Shadows House

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Japanese: シャドーハウス

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Information

Type: Manga

Volumes: Unknown

Chapters: Unknown

Status: Publishing

Published: Sep 6, 2018 to ?

Genres: Slice of Life, Supernatural

Demographic: Seinen

Serialization: Young Jump

Authors: Soumatou (Story & Art)

Statistics

Score: 8.36¹ (scored by 5,698 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #211²

² based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #616

Members: 23,086

Favorites: 1,046

External Links

Official Site, Wikipedia

8.36

Ranked #211Popularity #616Members 23,086

MangaYoung JumpSoumatou (Story & Art)

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Synopsis

Emilico is just one of many "Living Dolls" serving in the Shadows House, residents of which are pitch black from head to toe and constantly leak soot that stains the house black. Each "Shadow" is partnered with a Doll, which strangely resembles the other. As a Living Doll, Emilico must keep the house sparkling clean as well as act as the face for her master, Kate. In turn, Kate supports Emilico and treats her as her confidant.

As far as either of them can remember, this has always been the way their world works. However, the bond between a Shadow and a Doll isn't quite clear. Administrators watch over the young pairs from the higher levels of the mansion and judge them—but for what purpose?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Related Manga

Adaptation:

Shadows House, Shadows House 2nd Season

More characters
Characters

Emilico

Main

Kate

Main

John

Supporting

Shaun

Supporting

Lou

Supporting

Rum

Supporting

Patrick

Supporting

Ricky

Supporting

Barbie

Supporting

Rosemary

Supporting

More reviewsReviews

Mar 24, 2020

46 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

MaxtotheMinimum (All reviews)

69 people found this review helpful

This will be a short review since I highly recommend you go into this blind.

Where do I start?

Shadows House is quite a peculiar manga with an abnormal setting. It follows the relationship between Emilyko, a living doll, and her shadow master Kate. Emilyko has a duty to clean the room of her master who continues to emit soot that dirties her living space.

And we'll stop there for introductions.

Shadows House is still in publishing but what's nice are the fully-colored chapters in tandem with Soumatou's cutesy art that work well in creating a mysterious atmosphere.

As the manga goes on, you might pick up read more

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Oct 2, 2020

50 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 10

cecito (All reviews)

31 people found this review helpful

This is a GREAT manga full of mysteries and EXCELLENT art + storytelling.
It follows the story of Emilyko, the living doll, and her shadow, Kate. Emilyko has to clean every single day all the soot that comes out of Kate, but why is it? What's soot? Just what is a living doll? What does it mean to be "a face"? What even are shadows?

They live in a mansion owned by the Shadow family. Little by little you (and them) learn about their surroundings and context. What is that mansion, though? What on earth is the Shadow family anyway?

Chapter by chapter you gather read more

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Oct 17, 2020

79 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

NotCat (All reviews)

24 people found this review helpful

It is so easy to control people; just give them a false hope. Even if it is something that is highly disliked, a small lie will turn any hated activity in something that will be blindly followed without any questions. ‘Just keep on doing it and eventually your life will be better and you will be able to join the elite.’ It is too good to be true; however, a small part of your heart will still show a grain of hope.

In a nutshell
In a certain place, in a certain castle, there live people playing noblemen. If you want to know why, it is because they do not have faces. No one knows their faces. There, the 'shadow family,' who are served by their living doll 'faces,' reside.

Story
From the synopsis alone, Shadows House does sound like a first class horror manga. It just screams: ‘creepy!’ The story of the manga revolves around Emilyko, the 'living doll' that serves the shadow called Kate. The problem is, the servant is unable to see the face of the master, hence she does not know how Kate feels and if she is pleased. It is only natural, since no one is able to see the faces of the shadows, which makes their servants, the dolls, the only possibility to distinguish between the members of their clan. Little to no is known about the dolls, their creator, the shadows, the castle, they live in, and about a number of rules, both the shadows and the dolls follow alike. However, the castle does not look like something that opens opportunities; it looks more like a jail than anything else.

The initial feeling that you might get, when reading this manga, is that it is somewhat similar to Rozen Maiden. I am not going to give you any more details, since I might end up spoiling you both manga, but this is not that important for you to think about. Shadows House is quite an amazing read. While it does have a very slow, cliché and boring start that might be the reason for you to even start thinking about dropping the manga, but when you find out more about the shadows’ house, calling the manga boring would be quite an unforgivable mistake. Of course, it is not simply a slice of life with some drama, the main genre of the manga is supernatural. This manga has many supernatural elements and the best thing about it is that it is near impossible to guess anything correctly in this manga. There are just so many mysteries that come out of nowhere, making the world of Shadows House shadowy and dark. It is simply so enjoyable to read!

