Manga / Daemons of the Shadow Realm

Daemons of the Shadow Realm (Yomi no Tsugai, literally "Hinge of the Underworld") is a manga written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa, which began serialization in Monthly Shonen Gangan in 2021.

Yuru enjoys a peaceful life as a hunter in a mountain village. Several members of his family have left to go live and work in the place the villagers refer to the lowlands, but he has no interest in doing so. He became skilled with a bow and arrow so he would be useful to the village and never have to leave, so he can visit his sister, Asa, every day. No one will tell him why, but his sister has to live in a prison in the village's central building and can never leave.

His peaceful daily life is shattered when the village is attacked by people wielding both modern weapons and supernatural powers. One of the attackers is a woman with an eye patch who claims to be the real Asa, who says she'll kill everyone in the village besides Yuru. He's forced to flee and runs into one of the adults of the village, Dera, who forces him to bleed on a necklace. This causes two statues to come to life, releasing two horned people whom Dera refers to as Yuru's Tsugai.

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Daemons of the Shadow Realm provides examples of:

• Ambiguously Evil: Asa's group, the Kagemoris. While they were introduced by attacking Yuru's village and slaughtering the people there, later chapters drive them hard into this territory. It's unclear how evil they're actually supposed to be. In all of their interactions, they're kind and courteous with each other, take jobs that often involve saving people's lives (such as killing a Serial Killer), and generally don't do anything particularly villainous. Asa is staying with them seemingly of her own free will, and they were actually providing Asa and Yuru's parents with protection until they mysteriously went missing during a flight to Okinawa.
• Annoying Arrows: Averted, Gab really isn't able to do much after Yuru shoots her in the leg with an arrow and spends the remainder of the chapter just trying to not die with Gabriel's help. She is later shown bandaged and clearly having to take plenty of time to fully recover from it as she should.
• Arrow Catch: Downplayed - Akio catches a long, broken-off tooth from Ai that Yuru threw at his head. His fellow henchman behind him Haruo is suitably overwhelmed at the sight of this feat.
• Asian Fox Spirit: The Tsugai named Akai is based on kitsune traits, normally appearing as a small fox but is also able to transform into a beautiful woman.
• Author Appeal: Hiromu Arakawa's "Men should be buff! Women should be vavoom!" adage is clearly echoed in the designs of Left and Right - the former's standard look is that of a shapely-yet-strong woman while the latter usually appears as a man dense with bulging and defined muscles.
• Automatic Crossbow: Higasa villagers attempt to defend themselves with these against Ivan, to no avail.
• Bag of Holding: Jin uses Ai and Makoto for this purpose, having Ai swallow up potentially useful objects so Makoto can spit them out later...or using two for the easiest and quickest Cleanup Crew ever.
• Bait-and-Switch: With the cast still trying to find out who attacked the Kagemori mansion and there may be some traitor around who facilitated it, Kagemori Hikaru is seen in a dark room speaking darkly to an unknown "Nakagami" (complete with Scary Shiny Glasses)...it turns out Nakagami is just his editor and Hikaru was just talking to her about having only barely just managed to reach a deadline while helped by Gab and Asa.
• Batman Gambit: Jin ends up catching Yuru in a trap by taking a vial of Asa's blood with him and having his Tsugai Ai provide an illusion of her since he knew Yuru's Tsugai can smell out Asa's blood.
• Beat Panel: Dera insists he doesn't know the first thing about Ken, but takes a moment to pause and look away, then repeats himself. Ken elaborates about himself and it turns out he actually is a son by Dera's father Rouei rather than Dera.
• Beware the Skull Base: The tsugai who granted Asa her power seemed to reside on a giant human (well, aside from the size) skull with a large tree growing on top of it and very many books piled by and under its roots.
• Big "NO!": Gab lets one of these out in Chapter 1 when Left and Right destroy her accompanying helicopters...possibly just because she really didn't want to walk back down the mountain.
• Bland-Name Product: Gab can be seen using what's basically a Nintendo Switch (aside from how its logo is slightly changed from the actual one) in Chapter 4.
• Blatant Lies: In Chapter 3, Yuru is wary of entering into a car, and Dera's short explanation clearly isn't helping him and his Tsugai understand...so Hana just turns the car on, slaps the door, and claims there's a horse inside it. Yuru, Left, and Right completely swallow it, even despite Right's later questioning that they must have to "feed the horse inside" (which Hana answers that they'll do it with oil later) and wondering how they could fit a horse into the car.
