Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window
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Kirki
Posts: 296 |
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I'm so glad this got a proper coverage!
 The mystery is genuinely engaging and the characters are interesting enough to keep you on your toes. This season is filled with horror-themed series but this is the one that is taking more seriously its creepy and uncanny atmosphere, whether it is about sewed together corpses or Hiyakawa's unwanted advances. It reminds me of old-school ghost series like Shinrei Tantei Yakumo or Ghost Hunt. If the genre is about to have a comeback, it's a pretty damn good start.
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musouka
Posts: 718 |
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I was so disappointed to see this one wasn't going to get coverage--and equally thrilled when I saw this set of reviews with your name attached, Rebecca!
I do feel like the anime has jettisoned a lot of the quieter, more casual moments, along with--perhaps more tellingly--Mikado's more explicit musings of sexual attraction to Hiyakawa. (Things like wondering how Hiyakawa would be as a lover, making it clear that he thinks Hiyakawa is physically attractive, etc.) Losing those moments has the result of making Hiyakawa come across as more purposefully sinister, like a spider waiting for prey in his web. I think the manga does a better job of showing a man who finds things like social niceties and the motivations of others confusing--and therefore irrelevant to his goals and actions. |
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daisicles
Posts: 28 Location: USA |
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Definitely, that is the biggest loss for me, beyond any individual case being cut or reworked. I'm actually encouraged by their willingness to rework the material to a certain extent, but in the process Mikado has been flattened a bit -- I miss how much he pushes back, even if he often does relent for his own complicated reasons -- and Hiyakawa seems a lot more like some kind of evil mastermind than he really is. I am glad that their relationship isn't being changed to purely sunshine and roses, but more of the manga's humor to balance things out would not go amiss. |
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NeedMoreCats
 Subscriber Posts: 333 Location: Westchester, NY |
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I really didn’t think this show would ever get enough votes, so I’m delighted about the reviews. That Rebecca will be our reviewer is just the cherry on top.
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2655 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Thanks, everyone! I'm incredibly excited to be reviewing it. (And for the next volume of the manga to come out next week!) I honestly wasn't sure it would get voted in.
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musouka
Posts: 718 |
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Oh??? I went and checked everywhere I could think of, but I didn't see it on suBLime's list of upcoming releases. Do you know something we don't? 
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 2655 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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It's entirely possible that Amazon is lying to me, but here it is.
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wolf10
 Posts: 929 |
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musouka
Posts: 718 |
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Yeah, I wouldn't say it's particularly subtle what the series is trying to explore regarding Mikado's character. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11601 |
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^ Have not read the manga, but I sure do like the character designs in the manga much better than how they look in the anime. Can't put my finger on it, but the anime designs seem to have a more overtly creepy edge to them, which to me detracts from the inherent creepiness of the proceedings rather than enhancing it, which I suppose was what they were going for. It's like "look how creepy these people are!" instead of "hmm, they look like ordinary folks but their behavior is really off."
I was thinking this from the first moment I saw him, but after episode 4 I'm pretty convinced Hiura's employer (?) is Mikado's father. Unless it's a case of Mikado interpreting what he saw through his own experiential filter, why else would he be using Mikado's mother's jewelry box as his image of his safe box? (let me find out I'm wrong when the anime tells me, thanks) |
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musouka
Posts: 718 |
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Did you mean Mukae instead of Maeda?
That aside, it’s interesting that in the manga, Mukae’s speech is aimed at Mikado instead of Hiyakawa. Hiyakawa already agrees with the basic premise, as I believe was mentioned in and earlier episode, that you should be around people that understand you. (The corollary to that being if you can’t find a similar person to just be alone…?) It’s one of the key differences I feel about Mikado’s character from the two mediums. Mikado is very frequently scared in the original because he doesn’t like facing things head on, whether it’s about the scary things around him or the scary things within himself…like an attraction to Hiyakawa that he doesn’t want to take full ownership of. With so much of the tension in the anime coming purely from Hiyakawa, it makes sense to have someone address his actions outright, by reminding him that Mikado is an autonomous person in his own right, but I do mourn the loss of the manga’s fits and starts as Hiyakawa struggles to respect what he sees as bewildering and arbitrary boundaries that Mikado keeps erecting between them. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
Posts: 2655 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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  Yes, yes I did. Sorry. Names and I aren't friends all the time. (And apparently misread my own notes...)
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daisicles
Posts: 28 Location: USA |
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The backstory with Mikado's parents breaks my heart, particularly because Mikado's mother is somehow able to still wish her ex well despite what he did to her. There was so much potential love in there, just thrown away. I do always wonder, though, if Mikado's father genuinely loved Mikado's mother before they moved in together or if it was an act that was mostly a means to an end on his part. There are plenty of reasons to think that he did love her, but at the same time, there are plenty of reasons to think otherwise.
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wolf10
Posts: 929 |
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Superficially, it resembles the "you're just waiting for the right girl" cliche, but it's also posing a fairly heavy follow-up question: supposing "the right girl" does exist, do you spend your entire life trying to find her, just to spite what's inside you? And if you do, can it really ever be for the right reasons at that point? I'm definitely not engaging with the material the way I was expecting to going in, but I'm enjoying it all the same. ... Leaving the heavy stuff aside, I am enjoying Mukae a lot, but that may just be because he's a Soma Saito stock character (there must be something in his contract that mandates bickering with Wataru Hatano). Glad he's not just a one-off, hopefully he won't end up as an antagonist. (Or dead, because his VA is Japan's answer to Sean Bean.) |
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daisicles
Posts: 28 Location: USA |
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While I like the metaphor for Mikado in relation to Hiyakawa and Mukae, I do think the abilities as a metaphor for queerness thing does start to fall apart a bit once it extends much beyond them. Erika's situation with regard to her powers sounds more like date rape than anything else - "I talked to these spirits, I invited them in, but I didn't want that and it hurt. But I'm loved by death, so that must make it okay." - and made all the worse by the adults around her implicitly condoning it by using her for her abilities (except for Sakaki who is himself hamstrung by those same people). Mikado's father spoiler[curses himself to not remember Mikado's mother's identity to protect her from anyone who might want to cause her harm through him, doing himself actual physical harm because he loved her] (spoilers for the manga). They don't necessarily need someone like them per se (they're surrounded by people who are more or less like them), what they need is protection. But also I do think it's important that the mangaka has insisted repeatedly that this series is bl, even though the publisher didn't market it that way, bc the queer element is so very present. I just don't know that I personally want to extend it all the way to Mikado's father or even necessarily to Erika. |
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