Shadow House is such a mysterious anime. Children from different villages are taken by soot creatures who mimic their forms and force them to be their servants.

Well... not all Shadows are involved, but there are those who are aware and relish the power.

So far, Emilico, one of the main protagonists, began regaining memories of her life before she became a "Living Doll". Base on the flashbacks, I honestly and originally thought she was a farm girl raised by a very hard-working, maybe muscular, grandfather.

But then the next memory shows her as a circus performer. I've read a lot of reviews and theories about how circus people focus more on skills than reading and writing. From what was shown so far in the manga, these theories seem solid.

Maybe it's the over-imaginative fan in me, but maybe there is more to Emilico's past than what was dished out to us.

The truth about Emilico; she's the adopted granddaughter of Lord Grandfather.

I'll give you all 5 minutes to criticize and/or laugh...

(5 minutes later...)

Now back to the program:

Everything has a beginning. For the Shadow House, it starts with the Morphs.

Morphs are fairies that look like black blankets were draped on everyone of them. They start out small, but eventually grow over the years. They spend years mimicking other creatures, but could only take shape of each creature they were mimicking while their soot bodies remain.

Because of their lack of faces, they become envious of how others look differently from them. Not only that, their soot bodies make other living beings think that they're some malevolent creatures that bring forth calamities. Everyone hated them.

Well... Not everyone...

Now there was once a man... a very curious man. He was always wondering what the Morphs are truly are. He was fascinated with their ability to copy the shapes of different animals, and what would happen if they would copy humans.

This curiousness led to him capturing a Morph. But it wasn't just a Morph; It was the leader of the Morphs. Chief. King. Whatever you want to call him.

He acted, casually in front of the Morph, hoping his usual every day routine would trigger the Morph's mimic ability. To his surprise, the Morph spoke to him, in hishuman language. They began talking about many things; the Morphs' mimic ability, how humans eat, the food Morphs eat, how Morphs are born, etc.

When the man asked if Morphs can copy humans, the Morph replied that copying human was more... complex, pointing out that humans are complexing to Morphs. The man was so eager to see the Morph take human shape that he offered to free the creature and show him around town, promising to keep him out of human sight.

This delighted the Morph, who never could travel around any human village for too long because of his kind's reputation. The trip around town was fun, and no one saw the little soot creature hidden within the man's pocket.

By the next day, the Morph had become a Shadow, in the shape of his human friend.

This made both human and Shadow very happy. This new form made the Shadow faster and stronger. The human was very pleased with this new discovery, but the more new abilities they unlocked, the more he became envious of his Shadow friend.

One day, after expressing his desire to his Shadow friend, they suddenly merged overnight. Both their minds were still present, but they now share one body.

This delighted the human, who happily experimented with the new powers he now possessed with his Shadow friend. Thanks to the Unification, the Shadow can interact with other humans without scaring them away as he wears his human friend's face.

A few days later, the Shadow suggests that they separate.

But the human doesn't want to.

No matter how much the Shadow wants to separate, the human wouldn't allow it. It was like the human was taking control of him.

The human soon encouraged the other Morphs to merge with other humans. However, in order to do so, they have to bond with humans first.

And since humans are terrified of Morphs... mind-controlling soot.

When the time came for the Unification, only a few Shadows successfully merged with a human.

But the humans didn't survive.

The Shadow begged his human to stop, but he refuses. He wants more humans to Unify with Shadows, so that they could create the perfect Utopia where humans and Shadows can coexist as one.

It was then the Shadow realized: his dear friend, was gone.

Years passed and the Shadows began brainwashing people with their soot. They took children to easily bond with and then Unify with when they grow up. Many were successful Unifications, but none where both Shadow and human coexist.

After many unsuccessful Unifications, the Face side of Lord Grandfather, as he was now known, but none knew of both sides coexisting, decided to take a new approach: breeding.

He manipulates married Shadows into mating with each other. So far, none could produce children.

Then one day, a baby girl was born, from the love of two Shadows.

A human baby girl. No soot whatsoever, except for the soot that covered her body when she was born, and was wiped away.

This angered the Face of Lord Grandfather. Finally, a baby was born, but not a Unified one. And worse, the parents...

Few tantrums later, he decided to look at the positive side: He wondered what it was like to own a Living Doll. And a baby at that.

His Shadow didn't like his idea of treating the baby. He never encountered humans so little before, but in a short time, he was able to take good care of the baby girl, and protected her from his Face's maltreatment.

If you think your grandparents are bad, try imagining other grandparents who make their grand kids catch knives, throw their grand kids into the air and not catch them, let their grand kids play with wolves (soot molded into wolves), and let their grand kids drink drugged milk just to control their personalities.

When the baby turned two years old, the Shadow knew he couldn't keep her in the Shadow House any longer.

One night, noticing her grandfather looking tired, the toddler poured some of her soot-laced milk in his tea to calm him down. After drinking the tea, The Shadow noticed his Face was acting more mellow than usual. He even said nice things to his granddaughter.

After intoxicating his Face with more soot-laced tea, he brought his granddaughter to an orphanage, far away from the control of the Shadow House.

Unfortunately, as the years passed, he started to miss her and tracked her down to circus where she was treated horribly by the ringmaster. Using his Shadow's guilt and love, the Face managed to convince him that his granddaughter was much safer with him than she could ever be in the outside world.

So they went to pick her up. They found her crying outside the tent. Just as they were about to approach her...

You all know where I'm going with this, right?

After reading the latest chapter, I theorize that the Shadow House, Mirror House back then, was inhabited by actual human nobles. Before the Shadows took over.

The human nobles were disposed of, but some survived. Somewhere, away from the Shadow House's control, there is a secret village were the human nobles' descendants and Shadows live peacefully in unity. No one cares if someone's face is scarred, or if a human has disabilities. Shadows don't have to look like the humans they mimicked. Shadows don't give their Living Dolls diminutive names because in their village, there are no such thing as Living Dolls. Just people they are close friends with.

I can't wait for the actual rebellion to begin. I want the Shadows (Sara and Douglas are hopeless) to set their humans free and join Kate and her friends' side. I also want the Star Bearers to join the rebellion. I want Barbie to warm up to Emilico and her friends. (Even if it's somewhere in between "You'll get use to her." and "You like her.")

I really want to see the full Selection when Emilico and her friends were selected. I want to see the Shadow nobles who chose them. It must have been Joseph and Sophie because after the Debut, Ryan and Dorothy went to get the next batch of "Living Dolls". I want to see the rebels battle against the 3rd floor residents.

So let's all be patient, and wait for the light to shine in this story.