Decent first episode if unspectacular. The direction felt a little peculiar and I felt the pacing was a little slow, I do wonder how far along they intend to adapt the anime with this pace. Emilyko and Kate's VA are a little different from what I had expected but they do grew on me eventually. I hope the anime will do the manga justice as its a good manga and one that I've really enjoyed following.

Interesting to see the sequence where the living doll behaved as their master's face animated.

Rum..

It's been a while since I've read this part of the manga so I can't be sure but some things seemed different from the manga.

Post edited on 1st May 2021, 11:55am

Took a while to get around to it but I just saw the first episode. I never read the manga so it's all new to me. The concept seems interesting and I'm curious to see where they go with it and what the deal is with this family.
Here's some speculations based on just what was in the first ep. My first impression was that this family is somehow cursed, seems like the reasonable conclusion at least.
The intro kind of suggested they're killing people and reanimating their bodies to turn them into servants/dolls, like controlled zombies, but then that wouldn't really explain why servants look like their masters. So I'm going to take a wild guess here and say the masters are actually born from the servants, probably as part of what looked like a suicide ceremony. Maybe the shadows are more dependent on dolls than they lead on. Another shot that was in the intro makes me think that maybe shadows start to become unstable after a while, and this is their "coming of age", which is when the doll or original comes into play, to help keep the shadow stable. Furthermore, they showed what looked like living soot, independent of the shadows. I think the shadows aren't really human, but are in fact living sentient soot which picks a human to act as a host, and then mimics their appearance.
This is maybe even more of a stretch, but I think they might have enslaved humans, or if nothing else are making humans create more soot to sustain and/or reproduce.
Not sure if that can be considered a spoiler since it's all guessing, but might as well.
Again just going off the first ep with no prior knowledge of the manga. You're welcome to tell me how wrong and far off I am.

>>35661
They did let out a lot of hints at the intro but it's incredible that you managed to actually infer quite a lot of things correctly from it. There hasn't been any mention of a curse in the manga yet but you are very close in a lot of your assumptions.

>>35663
Nice! I figured it couldn't be as simple as what they're telling us.
This was just seeing the intro and ep once mind you, I didn't go back to look for anything else in that intro and just went off memory. I didn't go detective mode, but the first ep dumps so many clues that someone could easily do just that.
They tell us the servants are created dolls, but everything suggests they're very much human. I'm not sure if they even want viewers to take everything at face value when they make it so clear from the start that things aren't as they say.
I assume that intro wasn't in the manga?

>>35664
Indeed, those scenes in the intros weren't revealed from the outset in the manga. It was weird of them to reveal so much from the beginning but it was probably to pique the curiosity of the audience since the pacing has been relatively slow although it might pick up in speed from here-on. I suppose this brings into mind how different the two mediums can be and the difficulties/decisions directors/mangaka faces. While I was watching the recent episode I was quite surprised by how far along the manga has come since. On the other side of the spectrum the Urasekai Picnic anime felt so much faster than the manga and the same can probably be said about the spider isekai which I can't really comment on since I've dropped it, but I remember the manga's progression being very slow.

I skimmed through the earlier chapters and seems like they did make quite significant changes, I wonder if it would end up affecting the plot. My earlier misgivings about Emilyko and Kate I suppose was that Emilyko is even more of a "genki" character in the manga and it seems like they made Kate a little more hostile to Emilyko in the beginning.

>>35665
I think I would have preferred this a lot more if they didn't have the intro. Would have been nice if we were introduced to this world right along side the main character.

>>35667
I agree, seems like it's a design choice however. There are also some very big changes from the manga which the mangaka themself had to address on twitter because it caused a huge reaction among the manga readers, apparently it's to give the anime a more completed feel. Seems like there aren't plans for a second season yet so. If you do enjoy the series, I would recommend you to pick up the manga as well. The anime adaptation itself isn't in any way bad though.

バービー

So it's actually stylized Japanese, I wonder if it's possible to decipher everything.

