GosuANIME interviewed the main English dub cast of Daemons of the Shadow Realm, Spring's breakout title from famed Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa.
From the mind of Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa, Daemons of the Shadow Realm (Yomi no Tsugai) has emerged as one of Spring's standout anime, drawing viewers in with its supernatural mystery and compelling cast of characters.
GosuANIME had the opportunity to speak with the series' main English dub cast, Ben Stegmair as Yuru, and Molly Zhang as Asa about their experience bringing the story to life. From their first reactions to the anime's twists and turns to the appeal of its characters, here's what they had to say!
Daemons of the Shadow Realm has a really unique mix of mystery, tension, and emotional moments. What stood out to you most about the series while recording?
Zhang: For me, because I voice Asa as a teen and also her as a child, it was a lot of episodes of trying to figure out where I'm going to place her voice, because you've got the fake Asa in the prison, which we've lovingly dubbed Asa the Imp-Asta, and she's different than child Asa, and then that's also slightly different from grown-up Asa who looks more adult and a lot more serious in episode one, and then she's got this dichotomy of, I love my brother, and finding the levels and balances was immediately something we had to spend a lot of time placing the voice for, so that was the most exciting thing for me. It's not playing one character, it's playing so many of them in one character's body.
Stegmair: The thing that jumped out to me the most, especially that plays with the mystery, is how everybody in this show is their own character, and it doesn't matter what clan or group or faction they belong to, they all have their own diverse goals and dreams and desires, and with that comes a whole bunch of play that you can do as an actor with the character, so that's something that really, really jumped out to me, is how much depth each character has.
I love how Yuru has so much depth to him as a character, so much so that he has these different switches that come on depending on the situation, and that's how you know that a character is really well-written, when they have so many different layers that you can play with.
So going into it, I've been a fan of the series for a very, very long time, and going into it, I knew that there were three Yurus that I wanted to play with. There's the Yuru that is chill and is like, “this is my life and I'm cool with it”, like, “hey, Danji, just got back”, you know? Then there's the Yuru who's experiencing the world, he's so innocent, he's so young for the first time, he loves his sister, he loves his family, he's so curious about the world, and I'm always up here, or he's like, what is going on? You know, that's where I play with that. And then the third Yuru, which is the hunter Yuru, which is the, I want to kill the rat myself Yuru, right? So it's just jumping between those three was, I think, something that is so, so fun. And yeah, I just love him, I think he's great.
Yuru and Asa have such an interesting dynamic throughout the story. What was it like building that chemistry in the dub?
Stegmair: Well, the thing is right now, we've only interacted so many times. And there have only been a few times where we have met. But even in that first scene, where it's the spoilers, fake Asa, impasta Asta, whatever you called her. It was evident from the get go how much these two characters love each other, and how much they will throw at the wall to make sure that they feel safe and loved and protected. And even when the real Asa shows up, you can tell immediately that she is the exact same way with how Yuru, even though Yuru is defiant against that. So yeah, I am so, so excited for what's to come and what anime watchers are going to get to see. Because their relationship is some of the best sibling relationships in all of anime, in my opinion.
Zhang: And kind of piggybacking off of that, these siblings, I don't know how much we can talk about in terms of plot. So spoilers in advance. But these siblings start off, they're separated at birth, so they don't really know each other at all. And I feel like even as actors, I knew of Ben before the show, but we didn't know each other too well. But now we've hung out more in person. We've gone to his house to do a little watch party of Daemons of the Shadow Realm, it's a fun old time. So I feel like even as the siblings get to know each other, I'm getting to know Ben better. So like, if, if, if he ever gets beat up in the show, I'm ready to throw hands if need be. I mean, I would probably still throw hands for you even before the show happened. But now it's like, oh, now we're, we're anime siblings. So I'm like, it's personal.
What do you think viewers will connect with the most when they watch Daemons of the Shadow Realm?
