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Shadows House premiered in April last year, and despite minimal fanfare is receiving a second season this July. The manga that the anime is adapted from is still serializing in Shounen Jump and has collected ten volumes so far. Despite that, little is said online about the grim and mysterious first season. The franchise of Shadows House is a gothic supernatural seinen series about a family of nobles who are pitch-black and emit soot. Known as the Shadows, they assign a Living Doll to their family members as they come of age. These Living Dolls act as both their servant and their face, being able to express emotions that the nobles can not. The main story follows Emilico, whose cheerful demeanor is a stark contrast to the dreary manor and the dark mysteries she begins to unravel.
The first season adapted the first three and a half volumes of the manga, with some changes to events in the source material within its thirteen episodes. Despite these changes, the anime itself was still well received and at the time of writing this article has a 7.75 out of 10 rating out of over 65,000 users on MyAnimeList. The real question is whether it is worth watching before the second season comes out next month. Especially in the well-known cases of Tokyo Ghoul and The Promised Neverland, they had stellar first seasons adapted from their manga that had amassed large fan bases, just to ignore the source material for their own narratives in their second season and disappoint their followers. In this article, we will explore whether Shadows House will follow the same curse.
The Anime's Unique Concept And Aesthetics
The combination of the concept and the aesthetics make for a thematically rich setting. Conceptually, anime with a Victorian gothic and steampunk-inspired setting is rare, and this anime does it well. The constantly dreary atmosphere complements the oppressive authority of the Shadow family. Although the obsession with lolita aesthetics is popular in Japanese media, this anime is inspired more so by Victorian gothic literature and the related time period.
The anime feels like a love child of Tim Burton and Bram Stoker's Dracula, just with an overly cheerful anime girl as the protagonist. It's foreboding and unsettling, but also odd and outlandish in many aspects. The main concept of a supernatural family of nobles who use Living Dolls as both servants and to present their emotions seem difficult to grasp at first, but the anime does a stellar job at making it seem normal within its created world.
The Dynamics Between The Living Dolls And Their Shadow Masters
Focusing more on the concept, the anime displays many unique relationships between the Living Dolls and their supernatural masters. The main protagonist Emilico, pictured above, is overly cheerful, outgoing, and clumsy, whereas her Shadow named Kate is quite, reserved, and proper. The dynamic between the two seems to be unique, as Kate treats her Living Doll Emilico as more of a friend than a workhorse. Not every Shadow in the series is treated poorly, but most are merely treated as accessories to their masters.
As an example, the usual Living Doll and Shadow dynamic is seen with Lou and her Shadow named Louise. Louise is obsessed with Lou's looks, to the point Lou is terrified of ruining her face and potentially losing her place as the Living Doll of Louise. She ignores any unnecessary thoughts, as they are called in the series, and focuses on emoting for her master and attending to her every whim.
The dynamics between the Shadows and their living dolls are often telling of each other, being able to introduce a character, their personality, and their morals without info-dumping or much exposition. Because of this, the world-building in the anime feels natural and unforced for the most part.
But What About The Changes From The Manga?
Although history has shown that deviating from the source material can have disastrous consequences, however, someone who is not concerned is the author of the original manga herself. Not only was she consulted for the changes and even the anime-only ending, but she explains it was done as the anime originally was only intended to have one season.
She confirms in the tweet below as well as other tweets contained in the thread what was said above, as well as confirming she will help connect everything back to the original story if there ever was a second season. This tweet was made before the second season was confirmed, however.
Although the tweet is in Japanese, multiple Twitter accounts have translated the tweet in the replies for English speakers. The author herself is okay with the alternate ending, especially since she was tasked with writing it herself. And in the tweet above specifically, she promises to connect everything back to the manga's plot if there was ever to be another season; now that it's confirmed, we can assume she would keep her word so that the studio could continue to adapt her well-loved manga series as it was originally intended.
When it comes to seasonal anime, many come and go without being noticed. However, this anime doesn't deserve to be forgotten. Even if the second season does fall victim to an awful second season, the first season was altered to have a contained story within the first season and is enjoyable completely on its own. Showcased in a hauntingly beautiful setting, Shadows House is a perfect weekend binge for those looking to break out from your typical seasonal anime.
Shadow's House 2nd Season will premiere on July 9.