only is she devious and intelligent, but she's also tragic and it's hard not to feel bad for her...especially in her final scene as she hopes that her runaway children can find true happiness. So this Mother's Day, take a moment to think about Isabella and be glad that she's not your mother.