Shadows House

Shadows House is what you get when you mix the fun vibes of a middle grade mystery with the relevant messages of critiques on classism. It sounds like it shouldn’t work, but the unique aesthetic, engaging premise, solid writing, and good audiovisuals bring everything together to create a well-formulated anime that anyone can find enjoyable. Our story begins in a small room with a coffin-like bed. Papers of instructions and details plaster dirty walls while a small door allows access to a chunk of stale bread placed upon the dusty wooden floor. Cramped, ill-fed, and forced to work. These are the harsh living conditions of aLiving Doll—the living conditions of our main character Emilico. From the start, Emilico’s personality shines through the screen. She is a bright and cheerful young girl trying to do her best, and everyone around her is affected by her kind nature. Though one may argue that Emilico’s personality consists of traits increasingly common in a typical anime protagonist, Shadows House’s depiction of Emilico as a character is far from generic. As subject to uncomfortable living conditions, there are many times when Emilico’s identity is tested. She is looked down upon by others and is reprimanded for being herself. And when Emilico is forced to obey the rules or when she is under the control of the shadows, her bright personality is sometimes compromised. It is through this narrative that Emilico’s character isn’t simply a compilation of happy generic protagonist traits but rather an expression of the anime’s theme of power and autonomy amidst oppression. Living among the Dolls in the Shadows House are mysterious beings referred to as Shadows. Shadows are face-less figures that the living dolls attend to. They live much more luxuriously than the living dolls and have bodies made entirely of soot. Depending on a Shadow’s mood, Shadows sometimes emit their soot from the top of their heads. This means that as the shadows go about their classy lifestyles, they tend to leave a lot of mess behind which may accumulate in the rooms they occupy, spread all throughout the house, and dust the objects around them. As expected, cleaning this mess is a part of the job of the exploited Living Dolls. Though the Shadows are a clear representation of an abusive upper class, this anime doesn’t villainize Shadows as a whole. It doesn’t just say that the shadows are bad or that the masters of the living dolls are bad people who abuse the dolls without reason. This anime is much more complex than that and takes us through the nuances of the overall situation by making the Shadows House a microcosm of real society. The house contains various floors, and each shadow strives to attain higher power by climbing up the ranks which are representative of the floor on which they reside. It is a beautifully plotted setting that is easy to understand and that showcases how power and class work. By having a well-written structure that serves as the foundation for the narrative and involves each of the characters, Shadows House avoids shallow messaging like ‘shadows are bad’ and ‘living dolls are good’ and instead focuses on the bigger picture, portraying each character as a victim of the poor system. With this in mind, all of the characters act in their own ways and aren’t just labelled as “friend” or “enemy.” These characters have genuine interactions as they try to navigate through the roles they are placed in. Shadows House truly makes the audience feel like every person introduced serves a purpose in the story and makes sure that each of them has their own likable traits that’ll leave you wishing they had more screen time. Even the face-less Shadows were far from lifeless or expressionless. Most notable of the cast, asides from our main character, is the Shadow Kate whom Emilico is assigned to. Kate is calm and collected and finds Emilico’s cheerful behavior to be endearing. Over the course of the series, Kate and Emilico grow to be close friends that constantly encourage one another and help each other through the challenges they face. Their friendship is fun to watch, and the events they undergo lead them to develop and influence each other in interesting ways. Presentation-wise, Shadows House doesn’t let the viewers down either. The premise, proper setting, and well-written characters are all brought together by a unique gothic aesthetic that’s embedded into every aspect of the anime. In the art, we can see it in the lacy outfits and intricate backgrounds. The Shadows House itself is a a large manor with secret doors and pillars that perfectly work with the vibe that the anime gives off. The music matches the gothic aesthetic too. The opening song is a particularly fitting instrumental. And while the ending theme is more modern, it contains choral samples that exude a mysterious, almost haunting feel. There isn’t a single aspect of the show or single frame in the series that doesn’t fit the intended style. This is a show that knows what it wants to do and executes it. Shadows House is an anime more people should be talking about. As a show that is both fun yet thematically sound and mysterious yet socially relevant, this anime has a lot of variance in appeal. No matter what you’re looking for, Shadows House will likely have something for you to appreciate. The story which discusses power, autonomy, class, and friendship all at once, is well-built with likable characters. The expertly integrated gothic aesthetic alone sets it apart from most other anime, both in this season and in general. This is one of the most easily watchable and easily recommendable shows I have seen in a while, and I highly encourage everyone to give it a go.

