Oct 1, 2017
The Yami Shibai series took horror back to its roots. A simple scary story late in the evening about what goes bump in the night used be considered the height of horror. Now however, the bulk of the horror genre is populated with shows that overuse blood, guts, grotesque figures, and jump scares. The shows that tactfully implement those elements along with their own decent horror story are few and far between. The first season of Yami Shibai did this and did it well. Sadly, somewhere along its 3 seasons thereafter it devolved from what I originally praised it for and became the picture drama
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version of a B-grade horror show, filled solely with grotesque creatures and more jump scares then your average amusement park haunted house. Each season I found myself more and more disappointed with the way the series was heading. I kept wondering why I was still bothering to waste my time on something that was clearly lost. But like an abusive relationship, I found myself coming back only to be more disappointed with each subsequent season. The question here is, does the 5th season of Yami Shibai break this downward spiral of mediocrity? To my surprise, yes. It created something I enjoyed even more so than the first season and here's why.
Remember when you were a kid and you found yourself oddly attracted and fearful to that that was different around you? Like an odd acting person you see around town from time to time, or a rundown abandoned building somewhere near the outskirts? You were scared to investigate any further then just looking because just maybe that odd acting person was a witch in disguise or that abandoned house was a den for ghost and ghouls. Even when you grew up and replaced these childish delusions with logic and reasoning you still couldn't help but think that just maybe that scratching behind the wall late at night was the work of a ghost and not just some rodent. That's what the 5th season of Yami Shibai did. They animated and twisted our childlike fears putting them behind a screen for our viewing pleasure.
To say my exceptions to get even a passable 5th installment after the horrendous 4th season were low is an understatement. I went into this expecting to hate it and was shocked through and through to find something that was actually better then just "passable". I found myself getting chills like I once did and for the first time I was actually looking froward to the next story that would air. The fifth season of Yami Shibai rekindled the child in me, the one that was scared of the dark. It reminded me of how fun experiencing a simple ghost story can be.
The fifth season of Yami Shibai is not without it's faults either and would be wrong of me not to talk about its most glaring ones. The inconsistency between each story in the terms of quality is extremely apparent. Some episodes the art is good enough to stand up to its seasonal counterparts and at other times it looks like it was drawn by a 15 year old with a pastel and pencil crayon fetish. The exact same could be said for the voice acting. sometimes the quality of it is once again, up to par with its seasonal counterparts and at other times was so vexing that it actually made me wonder whether or not they casted random people off the street to voice some parts.
In conclusion, even though the fifth season of Yami Shibai has its share of episodes that were mediocre at best it was still a pleasure to watch. This is what a sequel to Yami Shibai should look like. These are Japanese Ghost Stories.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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