Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for My Daemon.
The Big Picture
- My Daemon follows Kento and his daemon friend Anna in a post-apocalyptic Japan, exploring the existence of evil within humans and daemons.
- The series draws similarities to Pokemon in terms of the supernatural creatures and the relationships between humans and daemons.
- My Daemon delivers a message of coexistence and prioritizing understanding over aggression, portraying the growth of Anna and Kento in navigating a changing world.
Netflix’s My Daemon follows a child, Kento (Cassandra Lee Morris), as he travels through a post-apocalyptic Japan with his daemon friend Anna (Christina Vee) looking for a way to revive Kento’s mother, who died protecting her son. The duo come across many figures who hinder and aid in their quest, while unraveling the theme of the existence of evil within humans and daemons. The daemons in the Netflix original have many similarities to the Pokémon from the 1999 Pokémon: The First Movie. The series, through Kento and Anna’s perspective, shines a grim light on the treatment of supernatural creatures by humans, and the threat the creatures’ abilities have on others. My Daemon is an emotionally wrenching story which embodies some hope in its theme of prioritizing understanding instead of aggression.
‘My Daemon’ Shows That a Strong Partnership Can Change the World
The series elaborates on how daemons spawn from particles that grow into a variety of creatures resembling flora and fauna. Unfortunately, some of these particles can end up trapped within human bodies, like Kento who has a ‘daemonium’ particle in his head. The particles eventually grow into a larger entity, leaving the human host to die. Kento is told that it is unlikely that he will reach adulthood with the particle growing within his head. He finds and raises a daemon that grows into a four-legged creature that calls itself Anna. Most of the daemons seem to only repeat one word that serves as their name.
Anna is revealed to be a storage daemon who is capable of holding non-living things (and later living things) in an extradimensional space that only she can access. She becomes a target of the Peace Organization, whose founder lost his daughter to a similar daemon who made an island disappear. The founder places a high bounty on Anna that demonstrates desperation and evil within the show’s human characters. Anna and Kento are hunted by daemon users who utilize trained daemons for fiscal purposes, until they meet Kaeda (Ryan Bartley), who helps them on their quest. However, a couple of the daemons they encounter do not have the best of intentions.
Kento’s plan to revive his mother involved finding a daemon who was rumored to possess the ability to reverse the effects of time on an object. Kento hoped the daemon could restore his mom back to a state where she was alive. Once they find the daemon, they learn of his ulterior motives and his pessimistic view of the relationship between daemons and humans. The daemon reveals himself, while under the guise of deceased human Kiriko (Benjamin Diskin), as a restoration daemon capable of using the memory from pieces of an object, or samples from a dead creature, to recreate and restore them to a previous state. Kiriko reveals his plan to use a sample from the world’s most powerful daemon to kill all human life so that the daemons can live in peace.
Kento and Anna disagree with this plan, but the daemon threatens and then kills Kento to force Anna to help him. After Kiriko gets the sample he desired, he restores Kento back to life without the daemonium particle in his head. Kento, Anna, and their friends confront Kiriko by having Anna trap the daemon within her storage space, where he is defeated, and given a guarantee by Kento that he will work to make the world peaceful for both humans and daemons – with Kiriko saying he will try to wipe out humanity again if he fails.
The Similarities Between ‘My Daemon’ and ‘Pokemon’ Are Clear
The daemons share many similarities to the Pokémon by being mysterious supernatural creatures resembling various flora and fauna while being capable of differing abilities. The series has daemons that resemble rodents, arachnids, and anthropomorphic plants. The Daemon users share similarities to the Pokémon trainers, by being humans utilizing devices that sway supernatural creatures to their whims. In Pokémon, the Pokeballs used by trainers trap a Pokémon until it becomes more docile with its human trainer. The Netflix show, in contrast, employs shock collars that force a daemon to follow the user’s whims.
Anna’s growth, or evolution, is similar to how a Pokémon becomes more powerful and bigger as time goes on with their abilities developing. Kento describes how Anna grew from a grain into a four-legged creature and, throughout the duo’s journey, her storage abilities improve as Anna confronts more challenges and becomes more protective of Kento. When Kento receives a concussion, Anna transforms into a bigger version of herself that can store larger objects and has the athleticism to outmaneuver a kaiju-sized spider daemon. During the final confrontation with Kiriko, Anna transforms into a more draconic creature who can fly, can store a kaiju-sized daemon, and manipulate her own storage space, so she can discern who is safe and who can be hurt.
Additionally, Kiriko, the restoration daemon, has many similarities to Mewtwo from the Pokémon franchise. Both characters are supernatural creatures who have a similar purple design and possess a rare ability to talk beyond saying only their name, and they had an initial stance of prioritizing the supernatural creatures over the humans as a result of being subjugated by them. Mewtwo in Pokémon: The First Movie, attempted to create clones of Pokémon to fight against humans, while Kiriko in My Daemon recreates and controls a daemon capable of destroying cities. Mewtwo’s stance came from being manipulated by the humans who created him, while Kiriko’s viewpoint stemmed from witnessing the blatant slaughter of daemons at the hands of humans.
Although both franchises have a similar utilization of supernatural creatures that are supposed to follow human whims, My Daemon has a more mature and clear message about coexistence with nature than Pokémon. The family-friendly franchise contradicts itself with humans befriending the creatures they put into combat, while the show examines how the relationship should be more symbiotic. Kento and Anna’s companionship helps each other grow as they navigate a changing world. Anna’s growth is external through her evolution, and Kento’s more internal, as he reaffirms his goal of protecting both daemon and human bystanders.
My Daemon is available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
