Japanese Horror is well-known to most of popular culture through the Hollywood re-makes such as “The Ring” and “Ju-On”. Ayakashi offers something different to the horror genre by giving us three “classic” tales, by incorporating many symbols and traits of Classic Japanese Tales such as Gods, Demons and the all too famous “Yuurei”. Each story offers a different type of story in the horror genre, which gives you a good taster especially since the whole series is only eleven episodes long.
The first of the three is the well-known legend of Yotsuya Kaidan and arguable the most famous Japanese ghost story, which is told with an active narrator (who is the originally the person who penned this story). It has the ingredients for a good horror story: revenge, love, betrayal, murder, and curses. It also has a MacBeth-ian curse.
The art style fitted the mood of the story of revenge, but also the ukiyo-e style suited the story as it had been quite famous in kabuki theater at the time it was written. The art alone also lets you know what sort of story it is.
There are three things that makes this story stand out: Each character proves his or her own worth to the story, no character is left out or forgotten. They are needed in order for the story to be completed. This is a sign of a good story and partially the reason why Yotsuya Kaidan has become such a classic. The second thing, is the excellent use of imagery throughout the story, although I stated this above that I lacked the knowledge of Japanese Culture to appreciate parts of the story to understand it fully, the imagery I did understand certainly made this story stand out. The third thing which ties into the second is the artful way of telling the story. It was the major reason why I liked this story so much. The way the narrator discussed the idea of horror stories and the way the audience perceived it, the responsibility the author and the audience had towards a story. A theme that always gets discussed again and again is how much you are subconsciously and unconsciously controlled by a story as a writer. It reminded me of one of my favourite quotes by John Fowles, “It is only when our characters and events begin to disobey us that they begin to live.” The last two factors is what made this re-telling so good, especially since this story has been filmed, put on theatre x-times and now for the first time as an anime. One needs to pull in the audience through other means than just a good plot, in order it to appeal with a classic story. These two components of an active narrator and putting imagery to good use is why I enjoyed this re-telling of Yotsuya Kaidan story so much.
The second story is based upon a play from Kyooka Izumi called “Goddess of the Dark Tower”. This centres around the forbidden love between a goddess and a human.
This anime represented many of the traits of Kyooka's work such as the supernatural, his narrative style which was similar to traditional rakugo, this can be seen through the two friendly demons and their commentary on what happens in the story, especially at the end of the story. Dramatic dialogues, which were used in kabuki drama is another element of Kyooka's writing, you'll notice this throughout the story. The most striking of all the concepts used in his stories, which is a driving force of the story is that of a beautiful older woman (the goddess) taking care of a young man (the falconer) or that is how I interpreted it. His plays are quite famous in Japan and are still performed now, so this may come to be lost to many Westerners since many of his plays have sadly remained untranslated.
This attempt to put one of Kyooka's into anime form was left much to be desired due to one downfall, but a crucial one and that was the timing. His plays are well-known for their complex plot and suspense. It's difficult to build up a complex plot in three episodes and at the same time build-up suspense. The suspense was not completely lost, but certainly much of it lost, as it was lost by fitting it into such a small time constraint. This time constraint became the reason for many of its failings, this is illustrated especially through the characters. I questioned the logic behind the characters' decisions and plot holes,[spoiler] for example how the falconers' girlfriend is able to enter the castle without any of the goddesses noticing, especially since no-one comes back alive and this statement is made pretty clear about the castle. [end of spoiler] The character development also became lost otherwise it might have explained the lack of logic behind characters' decisions. It made the characters forgettable, especially with such a large cast. If it had the full eleven episodes, it might have turned into something worthy instead of something that felt full of gaps.
The art certainly made up for the rest, as it had a more optimistic feel compared to the first story. As all in all, it has an optimistic ending or better said it ends on a positive note. Not only that, but the art changes in each part of the story to suit the world it is in. The world of goddesses, the world of humans and the “in-between”. The goddesses with their gorgeous kimonos and the enchanting castle that they live in, the whole place is like a fairy tale from afar, but once you become seduced by all that beauty, it's too late. It's illusion. The art used in the world of humans is clearer and defined with more use of primary colours. No tricks, it gives a sense of what you see is what you get. The “in-between” world is different with everything undefined, as the lines are fainter and the colours blend into together.
