Yami Shibai

Yami Shibai...

This series is a collection of short horror stories which aren't meant to make you jump in your seat but rather scare you with creepy, weird and unique short stories which don't involve jump scares although the second season is filled with them.

Every episode is unique but many are uninteresting, cliche and boring. The episodes aren't great but the ideas produced are the most compelling component of this series.

The art is uninspiring but the pure stiffness of the animation adds to the overall creepiness. The animation is like a picture drama with minor movements, cardboard cut-outs essentially.The characters are rather ... weak but you can't expect much character depth or development in 4 minutes; each episode also has different characters.

I enjoyed the series to a degree. Episodes are only 4 minutes and it's difficult not to recommend such a short series. It won't take up much of your time and might entertain you with some creepy ideas. It's worth a watch if you have a few minutes to spare.

Story - 3
Art - 4
Sound - 3
Character - 1
Enjoyment - 6
Overall - 5

When we watch horror anime, it is expected to follow an engaging story that does not abuse harmful techniques that only serve to scare the public. Furthermore, shows need to arouse interest, as suspense, action and production need to work together to offer the best show possible, be it film, manga, series or anime. Yami Shibai is an example of how to make disturbing stories, without depending on other forms of discomfort or tension.

To begin with, I must say that the show is independent of a very elaborate narrative quality, especially when it comes to a compilation of Japanese horror stories, where urban ... legends, cases and superstitions are always frequent in Japanese villages and regions. Yami Shibai took advantage of this, bringing a very unique style that is common in Japanese culture, the kamishibai. It is this type of visual technique that captures the public's attention, because in addition to inserting a new art of making anime, it brings with it a significant cultural repertoire.

The production of this type of show would be easily hampered, since it is common for experimental anime to fail in technical execution. With Yami Shibai, that doesn't happen. On the contrary, the surrounding and episodic construction of environment makes the show more frightening, so much so that it is one of the strongest points of the anime.

However, the show has a significant problem: the jumpscare and the false suspense that the anime occasionally does. In some episodes, the fright does not happen the way he appears to have programmed, which displeased me, since I particularly think that the best type of visual horror is that competent with the sound and suspense created around the audience. When that doesn't happen, the show tends to appeal to bad techniques, like jumpscare or stopping the songs to give a scare when everything seems to be okay.

In general, as much as Yami Shibai has some shortcomings, it is a pleasant show to watch, especially at a time when you feel you are not seeing many shows, as this is very short and easy to be consumed. Its cultural quality and the transmission of the climate of terror are very good and really admirable. I look forward to the next sequences. Congratulations to the ILCA studio, which was competent and daring to produce such a commented show.

Do you like horror?

Me personally I am not a great fan of the horror genre, is rare that I'll go watch an horror movie or show. Why you ask? Simply because I don't really enjoy it....I mean I do like it but I don't like it......to more clear I like it but it scares the shit out of me every 0.10 seconds(yeah I'm a scarycat but deal with it!). So for my surprise that some afternoon out of boredom I click on a new title on Crunchyroll called "Yami Shibai" and today out of boredom I am writing a review about it. So ... with all the shit introduction and nonsense being already said,today on Javier123's reviews (yeah I know its shit and I gotta find another name)I'll be reviewing Yami Shibai:Japanese Ghost Stories.

(Ok this my first review don't be too critical and please tell me what you thought about it and please excuse my ENGRISH.)


Story Section
A normal horror movie this days goes something along of lines of this: A group of twats go to a vacation and then there is a psychopath with a hockey mask that is not armed with a gun, isn't armed with a tank and isn't armed with a nuclear bomb. He's just armed with a very little and inoffensive knife. Then they must escape and shit happens. My father always told that Japanese horror titles are always the best and Yami Shibai sure lives up to that expectation. The story is quite simple, every day at evening the creepy looking guy with the golden mask comes to the park in his bicycle with his tv and says "Come here come here!The Theater of Darkness is about to start" and then we get introduced to a new folklore ghost story of Japan.It can range from a curse to affairs with yokai or gods to simply monsters.But keep this in mind:the main character is always fucked and there is no exception,there is no happy ending in any story.Two things I'll like to pinpoint are the duration of the episodes and the overall structure of the series as a whole.The duration relatively short wich is 4 minutes long and if you count the ending song is not a very long episode. But trust me even if they are short, every story has it punch somewhere you won't be disappointed.The story as a whole is not the great thing,it doesn't have structure in other words there is no ending,no beginning and so of course no development.But in my eyes is not that bad because it was simple and enjoyable so why ask for more?
Overall 4/10

