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The story started out great, and I was really engaged in who and what the main character, Tomie, was. There is constant dread and disturbing imagery as one can expect from a Junji Ito story. Unfortunately, the story became very repetitive about halfway through, and I felt like my patience didn't pay off by the time I got to the ending. The fact that most if not all of the characters were unlikable did not really help. Without spoiling it, I can say that it does a good job of providing commentary on certain issues like victim blaming and jealousy for example. It's definitely not ... just a gory and shallow manga, but it ran a little too long for me, only to end when things became slightly more interesting again. I love a lot of Junji Ito's works but I struggled with this one.

Seeing that this is a fairly old movie, I was surprised to see that no one else has reviewed it before. So, let me be the first! Guilstein is set in a post-apocalyptic world of sorts, where the rich leaders who live in luxury have resorted to experimenting on people to create bioweapons: monsters called Guilstein. Watching it reminded me of other old animated movies like Demon City Shinjuku and Vampire Hunter D—it has the same vibe.

The animation combines CGI and 2D, which is often a tricky combo to pull off, especially in the early 2000s. In this movie, it only works for some ... scenes. It comes off a little wooden and disjointed in a lot of places, though it didn't completely ruin my whole experience. I enjoyed the monster designs, and they do pop with the cgi touch, so I can see why they went with that route. But again, it's not smooth enough. The plot is nothing revolutionary, pretty standard and predictable. We also don't get a lot of backstory on the world or why it operates the way it does. The characters aren't really developed either, and I didn't feel attached to any of them except the main male protagonist, Chaos. Overall, it's a little enjoyable thanks to the Guilsteins but ultimately forgettable. I still recommend that you give it a watch though, it just feels like one of those classics you can watch on a lazy Sunday.

If you've seen any of the previous Yami Shibai seasons, you know what's in store for you: short, compact horror stories. Unfortunately, this season has been quite disappointing. There was so much potential to show the audience something scary, but they opted to leave it to our imaginations. Sure, it works for some stories, but not all of them! I don't know if this is down to budget, lazy writing/animation, or perhaps it's being aired during a time slot when children can see it, but compared with the earlier seasons, this is too tame for my taste. I remember seeing several creepy and ghastly depictions, ... especially in the first and second seasons. With that said, there were still 2 or 3 stories that were pretty solid. If this is your first time viewing Yami Shibai, you can give it a go, but don't expect a lot.