by Kambole Campbell

Everything has been set up to position the clumsily-titled Daemons of the Shadow Realm as "the next Fullmetal Alchemist." Such a description isn't exactly a reach: it's an adaptation of the latest manga series from FMA's author and illustrator Hiromu Arakawa, from the same studio as its anime (Bones) with an overlapping staff. Director Masahiro Ando, as well as being known for Wolf's Rain and Sword of the Stranger, directed and storyboarded multiple episodes as well as an opening sequence of the first FMA adaptation, and even storyboarded on the second FMA adaptation, Brotherhood. The list goes on: character designer and animation director Nobuhiro Arai was a key animator on Brotherhood, as was the designer of the show's 'daemons' Kōji Sugiura. The shows even share background artists and color designers.

Even with that shared DNA, thankfully Daemons of the Shadow Realm has ambitions beyond being a nostalgia trip. While there are inevitably signs of the familiar thanks to the shared artistry – the new show's "Jin" looks a lot like a bespectacled Roy Mustang – Daemons is striking for how different its alchemical mix of elements is, even as the tones and linework and character silhouettes have a recognizable shape.

To get into the how involves giving away an early twist, so this is your final warning, spoilers ahead.

The main character Yuru, whose spiky blond hair recalls the Elric brothers, lives in an idyllic rural mountain village, acting as a hunter to look after his younger sister Asa. The first half of the episode follows their rituals and custom, establishing this as a world set 400 years in the past, or an equivalent of such technology.

And then, that peace is disrupted by, of all things, a modern day military hit squad, complete with helicopters and assault rifles. As it turns out, the new Arakawa adaptation has more in common with M. Night Shyamalan's The Village (spoilers for that too?) than it does Fullmetal Alchemist, with an insular community living free of technology and in seemingly idyllic isolation from the modern world. Only here, some magic and a decades-old conspiracy is involved.

Yuru sees his village slaughtered by an older woman claiming to be his real sister. He then leaves the village to both protect them from further harm and find out what the hell is going on, and then begins to explore modern day Japan. For fear of immediately contradicting myself the setup did remind me of the controversial premise of Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)'s ending and its feature film follow-up, The Conqueror of Shamballa: what if these fantasy characters were to cross into our own world, how would they react?

In Daemons of the Shadow Realm it's mostly with amazement in the same sense of giving a Victorian child a sip of 4loko: Yuru marvels at modern 'latrines' and the proliferation of white rice and tatami mats, his interactions with modern technology and cuisine treated with lightheartedness despite the grim circumstances. An enjoyable element of his characterization so far is that despite this ignorance about how cars and smartphones work being used for levity, Yuru is no fool, and he immediately understands that the battle lines he now stands on are a lot more ambiguous than good or evil: even though flashes of the slaughtered villagers appear behind his eyes upon seeing the faction that his real sister has aligned with.

What is yet to become clear – to those who haven't read the manga – is how it'll explore that aforementioned ambiguity. Fullmetal Alchemist worked because it gave a rich sense of humanity and even tragedy to its supposed antagonists, and readily laid critique at the feet of its protagonists, called "dogs" for willingly becoming apparatus for an imperialist force. It's exciting thinking about how Arakawa's work might explore this with a more direct connection to our present, and how Bones will visually interpret this now that the lush environs of the mountain have been left behind for the colder and more claustrophobic city.

Four episodes in, Daemons of the Shadow Realm is promising for how different it feels from its predecessor, even as the elements behind the scene all seem to promise the familiar.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm is streaming in the US and UK on Crunchyroll.

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⚔️ Kambole: There's been a teaser trailer for an anime adaptation of Kagurabachi, a Shonen Jump manga which sort of got memed into popularity, before people dropped the irony and realised that they genuinely really like it. I'm yet to actually read the series, but my brother has spoken positively about it and I trust his judgment. Here's hoping that the dub cast fulfill the prophecy.

🔷 Rollin: It's been a very long week for me, but I did finally begin playing Blue Prince, the popular puzzle game. There's a style of puzzle that makes my brain buzz, and a style that makes me want to hit a wall. So far, Blue Prince mostly has the former.