REVIEW: ‘Daemons of the Shadow Realm’ Episode 1 -“Asa and Yuru”

For those not in the know (haven’t read the manga), Daemons of the Shadow Realm Episode 1 delights in upending expectations. The big reveal midway through the premiere, “Asa and Yuru,” is so tonally jarring that it makes you want to hit pause to reacclimate to what this show is going to be. Wickedly strange and subtly unnerving, the series boasts the greatest hits of an all-star mangaka that manages to wield a timeless aesthetic while ushering in a thrilling new story. 

Best known still for creating one of the best series of the century, Fullmetal Alchemist, writer and illustrator Hiromu Arakawa pivots to a different type of magic system. Daemons of the Shadow Realm Episode 1 is patient in fleshing out the lore and world, aware of how much it’s going to unravel before we’ve settled. 

This is something that’s teased from the jump, however, in a foreboding sequence where a woman gives birth to twins. The children divide day and night and have the power to control daemons. That said, there’s no sense of celebration in the sequence. And when we jump ahead, we learn that while Yuru (Kensho Ono) gets to live his life as a free hunter in his mountainside village, his sister, Asa, is forced to live in captivity, her only real comfort being Yuru’s visits. 

Yuru’s reality is broken in the premiere, “Asa and Yuru.”

Daemons of the Shadow Realm Episode 1 doesn’t linger long on the whys of the matter. Instead, this sense of remote peace is destroyed when we realize that the world presented to us – presented to Yuru – is a lie. The sequence where the wards surrounding the village fall is genuinely effective, dizzying as we, along with the characters, try to reconcile the clash of aesthetics as modern technology forces itself on an idyllic, out-of-time location. 

What they once thought were dragons were actually the sounds of far-off airplanes. And, as the walls crumble, Daemons of the Shadow Real Episode 1 introduces us to reality as military forces attack. We don’t know why, only that, as soldiers are murdering villagers , a girl named Gabby (Misaki Kuno), who possesses terrifying supernatural powers, others are trying to hide Yuru, who is struggling to race back to his sister to protect her. 

The reality of his world is shaken even further when he finds who he believes to be his sister murdered, and murdered at the hands of the real Asa (Yume Miyamoto). The death of the fake “Asa” is swift and brutal, and it evokes a greater sense of dread when we realize what the real Asa means for her. That she was held captive as a diversion, forced to endure a terrible life of isolation, only to be unceremoniously killed by the woman whose identity she bore. 

Daemons of the Shadow Real Episode 1 barrels through establishing, then dismantling, this world. 

Yuru barely gets a moment to grapple with these revelations, something that is mimicked in the pacing of the series, which also refuses to hold back. We’re not given a second to comprehend the many ways in which the story weaves together. A traveling merchant, Dera (Yuichi Nakamura), is actually an outsider tasked with protecting Yuru, and it’s he who helps Yuru use a medallion to awaken the Daemon’s Left (Takako Honda) and Right (Rikiya Koyama), who, while destroying the military helicopters, also declare they’ll follow Yuru. 

Credit where credit is due, there’s no way to predict the many twists the premiere takes. The blend of style, mixing modern technology with timeless fantasy settings, helps establish the dissonance and imbalance of tones that amplify the escalating action and tension. Because we need to be put in as much disarray as Yuru, beholden to a story that’s slowly unfolding. Even with the Daemon’s awoken, it’s hard to guess just where the story will lead us next. 

The violence is similarly chilling, and Gabby’s creature, which she summons, is effective as it chows down on hapless villages. While Fullmetal Alchemist was no stranger to bloodshed, it’s the flippant way it’s deployed here that makes it so impactful. The deaths are gruesome and merciless. And even when Gabby declares she doesn’t kill children, it happens after said child just watched her mother’s head hit the ground, passing out only moments later from terror. 

The series is a welcome return for fans of Hiromu Arakawa’s work. 

If anything, the tonal imbalance only suffers when it tries to interject moments of humor when the severity of the story doesn’t call for them. Regardless, it’s a gripping premiere and raises the bar of anticipation as we look to see just how this opening chapter might resolve itself. 

More than anything else, however, Daemons of the Shadow Realm Episode 1 succeeds because of the return of Arakawa’s signature style. There’s a timeless appeal to her character designs and general aesthetic, and there’s a comfort in the familiarity (think of just about any series from Studio Trigger). The facial expressions, in particular, highlight the specificity of the emotions each character experiences, such as the moment of horror as Yuru realizes what’s happened to his sister.

Blending fantastical elements with realistic backdrops and the harsh realities of militant power, Daemons of the Shadow Realm Episode 1 is a shocking and appealing start. While there are some missteps to finesse, “Asa and Yuru” is an invigorating start and a welcome return for a formidable storyteller. 

Daemons of the Shadow Realm Episode 1 is available now on Crunchyroll.