Daemons of the Shadow Realm 1×7 and 1×8 Review – “Asa and Break” and “Suspicion and Conviction”

Daemons of the Shadow Realm anime season 1 episode 7, titled ‘Asa and Break’, and episode 8, titled ‘Suspicion and Conviction’, gave the leads a breather to flesh out their pasts.

After being attacked by a group of assassins inside the Kagemori Clan’s mansion, ‘Asa and Break’ continued with Asa sharing more information about her life with Yuru. Asa revealed that after being placed under the Kagemori Clan’s protection, there was an incident that led to Asa’s death during her early teenage years. Apparantly, she had been killed by members of the Higashi Village. However, Asa didn’t stay dead. She returned to life and now possessed her Break ability.

From what I could understand about the lore, the destined twins were supposed to die to gain their Break and Seal abilities. However, there was a chance that one or both of the twins would not come back to life, essentially stopping the prophecy until a new pair of twins was born. I liked how it’s presumed that the chosen twins had the choice to return to the land of the living or venture into the afterlife. With the twins not being given any choice in how to live due to people always wanting to control them and their abilities to rule the world, I liked how, even if under sombre circumstances, the twins were finally presented with a choice to decide their fate.

When Asa died, she found herself in Yomotsu Hirasaka. That’s where she got to meet a Daemon who offered her two choices. Asa could travel to the afterlife and leave all her worldly issues behind. Or she could accept the Daemon’s Break ability. Asa choosing to return made sense. Not only did she still want to reunite with Yuru, but she also wanted to be proactive when it came to facing the people who wanted to capture her.

With Asa gaining her Break ability, I’m looking forward to seeing what will cause Yuru’s death so he can interact with the Daemon who would be ready to offer him the Seal ability. And yeah, with how things have been progressing, Yuru’s definitely going to choose returning to the land of the living.

Asa’s backstory gave context to her personality and her wanting Yuru to remain safe. As far as Asa’s concerned, Yuru hadn’t experienced constantly being hunted. And yeah, while I think Yuru tried to connect with her by mentioning how an assassin had tried to kill kid Yuru, I do feel that his experience was still not similar to Asa’s, especially because Yuru remained relatively safe for about a decade by staying inside Higashi Village.

As for their parents, I’m still waiting to learn more about what led them to run away from the village as well as who was responsible for their disappearance. I was expecting Asa to join Yuru’s search for their parents. So, I was kind of disappointed when Asa had to stay behind with the Kagemori Clan, even if her decision made narrative sense. As Yuru put it, Asa’s wooden prison inside the village had just been replaced by the Kagemori Clan’s mansion. His sister was still not free.

Talking about more lore-related stuff, having breakfast with Gonzo revealed why the head of the Kagemori Clan had ordered an attack on Higashi Village. From what I could understand, Gonzo wanted to end the cycle of chosen twins who could be used to reshape the world. And for him to do so, everybody from the village needed to be killed. That was a very intense stance from a character that didn’t come across as genocidal. I was quite surprised by how Yuru kept his cool while listening to Gonzo talk about destroying his childhood village. Gonzo’s forces had managed to kill lots of people Yuru knew.

Dera also managed the situation well. He was aware he had walked into enemy territory without any weapons for Yuru’s sake. Dera’s offered a lot of comedic relief, but I’m so here for him being level-headed when necessary. His only choice during the breakfast scene was to calmly listen to Gonzo and counter any suspicion blaming Dera or his clan for the recent assassination attempt.

In contrast to Gonzo, his son Asuma was more interested in allowing the cycle of the chosen twins to continue. In Asuma’s opinion, the power the twins possessed should be looked at as a gift from the Gods. The twins should be used to better the world instead of destroying or changing it for a particular clan to gain control.

I liked Dera mentioning how even the Kagemori Clan wasn’t a monolith. Gonzo’s own son wasn’t a fan of his father’s idea. So, according to Dera, Gonzo should be more open about giving the benefit of the doubt to other clans when it came to what certain members wanted to do with the twins. There’s definitely a lot of double-agents and differing schools of thought in play. I’m interested in seeing where the story will place certain characters across the battlefield down the line.

Talking more about Gonzo’s family, it’s revealed that Asuma and Jin were his sons. We also got introduced to the eldest son named Hagure. A comedic moment involved how Hagure looked the youngest of the three bros, while Jin, the youngest of the trio, appeared the oldest. Jin’s job had done a number on his demeanor.

Compared to his brothers, Hagure liked focusing on his work as a mangaka. He wasn’t interested in taking over the Kagemori Clan after Gonzo. Linked to his interest, Hagure’s two Daemons were basically white and black ink. The white ink creature whited out things, basically, erasing them. The black ink entity allowed Hagure to redraw what was erased. The ability of the Daemons was connected to Hagure’s attention to detail. From what was shown, Hagure was a perfectionist when it came to his drawings.

Now, I’m not saying that it might happen, but if the narrative was trying to throw suspicion away from Hagure by presenting a nice personality, it wouldn’t be the first time such a person was revealed to be the actual enemy. Let’s see what happens.

‘Supcion and Conviction’ concluded with Yuru refusing to stay under the protection of the Kagemori Clan and deciding to go back into the city with Dera. Not only did Yuru make it clear he wasn’t going to live his life in hiding, but he also needed to be out in the world to find his parents. Again, I’m a bit disappointed that Asa won’t be joining him. Hopefully, we will get to see her do plot-centric things from inside the mansion.

Did you watch Daemons of the Shadow Realm anime season 1 episodes 7 and 8? What did you think of them?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

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