First Impressions: Daemons of the Shadow Realm

Hey guys! I’m back with a manga review after a really long time. Today I'll be reviewing the first volume of the newest Hiromu Arakawa manga, Daemons of the Shadow Realm (or Yomi no Tsugai)! If you don’t know Hiromu Arakawa, she is the manga author of Fullmetal Alchemist and of Silver Spoon. FMAB is one of my favorite anime ever and I really like Silver Spoon too, so I figured I’d enjoy anything else she wrote. I went into this story knowing absolutely nothing about the plot, and it was refreshing to have that sort of blank slate without any already existing impressions. If you want to experience it the same way, go read it now instead of finishing this review! But if you'd like some more context, I'll be describing the plot below. I will not be posting any major spoilers, just a plot summary.

The story centers around a pair of twins, Yuru and Asa, who are born in a rural mountainside town in a fantasy version of historical Japan. 16 years later, Yuru grows up to be a kind hearted young man who is a talented archer, and Asa is quiet and reserved, kept hidden away in a caged room for unknown reasons and does not speak to anyone but Yuru. One day, their village gets attacked by what appears to be helicopters and men in modern military attire. While trying to escape the chaos, Yuru discovers that he possesses the ability to control two daemons who will act as his guardians.

I don't read a ton of shonen or fantasy manga, so going into this I was hesitant and unsure about how much I would like it. This early in the manga, it is difficult to tell how deep or complex the plot is going to be, but so far it seems to be a fairly typical anime fantasy story. It is also shaping up to be a reverse-isekai, which is not what I was expecting but I am optimistic about that concept. Overall, I like it well enough so far but I am hoping there will be more complex themes and story beats as the story goes on.

Unsurprisingly though, Hiromu Arakawa's real strength is the character dynamics and designs. All of the characters in this story are immediately likable, charming, and interesting, even at their first introduction. It is difficult for me to pick a favorite without listing the entire cast, but I absolutely love Gabby and Yuru, and Left and Right (Yuru's Daemons) have such fun lightning-inspired designs.

If you've read it, let me know what you think! I am definitely going to be reading more as soon as more chapters are translated and available.

Thanks for reading,

-threecheersforinking

First Impressions: To Your Eternity

**spoilers for episodes 1-12**

To Your Eternity is the only show this season that I’m actually keeping up with, and it was also the only one that caught my eye before it even started airing. I’m a huge fan of Yoshitoki Oima, author of the well known series A Silent Voice, so I figured I would enjoy anything else she wrote as well, and so far I’m not disappointed.

If you were expecting something like A Silent Voice from To Your Eternity, though, you’re definitely going to be a little thrown off. I didn’t know what to expect going into this show, but it wasn’t this.

A Silent Voice is certainly sad, but it’s sad in a raw, realistic, relatable way. To Your Eternity is sad in a completely different way, although I’m not sure if I know how to articulate it. It’s like, existentially sad?

Now that this first arc has concluded, I’m starting to come to terms with the fact that the rest of the show will just be Fushi meeting new people and loving them until they die. Which I know is kind of the whole point, but I am a little concerned about growing numb to the same routine of characters dying over and over again. And boy, do these characters die. Not just in a ‘oh, they died, how sad, but it was peaceful and pleasant’ way, these characters die in a Grave of the Fireflies, horrible, rip-your-heart-out way.

But I understand that this is the nature of the show. The first episode was so emotional and well done it could practically stand alone, and I was thoroughly moved by both March and Gugu’s stories. But man, am I sad!

One of the best parts of the show is definitely Fushi as a character. I think his Japanese voice actor is amazing, and the way he is eager to learn and make friends is just so adorable. Also, the past couple episodes that introduced Fushi’s ‘creator’ as a character are establishing a darker main storyline that I’m looking forward to discovering more about.

Overall, I do really like it so far, and I hope the series continues to keep the audience’s attention. A bunch of new characters are going to be introduced in the upcoming episodes, and hopefully they prove to be just as interesting as Fushi’s past companions.

Let me know if you have any further thoughts on this new show. Thanks for reading!

-threecheersforinking

First Impressions: Tower of God

Tower of God/Kami no Tou is an action fantasy anime currently airing this season. I was very interested in this anime due to the intense advertising done by Crunchyroll; obviously an anime being highly advertised doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good show, but it did make me think that this show was expected to be very popular.

So far, I’ve watched the first three episodes of Tower of God. I was impressed by the fact that this was originally a manhwa webtoon; it’s really cool that something that was originally a webtoon received an anime adaptation.

