Cossette no Shouzou

Japanese Title: コゼットの肖像

French Title: Le Portrait de Petite Cossette

Plot
The series focuses on Eiri Kurahashi, a college art student who works in an antique shop. One day, he sees the image of a girl in an antique glass. To his shock, she appears to be moving and living out her life before his eyes. He becomes infatuated with the girl, and one night at midnight, he somehow makes contact with her. He learns that her name is Cossette, and that she was an aristocrat's daughter during the 18th century. She reveals to him that her spirit has been entrapped within the glass because the artist Marcello Orlando murdered her. She tells Eiri that, in order to set her free, a man must be willing to take upon himself punishment for the sins Marcello committed.

Worse, the household objects that had witnessed her murder have become cursed objects, and project wrath. In the anime wine glasses, a large clock, several dolls and a portrait of Cossette are shown to be cursed, and kill at least two people in episode one. In the manga a portrait of Cossette, a mirror, a piano and several other objects are shown cursed, and have killed people. One of the best scenes in the manga is when Eiri learns that a friend of a friend has purchased Cossette's piano. Eiri and Cossette rush to the woman's home, where she is obsessed with playing the piano until she dies. Eiri pulls the woman from the piano bench and Cossette sits to take the woman's place, playing until the piano is appeased.

As the series progresses, Eiri is tortured mentally and physically by the cursed objects, and by Cossette, who demands that he prove his professed love for her. It is revealed that Eiri is the reincarnation of Marcello, and that Cossette is becoming as infatuated with him as he is with her. Also depicted are the efforts of the women in Eiri's life—relatives, friends, mentors, and the girl who secretly loves him—to free him from what is becoming apparent to them as a self-destructive path.