English Dub Review: Shadows House “The Soot Sickness”

Overview:

Emilico has her first doll class and runs into Mia who is now acting normal. She says those were Sarah’s feelings, not hers. Emilico and Lou’s debuts are coming up. There is an emergency with soot, when enough soot gathers together it moves with ill content and is called scorch. If enough of those gathered together they become a phantom and everyone has to try to stop it. A doll named Rose is attacked by the soot and gets soot sickness.

Our Take:

Well, Shadows House you had my curiosity but now you have my attention. The world-building for this show is master class at this point. We are getting drip-fed different things about the world that just keep making me more and more intrigued. Mia was being kind of rude to Emilico so I was wondering how their next interaction would go. She just brushed it aside by saying “Oh that was lady Sarah’s feelings, not mine, you’ll understand when you become a doll.”

They describe different things about what it means to be a doll. Even their outfits are interesting. When they are “working” everything but their face is covered. That’s because they are acting as the “face” of their shadow. I just keep anticipating different reveals.

I think this makes Emilico a fitting character for us to follow around because she’s as clueless as we are. For some reason, even the soot in this world becomes dangerous if left for too long. Now I understand why it needs to be cleaned so much. If enough soot gathers it begins to move with ill intent and becomes dangerous. These are called scorch and those can gather and become a phantom which is bad.

So bad in fact that when Emilico is attacked her new friend Rose gets in the way. When she does this she is essentially possessed by the soot. It’s eventually removed and she contracts “soot sickness”, she shows up fine later but I will be surprised if there are no residual effects. Just another thing to keep in mind with this show.

I really like how it’s a horror show in its setting but it isn’t too scary yet making it a decent watch for people who don’t like horror. Though admittedly horror is very hard to pull off in anime. I have a hard time watching horror movies sometimes but I can’t really think of too many times I have been scared watching an anime. This show does pull off that subtle creepy vibe really well and I am excited to see what happens.