黄泉のツガイ

DAEMONS OF THE SHADOW REALM

ANIME

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
24
RELEASE
September 19, 2026
LENGTH
24 min

DESCRIPTION

In a remote mountain village under the watchful eyes of two stone guardians, the young Yuru contentedly lives off the land while staying close to the only family he has left—Asa, his precious twin sister. Asa, meanwhile, carries out a mysterious “duty” on behalf of the village while locked in a cage. Why is Asa a prisoner? And what other secrets does Yuru’s otherwise idyllic home hide?

(Source: Square Enix)

CAST

Yuru
Kenshou Ono
Asa
Yume Miyamoto
Hidari
Takako Honda
Gabby
Misaki Kuno
Migi
Rikiya Koyama
Ryuu Tadera
Yuuichi Nakamura
Hana Danno
Miyuri Shimabukuro
Jin Kagemori
Junichi Suwabe
Ivan Yosano
Shinichirou Miki
Asuma Kagemori
Akira Ishida
Oshirasama
Saori Hayami
Gonzo Kagemori
Hiroshi Iwasaki
Nise Asa
Yume Miyamoto
Haruo Kuroya
Kazuki Ura
Ken Tadera
Natsumi Fujiwara
Danji
Ryouta Oosaka
Hikaru Kagemori
Kappei Yamaguchi
Natsuki Kuroya
Yuu Shimamura
Makoto Tachikawa
Reina Kondou
Fuyuki Kuroya
Hayato Fujii
Nagisa Kinjou
Saori Oonishi
Azami
Yukari Anzai
Sakurazawa
Yumi Uchiyama
Anna Mineyama
Sumire Uesaka
Mine
Yuuya Uchida

Episodes are being prepared. Check back soon.

RELATED TO DAEMONS OF THE SHADOW REALM

Cover Art for Daemons of the Shadow Realm

MANGA ActionDaemons of the Shadow Realm

Cover Art for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

ANIME ActionFullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

ANIME ActionYomi no Tsugai 2nd Season

REVIEWS

mikaeil
100/100
Is Arakawa an amazing mangaka because she is Arakawa, or is she Arakawa because she is an amazing mangaka?
Daemons of the Shadow Realm was one of the two anime that started airing this spring that had a very heavy weight of expectations on their shoulders because of the previous works of their creators. Because of that, they naturally experienced many different comparisons, and sometimes those comparisons were pretty unfair. In the case of Daemons of the Shadow Realm, the creator of the series is Hiromu Arakawa, the creator of one of the most well known anime and manga series in history, Fullmetal Alchemist.

And when it comes to expectations, the common way people usually look at something like this is that if a new work is expected to be good because of its creator's previous work, then it should either be better than the previous work, be around the same level, or be somewhat below it and still be considered acceptable. Otherwise, the new anime is considered disappointing.

There are two problems I have with this way of thinking. The first is that the independent identity of the anime being discussed is completely put into question, whether that is its story, characters, or other aspects. The second is that the third part of this common way of thinking, the idea that a new work can still be acceptable even if it is somewhat below the creator's previous work, is often just something people say. There are countless examples where, in practice, this part is not actually considered acceptable at all. The first two parts are what really affect this mindset.

This kind of expectation and comparison, as I mentioned, ignores the independent identity of different works. Many works that have suffered from this are similar in certain elements because of the writing style and design choices of their authors and manga creators, but they can still have many fundamental differences. Those differences are often ignored because the independent identity of the work, especially the newer one, is not taken into consideration.

For me, when I have expectations for a work because of its author, it means that I have already experienced at least two works from that author that had a huge impact on me. After that, whenever I read or watch another work from that creator, my expectation is actually very different.

From the very first moment I start watching that work until the very last moment, I look deeply for every positive aspect it has, and I try to find answers to every criticism that is made against it, unless the work has some serious ethical problem, which has never happened to me in this situation. I do this because of the trust I have in that author.

But with Hiromu Arakawa, I did not have that kind of expectation for Daemons of the Shadow Realm.

Of course, Fullmetal Alchemist is a masterpiece for me, and I was actually rewatching it before Daemons of the Shadow Realm started airing. But having one work alone does not make me examine an anime with the mindset I described above.

