I don’t know what I expected when I started Daemons of the Shadow Realm, but it wasn’t ending up with its claws wrapped around my throat. Although maybe I should’ve seen that coming. The warning is in the title.
We start out on a windy night, with a pair of stone gate guardians, watching over a farming village with the kind of architecture you’d expect to find in South America. (But this isn’t our world.) Somewhere inside a stucco building with painted walls, a woman is giving birth to twins. Keep your eyes on those pairs. All we know is that the children should be born after dawn because, “These children will command the Daemons someday.“
You can bet nothing goes to plan. Every story needs an inciting incident after all. And that’s how the children dividing night and day are born. Sooo, that’s not good.
16 years later, our story begins. Yuru is a blond-haired, red-eyed, hunter and warrior sort of kid. His imprisoned sister, Asa, is dark-haired, red-eyed, serene and smiling type of girl. At least that’s what we believe when we first meet her. After a brief but charming setup in the daily life of the village, which is basically a South American agrarian version of the Village of the Hidden Leaf, this series gets into some gangster sh!t.
Oh my, oh my, the blood, the twists, and turns, the magic, the reveals. Based on the manga Yomi no Tsugai (The Hinge of the Underworld) by Hiromu Arakawa (Fullmetal Alchemist), this series had me 15 minutes into its first episode. If it keeps this up, Gachiakuta is going to have to fight it for the title of new anime hotness.
Official Series Synopsis from Crunchyroll:
In a world where certain humans command mighty supernatural duos called Daemons, it is the birthright of “the children who sunder day and night”—twins Yuru and Asa—to rule over these powerful entities. Separated from a young age and unaware of the truth of their birth, brother and sister must fight to make their way back to each other, claim their birthright, and save the world…
With Studio Bones animation that feels as comforting as Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and lore that cranks from scene 1, we can see why this series is launching with global dubs. If you need more of a hook, the design of the Daemons is giving Bleach—both the shinigami and the hollows (you thought I was going to say homunculus, didn’t you?
Then you already know, when Yuru’s world cracks and the outside comes crashing in, you’re going to lean all the way in trying to figure out how twisty and bloody Daemons of the Shadow Realm can get. Let me assure you: very. Fair warning, there’s a Little Red Riding Hood with a bite the wolves should be scared of. With world-building, action sequences, and mysteries like these—Babies, I’m intrigued.
Daemons of the Shadow Realm streams on Crunchyroll April 4
New episodes every Saturday