• Blessed with Suck: The powers that Yuru and Asa are prophesized to have makes people very interested in manipulating them. The Tsugai which granted Asa her power implied so as much itself, warning her that returning to life with it may cause her witness hell as she lives and prefer having died instead.
• Blood Magic: Dera summons Yuru's Tsugai having him shove a talisman in a designated hole nearby their statues, and then slamming his nose into the talisman so it bleeds onto it.
• Casts No Shadow: To those who even can see them, Tsugai's otherworldliness is notified by how they do not cast a shadow. Yuru has noticed this by chapter 18 to realize that his friend Danji is actually a Tsugai. Danji actually is capable of creating a shadow, but as he was overcome with relief due to worriedly seeking Yuru prior to their current meeting, he forgot to in this instance].
• Celeb Crush: Judging by Hana's blurting out she wants to marry "Jason *Ratham" while she's still outraged at the suggestion of pretending to marry Dera, she probably has a thing for Jason Statham. She furthers this by expressing her dislike for Dera shaving because his stubble was his only similarity to Jason Statham.
• The Chosen One: Subverted with Yuru and Asa whose birth was prophesized to "fracture the world". However, Right says they aren't actually cursed and destined to bring chaos per se - they will just have powers that other people will covet and start fighting over.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: Haruo interrogates one of the captured assassins by having his tortoise apply his powers of weight over the man's legs as he is made to sit on his knees. Haruo remarks that the man at least didn't have a jagged base underneath his legs as it's implied Haruo would usually do. The man later starts yelling that his bones are breaking. The torture succeeds in getting the man to tell them who the assassins' leader was, but none of the captured assassins claim to know anything else useful.
• Cool Sword: Ivan's swords are Tsugai, which makes them entirely invisible to most. These swords are also capable of cutting through multiple men at once without much motion and capable of swapping a space with another space after cutting them. It can even somehow cut this space into a person and not harm them, or cut through shockwaves. However, one of them (Shokyo) is very testy toward pretty much anything.
• The Comically Serious: While Makoto describes that her Tsugai Midori (a Tanuki) is capable of widening its scrotum like a net to then envelop a target to kidnap them; Asa, Gab and Gabriel stand still listening to her with a very severe expression (Gab's pupils are even contracted to express his horror). Asa and Gab's foreheads and eyes darken in the next panel to further the effect before they break down and more outwardly express their dread at the concept of being captured between a tanuki's scrotum in the next panel.
• Determined Doctor: Completely Averted by the Kagemoris' personal doctor Sakurazawa. She asks everyone in earshot to make sure the masters of the Tsugai are killed when the Kagemori mansion is attacked in Chapter 7 so she won't have to render treatment on them.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: Jin has his Tsugai Makoto produce a knife out of his mouth for Asa to use to slice an apple. Gab responds that she's not eating an apple sliced by a knife that came from God knows where. Jin doesn't help his case by replying "Don't worry. I don't think this knife has been used to stab people."
• The Dividual: This is mark of the Tsugai; they always come in pairs, with each one having a special power that complements the other. Most of them even refer to themselves as a single entity when talking to humans or other Tsugai.
• Duality Motif: All over the place, from the main characters being twins based around day and night, to the Tsugai always coming in pairs.
• Establishing Character Moment: Jin's proper introduction has him use his Tsugai to murder a Serial Killer. After that, he calls the woman that the killer was stalking and informs her that the killer is dead and that she's safe. Then, when he gets out of the elevator and runs into a woman who can very clearly see his Tsugai, rather than kill her, he merely tells her to keep what she saw a secret and leaves her alone. All of this establishes that Jin, as well as the rest of his and Asa's group, aren't really bad people, or are at the very least, not straight-up villains.
• Evil-Detecting Dog: While people aren't usually able to see Tsugai, Left says there are people with good instincts that can do so...while a dog being held in the arms of a woman behind Left starts barking incessantly in Left's direction.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: While Asa and her allies are willing to slaughter all the adults in the village, it's clear that they care deeply for one another and do nothing to harm people not involved in the conflict.
• Expy: Arakawa seems to have reused some character designs.
  • Gab is basically a female version of Edward Elric. While she is petite, she doesn't seem to go nuts when someone points it out, however. According to an omake from Arakawa◊, Gab wasn't necessarily intended to be colored like Edward Elric at all...but staff assumed she would be, so Arakawa went with that.
