I’d be lying if I said episode 1 of The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window hadn’t left me with some concerns about where it was going to go. While the supernatural and mystery aspects grabbed my attention, the really cheesy dialogue and endless innuendo wasn’t great and did potentially mean that I might have let this series go after a couple of episodes.
However, episode 2 of The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window has kind of got me solidly hooked.
That isn’t to say all the over-the-top dialogue went away and Hiyakawa definitely comes across as an abusive and possessive boyfriend and the relationship he’s building with Mikado isn’t healthy whether it is their working relationship or personal one. Still, with the introduction of Mukae this episode there’s a bit more balance and Mukae expressing a lot of the concerns the audience might have about Mikado’s situation kind of helps take the edge out of it.
The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window is definitely going deep with the supernatural elements.
Episode 2 of The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window beings with Mikado being manipulated/bullied by a co-worker into finding out whether a fortune teller is real. Turns out he isn’t a real fortune teller but he can see ghosts and curses and the like.
The scene with Mikado and Hiyakawa in the Mukae’s workplace are kind of fun and bring a number of elements to light. Firstly, Hiyakawa uses astral projections which is a skill we hadn’t seen before. Secondly, Mukae reveals he can not only see Hiyakawa’s astral form but also tries to forcibly remove him from Mikado only Mikado already kicked him out of his body. Mukae also warns Mikado that his spirit was loose and it wasn’t safe.
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This whole situation just brings out Hiyakawa’s possessive nature as we see him warning Mukae away from Mikado.
Though, The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window seems determined to keep its pace flowing and we move to watching Mikado and Hiyakawa visiting an all girl’s school where they determine a student has been cursed. They briefly meet another student who is probably the one who cursed her, and others, and during their visit actually takes control of Mikado. I don’t believe this is the last we’ll see of her but Hiyakawa chooses to let sleeping dogs lie for now as at least the cursed girl is no longer cursed.
I kind of like that some of these mysteries are left hanging so we know that later on we might find out more about the girl and the situation.
One thing the situation does bring out is Hiyakawa’s super possessiveness as he has Mikado sign perhaps the dodgiest contract in all anime history.
Despite that, Mikado still ends up going on a job with Mukae and I liked that The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window is exploring different ways of dealing with the supernatural. So far we only really had Hiyakawa’s approach and nothing to really judge it against as to whether it was right or wrong or just was. Now we’ve got a different character with whom we can compare him.
I will give Mukae this, his dialogue isn’t quite as cringe-worthy.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this second episode. While episode one introduced a supernatural world I wanted to know more about, episode 2 of The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window actually started fleshing it out and making it feel more fully realised. It also reduced the amount of time spent on badly written innuendo which really can only improve things.
While Hiyakawa remains a character who feels predatory and suspicious, that other characters are pointing that out, even if Mikado isn’t, kind of helps this to be more palatable as it doesn’t feel like the story is trying to pretend his actions are okay.
All things considered, this was a solid follow-up episode and has somewhat raised my expectations of how this anime will play out. Hopefully they don’t come crashing down again in episode 3.
You can read the full season review here.
Images from: The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window. Dir. D Iwanaga. Zero-G. 2021.
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Karandi James
I definitely agree, the second episode has me a lot more interested in the series than the first one did. I also think that the blonde guy (forgot his name) looks a lot less benign now. I starting to worry that he might have some bad intentions for Mikado.
Me too. I really hope Mikado asks more questions soon.