Anime Spotlight #16: Shadows' House

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. the public Face of the Animeister Shadow.

That sounded really creepy and like it verges on the kind of conspiracy theory insanity that I avoid reading or thinking about, lest I begin raging and crying my way to the bottom of a bottle of hard liquid to shut my brain off for the night. It just drives me to the brink of insanity to know that there are people who believe in things like Shadow cabals, face-stealers, and other things that I don't want to be demonetized for mentioning.

Speaking of things that I could get demonetized for mentioning, there are people in my small town (as I described in this post) who believe in some crazy shit. And the latest scape-worthy goats in my neck of the woods involve President Joe Biden and "those damned Ukrainians" being responsible for the hyper-inflation that our country is currently experiencing. Never mind that the majority of cities and towns in my current state of residence were founded by Russian and Ukrainian immigrants long before any of those racist assholes were stains in their parents' underwear. Never mind that two years ago, our last president was allegedly enjoying the company of Russian prostitutes, holding business meetings with both Vladimir Putin and Kim Jeong Ill-in-the-head, botching and bumbling his way through the biggest pandemic in the history of the world to the tunes of millions dead and billions-to-trillions of dollars in stimulus money so that the entitled pricks of the country could have their "freedom," feeding lunatic fringe conspiracy theories, and inciting the first insurrectionist riot in three hundred years. Allegedly. Nope, apparently none of that ever happened and no one knows how basic economics work and the world is a simulation and it's all because of Biden and Ukrainian refugees. Speaking of wars and clothing stains, blaming Joe Biden for the post-pandemic hyper-inflation is like blaming Al Gore for the Iraq war, or blaming Dan Quayle for the cum on Monica Lewinsky's dress. It makes no logical sense because they were the Vice Presidents who weren't even in office when it happened. There could be a vaguely justifiable argument made that Biden was a government official during the Trump administration. But as a fairly competent Democrat (and VP to perhaps the best President of my lifetime, Barack Obama) during the administration of a blatantly incompetent Republican, logic says Biden wouldn't have been a contributing actor to that...circumstance. Also, I know we Americans are self-important pricks, but we aren't the only country in the world. Canada had that stupid trucking protest, which contributed to compromising international supply chains and increasing product prices. The pandemic was global. Some degree of inflation, workforce shift, and other economic deficiencies are happening everywhere. But it's less in most other countries because we're the only ones stupid enough to not only cave when Ken and Karen misappropriate the Constitution, but print them "free" money. Freedom and free money aren't free, and they come with widely available, larger-than-fine print. Russia isn't solely responsible for the state of the American economy. Their Ukrainian victims aren't responsible, either. And the guy (Biden) who's trying to wipe five-feet-deep of Trump's oral diarrhea off of our country with a travel pack of generic, one-ply facial tissues sure as shifudamn isn't responsible. It's us selfish, self-important, self-entitled jack-fuckers who drove up prices by wanting to "live our lives freely" when half of the world was dying. But that's too introspectively bleak and globally complex for our walnut-sized brains, so fuck reading and thinking rationally, am I right?

No, I'm sarcastic, I'm caffeinated, and I was trying to cleverly introduce today's Anime Spotlight selection with a slightly altered byline that took a sharp left at Albuquerque and raged its way...into The Twilight Zone. So if you're still here after all of the polarizing, profanity-laden rhetoric I just spewed across your strand of the InTeRwEbZ, please like and/or comment below, and let's move on to my coverage of Shadows' House (now streaming on Crunchyroll).

Shadows' House is a rather unique seinen (like shonen, but for a slightly younger, female audience) anime adaptation by CloverWorks (the studio behind adaptations of Fairy Tail, the hilarious-but-sweet My Dress-Up Darling--not to be confused with Darling In the FRANXX, which they co-produced with Studio Trigger--the comedy shonen series SpyXFamily, and the instances of botched brilliance that were Wonder Egg Priority and The Promised Neverland, among others) of a supernatural manga by So-ma-to. Similar to the first season of The Promised Neverland (and the first episode of Made In Abyss), Shadows' House follows a group of children as they live their lives under strict adult supervision, all the while blissfully unaware of the horrors of the world around them until an inciting incident sets the discovery plot into disturbing motion.

