Following a long-awaited reunion between Fullmetal Alchemist creator Hiromu Arakawa and animation studio Bones, the Daemons of the Shadow Realm anime is returning for a second season.
No release date has been announced, but the accompanying announcement teaser video gives a glimpse of what’s next for Yuru and Asa. In it, the pair appear in a series of flash cuts featuring other main characters, including Left and Right, Gabby, Dera, and Hana, alongside key figures such as Ivan, who previously confronted Yuru and his allies, and Misasagi, a leading figure in the antagonistic Nishinomura faction.
Based on Arakawa’s latest manga, the anime premiered in April this year, with Masashiro Ando (Sword of the Stranger) at the helm. Golden Kamuy‘s Noboru Takagi served as script supervisor, while Nobuhiro Arai (Bungo Stray Dogs) and Kenichiro Suehiro (Golden Kamuy) contributed character designs and music compositions, respectively. Kensho Ono and Yume Miyamoto lead the Japanese voice cast as Yuru and Asa, joined by Takako Honda and Rikiya Koyama as Left and Right, Misaki Kuno (Gabby), Yuichi Nakamura (Dera), and Miyuri Shimabukuro (Hana).
In a remote mountain village under the watchful eyes of two stone guardians, the young Yuru contentedly lives off the land while staying close to the only family he has left — Asa, his precious twin sister,” reads the official description for Daemons of the Shadow Realm. “Asa, meanwhile, carries out a mysterious ‘duty’ on behalf of the village while locked in a cage. Why is Asa a prisoner? And what other secrets does Yuru’s otherwise idyllic home hide?”
The manga has been serialised in Square Enix’s shonen manga anthology magazine Monthly Shonen Gangan since 2021 and continues to enjoy strong support in Japan and overseas, with over 7.5 million copies in circulation at the time of writing. In addition to the dark fantasy title and Fullmetal Alchemist, Arakawa is also known for the slice-of-life work Silver Spoon and the manga adaptation of The Heroic Legend of Arslan novels.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
