Anime
Episode 10 – Daemons of the Shadow Realm
© Hiromu Arakawa/SQUARE ENIX, Project TSUGAI
This episode is one big fight scene. Our heroes battle Tenga and Ashinaga—two Daemons that fought Left and Right to a standstill in the past and were eventually defeated by being sealed in a mountain. If you stop and think about it, this raises the question of who freed them in the present (i.e., someone who is almost certainly part of one of the Higashi Village factions as they seem to know about the Lost House) and implies that there may be other counters to Seal and Break out there (as it seems unlikely that Asa would knowingly do so and Left and Right have been waiting on their own mountain). Of course, none of this is explored even slightly as the immediate threat overshadows everything else.
Objectively, the fight has all the parts it needs to be exciting. We have a credible threat with Tenga and Ashinaga. Not only are they on par with Left and Right, but their master is also hidden somewhere while Yuru is right there in the open—an easy target. It’s got twists and turns galore, and our heroes only win because they can outthink their opponents as well as outfight them. There’s just one big problem: how things play out is insanely contrived.
The reason for this is centered around Dera. In this episode, he uses a high-powered sniper rifle to take out Ashinaga. More than that, he has 100% accuracy—he hits every shot he takes. He not only shoots a hole through Tenga’s leg but also shoots out both of Ashinaga’s eyes before decapitating him with a shot through the neck.
This begs the question, if Dera can blow off Tenga and Ashinaga’s heads with a single shot, why didn’t he? Why blind Ashinaga and hobble Tenga first? If blinding Ashinaga was somehow necessary, why not shoot the neck right after? Why switch targets to Tenga? And if switching to Tenga was important, why not shoot her in the neck? Why shoot her in the leg?
If Dera had fought as he should have, given his character, the battle would be over the moment he took that first sniper shot. Ashinaga would have lost his head, and Tenga would have faced a two-on-one beatdown even if Dera hadn’t taken a second decapitating shot moments later. The truth is that there is no readily available in-world explanation for his seemingly illogical choices.
Thus, we have only the obvious real-world explanation to fall back on: if Dera had acted as he logically would have given his skill and experience, the fight would have been less exciting. It would have been a major anticlimax, and we wouldn’t have been able to see Yuru’s quick-thinking fake-out to make Tenga and Ashinaga think that he already had the Seal power.
I’m not going to sugarcoat things: I absolutely hate when writers do this—when they have their characters act uncharacteristically stupid or unskilled solely because the plot demands it. Good writing is having your characters act in-character while still furthering the plot in the most emotionally engaging direction.
And in the case of this episode, it’s not like things can’t be fixed with just a few minor tweaks. All it would take is having Right, Left, Yuru, Dera, or the old lady with the knife blinding Ashinaga and injuring Tenga’s leg in some way other than the sniper rifle. Then, as the combined Tenga-shinaga chases Yuru, have it break the window into the armory—allowing Dera to get the sniper rifle and eventually take the kill shot. Just by having Dera get the rifle later, it’s all fixed. The contrived writing is gone, and we are left with a fun, tense battle. But, unfortunately, that’s not what we got, and I, for one, was left annoyed and disappointed.
Rating:
Daemons of the Shadow Realm is currently streaming on
Crunchyroll.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of Anime News Network, its employees, owners, or sponsors.
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The official website for the anime of Mai Matsuda‘s Walking Home with You (Hōkago Kitaku Biyori) manga opened on Wednesday and confirmed the anime’s television format. The website also unveiled the anime’s teaser visual and April 2027 premiere on the NTV channel.
©松田舞／双葉社・ハイパー帰宅部
The tagline on the visual above reads, “The requirement for joining the club is walking home with me.”
Matsuda also drew a commemorative illustration:
©松田舞／双葉社
Digital manga publisher Omoi licensed the manga and describes the story:
Shun was the star of his middle school’s soccer team, until an injury forced him to give up on his dream. Now in high school, he’s adrift, with no real interests or passions … until he meets his oddball upperclassman Naoki. She ropes him into joining her unofficial “Hyper-Epic Heading Home Club,” a club with only one member dedicated to turning every walk home into an adventure. As Shun follows Naoki through her flights of fancy in search of elaborate detours, secret treasures, and anything else that catches her attention, can the Heading Home Club bring color back to his drab everyday life?
The manga’s anime adaptation was first announced in March 2025.
Matsuda launched the manga in Futabasha‘s Manga Action magazine in August 2023. Futabasha will publish the seventh volume on Thursday.
Matsuda launched the Hikaru in the Light! manga in Manga Action in May 2021, and ended it in August 2022. Futabasha published four compiled book volumes for the manga. Omoi (then Azuki) licensed the manga, and released all four volumes in English.
Sources: Walking Home with You anime’s website and X/Twitter account, Comic Natalie
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Smartphone/PC game launched in 2022
The official website for the Code Geass: Lost Stories social game announced on Wednesday that the game will end service on December 7. Sales of the in-game Sakuradite currency, Lost Stories Pass, and Starter Pack has also ended on Wednesday.
The game launched for smartphones as well as on PC via the DMM Game Player in May 2022. The game is free to play, with optional in-game purchases available. Rock band FLOW performed the game’s original theme song “Pendulum.”
The game’s English version launched for iOS and Android in September 2023 and ended service in August 2024.
The action role-playing game had been originally slated to launch in winter 2018 as a PC browser game, but was then listed with no release window. DMM Games then announced in November 2021 that it was restarting the game’s development process with f4samurai as the developers.
Game developer JORO launched the separate Code Geass Knightmare Survivor game for iOS and Android on September 15. The “survivor action” game is free to play, with optional in-game purchases.
The Code Geass franchise is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and onward with several projects, including a new anime titled Code Geass Hoshi Oi no Aspal (Code Geass: Aspal the Star Chaser), a new musical stage play, and an exhibition.
Source: Code Geass: Lost Stories game’s website and X/Twitter account via Yaraon!
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Manga to enter final stage with 15th volume out on December 8
© Hiromasa Okujima
Retailers are listing the story of Hiromasa Okujima‘s Baban Baban Ban Vampire manga as entering its “final stage” in its 15th compiled book volume, which will ship on December 8.
Dark Horse Comics licensed the manga, and will release the first volume in English on November 10. Dark Horse describes the manga:
An unassuming worker in a long-established public bathhouse is really the lustful 450-year-old vampire Ranmaru Mori! The heir to this esteemed Koi No Yu Bathhouse, Rihito Tatsuno, is a fifteen-year-old virgin—who is about to fall in love for the first time with a girl in his class! Ranmaru begins to weave a desperate plan to prevent Rihito from losing his virginity and to make him fall for Ranmaru instead, so the bloodsucker can eventually have pure, eighteen-year-old virgin blood for his own vampiric self!
Okujima launched the manga in Akita Shoten‘s Bessatsu Shōnen Champion magazine in October 2021. Akita Shoten published the manga’s 14th volume on August 6.
The Baban Baban Ban Vampire anime adaptation premiered in Japan on January 11. The anime is streaming on Netflix.
A live-action film of the manga was originally scheduled for a February 2025 release, but was postponed due to “various circumstances.” The preview screening scheduled in January 2025 was also canceled. The film opened in July 2025, and ranked at #5 in its opening weekend in Japan.
Sources: Amazon, Rakuten Books
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