The reason I explained all of this is because when I say that Daemons of the Shadow Realm is an incredibly great anime in terms of writing and many other aspects that I will talk about later, it is not because I was looking for greatness in it from the very beginning.

The anime itself showed me its greatness.

And that not only makes me value the anime much more, but it also made Hiromu Arakawa an author whose future and previous works I will now look at with the kind of expectations I described earlier.

I feel like I have explained everything I wanted to say about this part, but while writing it, I kept thinking about this reference in my head. Is Hiromu Arakawa an amazing manga creator because she is Hiromu Arakawa, or is she Hiromu Arakawa because she is an amazing manga creator? I did not get the chance to properly fit that thought into the earlier part, so I wanted to add it here at the end.

In my opinion, Daemons of the Shadow Realm could genuinely be used as a reference for how to write a story and its characters.

The way this anime uses different story elements as a foundation is incredible.

Watching Daemons of the Shadow Realm gave me three main feelings.

The first is that whenever something happens, or whenever the anime explains something to the audience, I can comfortably say, "Wow, this actually makes sense. This really fits the world of the story."

And I know this might sound like a small thing, but with many stories today, instead of immediately being able to say that something makes sense, I sometimes find myself saying that something makes sense because of this particular reason.

The difference here is that when Daemons of the Shadow Realm examines something and explains it to the audience, even when that explanation is something specific to the world of the anime itself, it is presented in a way that gives it a very strong sense of believability and meaning.

In many other works, when something about their own world is explained to the audience, sometimes even the reason the anime gives for something needs another reason behind it before it can feel completely believable.

The second feeling comes from the way the story introduces, kills, keeps alive, or explores the mindset of its characters.

None of these things ever feel like they were forced into the story just so the story could have more aspects to explore about its characters and world.

Everything feels like a natural part of the world of the story, while also adding more aspects to the anime.

They are not simply added because the story needs something new.

Sometimes the anime explores one character's mindset toward another character, and when the anime tells us something like, "Because I spent so much time with this character, my view of them changed from what I previously thought to something completely different," it does much more than simply give us another aspect of that character.

Because the amount of time that character talks about is something the anime has already shown us before this explanation, it also increases the value of those previous moments.

The decision to keep a particular character alive or to kill them can also create an enormous number of different possibilities for the continuation of the story, because of how strong the foundation of the story is and how clearly the author understands the overall direction of the work.

And the third feeling comes from the way the anime handles twists.

When a particular story twist happens in an anime, the previous events often exist mainly as buildup toward reaching that twist. Those aspects are usually more about the story itself than about the personal effect that twist has on the different characters.

And even when the twist has a major effect on the characters, the character aspect of the twist is sometimes not explored very deeply because of the way the story is structured.

But in Daemons of the Shadow Realm, whether a twist has a comedic or serious nature, the effects it has on the other characters can sometimes be the most important part of the twist itself.

It is very clear that the narrative wants to show the effect of that twist on the characters in the story.

And just like the examples I mentioned earlier, these twists also increase the value of the previous events in the story, as well as the fights and conversations between the characters.

Beyond all of that, I found the themes of Daemons of the Shadow Realm and its characters extremely interesting and enjoyable.

The pacing is something I know will not be to everyone's taste because of its slower nature, but throughout the entire anime, every single moment had its own purpose within the narrative.

Even if we completely ignore the comedic aspects, the slice of life sections did not feel pointless at all.

Everything either had its own atmosphere or served some purpose within the story.

The only exception was that in one or two episodes, the anime used recaps because it wanted to end the episode on a cliffhanger. Even though I found that decision a little evil, I could still understand why they did it.

I also absolutely love Migi and Hidari. They are genuinely fantastic characters.

Asa and Yuru, as the main focus characters of the story, are also characters I really enjoyed.

The differences between them, their similarities, and the development of their interactions gave the story a beautiful and comedic aspect.

And Yuru's purpose in the anime is genuinely admirable and understandable. I really hope I get to see the story reach that point one day.

The comedy of the story is also fantastic, just like Fullmetal Alchemist.

Some specific elements from Fullmetal Alchemist, such as the character designs and certain aspects of its comedy, can also be felt in Daemons of the Shadow Realm.