At the focus of Shadows' House are a Shadow (sooty, humanoid silhouettes) named Kate and her Living Doll/Face (SPOILERS: actual, human children), Emilico. Under normal circumstances in the titular manor, a Shadow and their Doll would have similar names to one another (such as the other regular characters: John and Shaun, Louise and Lou, Patrick and Ricky, etc.). But because the status quo doesn't make for compelling storytelling, Emilico is a loyal but free-spirited, nauseatingly cheerful standout whose perpetual wonder makes her question the natural order. And unless there's some Japanese translation punnery that I'm unaware of, Emilico is nowhere near a name derivation of Kate. The only other Doll of note who fits this name disparity is a soft-spoken girl named Rum, whose rarely-seen Shadow is named Shirley (though this is a bit of a mixology pun with the Shirley Temple Black being made with dark rum). Her twist in the season one finale is worth me not spoiling. After several episodes of "do housework, don't think about 'trivial matters,' the will of Shadows' House is absolute" and other ominous lore drops, the first season goes shonen with a social experiment/maze/puzzle-solving battle royale event called The Debut, in which Shadows and their Faces must demonstrate their synchronicity and empathy with one another (Living Dolls/Faces are basically children who were supernaturally indoctrinated into slavery as house staff--Shadows emit soot when emotionally taxed, and if the soot is not cleaned up regularly, it gains sentience and attacks Living Dolls--and to serve as secondary expressions for their similarly shaped, but featureless Shadow masters) and the Dolls must display ingenuity in navigating the maze and rescuing their trapped Shadows within a set time limit. Rankings are based on propriety, synchronicity, and how fast each Doll locates and frees their master, plus whatever rules the host of the Debut imposes at their whim. First place will get fast-tracked to a more prestigious wing of the manor and be considered favorably to become an Adult (which turns out to be a "be careful what you wish for" situation, as is revealed in the second season). The rest go unaffected but for any noteworthy aspects of their performances, except for the last place finisher. The losing Doll's Shadow master becomes a Faceless, and the Doll is mind-wiped and turned into a Veiled Doll. The Debut is also where we learn about Soot Powers (when under control, Shadows can use their soot for telekinesis, ki-like attacks, forming weapons, and other abilities) and the first hints of what it means to be an Adult in Shadows' House.

Season two leans more into the social politics, day-to-day activities, and mystery elements of the series, introducing the Rejoicing Ceremony (wherein the Dolls are made to drink coffee laced with brainwashing soot), Phantoms (large concentrations of Scorches, the sentient soot creatures mentioned above), and a mysterious Scorch-manipulator whom Emilico dubs "Master Robe," and could be friend, foe, or some misguided combination of the two. The character roster gets expanded as well, leading to more suspicion, friendships, romance, action, and comedy than was featured in the superior first season. That isn't to say the second season kills the series; it doesn't. It just isn't as strong in the areas that appealed to me about the first season.

If you can get past Emilico's (Dani Chambers) annoyingly saccharine voice acting and you like a suspenseful slow-burner with a supernatural twist, give Shadows' House a visit.

Some are flattering and some are much less so, but here are some links to series I have reviewed where Dani Chambers also provided her dubbing services:

Endro! and Quintessential Quintuplets (Season 1): State Of the Ticketmaster Address, 2019

Harukana Receive and Island Anime-BAWklog: Finished Series A-Z (Part III)

Lord Of Vermillion: The Crimson King,

RErideD: Derrida Who Leaps Through Time, and

Ulysses: Jeanne d'Arc and the Alchemist Knight:Anime-BAWklog: Finished Series A-Z (Part IV)

Astra Lost In Space, BEM, and Conception: Anime-BAWklog: Finished Series A-Z (Part I)

DecaDence:Anime Spotlight #7: Decadent Listeners

Quintessential Quintuplets (Season 2): Back From Burnout? (AniMonday Edition)

Dr. Stone: Anime Spotlight #13: Time Travel That's Left

Our Last Crusade OR The Rise Of A New World: Anime Spotlight #5: Indiana Columbus Strangelove (and Juliet)

The Day I Became A God: Anime-BAWklog #5: Spotlightning Round

Dani Chambers also had a dub role in SSSS: Gridman, which I swear I wrote a review of somewhere, but Blogger can't find it, and I can't find it in my offline files. So that's going to be the series I cover for next week's Anime Spotlight. Now, though, I'm going to watch the Werewolf By Night Marvel Halloween Special, restock my vitamins, and get ready for another...interesting day of making breakfast and lunch for people to either ignore, criticize, drown in hot sauce, or consume like it's water even though it took me half an hour to prepare it. Then they can criticize me for not having any more of it. Yay!

Wow, am I negative tonight! Sorry about that, folks!

Animeister,

Out.