James Nicoll Reviews

2023’s Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Volume 3 is the third tankōbon¹ in Hiromu Arakawa’s ongoing modern fantasy manga series, Yomi no Tsugai in the original Japanese. It has been serialized in Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine since December 2021. Volume 3 in English translation was released in 2023.

Having survived a raid by mercenaries commanding tsugai (demons) on the Kagemori compound, Yuru takes part in the aftermath.

First question: who ordered the attack and why?

Who is unclear. The only invader who knew who hired them was beaten to death in volume two. All the survivors know is that they were recruited at the last moment. Rather than a well-honed army, the invaders were a mob of strangers who had never met before their ill-fated invasion.

Why is easy: Yuru and his sister Asa are the latest pair of twins fated to wield great power. Therefore, many people want to get their hands on the pair, because by controlling Yuru and Asa they control their powers². To this end, the Kagemori provided Asa with refuge when she and her parents fled the Tadera village, while Yuru was raised in ignorance by the Tadera.

Why does not narrow down who at all. Suspects range from a rogue faction of the Kagemori to a faction of the Tadera to some other group.

The aftermath also provides Yuru, who has been lied to by the Tadera for his whole life, a chance to compare notes with Asa. Asa has many astonishing revelations, not least of which is that she has been murdered once.

~oOo~

I wish Arakawa would add a few more stock faces to her repertoire.

This manga may sound grim, but Arakawa does find room for humour. That is for the best, given how dark the darkest bits are.

Dying is part of the process by which the fated twins gain their power. There’s a catch — actually, this is a Hiromu Arakawa story so there are probably lots of catches — which is that resurrection is not guaranteed. Previous fated twins have died and remained dead.

Another detail that won’t surprise Arakawa fans: the Kagemori do their very best to present themselves as the virtuous side of the conflict to control Asa and Yuru, while at the same time being the sort of people who ordered a murderous attack on Yuru’s mountain village. Just as they not only accept the surviving mercenaries’ surrender, they offer them jobs and in one case pay their debts… because as they quietly note, expendable foot soldiers are useful.

This is a quieter volume. Well, comparatively quieter: there are still way too many corpses, from the mountain ​“bandits” Yuru has been killing to Asa herself, not to mention some spectacularly violent deaths as a pair of daemons reveal themselves at the end of the volume. People who dislike violence probably should seek out Arakawa’s Silver Spoon, not this series.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Volume 3 is available here (Amazon US), here (Amazon Canada), here (Amazon UK), here (Apple Books), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

1: Volume One’s review is here. Volume Two’s review is here.

2: Killing them might mean another generation can worry about the problem when the next pair of fated twins appears… or it could empower the twins.