Characters Section
In an horror movie these days the characters stereotypes are: the male lead, the female lead, the hunk, the nerd, the hot chick and the black guy who gets killed first. In Yami Shibai the only character that returns is the creepy guy with the golden mask. Every episode introduce us to a new bunch of characters. But because of its duration there no time to we the spectators to know the characters .But even so every single one of them acts perfectly human shows perfectly his emotions in a normal human way.
Overall 3/10

Art Section
Some people may say that the art is bad but I actually thought that is was surprisingly good(considering how it looks)The animation is pretty much mediocre and there isn't too much movements and other things like the scenario aren't spectacular either. But the way that the facial expressions of the characters are drawn...dam that looks realistic. I did like how every characters seemed realistic and how there facial expressions showed emotions perfectly.
Overall 6/10

Sound Section
There isn't very much to say here. Voice acting was done perfectly well showing emotions and being mature and also the sounds effects make you feel like your just there with the characters. Even is it was enough the music themes add the feeling perfectly. The ending song performed by Hatsune Miku Is kind of creepy but really catchy(like 95% of all vocaloid songs.
Overall 9/10

Enjoyment Section
So here is the final question did I like Yami Shibai?Well .....kind of. It was entertaining and scary but my favorite part was when the ending came because I could finally relax since every episode got me on the tension. I didn't enjoy the story and the characters for reasons I've already said before, but the characters designs and the soundtrack made me really enter to the overall creepy atmosphere of the series and that something that every anime does not manages to do with me.
Overall 6/10

Final Verdict
I would recommend this to anyone since it those certainly is a fresh taking on the usual Moe-Moe-kyun-fanservice-romantic-highschool-waste-of -potential crap. Yami Shibai does certainly is a must watch for the late summer season.The final score is 28/50 wich should be a 5 out of 10 but I'll make an exception this time.

I give this series a 6 out 10

To some viewers, 4 minutes of storytelling might seem very difficult to comprehend, and more often than not, to appreciate for such time frame gives very limited avenue of presenting a well-crafted plot, unforgettable characters, and the development of those two elements - which are unsurprisingly the ones that the average viewer wishes to encounter in a series. Therefore, it is not unknown that some anime have ultimately failed in this endeavor (fcking Pupa) by messing everything all over the place and putting rather insignificant and irrelevant plot tools, probably with the hopes of regaining interest in the viewers' dying flames of enjoyment. Therefore the ... most basic premise in formulating an understandable and valid plot within 4 minutes of viewing time is to get to a single story and focus on developing it, crafting every significant detail as relevant as possible to the main storyline.

Yami Shibai definitely does that.

It is a simple collection of stories of the supernatural, varying from ghosts, curses, witchcraft, and other paranormal activities. It brings about the feeling of the unknown, and invests heavily on the elements of suspense and typical horror genre plot devices. What I liked about the series is that each story did not beat around the bush, (which is probably imperative within the given time frame of each episode) and got to the main point of the plot. The mystery element was there, and each story leaves a striking impression by forcing the viewer to think beyond what was shown - which was a key element in mystery. Some people would complain how stuff weren't explained well, but I think it was justified and to some extent, intended. The time frame was four minutes to begin with, and with that limited amount of time, a plot would develop better by focusing more on what happened, rather than why it happened, because what generates the mystery and suspense is not the complicated explanation for what happened, but rather the peculiarity of how events were presented, something that is unconventional and beyond the ordinary. Therefore Yami Shibai's strategic presentation of stories complemented well with the atmosphere it intends to show. Moreover, the episodic collection of stories, aside from continuously sustaining the element of creepiness and suspense, contributes to an overall impression of the viewer by not actually driving the horror from the creepiness and scaring ability of each plot individual episodes, but rather by emphasizing that the myriad of paranormal activities boils down to one thought: that stuff we normally see everyday are not as what they seem to be. Some stories actually are very interesting and mind-blowing, and the lack of explanation for such paranormal activity intensifies each individual episode. The art and sound were also great in complementing with the overall story, the art personally makes me feel that the stories were more of urban legends and forces the viewer to think whether such happenings are possibly true or not (of course they probably are fictional works of art, but that vague feeling from the artwork contributed to my enjoyment so much).

