{"id":411107,"date":"2026-04-26T02:11:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/411107\/"},"modified":"2026-04-26T02:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T02:11:11","slug":"daemons-of-the-shadow-realm-may-be-your-new-shonen-fave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/411107\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Daemons of the Shadow Realm’ May Be Your New Shonen Fave"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a generation of shonen fans, Hiromu Arakawa\u2019s Fullmetal Alchemist<\/a> made for a great read and equally great watch. (The second time around; its first was maybe a bit more divisive.) Her post-Alchemist works have been popular and similarly adapted, with her ongoing 2021 manga Yomi no Tsugai\u2014or\u00a0Daemons of the Shadow Realm<\/a>, if you\u2019re so inclined\u2014now brought to the small screen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s noteworthy on its own, but Daemons also comes front-loaded with extra history via its adaptors, Studio Bones. Recently of Gachiakuta<\/a> and My Hero Academia<\/a> fame, the company previously helmed Fullmetal in 2003, then again in 2009 with the more faithful Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. What\u2019s more, series director Masahiro Ando and character designer Nobuhiro Arai worked on either (or both) versions of that series, giving Daemons extra goodwill to those with a soft spot for Arakawa\u2019s most famous work.<\/p>\n

Because of that, it\u2019s hard not to get a small bit of Fullmetal nostalgia the moment Daemons\u2019 teenage protagonist Yuru shows his Edward Elric-ass face. There\u2019s always been something appealing about the way Arakawa draws expressions, so seeing his determined stare followed by a big, cheesy grin minutes later arrives with a sense of comfort as more characters with equally familiar faces fill out the cast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Combined with the script\u2019s leisurely flow, a throwback vibe will set in quickly for those old enough for it to hit, which matches the premiere\u2019s first half. Yuru moves through his village with an easy likability, content to provide for his community and visit his twin sister Asa, who lives in captivity. Save for flying dragons whose contrails he sees in the sky during his hunts, nothing feels out of place in this world. It\u2019s all normal as can be, which goes a good ways toward helping the village feel lived in.<\/p>\n

Coming to the halfway mark, it turns out those aren\u2019t dragons Yuru\u2019s been spotting but modern aircraft. Within seconds, soldiers have landed in the village and started killing, aided by a young woman named Gabby making people explode with a single word. And if that weren\u2019t bad enough, Yuru\u2019s got other problems: these invaders are led by a one-eyed woman named Asa who claims to be his real twin, and he\u2019s then given control of the Divine Left and Right, two tsugai (or Daemons) worshipped as gods by his village since he was a boy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those unaware of the full premise, these swerves in the pilot make for a fun bit of disorientation that puts them right in Yuru and his people\u2019s shoes. Even with everything going on, the show doesn\u2019t lose sight of the twins as its main throughline. Despite her introduction, this harder-edged Asa isn\u2019t relegated to an antagonist role and already arrives with her own support system that Yuru\u2019s will likely mirror or become as he adjusts to the modern world. (Seeing him and the Divines marvel at everything, from food and housing to real-world cities, is delightful.) With more attention given to him so far, Yuru makes for an effective emotional anchor as he tries to find his footing in this new situation, while Asa\u2019s given enough depth despite mostly being an enigma to her brother and the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the same way Arakawa knows what kind of bodies<\/a> she likes drawing, the same goes for her writing. Her characters have always been fully formed, and that trend continues here, with each so far feeling like they have a clear place in the narrative or current situation. The intent she puts into everything makes it satisfying when everything clicks together. More than how it looks, Daemons of the Shadow Realm feels like a project of her making in the way these people live in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Daemons\u00a9 Hiromu Arakawa\/Studio Bones\/Crunchyroll <\/p>\n

The most interesting glimpse of this yet comes in the third episode. Here, we learn how Daemons operate: they\u2019re always a package deal, invisible to most humans (unless they make themselves visible), and when bound to a human, do their master\u2019s bidding. In the first two episodes and the most recent fourth, each Daemon gets an action beat to make you excited for when an animator can fully pop off with them, and it\u2019s fun watching them interact with their masters or other humans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yuru treats the Divines as people, while Gabby\u2019s Daemon Gabriel, a multi-eyed pair of giant teeth\u2014think eldritch horror Pac-Man\u2014is more like a pet. That alone sets up interesting dynamics for what are essentially living superpowers, particularly in the moments where the Divines step in where Yuru is lacking. But it\u2019s a brief interlude where Asa and Gabby\u2019s handler, Jin, uses his own pair that shows how terrifying Daemons can be under the right owner. Arakawa\u2019s previously explored power and who wields it (and how) in the past, and the horror-tinged moment of nobility adds shades to both him and Asa by association. If her boss is doing things like this, it\u2019s no wonder she attacked Yuru\u2019s village the way she did.<\/p>\n

The characters and their world are enough to recommend Daemons of the Shadow Realm at this point. Only four of the season\u2019s 24 episodes have currently aired, but what\u2019s here is very promising and indicates that Bones sure knows how to make this show. Obviously, this is helped by the studio\u2019s previous experience with Arakawa and other fantasy series, but it\u2019s also just confidently carrying itself through this new project. Unconcerned about trying to live up to Fullmetal\u2019s legacy or any comparisons it may get to other current fantasy anime<\/a>, this is shaping up to be worthwhile in its own right.<\/p>\n

New episodes of Daemons of the Shadow Realm premiere Saturdays on Crunchyroll.<\/p>\n

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a generation of shonen fans, Hiromu Arakawa\u2019s Fullmetal Alchemist made for a great read and equally great…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[114067,146,189665,194179,85,46,194180,411],"class_list":{"0":"post-411107","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-daemons-of-the-shadow-realm","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-fullmetal-alchemist","11":"tag-hiromu-arakawa","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-studio-bones","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}