Characters
Just like with the story, it is near impossible to find them interesting at first. However, with time, more characters are introduced, who become a catalyst for the development of the manga’s protagonists. What is more, while many manga tend to focus only on the protagonists, Shadows House equally pays attention to both the supporting and the main characters of the manga. And it helps you enjoy the manga a lot!

Criticism/Enjoyment
There are no flaws for me to mention. So far, there are still many important details that are to be touched upon. I do not know, it might become even better, it might become boring, time will tell. But for now, it is a very enjoyable dark mystery that does have somewhat of a boring start, but then, chances are, you will not be able to stop reading; you will want to know more and more.

Overall
All in all, what a read, what a read! I do hope they will not fail with the upcoming anime adaptation. Shadows House is worth every single second of your free time, do give it a try!

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Nov 1, 2020

50 of ? chapters read

Overall Rating: 9

deadoptimist (All reviews)

22 people found this review helpful

While Kuro by the same team was a niche hit, Shadows House now is an AOE crit hit. It’s colored, it has one of the most unique worlds in recent manga, it’s fantastic. Shadows House seems to be beloved in France, and the French are right - they know good bande dessinée when they see’em.

First of all – this is not slice-of-life as some people call It, evidently judging by the covers, the description, and the few first chapters. The manga starts slow, because of delayed exposition. The characters learn about the world together with us, cause the world is the main mystery here, and also the main attraction. When they learn enough though, they start to act.

I have the chance to write a review at the time when this manga has run for a while already, so I can say that it has separated into two main distinct halfs so far:
1 - The first is mostly eery subversive exploration, from the point of view of Emilyco, the young maid you see on the covers. She’s plunged in a vast strange Gormenghast-like world of a castle, where she’s both limited and free, overlooked, as lowly servants are. She serves her master, deals with her problems, and tries to learn more about the space. The subversion comes from the juxtaposition of her cheerful open personality and the closed-off terrifying “habits” of the place, which her pure soul tends to overlook. It is normalcy for her even if it looks horrible to us, after all.
2 -The second is a high tension political intrigue between nobles with some action elements. Here the attention switches to Kate, Emilyco’s master. This part has a bigger cast of distinct characters, spy-like mental battles, deathly competitions, and a fight against the oppression of the elders.

Both are united at heart around the secret of the order in the house. Who or what are shadows? Why do they act this way? What is hidden beneath the many bloody lies the giant house is built on?

The majority of events takes place in the giant labyrinthine stone castle of the Shadows family, divided by class and age and the favor of the ruler. It’s heavy and inescapable, lost in the perpetual mist – its own surreal world, reminiscent of European dark fantasy, of its many feverish dystopias and disturbing dreams. The style of interiors and clothes is also European – we see Victorian things, some art deco, the characteristic imagery of English industrialism. It’s also colored as European comics usually are. The team cites Edward Gorey (an illustrator beloved by Tim Burton) as an inspiration apart from the Japanese horror manga.

This work has the intense narrative consistency of Japanese comics too though, and a great cast of characters mangakas like to grow. I don’t want to spoil, since discovery is so fragrant, do delicious here, but there’s a complex interplay between the servants and their masters, and within the classes – between different groups of servants and nobles. The manipulative rules of the house are masked as duty and care. Beneath them, behind the impenetrable masks every character fights for their own survival and goals, mostly warped goals only warped people can cook up, while slowly losing themselves further. The stakes are death or complete erasure for all.

The art is very pleasing even besides the color. The characters are distinct, interesting effects are used to show the shadow people’s difference. There's clear juxtaposition between the cuteness of designs and the bone chilling elements of the story, which compliments the same device in narration. The cuteness is good on its own as well. The interiors are well realized and combine European high class late XIX - early XX century interiors with steampunk and surrealist oil art. The outfits are especially eye catching and elaborate (and no wonder, since it’s the most Shadows get to show their personality, which is absolutely vital for them), the maid/butler outfit fans also won't be disappointed.
The art in Shadows House is soul food for the eye. As for fanservice – one can point out that the protags look like children, and there’s some cleavage shown off, but it’s wholly ignorable.

Shadows House is simply without peer at the moment, in many ways because it creates a playing field of its own. It’s very distinct, combining the best of Japanese and European comics, aesthetics and art inspirations into a unique captivating fictional world. While at the time I am writing this it’s announced that Shadows House will get an anime adaptation, this work is literary-inspired, so it feels right to read it. It’s also very carefully planned and focused, it's clear that the whole story is ready and thought through, so it is more pleasurable to read it as a whole. Anyways, whether you plan to wait for the adaptation or not, whether you prefer manga like me – this is a work worth picking up for everyone and all. Shadows House is magical and deserves more attention and more readers.

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