Shadows House

[neflight86]

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"* Based on a supernatural slice of life manga by Soumatou.

Faceless shadow nobles living in a vast mansion, attended by living dolls who spend much of their time cleaning up the soot endlessly emitted by their mysterious masters.

Follow the story of Emilyko, a young and cheerful living doll, as she learns her duties serving as the attendant for Kate Shadow-sama. What dangers and dark secrets will she and Kate encounter, as they become more deeply involved in the inner workings of the shadows' society?

Source: M-U"

Genre(s): Mystery, Supernatural, Slice of life, adventure

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So, I did the unthinkable- I watched/binged an entire missed season to catch up to the current airing season of an anime. I didn't think I had it in me... To summarize my feelings on the first season: the mystery is strong and the 'sinister energy' of the forces that be are palpable, even if the twist was somewhat obvious, but that wasn't billed as the main draw, thankfully. I admit the middle 'selection' arc drug on for about two episodes too long, but the payoff was good enough to make it worth it, leading into another interesting arc. Character relationships were more fuzzy than IK would like, but the intrigue and world building are ample and make this worth a watch. I'll go into my impressions of this season so far below.

[neflight86]

S2 1-7

One thing I respect about Shadow's House is that it handles some disparate tones and shifting between them very well. It avoids the usual crass and jarring transitions to levity common in anime, and while it is subtle, I appreciate it nonetheless.

I respect that Edward hasn't been ejected from the show after two failures (one mild and another catastrophic); he's a good, fleshy villain and I'm glad he is still running amok. That said, the current dilemma of the masked figure and how they (may) relate to the children's house is good without being overbearing, and the introduction of the star bearers has its own unique texture. While they are generally amiable, or at least approachable, they maintain their aura of malice when the scene calls for it. If I didn't know that this was slice of life, I wouldn't have guessed it left to my own devices.

There are plenty of mysteries to look out for, and I am glad to report that this is worth getting through the slow parts to enjoy the meat of the mystery.

[David75]

I didn't know no one dared to create a thread for a show I enjoy every week.
Somehow the faceless characters highlight the VA's performances to the extreme. And I love it.
As for the story, I do not enjoy it that much, but the process and character interactions are fun.
I liked the scenes with Emilico and Shawn basically voicing what we could infer about dolls with an idea I did not catch: masters take their doll's original name.
Makes sens I guess.

I would not be that surprised if they tell me soot monsters become tame when they get a face, although it seems to contradict what Kate said: she was waiting in her room and at some point Emilico arrived.

We've not seen much of the adults this season, I remember treacherous people ready to eliminate anyone for their interrests.

We don't know much about the grandfather, but he's probably the one giving life to the soot figures who become masters. So he's probably the most powerful soot monster there is.
Somehow he also has power outside the house, because he can get villagers to let go of their children. I wrote village, but with the number of children we're talking, probably a city. And there's a train line near the house too.

[neflight86]

If I recall, they provide that village with soot/coal to burn which (smoke) has a weaker version of the coffee brainwashing effect in that it simply reduces cognitive ability to keep the villagers complacent and willing to donate their children.

No doubt grandpa is birthing the shadow parasites, but I wonder what happens to the humans when they fuse with them? Do they become a combination of the personalities, or is the human fully subsumed and effectively killed?

Another odd note is that I don't get the mechanism that the shadows typically use to get their living dolls to mimic their expressions wordlessly. I don't buy that they are that in sync, but is that the in world explanation?

I didn't know that the shadow/human pairs were voiced by the same VAs. Cute touch.

[David75]

I did not think of the human villagers submission similar to the soot coffee. Thanks.

As of now, parasites have only entered dolls and we get to see procedures to bring the dolls back. We don't know much except shadow masters might be disposed of when some rules are broken or they can't pass the coming of age ceremony.
Our guess is that living dolls become veiled ones when their shadow master is terminated. But maybe it's all wrong, the number of people to feed would grow way too quickly. So maybe some living dolls go back to the village if some kind of brain washing works well, if not veiled dolls.

My guess was GrandPa is the one able to give a mind/conscience to what would otherwise be a soot monster.

I had the same question regarding the shadow/face bond. I guess It's a stretch from the idea that when living almost all the time with the same person you start to think, react and speak the same way.

Sorry if my phrasing was misleading, VAs are different for the shadow and living dolls. I just wanted to tell that I think VA's shine even more since we have no visuals to help with emotions for Kate and other shadows and I like that. Of course we still get some body language.

[neflight86]

8

So, the great differentiating factor for Kate is that she, unusually, remembers her pre-imprint parasite phase, similar to Ray in Promised Neverland. She bonded with her human, and so wants to save her and the others, I believe, but why does Rosemary want to burn it all down (shadows house)?

The reveal was sound, but the deduction, somehow, wasn't very gripping. The pacing of information and how it was gathered (not to mention the plethora of characters and names) kept the mystery a few clicks too complex for me to even attempt at following the reasoning, no matter how well constructed it may have been (again, I can't judge on that because I wasn't keeping up). A pity, but I'm sure I'm in the minority on this one. Shifting from slice of life to Scooby Do mystery like that is harder than I thought it would be.

[David75]

EP 9

Felt obvious from very early in the show, but dolls really are hosts to the shadows and at some point lose their lives to give their body to said shadows.


We're back to the darker tone we felt in the first few episodes.

Also, I think this is the first time we are shown a dead body with a very clear depiction of death
If it happened before, I guess it wasn't as on point as this time.
From that scene we can infer that the shadow might not have been strong enough and or the doll was still too strong.
Hence the importance of all the rules the dolls and shadows have to follow. Weaken the dolls and weaken their resistance with brainwashing and have them totally in sinc with their shadow. Make the shadow stronger.

[neflight86]

It was a stark kind of contrast that, ending the episode on a hanging (ugly) cadaver shot. It finally brought some tension back.

Rosemary's story and reasoning was more fleshed out than I expected, and I feel like I'm finally starting to get some grasp on the shadow's relationships to each other, like how Edward is contemptable toward those in the third floor. Is the implication that shadows themselves also become fully obedient after consuming their human host? Do you think there might still be rebellious elements in Grandpa's wing among the adults? We really haven't explored that yet, and now understand that the adults are forbidden to set foot in the children's wing for some reason.

[David75]

The shadow take over we've seen creates a selection bias: Only very strong/dominant shadows can survive and those shadows do not care much about dolls afterwards I guess. That explains why the very few scenes of adults we've had depicted them as horrible people.

My guess is that they have trials of their own because they are still the underdogs: some higher powers prevent them from escaping or doing anything outside a set of rules for that floor.

Where we are now, I do not see how the story can end well at all.
Unless there is way for a doll and a shadow to live in a symbiotic relationship. That's only if shadows have a time limit and they absolutely need a human body to extend their life past a time we do not now yet. Quite long with Rosemary's example, though it may vary for each shadow.
Or the easy answer is that shadows can live as long as humans without the need to parasite a human. But then why would they risk the rite of passage ? What are the demerits of not going through the rite ?

Back to the cadaver scene: It was a fight to death and both the doll and the shadow were lost. I wonder how it works and why the shadow dies too. Maybe because with a successful take over the shadow get a new source of energy to survive past their limit ?