Yami Shibai 2

Yami Shibai 2nd Season is obviously the seaon following it's prequel Yami Shibai. With these in mind, season 2 of Yami Shibai was completly lacking what was in the first season.

--STORY--
The stories in season 2 of Yami Shibai were not as scary nor creepy as the first season. I did not find myself getting as scared or feeling like I'm being watched from these episodes. The horro in the stories also didn't seem like it was all there.

--ART--
As usual, the art in Yami Shibai was very interesting and quite beautiful to look at. The effect of this art style adds to the whole creep factor ... of the Yami Shibai stories, but even the art style was not enough to make me thoroughly enjoy this second installment.

--SOUND--
The sound in Yami Shibai is often what extends the creep factor beyond what it would normally be. The sounds in season 1 of this anime is what really creeped out. The evil laughs the slowly opening doors the sudden DUN whenever the monster would appear. And although some these sounds were cliche and typical they still managed to be creepy. Season 2 of Yami Shibai started to lack here and I feel they relyed more on the scare factor of the monsters then the actual idea of psychologially creeping someone out with subtle noises and visuals.

--CHARACTER--
I didn't feel as connected with the characters in this season then I did in the previous one. They didn't seem to be as interesting or as unbeknownst as the characters we have seen before.

--ENJOYMENT--
Although I didn't thourghly enjoy watching this anime I also didn't completly loathe it. There were still some episodes that managed to give me the scares and creep me out but overall, I didn't want to watch it as much as I did Yami Shibai season 1.

--FINAL THOUGHTS--
Considering the short nature of this anime and scares that some of the episodes do give, I feel as though if you watched and enjoyed the first season of Yami Shibai then you might as well watch this second installment. But, don't be expecting the same creeps that the first season gave.

Story:
Far more cerebral than the previous season. And, while it's somewhat interesting to contemplate the themes in each episode, I'm not watching Yami Shibai Season 2 for mind puzzles, I'm watching it because I liked how Season 1 handled horror creep so well. All in all, maybe 3 episodes were what I was hoping for, 4 had something worth deconstructing, and the rest were downright boring. There's even some strange script issues which become increasingly apparent with the episode Funeral Confessional. You'll know what I mean if you pay close attention.


Art:
Same as before, but it forsakes the opportunity to use different forms of animation for ... different scares. Also, it feels a lot cleaner, which is something I wasn't hoping for. I liked the rustic look of the previous season.


Sound:
Roughly the same experience as the previous season, but there was more abuse of audio scares as opposed to creating a proper sense of ambience.


Character:
Again, same deal. Enough to work for each section. However, I do feel it necessary to bump this score up one more notch because the emphasis on cerebral tones requires a little more characterization, and I felt that was achieved in some areas.


Enjoyment:
Not that enjoyable. If I knew better, I would have skipped this and moved on to the third season. Either way, there were SOME neat episodes here, so I guess it wasn't a total loss.


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Ok..what the heck happened? Between season 1 and 2 there seemed to be a major overhaul in storytelling quality. I'm not going to be a total American weeb and say, "i DoN'T GeT IT, i DOn'T unDerSTanD!" I know that these stories are based off of Japanese folklore and urban legends so there are going to be lot of things that a Western audience just wouldn't understand. It seemed like this season was rooted even deeper into the lore and the "horror" aspect just didn't resonate with an American audience.
What bothered me, personally, with this season ... is the ongoing theme of "Wrong place, wrong time" that is prevalent in Japanese horror. The saddest episode I have to say was "Taro-chan". At the end when he kept lamenting, "It hurts, it hurts" really hurt my feelings. I wasn't creeped out by it, I was saddened that this little boy's soul is still here on the Earth plane reliving that horrible moment.
Now the WORST episode was "Wall Woman". This one really takes the cake and, in a way, does provide a feeling of not so much 'horror", but "terror." It got me upset because this woman is just minding her own business at what, 10:30 in the MORNING and is attacked by some cat demon while doing her laundry! As a woman who lives alone this struck me on a personal level, but I was pissed because she didn't warrant anything for that to happen to her! Plus it was broad daylight! I'll be damned if some demon kills me before 6:00 pm!
I just hope that season 3 can redeem the series...