This review contains mild spoilers for Shadows House

According to Anilist's databases, over the past two years, there has been an average of 40 anime shows debuting per season. That's not even counting movies, shorts, OVAs, ONAs, specials, music videos, and hentai — counting those, the number nearly triples. It just goes to show how much anime there is to choose from in any given season. 9 or 10 airing shows a season is generally the most an animegoer will watch. Particularly ~~masochistic~~ ardent anime fans will watch around fifteen. If you're anything like me, you'll only be watching three or four shows. All this is to say that a given person won't watch anywhere near the total number of shows for a given season. There isn't an even distribution of people watching different shows, either — people tend to cluster around the most popular of shows. You can often reasonably guess how popular a show is by its genre, with magical/battle girl and music shows routinely ignored. There's a steep drop-off in popularity where it quickly begins to feel like hardly anyone is watching a given show. This leads to many shows falling through the cracks. What you'll find beneath those cracks is largely a gamble. Sometimes, like Warlords of Sigrdrifa, it's a show that you'll regret taking the time to time to find, a show whose mediocrity justifies its obscurity.

Shadows House is not one of those shows.

Shadows House, while not quite what I'd call a "hidden gem" in terms of visibility, nevertheless has gotten a bit lost in the shuffle for the reasons I've described and more. This is a darn shame, too, because Shadows House is a grippingly creepy, mysterious show that's sure to leave you on the edge of your seat. Even watching as little shows as I do, I wouldn't bet on it being my favorite show of the year, but it's certainly a gem even if it's not a diamond, even if it's not hidden. It's a show that I want more people to see because it deserves it. If nothing else, it serves its purpose well. It's fairly known that anime are often glorified advertisements for manga, it's one reason why anime often only get one season — they were never meant to tell a full story, instead of being made to entice viewers to purchase the manga to pick up the story where it left off. This particular advertisement has been pretty effective, as I'm considering reading the manga.

The anime takes place in the eponymous Shadows House, a manor tucked away in the mountains where Shadow lords live, pitch-black humanoid beings that emit soot, necessitating their abodes to be constantly cleaned for them. This task falls upon the Living Dolls, people we'd assume to be human, with defined and visible facial features. In addition to acting as their butlers, due to their visible faces, the Living Dolls are to act as their Shadow Masters'...well, faces. In front of others, the Living Doll is to be completely in sync with their Shadow Masters — like dolls, they're to bend to the whims, the emotions of their master, depicting the emotions that their Shadow Masters can’t properly convey. We follow Kate, a child in the Shadows House, and her Living Doll, Emilico. Living Dolls are instructed not to fret over trivial matters and only to think of how to best serve and emulate their masters. Emilico, however, is bubbly, clumsy, inquisitive, and often scatterbrained. She's nothing like Kate, who's reserved, poised, and cunning. Emilico doesn't fit the ideal of what a Living Doll should be, but this doesn't seem to bother Kate, who seems to dislike how the Shadows House operates. As we follow Kate and Emilico, we learn more and more about the mysterious house and its inhabitants, all while Kate, Emilico, the rest of the Shadow Children, and their living dolls prepare for the debut, which will determine whether or not the shadows and their dolls shall remain in the manor.

And even that feels like it's saying a bit too much. I don't think I'm spoiling the show in my synopsis, I just don't think I'm properly conveying the mysteriousness of the show. You really start out with nothing when you begin the show, as we mainly follow the point-of-view of a newly awakened, totally clueless Emilico. Due to this, the mystery doesn't feel artificial, whether in terms of the audience not being privy to information the characters should logically have or do to things feeling "played up." Au contraire, mon chère lecteur, there's a lowkey way that the information is presented that makes for an effective disconnect between audience and character perceptions. Pitch black beings, people known as Living Dolls, living soot, etc. are all depicted rather matter-of-factly and it fuels the feeling that something's wrong, that you don't have the full picture to make heads or tails of this situation, thus you keep watching. The mystery element is one of the biggest things that the show has going for it; if you enjoy it, you'll keep coming back for more, and fortunately, the show never runs out of mysteries, never runs out of curveballs to throw at your perception of this world. The answers to these questions make for a creepy, engrossing setting. Shadows House has pretty good pacing, with the answers to these questions being slow, yet not glacial. The answers are given at a carefully planned rate to ensure that, again you keep tuning in. Throughout the first half of the cour or so, there was never a week where I felt compelled to sit an episode out or watch it late — I was always hungry for more shadowy goodness. In addition, fortunately, there are still some mysteries left, thus enticing viewers to continue with the story, whether through a second season or through the manga.

I really enjoyed the directing of this show. As the Shadows require Living Dolls to convey their emotions, you'd expect the Shadows to be featureless blobs.

