Shadows House Season 2 is coming out soon. The mystery anime might not be the most highly anticipated of Summer 2022 but Season 1 undeniably created an intriguing gothic world and you might want to refresh your memory on some key issues before the new season begins. For example, what are the Living Dolls? Are they human?
Are The Living Dolls Human in Shadows House?
We begin the anime with the understanding that Living Dolls are artificially made, but later episodes reveal that Living Dolls are, in fact, human.
Upon learning what the Shadows are - parasitic morphs who develop identities through mimicry - we also find out how the Living Dolls are created.
Rather than artificially making the Living Dolls, as was initially suspected, the Shadows abduct them. All Living Dolls turn out to be children from a nearby village, who were lured into moving to the Shadows House with the promise of prestigious work.
Once in the house, the Shadows erase these humans' memories by forcing them to drink fluids that contain ashes emitted by the master of the house, known as "Great Grandfather."
The human children would then be exposed to morphs that had not yet assumed a form and a personality. Each Shadow would then develop a silhouette to match their human.
When the abducted humans wake up, they have no memory of their life outside of Shadows House. By then, their Shadow master or mistress has presumably already formed fully, leading them to believe that they've always looked that way.
This memory erasure leads some of the Living Dolls to believe that they are mirrors of their master or mistress, and they have no clue that, in fact, the opposite is the case.
Constant exposure to Shadows' soot, brainwashing, and the discouragement of any troubling or unnecessary thoughts make the Living Dolls completely devoted to the Shadows they serve.
As such, amongst pairs who pass their debut and become initiated in the Shadow society, the Living Dolls are easily manipulated.
Through consuming large amounts of coffee with the Great Grandfather's soot, they progressively lose more of their personality, making it easy for the Shadows to eventually take over their bodies forever, expelling them from it and killing them.
Those Shadows who have killed their human hosts are the reason more children are made into Living Dolls. Having taken over their humans' bodies, they are then able to pass as human residents of the Shadows House and persuade villagers to let their children work for them.
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This plan has only succeeded because most Shadow and Living Doll pairs are unaware of it. However, Season 1 ends with Emilyko and Kate knowing the truth and wanting to ensure this will happen to no one else.
Presumably, Season 2 will follow them as they try to challenge all those who robbed human lives while uncovering more sinister secrets about the titular house.
Related: Shadows House Ending Explained
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