In Arakawa – and Bones, and Andou – we trust. There was a lot of chatter that Yomi no Tsugai – while good – wasn’t on a level with Arakawa Hiromu’s best work. Well, so far I don’t see it. This is a really interesting story with a shit-ton of moral ambiguity. And it’s loaded with characters who think for themselves and don’t fit neatly into genre boxes. I can’t say how things will develop from here, but if the commenters who say the manga only gets better are right, this series is going to be right there with the likes of FMA and Gin no Saji before it’s done.

There’s a definite discordant element at play here. What we saw in the first episode – the savage brutality of the massacre of Higashi Village – doesn’t match up with what we’ve seen since. All the people who did that are being treated like nice, regular folks. And this is most glaring with Gabu. Even her daemon (Gabriel) is played for kawaii points. But I think this is a feature, not a bug. Arakawa seems to be doing this to mess with our heads – to give us a sense of creeping wrongness about this whole premise. And equally as important, to make us wonder who the good and bad guys are. The tone doesn’t match the situation, and I think that’s very much on purpose.

In fact, the overall trend with the daemons is cuteness. Even Right and Left are cute in their own way. That certainly applies to Hana’s “Zenko-Koro” daemons, Kotetsu (the cat) and Jiro (the dog). Animal daemons are new, but we see a lot of them this week. Hana (serious nee-san vibes) and Dera seem not to be aware of the extent to which Yuru is thinking for himself. If they were I can’t imagine they’d be giving him as much freedom as they are. Dera casually leaves his machete by the door and the lad takes it with him when he goes for a “walk” – though in fact he’s the roof plotting next moves with Hidari and Migi.

Yuru trusts no one – apart from Migi and Hidari – and I think in his position that’s exactly right. He’s planning to find Asa Asa(p). Meanwhile the other side isn’t sitting on their hands. Gabby is recovering at a mansion, where she’s visited by Kagemori Genzou (Iwasaki Hiroshi). The others call him “Master” and it’s safe to assume he’s the family head, though he seems to be dressed as a priest. He orders Asa and Gabu to stay put and declares that Jin will be the one to track down Yuru. He doesn’t even know what Yuru looks like, but the eyewitnesses helpfully provide sketches – and it’s Gabriel who has the gift with his ukiyo-e style.

What follows is an inevitable confrontation, and what strikes me most about it is that both sides seem to be underestimating the other. It’s child’s play for Right and Left to track down Asa – they just need to sniff out a gaggle of daemons and blood that smells like Yuru’s. Jin is no fool, and he’s well-prepared. He travels with a vial of Asa’s blood to lure his enemies, and it does exactly that. Both sides were looking for each other so in the end, this is not exactly a disaster for either. Yuru is taken hostage by Ai (the big anglerfish tsugai) but we never get the sense that Migi and Hidari are going to be outmuscled when push comes to shove.

We meet a bunch of new tsugai here, including an adorable rapid bunny (or hare) and a tortoise whose ability seems to be extreme heaviness (the tortoise and the hare, get it?). Makoto (Jin’s small tsugai) coughs up a veritable armory but none of those human weapons bother Yuru’s daemons at all. Hare and Tortoise do, however. Yuru acts quickly the level the playing field, though – again proving that while he is a hothead as befits a 16 year-old boy, he’s also cool under pressure and thinks like a hunter. If Hidari and Migi are free to move about, in the end they’re going to come out on top – that seems clear based on what we’ve seen so far.

As always with Daemons of the Shadow Realm, there’s a lot to unpack here. Does the Kagemoris’ astonishment at the way Yuru interacts with his tsugai reflect a fundamental difference between the two sides, or that Yuru’s situation is unique? This suggests the real elephant in the room here – we still don’t really know what this conflict is all about. What drives these people to behave like sociopaths who don’t respect human life whatsoever, then go about their daily lives as normal? It all works because it’s perfectly fine that we don’t know yet – the process of finding out is both entertaining and fascinating.