...okay, well, they are, but you can still tell how they're feeling pretty well, better than many other anime, I'd say. Through careful framing (such as depicting Kate in profile) and attention to detail (her raising her fist to her mouth when amused), we viewers have a very good idea of how any given Shadow Master is feeling despite not being able to see their face. The voice direction is also quite good. Besides doing a good job of emoting while not having the backing of facial animations, the voice actors also do a good job of distinguishing their roles. You see, save for Kate and Emilico, every Shadow Master and Living Doll pair share a VA. It's impressive how distinct each actor can make their two given characters. Given that the ideal Living Doll should emulate their master, you'd think they'd sound and act the same, but no, the voice actors do a good job of aurally assisting the text, distinguishing the members of the pairs. Louise is sassy and prideful while Lou is taciturn and quiet. John is somewhat boisterous while Shaun is no-nonsense. Mia acts as a kind, humble mentor while Sara is haughty and snooty. The duo that's the most similar to one another is probably Patrick and Ricky, but even they're slightly distinctive from one another thanks to their VA; it's subtle, but it's certainly there.
While I'm talking about the VAs, let me praise the characters in general. You'll come for the mystery and tone and largely stay for them, but the characters certainly sweeten the deal. They're not the absolute best characters I've seen, but they're quite distinct and entertaining enough. I'm generally not wild about the characters of Emilico's archetype, but what can I found her endearing, possibly because she was balanced out by Kate and the general tone of the show. It's interesting to see the characters bounce off of one another as well as seeing the contrast between how dolls act around their Shadow Masters and when they're away. Even more bit characters are quite colorful distinct, and it helps that the Shadows all wear very catching clothing.

And then there's the tone. Anilist lists the show as being horror. This is a bit of a miscategorization (though it's still better than Myanimelist listing the show as a Slice-of-Life). Psychological horror might be a bit better, but it's still not great. The problem is that the show is a bit too subtle to be horror, a bit lowkey, as I said before. Nothing really jumps out at you. While there are some frightening elements, they're so occasional that they really don't define this show in terms of genre. Shadows House isn't "scary" so much as it is "creepy." The mystery and this tone are what drive this show and make it what it is. This creepy vibe, this nagging feeling of dread is what makes the show as good as it is.

If you're prepared for it.

Make no mistake, I think this tone works great, but either due to the aforementioned miscategorization or due to misreading the show in and of itself, it can be easy to think this show will be scary. If one holds their breath, expecting the horror to hit the fan sooner or later, they'll be disappointed. And again, the show dances around horror, so wanting horror isn't completely unfounded, it just hurts the show a bit as one may find themselves waiting for something that will never come. The scariest Shadows House gets is when the scorches attack in an early episode.

That said, I think there could be room for more creepiness. If the mystery and tone are what drive the show, if they're even a bit absent, the show will falter. Unfortunately, both elements take a bit of a backseat for the Debut Arc, which is a bit more of an adventure-y fare. I liked the debut overall, but it was oddly long for a one-cour, twelve-episode anime that might not have a sequel. It's odd to have an out-and-out arc in this format. I'm wary of saying it overstayed its welcome since I didn't find it boring, perse, but it definitely was a bit less exciting than what came before or after. During the Debut Arc, I wasn't as compelled to watch the episodes as soon as they came out and I attribute this to the mystery and creepiness sitting back for the most part. They're still there, but nowhere near as prevalent as before.

The last two episodes are apparently anime only and it kind of shows. As far as I can tell, it's nothing crazy; they didn't pull a The Promised Neverland Season 2 on us (despite it being from the same studio), but it's noticeable enough that readers of the manga pointed it out. It's not...bad and ratchets up the suspense, but at the end of the day, it didn't feel consequential and doesn't seem to advance the show too much. A big part of this is the antagonist who orchestrated a kidnapping attempt is essentially given a slap on the wrist. Not only is this frustrating as someone who wants to see him reprimanded for his actions, but it’s frustrating from a narrative standpoint as it really just seems to paint the last episodes as meaningless. I certainly know why they did it — they wanted to wrap up events while still leaving the door open for a second season. This way, there wouldn't be anything too contradictory with the manga, but it still felt like a waste of time.

This final arc as well as the debut arc really took the wind out of the anime's sails for me. Towards the middle of the anime's run, I thought this was going to be one of the first manga I picked up due to an anime in years. Now, I don't feel nearly as compelled to. I still might, but I'd definitely say the anime didn't finish nearly as strong as it started.

Even so, it certainly didn't end poorly, just not as strong. Even with it somewhat fumbling the landing (keyword being "somewhat), I can't recommend this show enough, if only because its popularity belies its quality and I want more people to experience it for itself. It's a creepy mystery that I'm sure will leave you glued out of your seat 8 times out of ten.

Or rather, 8.3, as that's the score, but that sounds a bit awkward in a sentence.