Review of Shadows House

Shadow's House is frustrating for me. I am utterly in love with the concept This sort of obscure noble family living deep in the mountains, incapable of expression and constantly emiting soot from their bodies, "create" these living dolls that serve both as their live in maids/butlers and their "faces," emoting and expressing for them in the ways they cannot. I also like(not love) the aesthtic choices made for this show--minus the art style; the music along with the designs of the creatures and characters give me a Don't Starve meets Studio Ghibli vibe that I really love. I would have liked a darker colorpallete and low key lighting to give more of that creepy vibe, but it still works.
I love the world building the most. The setting is compleling, and everything from the origins of the shadows themselves, the purpose of the debut, to the origins of living dolls is just cool. Even the finer details of soot sickness, the existence of scorches, and even the way the Shadows always refer to themselves in the first person( which is never directly addressed and perhaps the most brilliant little detail of all) is awesome.

Ultimately this show frustrates me because it fails on the margins. It lacks nuance, and when you dig deeper into the minutiae of the plot and world building, it directly contradicts itself.
Let's talk about the characters. They are all one note and flat anime clichés. Even Emillico "Sunshine," who along woth Kate, is defontoely the most fully formed character in the narrative, trends in that direction. Now let me clear. I understand Sunshine's purpose in the narative. Her unabashed kindness and positivity is magnetic and changes the hearts and minds of the children around her, and will ultimately lead to great societal change within the show's world It's a common role filled by shounen protagonists. My issue with Emillico is not that she never ever expresses various emotions, it's that they largely come in extremes. There is no nuance in the depiction if her emotions, every emotion is projected at full force. When she is happy, she is EXTREMELY happy. When she is nervous she is EXTREMELY nervous, etc. I understand that part of this is due to the nature of anime itself. It has conditioned us to both expect and believe that large theatrical displays of emotion are esential to the genre. But they don't serve the world of a show that is rooted in the finer subtlety of high society, and on a general level, it makes Emillico harder to relate too.

A great example of a character filling a sinilar role in another narative is Gon fron Hunter X Hunter. Gon is extremely similar to Emo
Illico, but I find Gon more relatable because he acts more like a real human being. Sure he is happy go lucky, but even his "happiness" has a range to it. It's all in the way his facial expressions are animated and in the performance of his seiyuu. He isnt just nervous or sad sometimes, we see nervousness, but we see fear, we see apprehension, we see anxitey, we see frustration, and even see despair. The range of Gon's emotions make him more relatable and compelling and real. Emillico lacks that same emotional range.

This lack of nuance is also characteristic of the writing within the show's world building. Mild spoilers for the show coming here, but its needed to illustrate my point.

MILD SPOILERS BELOW!

-how can the shadows learn their personalities from their human host in stage 2? Clearly Kate has a personality long before she meets Emillico for the first time. Her expressions might be muted at first but she clearly ISNT the same as Rum's shadow master. She definitely has a personality. And if exposure to the personalities of their human host is what gives THEM personality, how is it possible that they develop entirely different ones?

-Why are the Dolls given so little information about how the house operates, outside of a manual that some of them cant even read. That's just dumb and innefficient. I understand why from a writing standpoint, it makes sense to keep Emillico so vastly in the dark so she can ask questions that the reader might ask. Unfortunately, it doesnt make sense within the context of the story.

END OF MILD SPOILERS

I can think of countless examples like those two that I can mention, that I am avoiding so as to not reveal massive spoilers.

Ultimately I will be watching the next season. The show is entertaining and the world is compelling. I'm just disappointed that the show got in it's own way, thus leaving it encapable of reaching greatness, in my opinion.

6/10