Warning: the following contains spoilers for The Night Beyond Tricornered Window, Episode 11, “Confrontation,” now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Death has always been a major part of The Night Beyond Tricornered Window; it started with the investigation of a gruesome murder and all of the major characters’ powers revolve around death and dead spirits. And so far in the series, most of the portrayals of death have been terrifying and depressing, which is to be expected for such a heavy topic. But this episode flips the script and shows death as something surprisingly healing: something that connects all humans everywhere.
The realization first comes when Erika and Sakaki try to find ways to save Mikado and Mukae before the space they currently inhabit collapses as they are all trapped within powerful barriers with no way out. But the outsider to the supernatural world, Sakaki, is able to think outside of the box, and helps Erika figure out that the dead spirits can be used to connect everyone. Erika uses all the lingering deaths around her as a medium to link Hanzawa with Mikado and Mukae. This way Hanzawa’s power of disbelief can help the others dispel some of the negative energy through the link.
With this help, Mikado finally has enough strength to confront his father. Sensei is trying to brainwash Mikado into thinking that he inherited his tainted blood, thus he is unclean and should give up on life. But Mikado realized that he is his own person and he has much stronger connections with all the good things in his life, like his mother and his friends. Sensei blames Mikado for losing his wife, but Mikado knows that his father is the one that abandoned them, and left his mother in despair for many years.
Sensei’s hatred not only comes from the fact that he has been alone but also because he had forgotten the real reason why he left: it was because he loved both his wife and son. When he gave his wife the jewelry box, he cast a protection spell onto its charm, and it is the only thing he left behind, which means he wanted to protect Mikado after he left. But he had felt so guilty all these years that he chose to shift the blame. So, he is only gaslighting Mikado because he cannot bring himself to admit that he chose to run away, and hurt his beloved wife.
Mikado’s father has been running away for his entire life, as he married Mikado’s mother because she could help cleanse the air around him. He ran again when he believed he was hurting his family. He cursed himself to forget so that he didn't have to face the pain of feeling empty inside, and in the process, he became a killer and a madman. Now that Mikado has confronted him with the truth, and asked him to accept who he truly he, he cannot do it, and thus he loses all his powers. Mikado’s father was clearly in denial for most of his life, so when the time comes for him to accept what he did, he is faced with an ugly truth that he cannot bear, and there is no coming back for him.
The idea of acceptance ties back to the last episode's theme of grief. Grief is closely related to death, thus it is neatly connected to the discussion of death in this episode. As Sakaki says, death is actually one of the just and impartial things in the natural world, because everyone has to experience it. Death is not something to be feared, instead, it is the biggest connection between all human beings. So to accept grief is to accept the concept of death and the fundamental human experience.
This is an incredibly nuanced and sophisticated take on death and it fits perfectly with the series. Unlike other portrayals, the dead spirits here are neither good nor evil, they are just there, all around us, to coexist with them is to accept the fact of life. This leaves us with the final conundrum: Hiyakawa, who is yet to accept that he doesn’t have to live a life of misery and death and that the world he lives in is not uncaring and cruel, but instead, kind and accepting. Luckily, Mikado is able to emerge from death just in time to save Hiyakawa.
