Review of Shadows House

SPOILER WARNING: CloverWorks, I'm done watching any series that you animate and produce, first the Promised Neverland, then Wonder Egg Priority, and now Shadows House, when will you ever learn your lesson? Although this series only made me hate CloverWorks even more, the earlier parts of it were honestly pretty good. The plot of Shadows House seemed similar to the Promised Neverland, but unlike that series, it focuses more on a noble family of humanoid-like shadows and their dolls for servants. At first, it focused on introducing what the dolls do, how they relate to their shadow masters and even brought on some unique traits that makethe dolls who they are as characters. Then, it focuses on a hierarchy of the family, showing how they do things in the Shadows House until an individual event causes the central shadows to rebel against the house itself. From there it went from a unique story with a unique concept to creating an anime original ending to end producing the series before it can continue. As an anime-only watcher, I want to watch a full story, but when I do my research on specific series and hear what people think about the latest episode, it makes me start to dislike the anime.

The story is simple, the two central characters, Emilyko and Kate are living in the Shadows House while they start to get along as equals. Along the way, Emilyko makes friends with the other dolls and does work while maintaining a status quo in the family. Although the story is simple, it includes other aspects, such as the antagonist of the story and even special powers that the shadows can use. Specific plot points in the story felt slightly rushed when it started, but towards the end, they rushed it so often that they wanted to conclude the anime by proving that they achieved nothing after the main arcs.

The characters themselves are focused on individuality and how they feel going through the tasks of the Shadows House. In a few parts, it features the dolls and shadows mimicking each other like puppetry, however, Emilyko's character was a contrast as she was positive twenty-four-seven, taking away the dark atmosphere in the area, and I found that well-written. As for the older characters, specifically the antagonist Edward, he was annoying and only thought of himself, but after he was defeated, he still didn't change, proving that the later episodes had no impact on him. Another aspect that I didn't like was how the characters got a bit of development, but it never fleshed out the remaining members. Unless they announce another season, I'm not satisfied with how they left the remaining members untouched.

The animation itself was simple at times, but in a few parts, it was well animated and showed the beauty of the characters. That's only it, and nothing else was exciting, but the way they made soot move felt unique and creepy at times. The soundtrack itself takes the cake as the opening has no vocals, giving it an Addams Family vibe and showed how it can sound good without vocals like Cowboy Bebop. The ending is one of the best I've heard this spring season, the buildup towards the more exciting parts of the song stunned me, I never thought such a method made the song sound amazing.

Overall, even though the characters have great designs, it brought another simple concept like shadows and turned it into an anime, I give the author props for that choice. The story, however, deserved much more and didn't have to end without anything achieved, if they leave it like that, then they can set up another season of Shadows House. I don't recommend this series if you're starting to get fed up with rushed stories in anime, but I would watch it for its unique charms. This will probably be the last CloverWorks anime I'll watch since they always mess up many series, I'll probably just quit watching the anime they produce.