So why did I give Yami Shibai a rating of being average? First of all, while some stories exceeded my expectations, some stories were downright failures in their own ways. Some stories do not make even sense, and instead of presenting a plot-wise progressive horror story, it presented a series of scenes so stagnant it becomes personally boring. Since the quality of stories range from bad to good, I would have to rate them as average. Moreover, some stories present details that as much as I wanted to appreciate, seem to forcefully join plot pieces together it didn't seem naturally fluid and smooth-going; to some extent, I felt that they are irrelevant and did not contribute to overall impact of the story. Finally, I felt that the strong points of the series, were already imperative to be done given the shortcomings of the entire series, i.e. the short length of time, episodic presentation and complete lack of explanation of the paranormal. I also feel that to some extent the horror value it offers is somewhat generic and present in every other average horror anime. Since it did not offer any marginal personal enjoyment because of the lack of development of each story, I would have to rate Yami Shibai as average. Do I recommend this anime? Of course I do.

Let's get to the point with this one. I'll list some of the notable pros and cons.

Pros:

- Diverse stories and settings (As much as Japan allows it)

- Horror stories are based on real life myths and legends from the land of the rising sun, yes! This is quite possibly it's strongest aspect as it adds educational value for anybody deeply invested in the paranormal.

- The simplistic and unique way it's "animated" adds to it, not detract. Animes are known to not be as scary as films so it feels to me they used this to their advantage.

... - Good narrator.

Cons:

- Unfortunately every story ends in a cliche , stereotypical horror way. Yes there's justification for it, but if they were going to imply the protagonist of the story say, died. There's better ways they could've done that.

- The characters, especially adults suffer from a high level stupidity syndrome. Most evident in the episode called "Hair" from what i remember.

- This is beginner horror. It's not supposed to be anything more than that, so this is more of a personal nitpick.

- Stock sound effects. Very common and noticeable for someone that's surrounded themself with horror for a long time.

All in all. Recommended for casual horror fans looking for a quick thrill, as for the rest. Temper your expectations, it's got some charm to it just don't go into this thinking you're going to get scared badly and that your search for a good horror anime series is over.

(I don't think i will be making revisions to this review in any case. Yami Shibai is a long running anime series and i don't have any plans to cover it all. This was a quick one-off that i felt compelled to make.)

Yami Shibai is a short, but sweet anthology series, in which several pre-existing creepy stories from Japan were adapted into animation. Naturally the impact varies from story to story and some of them could have perhaps benefited from slightly more time. The animation is very bare bones, but the unique style and good timing compensate for that quite nicely. As with most horror/spooky series, the sound is the most important aspect, in builduing tension and Yami Shibai does a good job, with the select, few sounds, it has to offer. The ending theme is also very nice.
Fazit: Light, but fresh horror series, which is probably ... worth the little time, that it is going to cost you.

Yami Shibai is a series of horror shorts by ILCA. I've looked at another one of their anthologies two years ago when I reviewed Kowabon. So, is this one any better? 

Story:

Like Kowabon, every episode is a short, quick fire horror scenario. They basically follow a formula of setting up some kind of unsettling scenario, building on them and then reaching a conclusion.

The biggest issue is that, if you know your horror tropes, you can pretty reliably predict most of the episode endings. To be fair to the series, it does appear to be directed at very young teenagers, maybe even children on the verge of becoming ... teenagers. So, a lot of the target audience won't be as familiar with the tropes. 

