James Nicoll Reviews

2023’s Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Volume 4 is the fourth tankōbon in Hiromu Arakawa’s ongoing modern fantasy manga series, Yomi no Tsugai in the original Japanese, Daemons has been serialized in Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine since December 2021. Volume 4 in English translation was released in 2024.

What should have been a magically shielded refuge where Yuru can contemplate recent revelations¹ turns out to be anything but.

Unbeknownst to the group, they have been followed. No great surprise, given that Yuru and his twin sister Asa command great power (at least potentially) and could be a key asset to anyone who can control them.

The two enormous, vicious daemons who appear within the shielded household are a surprise. They are within the defensive perimeter! Now Yuru is served by two daemons of his own, Left and Right. They identify the attackers as Long Arms and Long Legs, daemons who were long ago sealed away.

Problem one: survive Long Arms and Long Legs long enough to overcome them. This is tricky, as the pair are nimble, savage, and as one might guess from the name, have terribly long — extendable — arms and legs.

Problem two: should the group overcome Long Arms and Long Legs, they must then identify the daemon’s master, capture the master, and determine for which faction the master is working. The first is easy enough, as is the second, but the answer to which faction the master series is one that nobody among Yuru’s allies expected.

~oOo~

Yuru and Asa are the current incarnation of beings of great power. Given what happened in their previous incarnations, I don’t know why the factions didn’t just humanely smother the pair in the name of public peace. Who would be foolish enough to court very nearly certain disaster just for the minute chance that controlling the pair will grant increased power? And why does English lack a generally accepted sarcasm punctuation?

Long-time readers may remember the horrified little girl who witnessed her mother’s graphic dismemberment. She reappears in this volume long enough to prove that effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder is not available in her village. Too bad, as she gets a second helping.

A detail I don’t think was entirely clear in previous volumes: ​“master” may overstate the degree of control humans exert over their daemons. ​“Senior partner” could be closer. In the case of Long Arms and Long Legs, even a simple ​“partner” might be an overstatement. ​“Inadvertent instigator of carnage” comes closest to what we see.

As with previous Arawawa projects, while the art is competent, the artist has a limited palate of faces from which to draw. Nevertheless, the art is more than sufficient to convey the bloody combat scenes and the aftermath. Fans of complex plots and stupendously violent fights will enjoy this volume.

To be honest, if I had not read the entire run of Fullmetal Alchemist, I might have bailed by this point. Arakawa adds new factions in each volume, and piles revelation on top of revelation. Previous experience with Arakawa assures me that the author does have a destination in mind. This is not another case of an author complicating plot and setting beyond their control.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Volume 4 is available here (Square Enix Manga), here (Barnes & Noble), here (Bookshop US), here (Bookshop UK), here (Chapters-Indigo), and here (Words Worth Books).

1: Volume one was reviewed here, Volume two here, and Volume three here.