Zhang: I think the scenes where Yuru is in the modern world and he's like, whoa, technology! I don't think it's necessarily the audience will connect to it, but they will find levity and joy in it because it's those are my favorite scenes. They're really funny.
Stegmair: I think just the silliness of it all is so wonderful. And so like kind of real, cause it jumps from absurd to real life and, and so fast that I think that a lot of people will feel like, oh my God, this is kind of exactly how absurd real life is, you know? Also going to how Yuru like reacted to all of that stuff. That's just me, how I reacted to everything when I went to Japan for the first time. So that's just the natural reaction.
Was there a particular scene or moment in the anime that immediately hooked you as a performer?
Zhang: Episode one, I think. I watched it at the Crunchyroll sneak peek with my best friend Joshua Waters. [Asa] shows up and she's immediately like really edgy and murder-y, and immediately very scary off the bat. And then within the same sentence, she smiles [at her brother]. And I was like, oh, what happened between this dichotomy? So immediately I was like, okay, this is a character I booked. This is going to be a fun time.
And it is. Every episode we record, I have goosebumps afterwards. Every time I'm in the booth, I'm just like, oh my gosh, that was such a good scene. And the director is very open and friendly to that.
But the shock value of the first episode is so crazy. And then the rest of the show so far has been trying to flesh out what happened during that, but the first episode never leaves my mind. I think that was such a good starting point.
Stegmair: If I had to choose something, it was a scene that I've been reading just for fun as an actor, just because I thought it was so interesting. It's the scene in episode two, whenever Yuru confronts Gabby and he tells right and left that he's not going to order them. He isn't that kind of guy. He's not going to tell them any of that, but then he says that I have a request and what happens after that was such a fun monologue to deliver. And it was the first moment where we see Yuru as a calm-headed hunter. And I love that moment so much.
What do you think makes Daemons of the Shadow Realm such an interesting series to experience as an anime?
Stegmair: Oh, it's a wonderful series to experience because the creator Hiromu Arakawa, who also created Fullmetal Alchemist, have this wonderful idea of storytelling. And what they're doing for the series is they're taking the wonderful things that they did in the early 2000s and the other wonderful things that anime are doing right now in the modern era. And she's taken it and just mashing it together to create this wonderful new adventure and story.
And so for those of you who like old anime, for those of you who like new anime, it doesn't matter. Come one, come all, you'll all love it. I think that it's a really, really unique and wonderful experience that I think people should hop on and it's not just going for 12 episodes, it's going for 24. We're we're going to be living in this wonderful world until October. It's going to be awesome.
Zhang: I think the power system for this world is very fascinating. Everything about the show is about duality. So anytime there's a new daemon pair, I'm always fascinated by either the design, like, whoa, for example, the horse and ox daemon when they showed up, I was like, oh, oh no, I don't like that. And then there's one of my favorites is the raccoon daemon. There's just a lot of interesting daemons and they'll have such fun abilities and then there's left and right. And then there's such a beautiful, wonderful, colourful cast of characters.
I feel like Hiroma Arakawa has given them the craziest powers. So the plot can go anywhere because these daemons have infinite possibilities. I think that just opens up the storytelling for the world.
What is Daemons of the Shadow Realm about?
Daemons of the Shadow Realm is produced by bones film, with bones acting as production supervisor. Masahiro Ando is helming as director, with Noboru Takagi handling series composition. Nobuhiro Arai is doing the character designs, while Kenichiro Suehiro is composing the music. Crunchyroll is streaming the series as it airs.
Arakawa, who’s known for Fullmetal Alchemist, began serialisation for “Daemons of the Shadow Realm” in December 2021, through Square Enix’s Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine. Square Enix also publishes the manga in English, and describes the story as:
In a world where certain humans command mighty supernatural duos called Daemons, it is the birthright of "the children who sunder day and night"—twins Yuru and Asa—to rule over these powerful entities.
Separated from a young age and unaware of the truth of their birth, brother and sister must fight to make their way back to each other, claim their birthright, and save the world…