  • The main character, Yuru, looks like a male version of Riza Hawkeye. They even have the same hair and eye color.
  • Jin looks like a bespectacled Roy Mustang with a sparse beard.
  • Ivan Yosano, first seen in Chapter 8, bears a striking resemblance to Solf J. Kimblee.
• Extra Eyes: Gab's Tsugai Gabriel is first seen as a set of floating teeth with blackness radiating from the teeth behind it in a flame-like shape and numerous eyes of different sizes looking out from above and below the teeth. He also has a smaller form which instead only has two sets of three eyes above and below his teeth.
• Faint in Shock: When Right makes himself appear to the children he's saving in Chapter 2, they've all apparently fainted in horror at his sudden sight.
• Fake Relationship: Dera tells Hana to pretend she's married to him so they can seem as normal as possible and avoid being gossiped about while they hide out with Yuru. She accepts it very begrudgingly (the idea first causes her to respond to it by being filled with Cross-Popping Veins and putting on a set of brass knuckles as their "wedding ring").
• First-Episode Twist: The fact that the woman Yuru believes was Asa seems to be a fake is revealed in the first chapter.
• Fish out of Water: Due to Yuru living in a remote mountain village that seemed to be of medieval-era technology and his Tsugai also only having last awoken four hundred years ago, they are all quickly surprised by modern technology and food.
• Funny Background Event: After Ken's introduced to Hana in chapter 15 and the situation with him is getting sorted out, Hana's cat Tsugai quickly starts batting at Ken's topknot in subsequent pages and later just decides to sit on his head.
• Fun Size: A number of Tsugai seem to be capable of changing into a much smaller (and probably cuter shape). Gabriel provided the first example, going from a set of human-like teeth wider than a few adult men to smaller than a person's head.
• Genre Savvy: When they encounter a pair of Tsugai who are intent on devouring one of the fated twins but are unsure who present it is, Tadera orders Migi and Hidari to defeat them. They briefly hesitate, since he's not their master, but quickly catch on and play along.
• Grin of Audacity: Gab flashes one in Chapter 6 after two Tsugai open the door to her room. Even more impressive than usual since Gabriel had just woken her up and Gab was insisting on keeping asleep.
• Harmful to Minors: A bandit attempted to kill Yuru a decade ago. He only barely avoids being harmed by managing to stab the bandit with a knife first and an arrow from his father finishing the bandit off.
• Hidden Depths: You probably didn't expect a disembodied black flame with two sets of three eyes above and below a mouth of flat teeth to be a decent artist in the ukiyo-e style, but nonetheless Chapter 4 shows that Gabriel is. Indeed, as his depiction of Right adequately portrays the proportions of the muscles in his arm, Gabriel could even be considered a better artist than many surviving historical examples of the art style.
• High-Pressure Blood: We don't see exactly what happened when Asa first used her power in chapter nine, but it ends with two corpses of the assassins that just killed her lying on the ground with blood heavily splattered away from Asa. The male one had his blood splatter from him at a distance that was over twice his height.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: So far, the chapters that have been released have, without exception, followed a naming convention of "X and Y." - such as the first chapter being "Asa and Yuru," the second "Left and Right," and the third "Dera and Hana."
• Improbable Fencing Powers: Ivan, who is capable of not only of Parrying Bullets but deflecting them toward another target entirely.
• I Resemble That Remark!: Chapter 25 reveals that Asa repeating "I want to see Yuru." while supposed to be helping Hikaru was actually her acting to provide a pattern to help fool their enemies after Ai traded places with her. Asa regards Ai's own acting of her as hamming it up, but Fuyuki found that seemed pretty much just normal for Asa. Asa then manages to hear Yuru's voice (making Fuyuki think that she's hearing things), breaks off a window in a building to call to Yuru and wave at him, requests that he tell her she's awesome and hug her tight after stating that she saved the hostages, and downright almost Squees after Yuru answers her "I'll see you later, okay?" with a "Yup".
• I Shall Taunt You: Ivan tries to goad Yuru into wasting his supply of arrows by claiming that he killed Yuru's parents. Yuru barely doesn't fall for it because remembering Asa's assertion that their parents are alive, but Ivan still escapes from the fight no worse for wear after his ploy failed even while Yuru, Left, Right and Dera (who has a Sniper Rifle trained on him).
