My Daemon Review 2023 Tv Show Series Cast Crew Online
A nuclear explosion on Earth creates a rift that overlaps with Hell, resulting in a devastating amount of dust pollution from Hell. Caught up in the chaos of the world is elementary school student Kento (Cassandra Lee Morris), who, after finding a Daemon named Anna (Cristina Vee) in the forest, decides to raise her. Together, the human and Daemon pair embark on a journey to save Kento’s mother (Amber Lee Connors).
When one anime show ends, another one rises, and it’s released in time for Thanksgiving. I hope you saved room for dessert because this latest anime-influenced series could be a worthy treat. So far, Netflix has only churned out a couple of successful and incredible anime shows throughout November, Blue Eye Samurai and Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. The other two, Onimusha and Akuna-kun, didn’t reach the heights of others, but they’re enjoyable watches for different reasons. So now, we have a new anime-like series that’s completely original and inspired by other movies and shows involving human/creature relationships. The question is, where does this one stand regarding the streaming service’s anime content?
My Daemon consists of thirteen episodes and centers on a young boy named Kento Tachibana. Kento and her mother, Kaoru, reside in a post-apocalyptic Japan, where a nuclear incident spawned powerful yet deadly creatures known as Daemons, who have been discriminated against and abused by society. Kento raises a small storage daemon named Anna, who can store specific items in her body, making Kento an outsider and a target for the peace organization led by Genjiro Houjou (Bill Butts). When Kaoru is tragically killed during an encounter with the organization’s Daemon User, Kento and Anna embark on a journey across Japan to find a time-manipulating daemon and revive her. During the trip, Kento and Anna must survive against various daemons and the abusive Daemon Users sent to capture the storage daemon.
This series is best described as a combination of Pokémon and The Last of Us sprinkled with anime-influenced CGI. The elements from Pokémon come from specific Daemon users controlling their daemons through shock collars and abusing them. As for The Last of Us, it’s easy to point out that the post-apocalyptic backgrounds and creatures almost resemble the elements from the popular PlayStation games. My Daemon also has many cliches involving human/creature relationships, as I mentioned earlier, along with its themes of humanity, hope, and discrimination. So, it’s doubtful that My Daemon would bring anything new to its storyline that we haven’t seen before. However, when it comes to the execution, I can see it being watchable for viewers who enjoy these types of relationships in movies and television shows.
For its seasonal plot, the similarities between My Daemon and The Last of Us don’t just come from the post-apocalyptic environments and distressing moments. They also share a road-trip-survival narrative involving characters traveling from point A to point B while dealing with loss and confronting people who are blinded by rage and greed. In the case of My Daemon, we follow a kind yet sometimes naive Kento struggling with the loss of his mother while journeying to find a legendary Daemon that could bring her back. His unbroken bond with Anna results in Kento maintaining hope that the demonic creatures aren’t as evil as others believe. His generosity and belief inspired his companion Kaede Houjou (Ryan Bartley), a Daemon User and Genjiro’s granddaughter who wonders if daemons and humans can coexist.
Even though it follows the usual narrative tools used in other movies and shows, My Daemon offers a few moments that make it slightly entertaining and respectfully sentimental. One of those moments involves Kento, whose dangerous quest gradually becomes a coming-of-age journey of acceptance and letting go. Additionally, Kento is affected by a daemonic particle inside his brain that’s slowly killing him. It’s enough to make the young protagonist’s characteristics more interesting than your usual child character, with Cassandra Lee Morris benefiting with her vocal performance. Kento’s relationship with Anna also makes me smile periodically, even though the series starts with them already bonding.
The animation in My Daemon is produced by Thailand’s animation studio, Igloo Studio. Igloo Studio is known for producing several advertising short films and the 2018 film, The Legend of Muay Thai: 9 Satra. It’s still no secret that I always prefer anime with 2D animation over CGI anime due to how they’re presented visually. While there are a couple of exceptions regarding 3D anime, the presentation often looks off-putting and periodically ugly and sluggish, almost taking me out of the experience altogether. That may be the case for My Daemon, but it’s also one of the few moments where its efforts make the style forgivable. Despite a few moments involving dropped frames for the character movements, the animation in My Daemon makes Igloo Studio another studio I wouldn’t mind seeing tackle more projects. The CGI animation works well for the show’s action scenes, including Yagi confronting a daemon in “The Little Friendship”, and the daemon designs. Additionally, the settings and visual effects use 2D animation that blends effectively with the CGI animation.
Overall, My Daemon is a respectable display of a human/creature friendship whose heart overshadows its formulaic yet mildly entertaining story. Its voice cast was suitable for voicing their characters, including Morris and Cristina Vee as Anna. Plus, its CGI animation delivers enough effort in its sceneries and daemon designs to bypass its flawed presentation. However, if you’re hoping for another anime masterpiece like Blue Eye Samurai regarding its storytelling and characters, this series might not do much to reach those heights. But its heartwarming moments between the daemon action will likely satisfy those hungry for more human/creature friendship projects, especially after Thanksgiving.
