Review of Shadows House

After the disaster that was Yakuneba s2, Cloverworks needed a bounce back series. Many people thought that would be Shadow’s House. While it’s an improvement, it looks like Cloverworks have still not learnt their lesson, and continue to alter established stories and characters. Shadow’s House on its own merits is a solid show. It has a lot of the same mystery and intrigue that the first season of Yakuneba had. Beneath the facade of cute character designs, lies some dark secrets. However, knowing that entire arcs and characters were removed and or changed completely for this really made it difficult to enjoy the second half ofthe show. Cloverworks again went anime original and again I’m left disappointed. Now, the good thing here is that the anime oriignal content in Shadow’s House is not nearly as bad as Yakuneba season 2. This is still a decent show, and I would recommend a viewing. The issue lies in the fact that it sets up a lot of plot points and doesn’t get to realise them because of the way the story has been condensed. The anime original ending makes it hard to even make a season 2 based on the manga because of how different it is. It’s fair to say my main problem with Shadows House is its unrealised potential.

I did really enjoy the dark atmosphere of the show. I think the concept of shadows, the dolls and soot were really original and interesting. I can’t say that I’ve ever really seen a story like this before. The characters are unique and grow on you over the course of the show, particularly Emilico and Kate. I just hate that the story’s pace took a turn for the worse around episode 7 or so.

All the technical aspects of the show are top notch as you would expect from Cloverworks. Great character designs, solid animation, etc. The first half of the series is really well paced and does a good job of keeping you on the edge of your seat with the mystery. Second half lacks that same pacing, but still worth a watch.

While I was let down by the second half of Shadows House, it’s still a pretty good show with an interesting and original concept, some cool characters and decent writing. I highly recommend checking out the manga for the full accurate story, but the anime is a nice introduction into the world for sure.

Shadows House gets 8 fairies out of 10.