The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window continues not to be impressive but remains watchable with moments of intrigue and some potentially good ideas to be explored moving forward. Basically, of the 10 shows I’m doing episodic reviews for, this anime would be pretty much middle of the pack in terms of weekly enjoyment and so I can honestly say I was pretty happy this week largely due to reasonable expectations of what this anime can actually deliver.
Anyway, episode 7 addresses the issue of Erika having cursed Hanzawa’s wife at the end of episode 6 and in the process manages to bring Erika and her Yakuza bodyguard, Sakaki, together with Mikado. From there Hiyakawa is drawn in and finally Mikado brings Keita into the group at the end of the episode. Though given most of the group don’t seem to want to be there it will be interesting to see how long this little team manages to last.
The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window seems to be finding a focus.
There were a couple of points along the way in this episode that stood out to me.
The first was Mikado himself. Having been dragged along by Hiyakawa and more or less everyone else, episode 7 sees him making his own choices and for once dragging others along with his decisions and goals. This is a far more proactive Mikado than we’ve seen before and while he isn’t overflowing with confidence he is willing to stand by his decisions. Whether it was refusing to share information about Erika to Hanzawa, convincing Erika to undo what she had done to Hanzawa’s wife, or convincing Hiyakawa to work with the others at the end, Mikado was definitely getting his own way in this episode of The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window.
You’ll notice in the image above that for once Mikado has grabbed onto Hiyakawa and though he is the shorter of the two he’s holding Hiyakawa’s gaze. While the sequence transitions to them having a more neutral holding of arms before it ends up with Hiyakawa holding onto Mikado’s hand, this is a step away from early episodes where all contact was one way from Hiyakawa toward Mikado.
Affiliate Link
Still with Mikado, I don’t recall him wearing his glasses during this episode of The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window. They are always with him but unlike previous episodes where he would wear his glasses most of the time and only occasionally remove them, now in almost every scene he’s looking at the world without his glasses. That’s an interesting character transition.
We then have Erika who really is kind of stuck. The things she’s doing and has done are horrible. And not all of them were things she was forced to do. She admitted herself that the girl at school was just a bonus and there was little reason to inflict a curse on Hanzawa’s wife. Still, she’s sixteen years old and not being protected by her family. You can kind of understand why she’s a bit messed up.
And so The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window brings all the pieces together. With Erika now caught by the new leader of the research society that was once lead by Hiyakawa’s mother prior to the ‘mass suicide’. It is highly likely (though not confirmed) that the new leader is Mikado’s missing father. The Yakuza guy can’t let Erika go or he’ll be killed but he does want to help her so he’s all in. The only character who at this stage doesn’t seem to have a personal connection to the events is Keita but I’m sure there’s time for some convoluted explanation as to why he’s involved.
And so with five episodes remaining, I’m fairly sold on the current direction of The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window. Though if I were to compare this episode with earlier ones, I would say that the tone of this show seems to have settled a bit. Whether that ends up making it feel a little bit flat will depend on the viewer but honestly I think its better with less of the cringe worthy dialogue. That first episode was a little intense.
You can read the full season review here.
Images from: The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window. Dir. D Iwanaga. Zero-G. 2021.
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
2 thoughts on “The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window Episode 7 – Is This The New Scooby Gang?”