シャドーハウス 2nd Season Shadows House 2nd Season
Synopsis
Shadows House 2nd Season begin after the resolution of the debut, Kate and her Doll Emilico have officially become residents of the Shadows House. However, they are under constant vigilance by the Star Bearers—an elite group in charge of the children’s wing. In order to escape from their surveillance and the morbid methods they use to keep everyone’s loyalty in check, Kate and Emilico must be wary of who to trust and aim to become Star Bearers themselves.
Meanwhile, the Star Bearers have encountered their own problems. A mysterious robed figure dubbed “Master Robe” has trespassed and roams around the children’s wing. At first, Master Robe is deemed harmless, but more incidents start occurring that endanger the Dolls’ lives—all of them pointing to the suspicious individual.
To improve her reputation, Kate decides to solve the mystery herself. Yet, with so few clues and so many suspects, searching for Master Robe and their motive for attacking the mansion proves more challenging than she imagined.
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Review
The anime continuation of the duo mangaka Soumatou’s Shadows House, and the single-handed question that’s popping up on everybody’s minds is that: “Where do we go with that supposed mixed reception of the anime-original finale of the prequel?” And I would say: “Please be patient, the production staff know what they are doing with the author’s supervision.”
To ace the progression of the manga into anime form, what we started off with Season 1 sets out the beginning that the entire Shadows House was made for commune between humans being bought off to this big and huge house and their Shadow masters vying for the top spot of their own ranking, thus labelling the Shadow-Living Doll master-servant relationship where the Living Doll acts like his/her Shadow master would. Overtime we get to see more characters and who’s boss in the House that would create its own rank-and-file system of the Adults and most especially the Star Bearers, guarding the House close like a nice wineskin that’s wrapped in elegance. And it’s not until Season 2 now that we also find out that this Shadows House is not what it seems, full of tension, mysteries and downright horrifying situations that would cast a dark light over what truly is the will of submission in the conquest for young Shadows to be accepted into the family, and most certainly it did for the most part.
Manga readers especially, complained at the prequel missing out one of the key characters that would come to redefine what Shadows House is truly all along, and due to time constraints, it was left out and uncertain if a sequel would be in production to bring back this character. And now everyone can rejoice, because Season 2 focuses a lot on the entity that everyone has come to know now as Master Robe, the one who’s orchestrating the behind-the-scenes notion on showcasing the deft hand of the House and its true infamy of the whole Shadow-Living Doll relationship, that is only privately known to those who went through this egregious process.
And most certainly what was presented here labels Season 1 as the cake’s base foundation while the sequel here is the icing on the cake where all hell broke loose, and everyone (or most of them) in this juncture is aware of the effects of what’s about to come. The coffee soot mind manipulation of the Living Dolls in perfect consignment to the Shadows House is also a distinct feature of the sequel here, and like the Shadow-Living Doll relationship, is also part of that involvement into the lore of what the House buys for in terms of forced and filtered loyalty. And if you see it from an overall perspective, Season 2 here really shines upon the hidden darkness of the Shadows House, which is basically an exposé of how the entire Shadows family operates with Lord Grandfather, that churns down to a “dead or alive” decision for all. Either you live with it, or willingly die against its terms and conditions.
Otherwise, Emilico, Kate and their group of Shadows and Living Dolls are pretty much consistent as per Season 1’s standards, with more characters to boot now considering that the route to the House’s exposé has the gang inquire more pairs to figure out their roles in this entire endeavour, which helps fill in the intel that had missing puzzle pieces since the very beginning of the story. It certainly is not pretty knowing more about the House and having speculations across the board and being the most viable targets from the Adults and the Star Bearers’ point of view is just as lucid as it was like in the prequel, so the lore of mystery never gets old with more answers to fill up the questions raised as they go.
Unsurprisingly, CloverWorks’s production also keeps it consistent with the visually dark undertones, something that’s especially way more excessive here due to the story plot that encroaches disagreements to plain-out action with much soot. This is par for the course that the anime has took on with the manga’s progression, and to see it animated in its sheer horror is absolute bliss. On the music side of things, ReoNa’s OP is good, but comparing with her Season 1 juggernaut of an ED, it’s night and day. But what I’m most excited about is ClariS (with a new member) finally coming back to produce more songs, and “Masquerade” is a return to form in regard to the duo’s signature rhythms (though that LycoReco’s OP is pure masterclass).
Above all, Season 2 improved on the one sole key difference with the story linkage from Season 1, and they couldn’t have done it without the author’s help. That said, both seasons are just as engaging, and the sequel easily edges out the prequel in terms of unwrapping its overall mystery with the tone of its storytelling. That’s not to say that what we got with Shadows House 2nd Season ain’t bad, but we just want more, and that’s where I’ll lead you to continue reading the manga from where the anime left off, because it’s that engrossing for a rare, full-colour manga.
Take the advice: watch the anime, then continue the manga. The interest never wanes in the exciting deliration that is Soumatou’s Shadows House.
