Daemons of the Shadow Realm

Episode 4

While seemingly stoic (or baffled) for much of the previous two fish-out-of-water episodes, this episode does a great job of showing Yuru's true mental state. Basically, Yuru has put his mind toward his minor goal—i.e., acclimating to the modern world—and major goal—i.e., finding Asa and forcing her to take him to their parents for an explanation as to what the hell is going on. This mindset makes sense; he is a hunter by trade. He has a target, and he has the single-minded focus to catch it.

However, the flip side of this is that Yuru hasn't even begun to process his thoughts or feelings. He's not even trying to figure out the true nature of the conflict—despite the information readily apparent to him. Both sides of this mystical family civil war want him, as having both of the children of day and night would tilt the balance in power. Even though he doesn't seem to realize it, he holds the ultimate hostage in his possession: himself.

This is why the battle in this episode with Jin and his minions goes so badly for Jin's side. They want to capture Yuru unharmed at all costs. Thus, their attempt to use him as a hostage against his Daemons is pure bluster. And when Right and Left flat-out ignore the hostage situation (and even look at it as if Yuru is distracting the biggest threat by being captured), Jin and his men are not only thrown off their game but are also massively handicapped. They can't hurt Yuru, but he has no qualms about hurting them.

But while Yuru lucks into exploiting his enemy's goals, the fact that he has yet to sort out his own emotions comes back to bite him in the ass in critical moments. Simply put, underneath his seemingly calm veneer and hunter's focus are a ton of roiling emotions constantly on the edge of bursting out.

Upon seeing the fake Asa, he immediately moves to kill her. This is, of course, against his stated goals. He needs Asa alive to meet his parents. However, in the moment, he is overwhelmed by hatred and hurt for the person who massacred his village and killed his sister. Of course, if he had dealt with his feelings even a little bit, he would have started to come to terms with the fact that the village is likely not at all what it seems, and his “dead sister” wasn't ever his sister—rather, it was just a leash put on him to keep him in the village.

Likewise, when Yuru has Jin at knifepoint—has a hostage that might make meeting with Asa possible—he almost kills the man for being the one responsible for the attack on the village. Again, since Yuru hasn't worked through any of what's happened, he's defaulted emotionally to how things used to be before everything went down—i.e., that the villagers are his friends and family and that it's his job to fight for (and get revenge for) them—even as that assumption is questionable at best.

All in all, this episode does a decent job of exploring Yuru's current mental state, not only does it show how him avoiding thinking about everything that is going on has negatively effected him, we also get to learn about how he acts on an instinctual level—i.e., that he's all about fight rather than flight and is always conscious of the tactical advantages of his surroundings.

Rating:

Random Thoughts:

• Maybe Asa's aim is bad, not because she has poor control of her powers, but rather because she has no depth perception!

• I wonder if Left and Right know that Yuru's in no real danger, hence they're so cavalier about the supposed hostage situation.

• Every scene we get with Asa post-leaving the village shows her to be kind, caring, and deeply attached to her brother—but it's important to remember that Yuru has only ever seen her vengeful side.

• I enjoyed that Yuru was smart enough to talk in code—and that Right was smart enough to pick up on the meaning instantly.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.