I know I’m not the only one out there who became interested in Daemons of the Shadow Realm mainly because of who wrote it. Fullmetal Alchemist became an icon of the 00s, but it’s still an easy-to-recommend series today due to its action/fantasy blend, story themes, and engaging characters with often humorous quirks. I don’t know how many of you who have read/watched the original anime or the manga went into it blindly like I did, but that first episode/chapter certainly did a number on me to reel me in.
And Daemons of the Shadow Realm gave me that same feeling of being swept up into this other world.
The manga opens in a historical village as twins Yuru and Asa are being born, but their birth is heralded as inauspicious. At some point over the years, their parents fled, and while Yuru is free to roam around, Asa is imprisoned. Yuru loves his sister dearly, and he works hard at hunting and other jobs to make himself essential to the village. But one day, the town is attacked, and the assailants use strange equipment and spectral monstrosities to dispatch townspeople. For some reason, they’re after Yuru, and Yuru is definitely after them when Asa is attacked.
The monsters, as readers and Yuru learn, are called daemons, and they’re based on mythology and legends. Yuru even manages to summon his own daemon pair from the guardian statues at the town’s entrance named Left and Right. But the strange weapons and sky contraptions don’t need any explanations to readers; they’re guns and helicopters!
Yes, Arakawa pulls a terrific fake-out in Chapter 1, leading readers to believe this is some Japanese historical fantasy when it’s actually set in modern times. The village is safeguarded behind a barrier, and so people from “outside” are few and far between. Merchant Dera is one of the few who comes and goes, and that’s due to family obligations. He is aided by Hana, and the two of them take Yuru into hiding.
But while I mentioned the setting fake-out, Yuru and other spiritually-inclined individuals are understandably bewildered at the sudden appearance of a giant Pac-man with hundreds of eyes slicing off body parts. But the other fake-out causes Yuru more confusion anything else: one of the attackers claims she’s the real Asa! And both due to what Yuru hears and scenes only readers can see, it’s very likely she’s speaking the truth. Which opens up a whole other can of worms.
These mysteries will (hopefully) all be unraveled at a solid pace. After the bombastic opening, much of the latter half of volume 1 is about Yuru and his daemon partners (who have been asleep for 400 years) getting acquainted with the modern world. They have understandable reactions as they puzzle over tech and mass-produced goods and stuff, but their curiosity and excitement are a lot of fun to witness.
Still, readers’ curiosity and excitement may cool a bit toward the end of the volume with these predictable gags. Dera/Hana planning a cover story that is decidedly not what Hana had bargained for takes up a good amount of page time as well, and their squabbling over this fake relationship could get old real fast. But hey, it’s Arakawa, so readers have solid reasons to believe the series is only just taking its opening steps.