Alternative title(s): Sankaku Mado no Sotogawa wa Yoru
Manga Adaptation by Zero-G
Streaming on Crunchyroll

Premise

Kosuke Mikado is a bookstore clerk with the ability to see ghosts, which is unfortunate, because they terrify him. When he’s approached by Rihito Hiyakawa, an exorcist who works to help crack mysteries or quiet the undead on behalf of both individual clients and the police, the two end up becoming a pair (presumably in more ways than one), combining their powers to solve unconventional and often gruesome cases.

Artemis’ verdict: Creepy In All The Wrong Ways

My problem with this first episode was basically everything. I know that sounds unduly harsh but as the resident boys love fan, if even I don’t dig anything about it, something’s likely gone pretty wrong.

I guess my biggest gripe is that Hiyakawa is, frankly, a gigantic creep. This episode was choc-full of nonconsensual touching, hugging, and even biting/licking, and I can’t believe I need to say this, but sexual predators just aren’t my thing, you know? The guy has literally no redeeming qualities. And hey, maybe that’s the point – the scene in the final couple of minutes where you see him sneakily eat some kind of body part (?) points to some kind of deceptiveness, and for all I know, he could turn out to be the primary antagonist of the series. That said, it doesn’t make the series any more palatable to watch, especially because I get the feeling that the show thinks it’s being clever and/or funny with all the sexual innuendo. Yes, we get it, touching the soul of another person is analogous to sex, there’s absolutely nothing subtle about the wordplay.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention that pretty much everything else about the show, production-wise, just somehow seems… off, to me. Quite possibly this is a deliberate artistic choice given the gory subject matter and supernatural mystery/horror themes, but regardless, there’s very little aside from maybe the nice attention to background detail that appeals to me here. The character designs, even for the non-creep main character, are vaguely unsettling, the silence between dialogue or action is off-putting, and even the voice acting sounds a bit strange.

Bottom line, I don’t really know what I’m looking for this season, but The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window ain’t it.

Jel’s verdict: Not Touching This

Everything about this first episode is creepy and uncomfortable, and not in a good a way. First and foremost is the non-consensual soul touching, which is implied to be the equivalent of a sexual act. OK, it’s barely even implied, they lay on the innuendo so thick it would be hilarious if it wasn’t gross. To a lesser extent, the actual visual presentation itself is stiff and uncanny. It’s so clunky it almost feels like 3D animation. Even if you just want some hot anime guys, I’m sure there are better options.