I will also credit the series for being fairly effective at setting up its scenarios. The episodes are good at quickly establishing the scenario, building up on it and then either coming to a sudden conclusion or using misdirection to make it look like they're winding down before leaping into the conclusion. The misdirection does vary a bit. There are episodes where it's very obvious that there's something more and there are ones where it almost looks like they've reached a proper conclusion. If I were watching this as a twelve to fourteen year old, it would probably fake me out successfully for a couple of these. 

Characters:

My big issue with the characters is the narrator. Yes, I realise that they're setting the scenario as stories being told by an elderly man as part of a performance, but the narrator is truly pointless. He pretty much says "this is the story of some boys," right when you're seeing three boys on screen. He tells you nothing that you can't glean from actually watching the episode. 

As a whole, the characters are very simple and basically serviceable. Like with their other series, they show up for one episode and never get fully fleshed out. Which is a problem since horror does work better when you have some investment in the characters making it out okay. You lose something when you're just ambivalent over them. 

Art:

The art style is designed to be reminiscent of one of those paper figure shows you may see on the streets as a kid. Which isn't a bad aesthetic to have but it's pretty obvious that it's also a budget move. I'll still give the series some credit in that it looks better than having a bunch of graphical glitches.

Sound: 

The acting is passable. There aren't any performances that are great, or super memorable, but they're basically acceptable. The music is the same way. 

Ho-yay:

There is no romance in this. 

Areas of Improvement:

Ditch the narrator. We don't need him to waste our time giving us redundant information. 
Break Expectations a bit. I know the target audience is a bit younger, but it would help to have some subversion. 
More dynamic performances. I know the characters don't have much to them, but it would help if the acting went above basically acceptable. 

Final Thoughts:

For what it is, Yami Shibai is decent enough. If you're looking for just under five minutes of spooks, you'll probably find it engaging enough. I'll give it a 6/10. 

Yami Shibai has such a wonderful art style that's so perfect for making things much scarier, it's so eerie and unsettling, which is incredible. One thing to note though, Yami Shibai rely heavily on cheap jumpscares, which is understandable since every story has to be put in a super constraining time limit of more or less four minutes.

That's also what irks me the most. Why have all of these incredibly horrifying stories that will definitely keep some viewers up at night but butcher it by putting scary imagery with loud music in the background every time? Imagine how the series will go on if they ... try to build up the atmosphere and keeping the viewers on edge with longer episodes.

That is also the reason why the characters feel so flat. They don't have any meaningful reason to be in the episode other than to probably die by the end of it.

Nevertheless, it's a classic traditional horror stories that your Asian moms would tell you so that you don't sleep in late, or go out past sunset, or do you homework, etc. It does makes you feeling nostalgic if you grew up with these kinds of stories. It's still very enjoyable to watch though, definitely.

Rate a 6
English Subtitles

Story
Short but fair. While it lacks blood and gore it can still be slightly terrifying. A good soft core horror.

art
Still images with movement. Kind of like a puppet. You have animation but it not done by the puppet. A wonderful choice for a horror. For a horror if done well can provide a frozen state. Where the only movement one could do is one done via an other's hands.

The intro is a nice touch. If you recall i mentioned how tame the horror was. Which makes it a good choice for children to watch. For you being lured in to watch. ... Kind of like a blend between a circus and an old fashion ice cream truck with its enticing music. Or a moth to a flame if you prefer.

Ending(credits) i am torn between. Why not much content is there i am not sure how i feel. On one hand it is a nice way to relax. For there isn't much more horrific scenes to watch. The other why watch it if it is going to provide me something visually interesting.

Sound
Overall good. I found the ending credit song to be a nice little beat. The music while conveying horror in its lyrics had a nice techno pop like beat. For a child and other age groups the song is like a fun little secret. An indicator of not only did they see the show but the lyrics provide an inside look to who you are as a person.

