Daemons of The Shadow Realm, the anime adaptation of legendary mangaka Hiromu Arakawa’s work of the same name, was highly anticipated this season. Hiromu Arakawa is best known as the author of Fullmetal Alchemist which needs no introduction. Because of the long lasting influence and quality of Fullmetal Alchemist, a lot of eyes were on Daemons of the Shadow Realm to bring the same quality and serve as a sort of successor. The story takes place in a world where certain people are able to control supernatural creatures called Daemons. A pair of twins “born between day and night” are born in Higashi village in a premodern setting. Those twins, Yuru and Asa, are prophesied to one day wield great power. There’s a bit of twist to the story, but I’ll let you encounter that as you watch the series.
As the anime continues to air and nears the end of the season, we had the opportunity to speak with two members of the English dub cast: Ben Stegmair, English voice of Yuru, and Molly Zhang, English voice of Asa. We chatted through their approach to voicing characters in the story, how they handle the various facets of their respective characters’ personalities, and what makes Daemons of the Shadow Realm such a captivating story.
Portions of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity. This interview contains minor plot details for Daemons of the Shadow realm.
Q: My first question for both of you, what kinds of early direction and guidance were you given when it came to coming up with the exact voice of your character and the relationship between the two of them?
Ben Stegmair: I mean, honestly, I think Shawn Gann, our director — I mean, he said this publicly before, so it’s no secret. He just wants people who are comfortable in their vocal print, right? So he wouldn’t have cast us if he knew that our natural voices weren’t going to fit the characters. I mean, specifically for me, I’ve worked with Shawn on so many different projects up until this point, and we have so much fun on all of it, but we kind of understand each other. We understand each other so much that if Shawn gave me a nod, I’d be like, “I know what you want, dawg. I know what you need,” you know? So I don’t really think there was too much direction. I will say that coming into it, I know that Arakawa has — she writes characters, right? Character characters who are filled with so much depth and layers. Each of them have their own dreams, goals, desires. So working with these really well-written characters, they sometimes have characters that they play similarly to how we do in real life. So I have three different Yurus that I really pinpoint. I have chill Yuru, I have innocent Yuru who is experiencing the world for the first time, who loves his family, and then I have the protector and the hunter Yuru. And Shawn and I are very, very in tune where if I’m reading a line, Shawn will just tell me, “Hey man, I think this should be hunter Yuru,” or “I think this should be chill Yuru.” And I’m like, “You got it, man.” So yeah, that was a big part of the directing. What about you, Molly?
Molly Zhang: For me, kind of like what Ben said earlier, Shawn is someone who likes performances that are more natural. In this industry where, especially for anime, you have a lot more voices that you put on to make it sound like the character. This is a case where I think Shawn was looking for voices that naturally just sounded like the character rather than acting out the part, which I really enjoyed. Honestly, I just auditioned, and I’m so glad it worked out because we, as actors, we submit so many auditions all the time that you never really know what’s gonna stick. And I’m so glad that I have the opportunity for this show because it’s been so much fun. It’s been a ride. And on top of that, the Asa in the cage is very clearly a very younger version of Asa. And I’m so glad that he let me voice that Asa too because that one, the fake Asa, I am putting on a voice for. I am making myself sound younger, more childish, intentionally not sounding like a teen Asa. And there was like a fun parallel of like, ah, she’s the fake form. Let’s put on a fake voice for her. And so that was really fun. And then the real Asa, I’m just doing my natural voice, and then I react how the character would, and that’s how I shaped that voice print.
Q: Did either of you read the manga ahead of time and whether or not you did, what was your first reaction to the show’s premise and the early twist?
Ben Stegmair: I’ve been a fan of this manga since 2021, maybe beginning of 2022. And I fell madly in love with it, like madly. I mean, I fall madly in love with a lot of manga, but this one I knew would be special immediately in that first chapter. I was hooked. So much so that, you know whenever you buy a first volume and then you’re like, oh, and then you run back to the bookstore and then you buy all the other ones, and then that’s your life for the next week? That’s what Daemons of The Shadow Realm was to me. Next week, the dub episode that comes out, there’s a chapter that I read, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, Arakawa is a perfect storyteller,” right? I was like, “There is so much stakes. There’s so much depth. There’s so much personality and life in these characters.” I will always say some of my favorite things about anime and manga are when they take some of the most absurd ideas, those out of this world, crazy premises, but then make those stories with characters that are innately human. And that’s what Arakawa’s storytelling is all about, is about the human condition in this crazy world. And I was floored. So I would’ve liked the anime even if I wasn’t in it because I was such a fan of the manga, but I’m so lucky. It’s the highest honor of my career so far to be in this show and to work on Arakawa and Bones’ wonderful story. So yeah, I love this show. I love all of Arakawa’s other works.
Molly Zhang: Yeah, for me, I didn’t read the manga at first, but I sure have the whole series now. Alejandro Saab, who voices Ivan, he bought me the entire set. I even picked it up from his house just last month and I’m slowly going through that right now. My first exposure to it was actually when Crunchyroll hosted the one night premieres where they showed the episode ones of a lot of shows. So I actually went to that with Ben and also our other friend, Joshua Waters. We just went with some voice acting friends and we watched through it for the first time. And that episode one twist — cause I didn’t know anything about the source material going into it. So that episode one twist threw me way, way, way off guard.
And I remember after we finished watching it, we went to the hallway and we’re like, “Oh my God, that’s crazy.” And so we had our little reaction there and it was a lot of fun. And then walking into Episode One, I was like, I know what’s going on here. I know what happened. Now I’ve read the manga a lot more. So I’m a lot more familiar, but at first I wasn’t. So now I’m a fan that’s fallen into the whole shebang.
Q: Ben, for you, as Yuru often you’re in the position of being overwhelmed by the elements of modern life, having not experienced it before. For those particular scenes that kind of blend some comedic elements, some serious elements, what’s your usual approach to communicating that energy?
Ben Stegmair: Oh yeah. I mean, it’s carefulness, I will say. It’s understanding, looking at the line, understanding what the premise of that line is trying to convey. There are I’d say three things that you have to look at. It’s the line that comes before your line. What is the context of the line that you’re saying?
And then what is the animation telling you, right? So whenever I get all that stuff, I take that information in and I go, okay, how silly does this need to be? Like in the last week that we did, there’s that scene whenever he’s shooting the bow and arrow at Left. And he’s like, “Don’t just let it hit you!” And at first I went a little bit lower and then I saw that his eyes were popping out of his head. And I was like, “Okay, this is a new level of absurdism that I have to give this.” So I was like, “Okay, here we go.” And Shawn, our director, is the best at just going like, “Okay, back just a little bit. Okay, maybe just a little bit more,” and playing and fine tuning that. So I have a lot of help. It’s not just me.
We’d like to thank the voice actors of Daemons of The Shadow Realm for taking the time to speak with us as well as Crunchyroll for coordinating the interviews. Daemons of the Shadow Realm is available to stream now on Crunchyroll every Saturday at 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET.
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