Yami Shibai 13 Episode 13 Discussion

You never know... the next episode could be starring you!
Seeing that the crowd all had masks reminded me of the opening sequence of season 11. I think this was an above average season.

Cat Report 13: As soon as the episode ended, my cat came over and started happily rubbing against my leg, making little chirring noises.

And now... her face reveal!



Thank you from me and my cat Cherry! See you next time!

Surprised this hasn't been mentioned in the episode thread, but the protagonist of this episode was also in the Season 10 finale, The Hundredth Story. His name was Kouki and he told out the 99th story, which was the story he told here about his friend going missing after both the 99th & 100th candles were brought up. After he told the 99th story in that episode, the Storyteller pops up and probably slaughters the other story-goers, so it seems like this episode sort of functions as a prequel to the hundredth story. Seemed like Kouki in that finale of that episode was on team Storyteller, so it feels like this episode is explaining how he feel under his employment. Really, really, cool stuff.

This is one of the strongest episodes of the seasons, and probably one of the best of the Storyteller lore episodes. My favourite thing about Yami Shibai is probably that it's willing to give more context to the framing device like this. It reminds me of Toonami in a way, like sure they could've just been bumpers between anime but they'd occasionally have story events that really endeared me to Toonami as a programming block. It's the same thing here, Yami Shibai isn't just a collection of scary stories, occasionally we get something bigger like this. I think the intro for this season was terrible and I'm so glad it's almost certainly not returning next season but the fact that it all ties into the final episode here is pretty cool.

The only issue I have with the episode itself is that I don't think the end bit with the two school girls discussing Kouki going missing added anything to it. Felt kinda pointless/redundant, ending with all the people & the storyteller looking at the protagonist in their creepy masks would've been a stronger ending note, but it's note a big issue.

As for the season, I guess it did wind up about the same quality as 12. I think the good episodes this time were 6, 7, 8, & 13 whereas the bad episodes were 1, 3, 4, 10, & 12. Episodes 2, 5, 9, & 11 I'd put more in the meh category, though with the excpetion of episode 5, all of them are closer to bad then good. So if I had to to keep to just good & bad episodes, there'd be 5 good episodes & 8 stinkers, which is roughly the breakdown for 12 too. I think ultimately I'd say 13 ended up better, if only because I thought the finale was cooler. 4/10.

Seems like Yami Shibai has settled into a consistent groove lately. I scored Seasons 10-13 all the same. Shame that it's not a particularly high score but with the short run time I'm cool with this. Would love for 14 to surprise and be one of the stronger seasons but if it remains consistent with that last few seasons, I guess that's fine. Long as I can still count on a few episodes to be good, with Yami Shibai's runtime I'll be sticking around.