I think is where I’ll read ahead a bit. It’s getting interesting…
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No. Freaking. Joke.
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Some people are known to read ahead a little to help fill in the vocabulary sheet. 
(That’s not me on this one, as I’m purposefully waiting until January to start volume 4. If I were following along, I’d know what everyone’s up against!)
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Chapters 45 and 46
Start Date: 2023-01-06T15:00:00Z
Participation
Mark your participation status by voting in this poll. (You can change your answer later if you’d like.)
- I’m reading along.
- I have finished this part.
- I will catch up later.
0 voters
If you’ve read it before but will join in the discussion (or have read ahead), please select “I’m reading along”!
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I feel like I’m never gonna catch up!!!
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Keep at it, and when we run out of chapters in a few years or so, it’ll be hard not to catch up
(For my part, I’m planning to dedicate my weekend reading to Shadows House.)
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I’ve even waiting for comments when people read this week’s chapters.
Where are the comments??
Edit: realised I should maybe add my own thoughts now! I don’t know how surprised I was by the last half of chapter 46. I’d figured out it was likely that the 生き人形 were human, but hadn’t thought too much about where they came from, partly due to bit having a concept of the world outside the シャドーハウス．
We’ve also seem in last week’s reading and this, how the innocent and happy cleaning days are a bit more sinister. Essentially brain-washing them to stay loyal.
One question (among many) I have in my head is about the sentience of the Shadow people. Obviously Kate has her own thoughts and the will to rebel - so it doesn’t seem likely that they’re created just as mindless bits of soot.
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Story comments
I’ve watched the anime, so I already knew the stuff that was revealed in this week’s reading. However, maybe this gets fleshed out later, but the timeline for a new shadow is still unclear to me.
When Kate and Emilico met, it seemed like Kate already had a personality. And yet it seemed based on the explanation given that the goodnight kiss is an important part of them developing their personalities. That was one of the reasons given for Sharry (I’ve forgotten how her name is written in English) not making it.
Also, what’s up with Grandpa Shadow’s head? I couldn’t clearly tell from the picture. It seems like he doesn’t have one, but there’s a circlet or something just suspended in the air by soot rising from his neck?
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Grandpa Shadow
You’re probably right. Since the Shadows are so dark, it’s hard to tell what is Shadow and what is just darkness.
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One possibility I can see is...
…perhaps when the Shadow Person is “created”, they get some initial personality traits from the human child. Sherry would have gained a bit of Ramu’s quiet, timid nature, thus she wouldn’t engage with Ramu. Then, if contact between the two is required for the Shadow Person to maintain their “individuality” as well as to even survive, Sherry could have quickly lost what little personality she had, and never started to regain it until her very last moments.
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That makes sense. But reading your theory made me wonder about something else. Do we know that the child a Shadow will eventually have assigned to them is one of the ones that they observe as morphs? I don’t think they explicitly said.
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This also makes me curious about things like Kate reading books from “day one”, but having to teach Emiroko how to read more complex kanji.
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That’s a good point! Maybe there’s an intermediate step between the morph becoming a Shadow and getting a living doll assigned where they get educated.
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I feel like these chapters had a lot to them. I thought we were somehow reaching the endgame and then saw that there are 12 volumes!! I guess there is a lot more mystery to resolve still about the world hahaha
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Yeah, these chapters felt longer than usual. And like you said, there’s still a lot left. We haven’t even gotten to the end of the first season of the anime! I’m still waiting to see what the controversial change was that the anime made at the end of it’s first season.
I’ve got my eyes peeled waiting to think “What? i don’t remember that!”
Of course, the one time I don’t preview, I mess up the spoiler formatting 
Sorry everyone.
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I’ve finally caught up, in time to start the next chapters tomorrow
Comments
Definitely some very interesting revelations this time around. Now we know where the “living dolls” come from, but it’s odd to see the villagers so willingly give them up (them “living a better life” still seems off)
But the “ruler” Shadow’s ability to “transform” into humans, makes me wonder about what makes them special. I mentioned before that I was quite interested in Edward’s ability to transform and now I’m even more curious lol.
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Story comments
The lady in the pair doing the kidnapping mentioned that the smoke from the soot that the villagers burn for fuel affects them and makes them easier to manipulate.
As for turning into humans, they have mentioned 一体化, unification. Eventually, the Shadow takes over the body of their living doll. Presumably, from that point, they can appear in their Shadow form, or in the form of their living doll.
I wonder if Grandpa Shadow has also taken over a human’s body 
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I think it’s mostly that you can’t really tell that it’s a shadow or your child that is there, so they just bring the shadow with your child as a living doll and it seems like they are living the life. I think it was normal for nobility to take in peasant kids as servants and with that giving them a higher life standard than they would’ve had.
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Additional consideration: All the adults in the village likely were passed on as picks when they were kids. Imagine growing up having not been picked, but your kid gets the honor of being picked!
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