As I said before, I genuinely love the way this anime tells its story, and I really love its themes.

Bones is my favorite anime studio. Many of their works are among my favorite anime, and the quality of their productions has always been very high.

And especially when it comes to Daemons of the Shadow Realm, there are several things I really want to talk about.

First of all, the series director, Masahiro Andou, has previously directed two works that I have watched.

The first is Blast of Tempest, an anime that I absolutely loved and still love. It is one of the most underrated and unfortunately sometimes misunderstood works I have ever watched.

The second is the movie Sword of the Stranger, a movie that I have a huge amount of respect for.

In both of these works, one thing that stands out to me is the creativity in the storyboards, the dialogue, and the excellent fight choreography.

And Daemons of the Shadow Realm has particularly high production quality.

The fights have a lot of impact even in moments where less animation is being used, because of the fight storyboarding and the close up shots.

And in the moments where a particular fight was given more production priority, the camera is often placed farther away from the fight, using an imaginary fixed camera and focusing more on the characters' movements, with slower movements during the fight.

This approach, especially in two particular fights, created some fantastic fight scenes.

These are the kinds of fight scenes that are becoming less common nowadays because of the greater focus many studios put on fast camera movements and extremely fast action.

Because of that, Daemons of the Shadow Realm does something particularly great in this aspect.

Even outside of the fights, the anime has excellent composition and color design.

The CGI used in the anime is also really good, whether it is used for backgrounds, vehicles, or POV shots during running scenes.

The character designs of the anime were handled by Nobuhiro Arai, who was also the character designer for Bungo Stray Dogs.

Bungo Stray Dogs has one of my favorite character designs among all anime, so I was genuinely happy when I found out that Nobuhiro Arai was designing the characters for Daemons of the Shadow Realm.

And just like always, his work was excellent.

The character designs in this anime are also fantastic.

The music was composed by Kenichirou Suehiro, who many people probably know because of his work on Re:Zero.

And just like the previous example, Re:Zero is one of my favorite anime when it comes to music.

Kenichirou Suehiro's work on this anime has also been excellent.

The unique and memorable OSTs used throughout different moments of the story were fantastic, especially during the comedic parts and the fight scenes.

And as I said before, the quality of Daemons of the Shadow Realm is genuinely high in every aspect of its production.

And that was my review of Daemons of the Shadow Realm.

I genuinely fell in love with this anime.
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Sheklon
60/100
Accidental yanderes can ruin your plot progression
[This contains moderate spoilers.]

I only write this because this show has underlying qualities that are being held back by one major issue. Let's address the elephant in the room.

As expected, this has similar qualities to FMA—in particular, because I haven't seen other Arakawa works yet—in the form of believable and complex characters, though also similar flaws, such as the tone-deaf jokes and a morally ambiguous presentation of characters. In that last point, note that I do not say moral grayness (which is a good thing and I believe was the norm in FMA), but moral ambiguity: the narrative thinks it's "deceiving" you with tricks, but, in reality, it's just revealing its pre-scripted favoritism towards characters through its inability to properly acknowledge the severity of moral deviation.

This is its greatest flaw, and it's most obvious in the case of the Higashimura genocide in Ep. 1. See, the thing that makes me like a morally gray character is that they do objectionable acts, but this creates understanding in the story; it's not enough for the character to understand oneself as guilty, we must also understand their will and sympathize with their desires and objectives. Here, the author expects us to sympathize with Gabi and Asa right away after an act of mass murder, and it expects it with such with levity and lightheartedness that it borders on being disrespectful, if not insane. It is egregious to get "onii-san!" jokes while Azami is lying in bed suffering PTSD after witnessing gruesome violence at the earliest age.

We know nothing of Asa and Gabi's character to justify such a relaxed stance—and, to make matters worse, we are left largely in the dark about anyone's motives regarding the acquisition of Seal and Break and what these folks envision for the future of the clans. In fact, we care little about the clans and understand nothing of their long history. Instead, the narrative brushes aside our immediate concerns and conceal many a dark deed behind misplaced jokes and cutesy moments. What's tragic is that these characters aren't even meant to be trashy yanderes—the author just "forgor" how to write sensible character dynamics and completely blew plot exposition.

