is a Japanese

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by Tomoko Yamashita. It was serialized in the monthly

manga magazine Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used ...

Magazine Be × Boy is a monthly Japanese ''yaoi'' manga magazine published by Libre. The magazine was originally launched by Biblos under the publisher Hekitensha in March 1993 until Biblos' bankruptcy in 2006. Publications In addition to ''Magazine Be × Boy' ...

'' from March 7, 2013, to December 7, 2020. A live-action film adaptation was released on January 22, 2021, and an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation by

Zero-G Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight. It is also termed zero gravity, zero G-force, or zero-G. Weight is a measurement of the force on an object at rest in a relatively strong gravitational fie ...

aired from October to December 2021.

Plot

Kosuke Mikado, a bookstore clerk, is able to see ghosts since he was young, which terrifies him. One day, he meets Rihito Hiyakawa, a fearless exorcist who lacks social boundaries. Hiyakawa is able to see and exorcise ghosts by entering Mikado's body and requests him to become his assistant. As the two work closely together, they learn that the supernatural incidents are closely tied with a high school student named Erika Hiura, who works as a mercenary necromancer to cast curses on other people. As Mikado and Hiyakawa investigate, Mikado begins realizing that Hiyakawa is hiding a secret.

Characters

; : :Played by: Jun Shison ; : :Played by:

Masaki Okada is a Japanese actor. He is best known for his roles as Sekime Kyogo in the drama ''Hanazakari no Kimitachi e'' and as Takuma Kakinouchi in the 2009 film '' I Give My First Love to You''. Filmography Films * ''The Foreign Duck, the Native Duck ...

; : :Played by:

Yurina Hirate is a Japanese singer and actress. She is a former member of the idol group Keyakizaka46. Early life and education Yurina Hirate was born on June 25, 2001. In March 2017, she graduated from junior high school. Career Hirate was the choreo ...

; : ; : :Portrayed by: Kenichi Takita ; : :Portrayed by: Shinya Niiro

Development

In 2021, Yamashita stated that she initially wrote ''The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window'' as a short story before it became serialized. Yamashita also affirmed that while she did see feedback from others that Hiyakawa and Mikado could be considered a reversible pairing, she intended for Hiyakawa to be the top in their relationship. In addition, she stated that she focuses on the surrounding environment and characters besides the main couple. Yamashita also said that she wanted to include heterosexual romance in her works and she was surprised that she received positive feedback on chapters that focused on Erika and Sasaki's romance, as well as Mikado's parents, despite the story being serialized in a magazine. She claimed that she initially wrote Erika and Mukae as characters who would lure Hiyakawa and Mikado into temptation, but she changed her mind after realizing how "sad" it would be if her characters had an "unhappy" role. Yamashita also stated that she includes diversity into her works, such as including female police officers with male police officers.

Media

Manga

''The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window'' is written and illustrated by Tomoko Yamashita. It is her longest work to date. It was serialized in the monthly manga magazine ''

'' from March 7, 2013, in the April 2013 issue to December 7, 2020, in the January 2021 issue. The chapters were later released in 8 bound volumes by

Libre Libre may refer to: Computing * Libre software, free software * Libre Computer Project, developer of open-hardware single-board computers Medicine *FreeStyle Libre, a glucose monitoring device Media * Libre Times, news site which people can free ...

under the Kurofune Comics imprint. Volume 2 was sold with a bonus illustration card with purchase through

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

. In September 2014,

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

announced at Yaoi-Con that they licensed the series for North American distribution in English under their SuBLime imprint, releasing it in digital format.

Drama CD

audio drama Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine ...

CD adaptation was released on April 10, 2019, with the release of volume 7 in Japan, starring Haruki Ishiya as Kosuke Mikado and as Rihito Hiyakawa. A second drama CD was released on February 10, 2020, with the release of volume 8, featuring an original story.

Film

A live-action film adaptation was announced in January 2020, starring Jun Shison as Kosuke Mikado,

as Rihito Hiyakawa, and

as Erika Hiura. The film is directed by Yukihiro Morigaki and written by Tomoko Aizawa. The release date was originally announced as October 30, 2020, but it was delayed to January 22, 2021, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Yuki Sakurai, Kenichi Takita,

Emi Wakui is a Japanese actress. She has won three Japanese Academy Awards: the 1994 Best Actress award for her performance in ''Rainbow Bridge (Niji no Hashi)'', and the 1992 awards for Best Supporting Actress and Best Newcomer for her performance as Sei ...