>>35686
It appears to be stylized kana that is horizontally flipped, so you might be able to read it more easily if you horizontally flip the image and read from right to left. There's a gojuuon chart in episode 2 that can help you decipher it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnSWm7Zo2KA (video contains spoilers in the second half)

My attempt:
>バービー
>ほしつき、ほかのいき
>にんぎょうたちにしじ
>していました。

>まえに　まどから　て　を　ふった
>ことが　あります。

>ぼうれい　さわぎの　げんいん　を
>さがして　いるよう　です。

>ミアの　ことを　けったり、
>ラムにも　ひどいことを　いって
>いました。

>バービー　の　おかげ　さま
>じつりょくしゃ　だと

>ミアが　いって　いました。

Or with kanji inserted for better readability:
>バービー
>星つき、他の生き人形たちに指示していました。
>前に窓から手を振ったことがあります。
>亡霊騒ぎの原因を探しているようです。
>ミアのことを蹴ったり、ラムにもひどいことを言っていました。
>バービーのお影様
>実力者だと
>ミアが言っていました。

>>35687
Whoa that's amazing, it seems perfectly spot on to me. I didn't notice any of these while reading the manga, the efforts the mangaka poured into this series is astounding. It's cute that the way it's written reflects Emiliko's personality and her being new to learning to write too. On a side note, I've tried playing older untranslated Japanese games in an attempt to improve and practice the language but everything is usually in kana and I find it tedious to read.

Post edited on 8th May 2021, 11:56pm

How do you fall that far out of a window and walk away with just a scraped knee?

>>35690
There were lots of bushes and shrubs in the garden that probably helped to break the fall.

You'd think something like this would raise a few flags in the heads of various "dolls".

I'm bitter about how the adaptation turned out. In terms of art direction, I think they did pretty well overall. However, I don't understand why they had to cheapen the whole series by throwing out everything in your face and forsaking the subtleties that makes the series interesting. Seems like they might be trying to make the series more accessible and easier to understand but they have completely failed in that regard. Shadows House's primary demographics were seinen manga readers but it feels like they changed everything to better accommodate the wider shonen audience. There have been many comparisons between this series and another called The Promised Neverland which was also directed by Cloverworks except that series was specifically aimed at shonen, seems like the adaptation for that was a disaster as well. I feel sorry for Somato, the mangaka personally pleaded for support after there were concerns over changes to the original and claimed that the changes were under his behest. The info dump in the latest episode is the last straw for me. Feels like they have spoilered the whole suspense of the series. I'm hoping Cloverworks will never have a hand in adapting series that I happen to enjoy as well.

>>35755
I haven't been paying attention to any of that; that's disappointing to hear. However, I guess it shouldn't be surprising: if Shadows House is anything like Kuro, then this adaption must have indeed taken a lot of mystique out of the story. Guess I'll need to find some good scans now instead of after the anime concludes.

>>35757
Yeah, the manga is a lot more like Kuro in terms of pacing and nuance. Maybe I'm just being anal, seeing that the anime has been well-received, especially among newer audiences so the direction they are going for might've been a success after all. Still, Edward's speech at the end was too much for me, I think it revealed too much of what's to come that was slowly built-up in the manga. If the anime would bring the newer audiences to read the manga then I'm happy enough, there is so much effort placed in the manga not withstanding the foreshadowing and not to mention it's fully colored (just like Kuro). Above all, I think the anime didn't do the manga enough justice with regards to the intricacies of the narrative that Somato weaved.

Just finished 10th episode.
I'm really enjoying it so far, I'm thinking about picking up manga, but I think I will see how far the anime goes first.
I wonder what will happen to Ram from now on that Shirley didn't pass Debut.

Well seems like they changed everything, the entire episode 11 is almost entirely original. Not sure how they are going to end this with only two episodes left. The changes made everything feel disjointed. I don't see how they are going to be able to reconcile with the manga, I'm guessing the anime will take an entirely different route from here on out. I should also probably apologize for my earlier posts, I was re-reading parts of the manga to confirm the changes to the episode and it seems like my rant about Edward's info dump was actually in the manga as well. My memory is failing me miserably and making me look like an idiot.

>>35771
I would highly recommend you to read or at least skim everything from the beginning since the anime made some crucial changes from the source material. And as I've mentioned earlier, it seems like everything past the debut is going to take a different direction from the manga. It was actually mentioned in that episode that she will be turned into one of those veiled living doll.

Post edited on 19th Jun 2021, 2:10pm

>>35773
If I were to start reading manga, I would already be heavily spoiled, and the manga could spoil the anime for me, taking away enjoyment from both. I don't mind the changes, or rather don't care about them at all, I will continue enjoying the story as the anime director envisioned it. If anything, I will read the manga as a different take on the same story.
I never really understood these comparisons to original work, and complaining when things are different. I see it as maybe a blessing, being able to see the same, or similar, story, and get surprised in places.
It's just 3 more episodes, I will see what the anime has to offer after 6 episodes of going to the basement through the garden, before starting with manga. Was the debut arc as long in the manga?