• I Want Them Alive!: Asa and her cohorts seem to be intent on capturing Yuru alive. Yuru also wants to find Asa and force her to show him to their parents.
• Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: Averted. In Chapter 3, there's a moment where it appears as though a woman is going to be killed for seeing Jin's Tsugai, but he merely tells her to keep what she saw a secret and leaves her alone.
• Killer Rabbit: There's a turtle and rabbit Tsugai who mostly just look like normal animals aside from a few things (the turtle has two symmetrical symbols on two of the scutes above his head, and the rabbit is wearing a vest and necklace suitable for a medieval Buddhist monk.) They are introduced with the former floating about Left which is apparently heavy enough to completely immobilize her (and he even has a panel of him idyllically smiling as he does it), and the latter quickly zips around Right performing martial art moves on him (which suitably causes Yuru to yell out "WHAT'S HAPPENING" in abject confusion at the sight of it).
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Chapter 8 has Ivan (unnamed in the chapter itself) wearing two swords like a samurai figure that there's not much point trying to attack the Kagemori mansion anymore since everyone has been caught already...though it later turns out such a task might seem a fair bit less impossible for him than what one would initially expect.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Jin's introduction is him using his anglerfish Tsugai to take down a serial killer.
• Loophole Abuse: The unnamed Tsugai with a pug lets the pug go over to Yuru after he asks to be alone for a time because "Dogs aren't people. They don't count." Said pug ends up quickly bringing Yuru out of his hurt by being such a cute and warming presence that he remembers Danji pledging to always be there with him after his parents suddenly left.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Shokyo unilaterally stabs himself into Ivan's leg to prevent the false Asa's tendril from grasping his leg. Ivan's reaction to this is humorously downplayed, merely closing his eyes and flattening his mouth like he's eaten something sour while sporting Cross-Popping Veins and expressing "Ow..."
• Mood Whiplash:
  • While Gab is declaring she won't attack kids, she's brightly smiling with her eyes closed...at a young girl who's crying her eyes out from the sight of her mother having been torn apart seemingly out of thin air. Then Gab has Gabriel finish off a man who's gasping in agony from his arms having been rendered into bloody stumps at the forearms by bisecting him at the waist.
  • Chapter 8 is replete with this. A man with two Tsugai has all of their eyes bulge out comically...at an armed grenade that was tossed at them, with the next panel shows the huge explosion that occurs at their hiding place. Haruo's rabbit Tsugai sarcastically remarking that he's so kind since he's torturing a male assassin by only having his tortoise Tsugai steadily apply weight on his legs without placing a jagged base underneath the man. Akio putting a hand to his mouth and saying sorry with Overly-Nervous Flop Sweat after realized that the man whose skull he smashed open with a long crowbar (unnecessarily, as Akio ambushed him from behind and the man was fleeing) was the leader of the assassins. A female assassin terrified for her life insisting that she's named her Tsugai after seeing Gab threaten to behead a man with Gabriel's teeth for treating Tsugai like livestock.
• Mundane Utility: Jins Tsugai are Makoto and Ai, Ai can swallow anything and Makoto can regurgitate whatever Ai swallows. Jin uses Ai to quickly clean up messes and has taken to storing just about every mundane object you can think of inside them in case he ever needs it.
• Muggle Best Friend: Yuru's friend Danji has no knowledge of the outside world and no superpowers to speak of.
• Nothing but Skulls: Asa appeared before the Tsugai who granted her the power of Kai while standing on a winding bridge made up of Nothing but Skulls passing by its abode. Said abode is also a giant humanlike skull with a big tree growing on it.
• Ocular Gushers: Danji is, uh, very thankful when the unnamed Tsugai of the pug offers to help him find what he's looking for, the fake Asa that is his other half.
• Parental Abandonment: First, Yuru's parents left the village he lives in. Then he finds out that they actually took his real sister with them. Then that real sister tells him that unfortunately, they and the guard who was watching over them had disappeared completely as they were taking a plane to Okinawa.
• Phrase Catcher: Yuru and Asa's medieval-era mindsets and values tend to cause modern individuals to think of them as "savages".
• Possession Implies Mastery: Averted in Chapter 7 - Yuru asks if Makoto has any bows and arrows, he spits a bunch out that thoroughly confuses Yuru at the sight of them since Yuru is used to using hunting bows from a medieval-era time period. He spends the rest of the chapter absolutely missing anything he aims at with the bow he took from Makoto while knowing he definitely will need adjustments to make the thing usable for himself...though he makes up for lost time in chapter 8.
