Yami Shibai 9

I was catching up on some anime I'd been falling behind on and caught up on Yami Shibai in time for the spooky season. They tend to always be decent short horror stories, and this season I was surprised with a zodiac theme.

I'm sorry to say I was slow to catch that, only realizing it about halfway through the season (around the Rooster episode), even with the intro giving a clear indication of what they were doing. The thirteen episodes represent the 12 traditional zodiac animals, and the 13th would have been the Year of the Cat that never officially became a zodiac animal ... - Fruits Basket fans tremble.

You could say my not realizing the theme until late, though, is a testament to how naturally the different animals were integrated into the plot. As such, I was impressed with the direction of the episodes. As always, how effective they are as creepy stories various for each person and also episode to episode, but I overall found it very enjoyable.

Ever since the second season, it feels like Yami Shibai is just not trying. The first season managed to be a somewhat creepy compilation of short stories based on Japanese folklore and urban legends, however, from season two onwards it feels like the stories are just random and have no background. At this point, I simply watch Yami Shibai for the sake of it with very low expectations.

Yami Shibai is as straightforward as it can get. The masked storyteller goes around sharing his short horror tales. Each of these builds an eerie atmosphere and some tension for a monster to be revealed at the end. ... One of the strongest points of the first seasons was their designs. Most monsters as far as I remember had cool designs, but right now most of the time the tension just builds up to the revelation of some abstract being or silhouette who lacks impact. There are even some attempts at psychological horror but it just doesn't fit the short format.

While this season doesn't really excel when it comes to sound it still does an okay job and it's what stands out the most in the end. The storyteller's voice acting is always pleasant and sets the tone and the ending theme is also nice. The sound effects during the shorts themselves are kind of hit or miss. Sometimes they help, sometimes you don't even notice they're there.
And as per usual, while there's really no animation, the art style suits this work but the lack of interesting monster designs makes it lackluster.

Overall I would say I still manage to enjoy this and somehow I always watch every new season but I wouldn't recommend it. Just watch the first and perhaps the second season and don't bother with the rest. I keep watching it with a very faint expectation it might someday come back to its roots.