Season aired: Fall 2021
Number of episodes: 12
Genres: Supernatural, Drama, Mystery
Thoughts: The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window is an anime adaptation of a BL manga focused on two protagonists exorcizing curses. Mikado has intense spiritual energy, and he always attracts dangerous curses due to his open nature and his inability to control his energy. When the enigmatic Hiyakawa meets Mikado, he immediately calls Mikado his “destiny” and proceeds to take Mikado on his exorcism excursions that leave Mikado feeling quite good.
This is not your typical trashy BL story in which there is no plot or little character development. Curses and spiritual powers play a huge element in the story and conflict, and the characters do not exist just to provide drama or comic relief for the main couple. Instead, the romance is much more subtle and a bigger subplot in comparison to the actual theme of the story – learning to process your traumas lest you want it to manifest as your own personal curse.
To put it simply – the anime surprised me in many ways through its characters’ relationships, progression of the plot, and how everything tied together in the end.
That isn’t to say that the anime is BL in name only in which the romance is nonexistent. In fact, I’m especially impressed with how the story treats Mikado and Hiyakawa’s relationship, and how it treats Hiyakawa as a whole. From the start, it becomes clear that Hiyakawa is the dominant one in the relationship, and his actions border on toxicity despite the fact that Hiyakawa seems genuinely oblivious to his misdeeds. Throughout the story, as Mikado gives leeway to Hiyakawa’s bad behavior, other characters not only remind Mikado that he should not excuse bad behaviors but also seriously reprimand Hiyakawa. By the end of the series, Mikado and Hiyakawa’s relationship transforms from one with unbalanced power dynamics to one with a balanced partnership that feels seamless and also becomes integral to the general theme of the story.
The anime uniquely includes the importance of other relationships too – professional, platonic, and parental. The story provides examples of all three relationships in both a positive and negative light, the effect these relationships leave on the victims, and pinpoints who is a perpetrator and who actually needs help. It never tries to victim-blame, and there’s even the addition of a supporting character who professionally provides counseling to those who need psychological help.
However, despite my overall pleasure at how the full story unfolded, I am not without criticisms. For one, the dialogue in the first few episodes makes me cringe. The anime tries to enforce the BL nature by constantly slipping in sexual innuendos whenever Mikado and Hiyakawa exorcise spirits together, but the innuendos are so on the nose that it instantly turns me off. For example, Mikado cannot help but feel pleasure whenever Hiyakawa combines his spiritual energy with Mikado’s because of how compatible their energies are. Portraying the pleasure through facial expressions is enough to get the point across.
Secondly, the anime art does a disservice to the story, especially when it comes to the more supernatural elements. Before the main antagonist is revealed, Hiyakawa and Mikado spend most of their time solving standalone cases. All the cases do tie into the main story eventually, but a lot of the cases depend on the element of horror to emphasize the meaning of curses. Unfortunately, the art is so bad that the curses look ridiculous instead of embodying any sense of fear. In one particular episode, the design of the curse made me laugh out loud in an otherwise serious metaphor of how the most powerful curses can be self-created through self-hatred.
Additionally, the technical aspects of the series just don’t hit the mark. Many curses employ CGI, which is standard in anime when trying to portray horrific entities, but the hand drawn aspect isn’t much better. The character designs lack in changing clothing, facial expressions, and body language. There’s nothing interesting about the scenery or visuals of the actual anime. The soundtrack never lends itself to the atmosphere, and I can’t remember a single soundtrack that stands out to me.
At the end of the day, the strength of this anime lies in the characters and the cast that brings the story to life. All the characters do play important roles in the story and go through character development, including supporting characters and even more minor characters. The cast helps elevate that through nuanced voice acting, especially in the latter half of the anime where the cringey dialogue disappears and the full conflict is on display. This anime could not have kept my interest without its complex and multifaceted cast of people.
Is The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window a missed opportunity then? I ultimately think the answer is yes. There’s a solid story with exceptionally thought out themes woven in with characters to fall in love with and root for. It’s a BL with something important to say about relationships and trauma, and how these relationships mold individuals through the usage of supernatural elements. If the anime succeeded in nailing the more technical aspects of the production alongside ditching the early innuendo dialogue, this could’ve been a BL story that exceeded boundaries of what people expected of the genre. Instead, I’m afraid it remains relatively untouched and undiscovered as a BL that tries to subvert itself.
Rating
Plot: 7.5 (Multiplier 3.5)
Characters: 7.5 (Multiplier 3.5)
Voice acting: 7
Art/Animation: 3.5
Soundtrack: 5
FINAL SCORE: 68