>>35661 here
Getting caught up. I found pretty much everything involving Edward to be a bit cringe for the lack of a better term. I find it annoying when characters (specifically antagonists.) feel the need to go on long winded rants explaining their own plans and motivations. It feels like bad lazy writing, although I get the impression it wasn't like this at all in the manga. If I had one complaint about the medium of anime, it's that things generally tend to be over the top and exaggerated with everything going on needing to be explained in excruciating detail, because I guess the average fan has ADD and can't be bothered to pay attention? I want to be able to figure things out on my own, drawn my own conclusions, I don't need to be hand held.

Was that game of tag from the end, in the manga? I found it a bit obnoxious and immature.
Big brother: "You can't be in my room! I'm telling dad! you're gonna get in troooouble~"
Little sister: "nuh uhh, I'ma run away and make dad get mad at you!" Those last couple ep didn't feel that well written, and came across as a half assed attempt at adding conflict for a "action packed" end to the season.



Why wouldn't there be cart access to the higher floors? They still use veiled dolls as servants, and servants need to transport supplies and materials.

If they're going to use the "I'm an adult who's going to believe you anyway" logic, why even bother with the kidnapping in the first place when he can at any time accuse them of breaking whatever rules he feels like? "Oh hey gramps, yeah kate's a terrorist, her friends too, I over heard them talking about it and how they want to kill you and blow up shadow house. No need to thank me, just doing my job."

Why aren't dolls kept on a steady supply of coffee? Especially if there's concern of them going rouge.

Why isn't anyone keeping better tabs on them if there's even a chance of this happening?

Why do shadows need to stay outside of their hosts if the coffee proves they're ripe for the mind controlling from the start? As soon as the soot forms a personality, it should be fine right?

How are villages outside of the range of that castle not catching wind to what's going on? Do they know and not want to do anything about it? Are the leaders of the country ignorant to this city sized manor which routinely abducts local children?
How does some minor soot influence in the air convince people to so easily discard their children and siblings? Makes me wonder why even bother with the coffee if everyone's already being controlled anyway. In the anime they showed one doll coming to her senses after drinking tons of water, another after being punched in the face a few times, and yet another who simply had their name spoken. Are these things that never happen to the villagers?

Why is a face so important in the early stages, yet it's something they generally keep hidden after moving up the ladder?

Do they not realize feeding your doll/host nothing but bread is going to weaken and likely shorten it's life span? Do they not care?

How is it that Edward was placed in charge of the children's wing, but isn't allowed to enter it?

How the hell did Edward and/or bird bitch not notice a person hanging onto that bird for dear life?

I'm also curious what the point of all this is. A slow moving and calculated plan for world domination? Why hasn't soot tried to take over political figures yet? Did the original ride along side it's host for years too before taking it over?

>>35798
A lot of your questions are answered in the manga, the last episode of the anime is tailored exclusively for the anime and there are significant deviations from the manga. This is why adaptations don't always translate well.

>>35773
I enjoy the manga enough to keep reading (until the translations were messed up and I put it on hold) but seeing as CloverWorks ruined The Promise Neverland season 2 I avoided the anime of Shadows House in fear something like this would happen.

https://twitter.com/shadowshouse_yj/status/1532331444428804096?s=20&t=1OPoMNgVDzE8rL3YL52daQ

There's gonna be a season two???

Yesterday I started watching and I'm already 2 episodes into it. I wish the living dolls were more doll-like akin to Rozen Maiden and how the dolls had joints and a small stature. Anyway, I want to see how will evolve. I like the mysterious atmosphere mixed with the cuteness and sillyness of Emilyko.

Season two's first ep could have been better, but I think this might be going in some interesting directions now.

Picked up the manga and got started with the first season of the show.
So far I really liked the VA's performance, both the art and the voice acting felt natural, I was surprised and happy to find out I imagined some character voices in a similar way to what the author had in mind for them.

So lemme get this straight. Kate meets with an acquaintance who brags about how they can remotely control living dolls and shows off the skill in detail. Later some living dolls (that no one likes) do something really bad they'd never do in full view of everyone. Kate then sets off to solve the mystery of who could really be behind this.
really? Really?

I want a new season so bad, even after how disappointing season 2 came out to be. I miss Emilyko...

I should pick up where I left off with the manga, practically dropped a lot of manga when mangadex went off indefinitely.