bookheaven | Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Vol. 1 (Reply)

Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Vol. 1 by Hiromu Arakawa

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think one of those stars is pure Arakawa fangirling because this one is...odd. It opens with Yuru, a young man living in a pre-industrial city, living off the land while his twin sister, Asa is kept in a cage for reasons we don't know (though no one seems unhappy about it).

Then boom, Yuru's world is ripped apart and nothing he thought was true is true. For one demons and spirits are real. (i.e. the titular daemons) Yuru's father figure, Dera, isn't who he appears either which spins Yuru's head, especially when they leave the village for lands Yuru couldn't guess existed.

I am keeping it vague so not to ruin all the major reveals. It moves fast, almost needs a rereading immediately. I like Yuru and Dera and am curious about the warring factions who are after Yuru and Asa who are prophecized twins.

That said, it's not quite as captivating (yet) as FMA (but few manga are) and I do wish Arakawa had a few more faces at her disposal. As lovely as her art is, she recycles faces again and again, the real reason I picked this up because I spotted the art and though Roy/Riza had a kid. (or more like Riza and Ed did). We haven't seen Armstrong/Bradley/Roy clones yet but I'm wondering if it's merely a matter of time (Definitely has one that looks like Rose)

Art similarities aside, this has very little resemblance to FMA, its more in the spiritual entity realm (rather put in mind of say Demon Slayer or Noragami) . I'm looking forward to seeing more.

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