Sadly this story had been failed due to one component, because of this many viewers would question not only the things I did, but also why is such a story in this collection, although if it had been done under more desirable conditions it would be a horror story, but it comes off more like a fantasy genre fairy tale. The goddesses need for cannibalism appears to be excuse from the directors to call it a horror story and to place it in this collection.
Ah, the last arc, the reason why so many people possibly have picked up this anime. Reviewers and people who recommend this series tell others if the other two stories are not to your taste, skip them and watch the last arc: “It's definitely worth it!” Well, everyone, it certainly lives up to its hype, despite the fact that I had the gg version which apparently made a major translation mistake and would confuse viewers. (What this mistake is I have yet to find out.) I will definitely give it merit for being the best of the three.
The story is based on the famous “bake neko” or goblin cat from Japanese folklore and is an original story from the writers of this anime. The opening scene already winds you into it, where you see a scene of panic and a mysterious man commenting calmly on the situation, while assessing it at the same time. The story is full of mystery, while you and the medicine seller are trying to find out what has happened, which has caused the grudge of this “bake neko” haunting the family. The first two episodes builds the suspense and let's us get to know each individual and the finale reveals the secret of this family.
The arc is full of Japanese folklore and it would have been quite useful for me to have had the .pdf included when I got hold of this series since there was certainly a lot I missed. This is alone seen by the pictures on the wall, this is exemplified when two of the characters speak to each other in the first episode and the camera shoots includes the picture on the wall while the character is speaking. It seems the character is represented by that picture or better said the animal on the wall and the conversation is between the two animals since the second screen shots switches to the animal of the wall and the voice of the character is the only thing heard. As though the animal is speaking and not the person.
Once again, the way the story was told was masterful, as it combines it's beautiful and unusual art to tell the story. The way the characters were drawn and the clothes they wore were representations of the characters they were, simply by contrasting the medicine-seller with his air of arcane and the pompous, sake-drinking uncle. The switching of scenes is beautifully done by using the sliding door, a simple but wonderful effect. It's as though you're watching it on stage and the sliding doors are like the curtains. This enhances the effect of the art, with its rice paper overlay effect and the vigorous colours used. It really is like the reviewer Malyrush states a “moving representation of Japanese ukiyo-e”. The background stays still, while the objects that move in that scene move, this can be seen quite clearly in first episode when the medicine seller arrives in the area that you can see the smoke moves, but the rest is still. Beautiful. It would be nice if anime producers and creators would finally break conventions and experiment with art, as beautiful and unusual art like this could be created and be used to facilitate the story-telling like in this final arc.
This final story is definitely worth a look, especially if you enjoyed Mushishi. It brings across many of the components that Japanese horror is well-known for, the key element being the idea of “what could be out there”.
The music in each story is wonderful, especially in the last arc. But what deserves a special mention is the opening. I'm very picky when it comes to openings and most of the time I skip them because they mostly grate my nerves, but this one. Oh, wow! It starts with traditional Japanese music and then uses that to bring in the rap.. I thought it was quite skilfully done, since combining both genres could have quite easily gone wrong. I absolutely loved it. The opening changed its art every time the arc changed and the best one once again was the final one. Just have a look on youtube for it and you'll see what I mean. The ending was also quite good, but it wasn't quite as good as the opening. It suited the mood of all the stories and used scenes from the episodes you had just watched and also at the same time discreetly previewed the next episode.
This series is definitely worth a watch, in particular if you're interested in Japanese culture and history in anyway. All the arcs represent many issues going on in the Edo period, in particular the misogyny, which also represented the powerlessness of lower ranked people. It is also a breathe of fresh air to a lot of anime with its art and its refreshing way of story-telling. If you're looking for something different or want to try a different style of anime give this a look!