• Precious Puppy: An unnamed pug happened to become the master of two Tsugai. Understandably, the two Tsugai quite love and adore it. It also happens to be the only animal snuggling up to Yuru, compared to the many other (Tsugai) animals that were generally quite disrespectful to him in previous chapters, after he's upset with realizing the extent that Higasi village has deceived him. This ends up bringing Yuru out of his funk by remembering Danji pledging to always be with him.
• Running Gag: The multitude of ways Asa's Big Brother Worship manifests throughout the manga, like painting Yuru with Bishie Sparkles or showing him how a camera works secretly for the purpose of taking a picture of him.
• Shout-Out: Shots of the television in chapter 19 are of Fullmetal Alchemist - first, silhouettes of Edward and Alphonse, second, Alexander looking goofy, and finally but most obviously, an undetailed shot of the infamous Shou Tucker outright stating "I hate perceptive brats like you." with his pose to match.
• Tanuki: The Tsugai Midori is one. Befitting mythological tanuki's most infamous trait, it is capable of widening its scrotum to such a degree that said scrotum can be used as a net.
• Tanuki/Kitsune Contrast: Averted with Tachibana Makoto's Tsugai, which are a tanuki and fox with powers based after their common mythological counterparts...but they aren't really rivals or anything like that. They get along with each other fine and just happen to be a duo under Makoto's command.
• Terrible Artist: When Jin says he doesn't know what Asa's brother looks like, Gab, Gabriel, and Asa try to do portraits of Yuru to give Jin something to work with. Gab's portrait is awful with Yuru's eyes and mouth being blank circles and ovals that are useless for actually portraying his face's traits and only her attempt at his hair looks anything like how Yuru does in the entire drawing. Zig-Zagged with Gabriel's portrait of Yuru which is actually a fairly-impressive work of art in the ukiyo-e style - but (though it does show his clothes right) due to using that style, still doesn't portray Yuru's face very effectively aside from his hair. Zig-Zagged again with Asa's portrait, which is more simply drawn than Gabriel's but actually resembles Yuru the most out of the three portraits...except for the Bishie Sparkles.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Downplayed in Chapter 2 - Yuru tells his Tsugai to protect the villagers still alive and not to interfere with him killing Gab who attacked the village, which ends up meaning he's perfectly fine with Left messing with her Tsugai's attempts to save her from Yuru's wrath, he just wanted to kill Gab personally.
• To Serve Man: The Long Arms and Long Legs Tsugai eat people. Technically, they admitted to eating children after complaining that the claims that they destroy fields and causes floods are nothing but lies, but within the same chapter clearly indicate that they'll eat other people as well, just children are their preference in food.
• Voluntary Shapeshifter: Tsugai frequently are capable of changing between at least two forms. Left and Right are first seen as bright white creatures that can fly with a large demonic-like face and two arms before they go into their usual far-more-humanoid forms. Gabriel is first seen far bigger but can also make himself smaller than a person's head. Ai's lure, however, is capable of perfectly resembling actual human beings - unsurprising given its Luring in Prey schtick.
• Sweet Tooth: Hamura Keiichi is considering naming the Tsugai he had after two Japanese sweets ohagi and daifuku. Asa and Gab find a fellow like him going with that is hilarious. Jin goes so far as to declare those names as being unfitting to his appearance and personality, though Gab fires back that Jin named his Tsugai Love and Truth.
• What Measure Is A Nonhuman: The Kagemori cast reacts quite severely to a man who doesn't name his Tsugai, thinking of them as akin to livestock. Gab in particular gets Gabriel to put his teeth around the man's head and apply enough pressure to cause some bleeding to the top of his head before Asa gets her to stop.
• Would Hurt a Child: Chapter 8 has Yuru make a recollection of barely surviving against a man who he thought was a bandit trying to kill him back when his parents were still with him. Due to his father's words that people with murderous intent will be constantly thrown at him while he's alive, this is certainly implying that Higashimura has been sending assassins toward either him or his sister since they were even younger.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Gab does not hesitate to kill the adults present, but spares the kids.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Yuru is forced to leave his village after the attack because he is Asa and her allies' primary target. And as Dera points out in Chapter 3, he'd also better move (and shave) too since their opponents know his name and face.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Gab's thoughts while Left is managing to hold open her Tsugai's mouth with her hands despite both of their efforts.

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