It doesn't help that I felt little connection to most of the characters of the Kagemori side (and therefore was not in the slightest moved about the drama of treason inside Kagemori mansion in the latter part of the season).

With all of that addressed, I must say that I admit that Yomi no Tsugai is still, at the very least, an intriguing story with interesting persons. I fell in love with characters such as Tadera, Hana, and the Saiyu-sama. Yuru is also a great, active protagonist, possessing a refreshing straightforwardness and no-bullshit attitude, but still showing talent for quick adaptation and the inclination to pay minute attention to detail, both in survivability as well as in social reading. Tone-deaf jokes aren't universal; the slice of life moments in the breaks of action between tense plot moments feel genuine and truly feel like spending cozy time with these people.

There is a lot of positives to take from this work. It just has a really rough start.
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IsNotAChar
64/100
Just not very engaging.
I admit, that perhaps my expectations were unfair going in. I was sold on "Yomi no Tsugai" as being based on a work from the same mangaka as Fullmetal alchemist and I was left disappointed.

There was just something at the heart of Yomi no tsugai that just didn't click with me. I'm glad I keep little notes while I'm watching a show, because I can see that as early as episode 8 I'd realised that something wasn't clicking. Unfortunately, my interest and overall engagement just continued to decline from there, settling into a level close to boredom but not bored enough to completely give up on the show.

What it does well

Before I go into what I think doesn't work, I'll acknowledge that there are definitely some things that do.

I have no real complaints with the animation or action, some of the fight scenes are even quite good. I also think the initial reveal of it being set in the modern world was quite good, as was the initial confusion and mystery.

I also ended up liking a character (it's Ivan, he's cool).

My issues

There are a few core issues that I believe are the source of my disinterest from this show.

1: Yuru

I just don't think he's that interesting a protagonist. I've seen some people praising him, but I just don't get it. I'm not going to go as far as calling him a bad protagonist, I just think he's not especially a good one. He's a perfectly ok protagonist, but nothing more. I wish the show had done more with him having to adapt to modern japan, instead of it basically only being used as a comedic bit.

Unfortunately, this lack of interest in Yuru kinda makes the whole show fall apart a bit for me. If I don't care about him, I also find it hard to care about his main goal which is kinda the underpinning motivation/driver for the plot.

2: Everyone else

There's just a lot of characters who get not much focus who the show then expects us to care about, or otherwise just sorta exist there to take up space. The most egregious example is a spoiler:

It's Akio. I just don't care about him, his betrayal, or the random guy he killed. It creates this uniquely disengaging sensation when watching these characters all react so strongly and mourning this random guy (who I genuinely can't remember if he even appears in the show before he gets killed). Akio honestly felt closer to a background character then even a side character at times, and just simply did not get enough of anything for his betrayal to actually make me feel anything.

3: Pacing

The show is both too fast paced and way way too slow. What do I mean by this? Something is always moving, just slowly. I feel like the pacing either needed to slow a bit and mix in some slice of life, or just up the tempo and don't give it time to settle down.

As it is, the pacing could best be described as meandering. lethargically moving between action scenes and dialogue scenes that slowly drip-feed information and world building. I think you could genuinely cut it down by 4 episodes and it would be an improvement. (that or slow it down enough to have more slice of life moments or "side quests" to actually develop the wider cast.)

4: The appearance of nuance

I feel like the design brief was "create a conflict that isn't black and white", and the show goes about it in such a bad way. There are moments where I swear characters may as well turn to the camera and go "see, it's not black and white, both sides have extreme factions". But then go on to have the higashi village faction literally just be evil. It just all falls flat for me.

The show also has a strange inability to actually properly introduce things. The worst example being:

Shingo and his whole gang. We get basically drip fed information about them while they're basically acting as the main villains for that arc. Shingo has such a non-presence and his whole time spent as an antagonist just feels like setup for ivan and his village.

Summary

I can't be bothered to think about this show anymore, so I'll just come to a conclusion now. The show is fine, 6/10. Would I watch a second season? Maybe, just to see the result of that end of season cliffhanger, but I'm honestly not too interested in seeing where things go from here.
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