You can’t put total faith in the pedigree of a writer. There are plenty of cases where I love one series by a mangaka, and am indifferent (or even worse) about another. That said, I do find that in general one tends to give that element too little stock. There are a ton of cases, many recent, where my expectations for a series by a big name were modest because aggregated opinion about it was somewhat indifferent – and then blown away. That was only modestly true with Yomi no Tsugai – it was more extreme with Dekin no Mogura and Mao, for example. But still – in English at least this series doesn’t get huge buzz in manga form.
Yeah, Demons of the Shadow Realm is really good. I kind of knew it would be – it was the cover model for the spring preview post and all. But there was that lingering uncertainty. Sure it’s Bones and Andou and that matters. Mostly though, this is Arakawa just being a manga chadette. Everything this show touches (with the sometimes exception of the comedy) turns to gold. I’m a sucker for believable characters behaving in realistic ways in fantastical situations. This is the core of YnT’s mojo I think, the blend of gritty modern realism and Japanese fantasy in seamless fashion.
There are some new names for the folio this week. Asama’s moth daemon is Asagiri. And I should point out they’re played by Murase Ayumu, who – unusually for a big-name seiyuu – is playing multiple (20 and counting) roles in this adaptation. He’s easily more than half the tsugai with speaking roles so far. Then we have Tadera Ken, who’s played by Fujiwara Natsumi – arguably anime’s top gun for boy roles (if that isn’t Murase). Ken looks like being a very important addition. He was Tenaga/Ashinaga’s master, for one. And his name stamps his connection to Dera, though the details take some sorting out.
No, Ken is not Dera’s illegitimate son – though the dates would make sense. In fact he’s Dera’s (Ryuu’s) half-brother. They’re 22 years apart though, 35 and 13. Their father’s name is Rouei, and neither has seen him in a while. He was Dera’s predecessor, and disappeared from his life and left the “family business” to him. He apparently married an Ethiopian woman and had a son. She’s died, leaving Ken alone in the world – which was why he unwisely formed a contract with Long Leg and Long Arm. Ken knows the basics of Tadera activities, obviously, but he’s timid and lacking in self-confidence. He did make the right call, though, trying to trap his daemons in the Lost House (which is itself a daemon, as it turns out).
This is a complicated situation in many ways. First there’s Granny, who is a Kagemori foot soldier, whatever else has happened. In the end Dera and Yuru do let her go – after burying her comrades – though I wouldn’t like to bet on her long-term security given what’s happened. That leaves Ken free to spill what he knows, which is a fair bit. Like the fact that it was Roei who told Yuru’s parents how to escape Higashi Village – but only after his mother blackmailed him. Having betrayed the village (whose principles Ken says he disagreed with anyway) and being an enemy of the Kagemori, Roei effectively became a ronin. So he disappeared – though he has been sending money to Ken’s mother (much to Hana’s delight when she finds out).
So what to do with Ken? Him being Dera’s half-brother and an orphan at 13, Dera has some moral responsibility not to abandon him – though I’d like to think he wouldn’t have anyway. Yuru certainly has no objections to bringing him home – the more hands the better. And all of them now have absent parents to search for. It turns out that Ken does have a sizable financial stockpile to pay for expenses, thanks to their father. But crucially Dera doesn’t know that when he brings him home. And Hana, for all her bluster about not liking kids, strikes me as a classic tsundere. She may have been glad Yuru didn’t bring home any injuries requiring expensive medical care, but she was also just glad he was safe.
Yomi no Tsugai really shines in these quiet moments, when people are just talking to each other and trying to figure stuff out. Little details like Kotetsu playing with Ken’s topknot add charm, and the overall tone always feels very organic. At some point I would hope someone gives Ken the emotional support he needs – I mean, he is now effectively paying the rent if nothing else. But for now it’s awkward and uncomfortable, exactly as it would be. Ken is nevertheless very lucky – his lot could have been a whole lot worse. And even if his new “parents and big brother” are not exactly touchy-feely, at their core all of them are fundamentally decent and empathetic people.
