Sankaku Mado no Sotogawa wa Yoru

This anime is the least gay BL I’ve ever seen, but it’s also one of the most interesting. The main draws of this show, to me, are the mystery elements and supernatural themes. The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window maintains a surprising amount of suspense in each episode, with well-edited sequences and a sinister atmosphere. While watching, I often found myself impressed by how tense certain scenes could be; Tricornered Window stands out among other BL anime for being quite competently directed. The characters also develop pretty differently from other BL stories. Much of the focus is placed on how the characters’ psychic powers affect their interpersonalrelationships, especially with family members. This results in a cast that feels rather fresh and intriguing, which I really appreciated. Unfortunately, my praise ends there. The overall story is pretty lackluster, mainly due to some pacing issues that leave a lot of things unexplained. By the end of the final episode, I still didn’t quite understand how psychic powers function in the world of Tricornered Window. The motivations of certain characters were also difficult to follow at times, which made some storylines confusing. My biggest issue with the anime, however, is how unfulfilled it left me by the end. So much time is spent building up the relationship between Mikado and Rihito, but there isn’t much payoff. The narrative feels reluctant to commit to a romance between the two characters, with Mikado even insisting at one point that he and Rihito aren’t romantically involved. Besides the ever-present tension between the two leads, there isn’t a whole lot of love between boys in this supposed Boys’ Love anime. Though Tricornered Window does a lot of things differently, making it stand out among BL anime, it ultimately left me feeling a bit hollow. I really enjoyed the spookier scenes, but other than that, the show failed to make much of an impression. It’s better than most BL anime, but still not that great, unfortunately.

If I had to sum this up in as many words in a review, I'd say that this anime is a pretty mediocre BL and a genuinely really good, possibly incredible if I want to be very generous, supernatural anime that I firmly might place as one of my favourites in the genre (not that there's too much competition in supernatural BL). Where I went into the anime expecting something rather bad, after episode 1 and 2 being my roughly expected fare I was hugely surprised by the amount of care and writing that had gone into the story and characters aside from the maleleads. The set up of the narrative is tidily executed, and the twist (though instantly noticed by some eagle eyed viewers) takes the story into an even more addicting spiral until the finale is over and you're sitting with twelve episodes viewed. The character work I think is also the standout; by the end of the anime, though I liked the leads, my favourite characters were of the side cast and the relationship I was most invested in wasn't even that of the main two. Where it was advertised to me as a somehow darker BL and seemed like it was careening down that direction from the start, what you actually get out of Sankaku Mado no Sotogawa wa Yoru is a supernatural story revolving around themes of the dark side of families and recovery, whether that be with friendship, found family and/or a good old exorcism, with an overall uplifting message. Of course, the anime isn't perfect, but what it is, in my opinion, is perfectly enjoyable. The animation quality is extremely good and the art style suits the story very well, and though the character's supernatural powers aren't always explained word by word introduction page style, I didn't feel like that needed to be the case for me to enjoy watching it, nor to understand the most important parts of the narrative; the emotional beats. If you came to this anime looking for something purely BL, you might be disappointed since it functionally requires you to care about more than just the main duo. However, if you enjoy supernatural narratives with a fair portion of mystery and a cast of middling to strong character personalities (featuring a gay couple among them and a couple really great father figures), I really couldn't recommend this more.

The lack of information in the beggining makes it confusing, but makes you empathize better with one of the main character. Over all, most of the episodes it's you trying to pull together all the information they are giving and trying to understand what the hell is going on, wich makes it tough to watch. Even so it all comes together in the last episodes, making this anime very good, not only because by then you'll understand what is happening, but because if you analise it from the psicological and social part of it, and you empathize with the characters you'll understand what mental illness would looklike if it could be used as something dangerous

Minor spoilers for the show. Although I would definitely agree that the manga is better than the anime, the anime has its own charm, and it’s a nice addition to the manga, where you can see the characters move around (and in color). The anime also makes certain scenes clearer, and certain dialogue moments more understandable as to who’s talking, which makes their emotional weight stronger. There’s also at least one added scene early on that makes a character’s actions more regular than random, as they are in the manga. The music is also pretty, and the Japanese VAs all did a good job. The anime isquite accurate, though the show compressed the story a great deal in an attempt to fit 10 tankobon into 12 episodes, and though it’s not the most complex of stories (though it IS complex), that’s a lot of material to squish into that few 20ish-minute episodes, with time given to OPs and EDs every episode. Chapters are frequently chopped up and stuck together in ways that save time while getting the meat of the chapter on-screen. At least five chapters are almost if not entirely cut. It’s not the greatest loss, though one was a nice shippy chapter that would have been appropriate for a BL-marked anime that people question the reasoning for marking as BL. There’s another early chapter that’s massively cut in a way that makes it not make sense to someone who hasn’t read the manga. In many ways the anime art feels like a visual downgrade from the manga art, which is by and large better. Overall the entire cast is better looking in the manga. There are some nice things the anime does, visually. In the ED, there’s a moment that makes it appear through a creative transition as if Hiyakawa has dissolving wings, which is pretty neat. And there are little story spoilers in the OP visuals, which is a nice touch, though not something I think someone unfamiliar with the manga or who hasn’t seen the show once already would recognize. And without the manga for comparison, the show’s not bad looking. The animation is pretty, by and large, fluid, and the style’s decent. On its own, this is still the same story by and large as what’s in the manga, and it’s a good story, with great characters, and decent art. The supernatural world setup is interesting, and the reflections on cults, brainwashing, child abuse, neglect, and dealing with childhood trauma as an adult are solid. There’s also a strong theme that without communication (and consent), things we do to purportedly protect other people can be harmful not only to those we seek to protect, but also to ourselves. There are a lot of BL innuendos rather than just sex you’d find in other series, though there’s a lot of touching and specific body language (and the innuendos get very specific). The central character relationship is compelling, particularly if you’re into dubcon, though the manga’s relatively strong focus on talking about consent kind of got lost in adaptation, I guess (it’s still there, kind of, and the dynamic fluctuates with who holds the reins). Around them are an array of neat characters and relationships, and they all get development over the course of the story (Sakaki is one of my favorite characters). The pro-cop stuff is still there, which is a bit disappointing, but the story’s also kind of ambiguous in places and focuses a bit on restorative justice, so… win-win I guess? There’s also a bit of humor throughout, and it increases as the story goes. All in all, it’s a solid short BL supernatural story with some horror elements (I don’t go for horror at all and I was largely fine) and some fun character dynamics and development, with some great narrative themes. I would still suggest reading the manga first. It’s also short, and even better, enjoyment-wise (also the BL aspect is more obvious).

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