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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buy | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 9 | 9 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:4310#1552] |
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Set in a mysterious mansion, Shadows House focuses on the denizens of the titular household each having their own Living Doll that regularly clean up the soot emitted from the bodies of their Shadow masters or mistresses. The series mainly focuses on the young Shadow, Kate, and her Living Doll, Emilico, slowly developing a bond together. But as the two spend more time within the mansion with other Shadow and Living Doll pairs, they come to realize some rather dark secrets involving its denizens. Shadows House is a series where first appearances can be deceiving. While seemingly starting off as a sort of slice-of-life series involving the everyday happenings within the mansion, the series gradually dabbles into elements of mystery and drama as episodes progress. Delving into elements of said mystery would be major spoilers for what the series as a whole potentially offers up in later episodes and beyond. But what is explored about the true nature of the Shadows House and its denizens offers some engaging plot developments, themes, and world-building that help further flesh out the series. The only setback with this mystery is that its story continues beyond what this first season offers up and while a second TV season aired last year that continues the story of Shadows House, its manga source material is still ongoing as of the time I write this review. To my understanding, the final three episodes of the series have a story arc exclusive to the anime that may or may not sit well with fans of the manga series. The major element of the series that serves as its highlight are the bonds between the Shadows and their Living Dolls. The Living Dolls are expected to serve as a sort of personal tool for the Shadows they serve and mimicing their actions while communicating with others due to the Shadow's lack of a face. The five pairs of young Shadows and Living Dolls focused on, alongside Kate and Emilico, are shown to have varying degrees of personality and chemistry between one another, each Shadow having different perceptions of how they view their Living Doll and having varying degrees of development as they undergo the trials of the nobles throughout the middle part of the series. Our main pair of characters, in particular, undergo a good deal of development throughout Shadows House with Kate becoming less reserved and growing trusting of Emilico as their bond develops. Visually, Shadows House employs a gothic and regal aesthetic to go along with the mysterious, classy environment that the denizens of the titular mansion strive for. The settings and attire of the series appear inspired from Western Victorian Era attire that look accurate to the setting of the time period that Shadows House is seemingly emulating. The highlight of the show's animation comes from the unique nature and abilities of the Shadows. Their bodies emit soot depending on their emotional state and each one demonstrates unique abilities utilized during later episodes of the series. The series does a great job animating these elements to the Shadows while still retaining the anime's overall animation quality. Overall, Shadows House makes for an engaging mystery-drama exploring the developing bond between Kate and Emilico, as well as the true nature of the titular mansion and its inhabitants. Being based on an ongoing manga series, the series does suffer from the typical shortcomings of being an adaptation with lacking a proper conclusion and not having all its story elements fully fleshed out. But the mentioned second TV season does continue the story, which I hope to have the opportunity to dabble into at some point. Last updated Sunday, January 22 2023. Created Sunday, January 22 2023. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:4310#628] | ||||||
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(Seven episodes watched): Some sort of a metaphor, I guess, though of just what I cannot say. Still, this seemed kind of neat and definitely original. Despite her lack of a face Kate has a personality, as she doesn't like being stared at and won't say whether she's human or not. Emilico is clumsy and inexperienced and has to learn on the job. I really have little idea where this is going; the scenario is so bizarre--aristocrats with blanked-out faces and human replica servants--that there's no other show I can think of to compare this one to. And the small talk between Kate and Emilico doesn't reveal much, though it does flesh them out somewhat. But this show is definitely making an effort to be original, and therefore deserves to be given a chance. The Shadows make a mess of everything they come near and need a small army of servants to clean up after them; you wonder if they contribute anything to society themselves. They are just fabulously wealthy (sound familiar?). The brainwashed Dolls consider themselves lucky to serve them. Apparently the Shadows are so helpless by themselves that they even need Dolls to act as their missing faces. Kate is clearly different in that she is coming to care about Emilico (even though she loses her temper at times). For some reason the implication in episode three that there are some bad apples among the dolls who will gladly betray the rest for their own benefit seemed like a swerve in the wrong direction to me. Maybe that's because such a thing would be all too common whereas the series had been pretty novel up to that point. The bizarre 'soot sickness' makes little sense and I hope it wasn't inserted just for the sake of a little action. We learn that whatever emotions a doll expresses while in the presence of his/her master are those of the master, not the doll, which, again, is novel. I guess I wanted to learn more about these things than engage in a fairly predictable struggle for what little influence and prestige exists among the dolls. I must admit that watching this show came to seem sort of like a chore after awhile. Perhaps the fact that the dolls live such subservient lives and there seems little chance that that is going to change is deflating. Nor are there any signs that we will learn the secret behind the bizarre Shadows, which is what I really want. But once I did start watching the episodes would seem to go pretty quickly, maybe because this is all pretty original stuff. The 'Debut' turns out to be a pretty weird test of intelligence for Emilico and four other dolls. But it's hard to see how this would be an accurate predictor of skill as a housekeeper, or even unquestioning loyalty to the Shadows--mere luck could easily determine the winner. I'm having a hard time trying to make sense of the overall plot of this show. And the Shadows can summon carrier pigeons from soot? What I'd really like is some hints about the nature of the Shadows, but that doesn't seem to be the direction in which this show is going. When it was episode eight's turn to be watched, I decided that I'd rather skip it and watch something else. Maybe I'll watch the final episode just in case we really do get some sort of explanation of what's going on here. Last updated Saturday, June 12 2021. Created Saturday, April 17 2021. | ||||||||