, Makita Sports, Michitaka Tsutsui, and Shinya Niiro were announced as additional cast members in March 2020.

Keiko Kitagawa is a Japanese actress and former model. She was an exclusive model for the Japanese '' Seventeen'' magazine from late 2003 to mid-2006, and quit modeling when she left the magazine. Her first acting role was Sailor Mars in the Sailor Moon live ac ...

also appears in a minor role in the film as a lawyer. The film's theme song is "Darken" by

Zutomayo , stylized as ZUTOMAYO, is a Japanese rock group that debuted in 2018. Secretive by nature, the group has never released a full member list, crediting different people for music, arrangements, and music video production each time. The only member ...

, and their song "Hypersomnia" is also featured in the film. The soundtrack is composed by yuma yamaguchi.

Anime

television series adaptation of ''The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window'' was announced in the January 2021 issue of ''Magazine Be × Boy'', published on December 7, 2020. The anime is produced by

and is directed by Yoshitaka Yasuda, who will also be in charge of character design. Daiji Iwanaga is the chief director for the series, with Ayumi Sekine in charge of the series' scripts, and

Evan Call Evan Call (born June 29, 1988) is an American composer and arranger working in Japan. He has composed music for multiple anime series such as ''Tokyo ESP'', '' Violet Evergarden'', and ''Appare-Ranman!''. Call is affiliated with the Japanese age ...

composing the series' music. It aired from October 3 to December 19, 2021, on

Tokyo MX JOMX-DTV, branded as Tokyo MX (officially stylized as TOKYO MX), is an independent television station in Tokyo, Japan, owned by the . It is the only television station that exclusively serves the city. It competes with Nippon TV, TV Asahi, NH ...

SUN The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

, and BS Fuji. Frederic performed the opening theme "Saika", while

Wataru Hatano is a Japanese voice actor and singer affiliated with 81 Produce. At the 2nd Seiyu Awards in 2008, Hatano won the Best Male Rookie Award for his roles as Sam Houston in ''Toward the Terra'' and Tenshi Yuri in ''Saint Beast: Kouin Jojishi Tenshit ...

performed the ending theme "Breakers".

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

licensed the series.

Episode list

Reception

''The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window'' has sold a cumulative total of 1 million physical copies in Japan by January 2020. Volume 1 peaked at No. 14 on

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as, which was founded by Sōkō Koike in Nov ...

and sold a total of 24,718 physical copies on its first week of sales. Volume 2 peaked at No. 16 on Oricon and sold a total of 27,201 physical copies on its first week of sales. Volume 3 peaked at No. 36 on Oricon and sold a total of 22,680 physical copies on its first week of sales. Volume 4 sold a cumulative total of 30,196 physical copies on its first two weeks of sales. Volume 5 peaked at No. 48 on Oricon and sold a total of 17,710 physical copies on its first week of sales. Volume 6 peaked at No. 48 on Oricon and sold a total of 19,918 physical copies on its first week of sales. Rebecca Silverman from ''

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

'' cites the horror and mystery plot as the series' greatest strength and that the lesser focus on romance may make it easier for readers who are not interested in boys' love. However, she also claims the romance has creepy undertones. For the live-action film,

Mark Schilling Mark Schilling (born 1949) is an American film critic, journalist, translator, and author based in Tokyo, Japan. He has written for ''The Japan Times'', ''Variety'', and ''Screen International''. Biography Schilling began working for ''The Japan ...

from ''

The Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'' gave it 3 out of 5 stars, describing it "absurd" but praising Hirate's acting.

Notes

References

External links

*
Official website for the live-action film
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, The 2013 manga 2010s LGBT literature 2021 films 2021 LGBT-related films Anime series based on manga Boys' love films Crunchyroll anime Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Horror anime and manga Japanese LGBT-related films Japanese mystery films Japanese radio dramas LGBT in anime and manga LGBT-related horror films Live-action films based on manga Manga adapted into films Mystery anime and manga SuBLime manga Supernatural anime and manga Yaoi anime and manga Zero-G (studio) Japanese supernatural horror films