This anime is such a shame. Because if I were to rate the first 10 episodes, I'd have rated it 9 or 10/10 easily. While the animation is pretty lackluster and unimaginative, it is faithful and had a nice pacing. But there's the remaining 3 episodes... how did it go from being a masterpiece to a disappointing forgettable animes season. Just what did go wrong indeed... The story is great, at least in the first 10 episodes. It is faithful (with a few changes but understandable) to the manga, and the pacing is really well. The story builds up a great mystery story with a lot ofinteresting unanswered questions that would make anyone wanna watch just to answer those questions. It's all great stuff... until cloverworks said "nah". Like I said, the last 3 episodes were a complete disaster. Completely disregarding the build up that the story created. It was rush, it was completely plot-armor dependent, and it was boring because there isn't any feeling of danger or tense in the final episode. And how it ended... Oh God. I wanna forget about it. The characters are pretty good, at least in the first 10 episodes. The remaining 3 episodes rushed out their developments and they really got ripped off by the developments they should've gotten (basing from the manga). I don't have anything much to say. The animation, like I said, is pretty generic. It does have some good scenes here and there, but the overall direction is pretty boring for the most part. It's just a copy-paste from the manga panels. The music is good. The opening is not my cup of tea, but the ed is so banger that I have to rate it high just because of that. It's so good that I'm still playing it in my playlist after a month or so of constantly playing it. Overall, just a disappointing and forgettable anime season that I won't recommend. If you really wanna watch this, I recommend watching only the first 10 episodes. Or much better, just read the manga.

translated from Portuguese-Brazilian in google translator because of MAL rules. I was very disappointed at the end, the series has different and interesting ideas, concepts but for me the other points of it such as characters, story, script and developments are very weak and that's why for the work it only has its ideas as good parts. Characters like the mc and the secondary ones aren't nice or charismatic to the point that you're always kind of annoyed by most of them, their interaction for me is the most tiring and stressful part, since the naturalness of the dialogues goes a long way, and mixing thelack of charisma of the characters with the superficial plots, and clichés being used in a very obvious way, the anime is very tiring. The story itself doesn't have anything very relevant that happens, despite a few plots that are "nice" the work can't bring anything new in a way that excites or instigates to want to know more about, and the events that occur. in the story in my view are completely useless, since in the end the situation of the characters in the series doesn't change basically at all since the developments that a few have are extremely superficial and "expository" which makes it kind of difficult to accept the developments and the "new people" they saw after these developments. Now visually it's good, some storyboards good, some scenarios very well designed, consistent animation despite more generic designs, and the only thing I think is bad about the animation is the 2d textures on the characters' clothes they are pretty ugly.

After the disaster that was Yakuneba s2, Cloverworks needed a bounce back series. Many people thought that would be Shadow’s House. While it’s an improvement, it looks like Cloverworks have still not learnt their lesson, and continue to alter established stories and characters. Shadow’s House on its own merits is a solid show. It has a lot of the same mystery and intrigue that the first season of Yakuneba had. Beneath the facade of cute character designs, lies some dark secrets. However, knowing that entire arcs and characters were removed and or changed completely for this really made it difficult to enjoy the second half ofthe show. Cloverworks again went anime original and again I’m left disappointed. Now, the good thing here is that the anime oriignal content in Shadow’s House is not nearly as bad as Yakuneba season 2. This is still a decent show, and I would recommend a viewing. The issue lies in the fact that it sets up a lot of plot points and doesn’t get to realise them because of the way the story has been condensed. The anime original ending makes it hard to even make a season 2 based on the manga because of how different it is. It’s fair to say my main problem with Shadows House is its unrealised potential. I did really enjoy the dark atmosphere of the show. I think the concept of shadows, the dolls and soot were really original and interesting. I can’t say that I’ve ever really seen a story like this before. The characters are unique and grow on you over the course of the show, particularly Emilico and Kate. I just hate that the story’s pace took a turn for the worse around episode 7 or so. All the technical aspects of the show are top notch as you would expect from Cloverworks. Great character designs, solid animation, etc. The first half of the series is really well paced and does a good job of keeping you on the edge of your seat with the mystery. Second half lacks that same pacing, but still worth a watch. While I was let down by the second half of Shadows House, it’s still a pretty good show with an interesting and original concept, some cool characters and decent writing. I highly recommend checking out the manga for the full accurate story, but the anime is a nice introduction into the world for sure. 
Shadows House gets 8 fairies out of 10.

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