The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window Episode 1 - Ghost Hunting and Lust

I definitely flagged The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window in my post about anime I was curious about the fall season because of its supernatural tag. The idea of an odd-couple exorcist team kind of seemed like a great set up. I hadn’t quite noted the boys love tag this anime also had though this first episode very quickly makes it apparent that while we are getting a supernatural mystery that might actually get a bit dark, we are most definitely going to get a lot of dialogue that taken out of context is going to sound like it comes from something far more explicit (and a lot cheesier).

The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window leans heavily into its genre tags.

While I wasn’t expecting the explicit boys love focus, the supernatural mystery elements are also on full display in this first episode. We meet Mikado working at a book store where we learn he can see ghosts and then Rihito shows up to exorcise it. Turns out Rihito can touch Mikado’s soul and more or less get a power-boost for his exorcism. As the episode unfolds we also learn the two can share senses to improve Rihito’s ability to find and deal with spirits.

Affiliate Link

Attack on Titan – Levi (Re-run)

There’s clearly a lot more going on and Rihito is all kinds of shady (and definitely not big on asking first), but as an introduction to the world this episode works. We see the pair taking on private work to remove ghosts from houses and apartments and also meet Hanzawa Hiroki, a police office, who is clearly going to hire them for various jobs. It kind of reminds me a little of Ghost Hunt though in this case it is just kind of assumed there will be ghosts and they aren’t really trying to prove whether they exist or not.

So far, the weakest element of The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window has been Mikado’s character. While his fear of ghosts is pretty understandable, as is his reaction to finding a body, it kind of leaves you wondering why he left his job at the bookstore to continue working with Rihito after the initial meeting and the first job that his bookstore manager sent him on. I mean, Rihito is just… well he’s awful.

That said, as much as his near paralysing fear is kind of out of place by the end of the episode, it kind of balances out Rihito’s absolute indifference to the supernatural elements at play so maybe it will work itself out as the series progresses.

For series positives, this one so far has set up an interesting world with a lot of potential for future supernatural mysteries, and anyone who has followed my blog for any period of time knows I’m a sucker for that kind of set-up even if anime regularly drops the ball and these types of stories don’t usually end up being all that good.

The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window also has two non-high schoolers as the central characters which I’d probably appreciate more if it wasn’t for the focus on poorly constructed innuendo.

So I’ll admit it, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window has definitely hooked me in with its first episode. I somehow doubt this one will be a season favourite but it is definitely the type of anime I enjoy following even if it doesn’t deliver on all that potential. They really just need to tone down the over-the-top and cheesy dialogue because it makes it hard to take anything else seriously.

Here’s hoping for some more interesting ghost stories as this season progresses.

You can read the full season review here.

Images from: The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window. Dir. D Iwanaga. Zero-G. 2021.