English.
I find it somewhat impressive that a series can tell us a horror story in just 4 minutes per chapter, the duration of the season is not more than an hour long but it is still quite entertaining as such, of course being a series anthology there will be better episodes than others but I liked most of them, they were quite acceptable since their short duration limits them from showing much on the screen, in truth this although simple were quite good episodes showing us a terror which impacts you or leaves you thinking It is not the best anthological horror series you will ... see but you will have a good time of terror in your house at night if you watch the episodes in a row.

Español.
Se me hace algo impresionante que una serie pueda contarnos una historia de terror en tan solo 4 minutos por capitulo, la duración de la temporada no es mayor a una hora de duración pero aun así es bastante entretenida como tal, por supuesto al ser una serie antológica habrá mejores episodios que otros pero la mayoría para mi me gusto, fueron bastante aceptables ya que su corta duración los limita de mostrar mucho en pantalla, en verdad esto aunque sencillo fueron episodios bastantes buenos mostrándonos un terror el cual te impacta o te deja pensando, no es la mejor serie de terror antológica que veras pero te pasaras un buen rato de terror en tu casa en la noche si ves los episodios seguidos.

*Brief Review-Reflections*

~~

There's little to say about a spontaneous watch with a couple of friends while waiting for an hour to be killed within university premises, but Yami Shibai provides an opportunity to bring the audience closer to Japanese-flavored urban horror stories styled in animation whose peculiarity brings out--strangely--a sort of charm in it. To be upfront, that, alongside the united decision of making some jumpscare moments comical by painting horrifying faces on the foundation of the Surprised Pikachu meme does not help to stop us from being unserious about it throughout the episodes, but when it works it's imprinted onto memory comfortably to say the ... least. Admittedly, there were times the stars aligned for the anime for some reason, and the **Zanbai** and **The Family Rule** episodes produced fright and chills.

What's great about straightforward episodic content running for minuscule lengths is that there is little difficulty in remembering every event that has occurred due to its self-containing nature. Couple that with the goal of the horror genre to be a powerful stimulant to spur primal emotions, then we've got perfectly memorable food on our plate. It's a different story regarding the delectability it induces to the palate, however. *Yami Shibai* is simply a charming set of brief Japanese horror stories that wear its heart on its sleeve and offers a glimpse into the creative realm of supernaturals that nation is culturally within the boundaries of.

The storytelling in this series is great and the foundation which is it placed on is super solid. It is very interesting and also can be really creepy. Creepy in a less forward scary way, and more in a suspenseful way.

The historical components are probably the best thing about the series, but from my personal knowledge I think some of them are not entirely accurate and made up for the purpose of the plot. I wish they would have leaned into this side a bit more because as-is it sort of falls flat as a horror genre for me.

Personally, the art style was ... really distracting and made me feel like I was having a seizure which added to the story of course, but also detracted from it as well. This, paired with the above makes it so it doesn't meet expectations as hoped.

Yamishibai is very hit or miss. When it's good the art and sound fit perfectly with the story making it both unnerving and thought provoking. However, when it's bad it's like watching an animated version of a story written by a middle schooler who thinks they're deep. Fortunately all the episodes are independent and just five minutes long so you're at a minimum risk of wasting your time!

Like I've pointed out the stories vary in quality but it's really the combination with lacklustre direction that makes them bad. Sometimes it's better to tell rather than show, especially when it comes to animating horror. A description ... of a gooey monster sounds scarier than a drawing of an awkward blob ya know?

Which brings me to art! Overall I love the art style of Yamishibai. It goes really well with the simplicity of the show and it's (generally) psychological horror. No, the monsters don't look very scary but the creepy lady in the background or eerie building look _amazing_. The sound is very similar to the art and so they go together well. My only complaint is that the voice acting feels out of place at times since "overacting" doesn't really fit with the rest of the show's simple aesthetic.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend the show as a whole but I would _highly_ recommend episodes one, three, four, five, ten and twelve. It would be a shame to miss out on these grate horror stories just because the other episodes are underwhelming. If hair freaks you out, episode four is a must!