Something about the art style was slightly off-putting to me, and initially I couldn’t figure out why. The designs of many of the different ‘fantasy races’ in this show are actually very unique, and I think the humanoid faces are pretty cute. I also am generally impressed with the animation; the backgrounds are beautifully illustrated and the action, especially during the frequent fight scenes, is done well. But I think my issue is the flat, saturated color palette. There doesn’t appear to be much shading, like, at all, on any of the characters. It’s not horrible to look at, but it does take some getting used to.

I actually really like Bam, the protagonist. One of my favorite anime tropes is the very positive/kind shonen main character (think Deku, or Tanjirou) and Bam fits very neatly into this character trope. It could be argued that he doesn’t have much of an actual personality yet, but it seems like that’s intentional? He’s basically just obsessed with ‘Rachel’ who we know very little about at this point, but again that seems to kind of be the main conflict.

I also like Khun, despite his character design being kind of ridiculous. His personality contrasts very well with Bam’s, and with Rak (crocodile dude) completing their trio, they make a great team. Some of the other characters trying to ‘climb the tower’ seem like they’re supposed to be huge assholes, but we don’t know very much about them yet.

IMO, the worldbuilding in this show is not super great; I know that inundating the audience with information about an entirely new fantasy world is not recommended, but there almost isn’t enough information being given at all to the point where I don’t even kind of know what’s going on. I’m hoping that’ll change soon as more episodes come out, but at this point I’m way more confused than intrigued.

I’ve mentioned that if I lose interest in a show I will stop watching it, but as of right now I don’t see this happening with Tower of God. I wouldn’t say I’m loving it yet, but I’m a sucker for mystery worlds, and as of right now I want to know so much more about this world that I’m willing to suffer through the confusing drip feed of info that’s happening rn. Stay tuned for part 2 of this review once I’ve finished the season!

Thanks for reading,

-threecheersforinking

First Impressions: Sing ‘Yesterday’ for Me

Gonna start a new series called ‘First Impressions’. Usually I only post stuff about a series when I’ve completed it or if I really enjoyed it/recommend it, but I think it might be valuable to keep track of how I feel about a show at the beginning of watching it and after completion.

**contains spoilers(?)/descriptions of the first two episodes**

Sing ‘Yesterday’ for Me, or Yesterday wo Utatte, is a slice of life anime currently airing this season. I’ve only watched the first two episodes but so far, I’m enjoying it. I don’t know anything about the manga and didn’t read any description of it before watching, so as of right now I’m not quite sure what the story is going to be or what the title is referring to. But it’s pretty good!

I was initially drawn to this anime because of the art style, honestly. I really loved the muted tones of the poster and the way the characters are drawn; it had a familiar sort of vibe to it. The only other anime I’ve seen by this studio is Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, but for some reason I don’t think that’s what I’m reminded of.

All of the main characters are pretty mysterious and you know very little about them upon introduction. Three of who I assume to be the protagonists (aka the people on the main poster) were introduced in the first episode, and in the second episode we briefly meet Rou, who I think is supposed to be the fourth. We don’t know much about Rou yet besides the fact that he was childhood friends with Shinako.

The main protagonist Rikuo is a recent college graduate who works at a convenience store. While some other characters (and he himself at times) think that this makes him lazy and an underachiever, Rikuo insists that he just doesn’t know what he wants to do for a career yet and for now he enjoys the flexibility of an hourly job.

I’ve watched a number of anime with a ‘lazy/can’t be bothered’ protagonist that can honestly be pretty insufferable to watch, but Rikuo doesn’t strike me as that type. We don’t know much about his backstory yet, but even without any context, he is clearly not lazy or indifferent. So far, he seems like a pretty cool guy. It is also established early on that he has a crush on Shinako.

This anime has a ‘high schooler who thinks they’re super mature and tries to flirt with 20-something year olds’ character which is not my favorite trope to say the least, but there are hints of something deeper going on with Haru, so I’m holding out hope that maybe she’ll get less irritating. She has the most identifiable character design/carries a crow around with her so I’m assuming she’s pretty popular with the fanbase.

Shinako is probably the most mysterious character thus far; during the whole second episode it was clear that something weird was going on with her that we didn’t know about yet. Towards the end, it is revealed that she still has feelings for a boy she loved in high school, despite him having died nearly 5 years ago. With the addition of this information, I’m starting to grasp the mood/genre of this show.

I’m not the type that needs to finish everything I start; I have better things to do than force myself to watch a show I’m getting bored of/just don’t like, so if I end up losing interest in Yesterday wo Utatte I am probably not going to finish it. However, with the direction it seems this show is going, it is very likely that I’m going to watch it in its entirety. So stay tuned for the follow up post to this one!

Thanks for reading,

-threecheersforinking