For anyone who doesn’t know: Yami Shibai, the theatre of darkness, consists of very short stories (between 4 and 5 minutes) that adapt japanese urban legends and myths with the sole goal of being scary. And that is why seasons 1 and 2 are awesome. Every episode begins with a creepy playground and an even creepier narrator telling a short story, which all have two things in common: A huge plot twist and a jumpscare in the end. And oh boy, some episodes genuinely scared the shit out of me. But I liked them, because Yami Shibai was the only show that could stay scary by using the same concept over and over again.
In 2016, when season 3 came out, the setting changed a bit. The stories were still creepy, though it began to focus on a more sad and depressing side rather than just scaring the watcher. I personally didn’t like the change, but I saw the point of it. After 2 whole seasons of only jumpscares, many watchers would find it a bit repetitive and even boring. I tried to stay positive, enjoy the show and embrace the new setting. The beginning wasn’t hard.
But then season 4 came, and I gave up the little hope I had.
The before mentioned switch from scary to sad took a way too rapid turn and the overall quality decrease was so ridiculously obvious that season 4 almost became the downfall of the theatre of darkness. The creators had no clue on how to continue this franchise. Make longer episodes? Nah. Make shorter episodes? Nah. Make scary stories? Nah. Make stories with moral lessons? Nah. Make shitty 4 min episodes with no plot, relevant themes or overall horror substance? Yes, yes and yes.
With every hope lost, I had absolutely no expectation for seasons 5-7. Well, at least they returned to focusing on horror and fear rather than depression. They are nothing special, just completely average.
Seasons 8 and 9 were in one word shitty. The authors clearly ran out of ideas, because almost every story has been mentioned in a previous season. Hell, urban legends about depressed workers were shown at least 14 times. At this point I seriously asked myself why these seasons even exist. Yami Shibai isn’t very popular, thus money grab is out of the question. Fans demand more seasons? Nah, they’ve left this show for good. I still haven’t found anything close to being plausible or at least rational.
And now here we are in 2022 with season 10.
I don’t know what sort of intoxicants the producers consumed, but this is not Yami Shibai. This hideous, boring, cringe and pathetic piece of crap can’t be considered a part of this once amazing franchise. The stories somehow became worse than in every previous season combined. Voice acting was below awful, combined with atrocious endings and a completely ludicrous way of telling the one iconic quote at the beginning.
Minimalistic artstyle has always been a trademark of this show and seasons 1-5 made actually pretty decent use of it, creating an overall weird and chilling ambience. Especially if you watched the show late at night was it a magnificent experience. Unfortunately, this aspect was discarded as well. The animation team became lazier and lazier during the seasons, but this was the peak of neglection. I didn't expect it to be Mappa level, though such abominable designs surprised even me. It was however, without a doubt, one of the most unique Power Point Presentations to sit through.
It’s simply put impossible to find any redeeming quality in this franchise anymore. The desperation we all experienced after season 4 just increased and increased, until we were completely sapped of everything scarcely similar to what can be called “expectations”. There is a quote that says: “You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Yami Shibai outlived its era of glory and fell to the depths of mediocrity and finally became a thing that isn’t even an anime, but just a pile of rashly collected appaling ideas being made into a season doomed to fail miserably since the first episode.
But hey, there will be no more seasons right? No more ways to torture long-time fans, such as myself, with this bullshit anymore, so that we can have at least a decent feeling about this franchise? Right? RIGHT?!
