LofZOdyssey - Anime Reviews: Anime Hajime Review: Yamishibai

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers for Yamishibai. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

A mysterious masked man sets up his stage. A crowd begins to gather in anticipation.

“Step right up and have a look. It’s time Yamishibai”

The Stories

The Talisman Woman: A man moves into a new apartment and discovers a charm hanging from the ceiling.

Zanbai: Waking up in a hospital bed with no memory, a man tries to get some information out of his fellow patients.

The Family Rule: A young boy's parents learn the rules of their new home.

Hair: Staying late, an elementary school teacher is alone in the office.

The Next Floor: On a trip to the mall, a man gets a call from work asking him to come in.

The Overhead Rack: A man grows annoyed as he observes the other passengers on the subway.

Contradiction: In the middle of the night, a young woman's awoken by a phone call from her friend.

The Umbrella Goddess: A young boy pays a visit to his friend’s house in the countryside.

Cursed: A mother tells her cursed child there may be someone who can help them.

The Moon: A high school baseball team calls it a night at their summer training camp.

Video: Three students decide to take a short break from their summer homework.

Tomonari-kun: A girl runs into a group of boys playing with their friend Tomonari-kun.

Tormentor: Three kids are spying on a neighboring house during a strange ritual.

Series Positives

How many of you remember the book series Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark? I don't know about you, but I recall having a fair number of nightmares because of those damn things when I was a kid.

Yamishibai conjures up all those memories. These are the kind of tales you find around a campfire. While younger me would've ended up cowering in the corner, older me found this show to be a lot of fun.

There were definitely more good segments than bad ones. And some of them were outstanding. My top three were:

3) The Talisman Woman

2) Contradiction

1) Hair

The Art Style

Hands down, the first thing you'll notice about Yamishibai is the art style. The series took inspiration from the Japanese story telling method of kamishibai. And it was amazing.

I want to make a quick amendment to what I said about these being the kinds of stories you find at a campfire. To get the full effect you need an outstanding storyteller and showman. Otherwise, it's not going to happen.

Some of these segments could've been told through full animation. But they wouldn't have been as good. This style, in combination with outstanding camera work, produced shots that were unnerving. I didn't like being alone after a few of these episodes.

Hair

This is the only segment I'm going to talk about because I HAVE to talk about this one. Hair was so good.

These episodes were only five minutes. But I was only able to watch about a minute of Hair. I couldn't bring myself to look at the screen. This was a textbook example of how you build up the tension. I could not wait for this one to be over. And I mean that in the best possible way.

If I were the teacher in this episode, there would be no episode. After the first strange noise, I'd be out. I'm not the kind of person who could deal with that. I wouldn't even care that I'd get murdered as I ran away. There would be no staying in that room.

Series Negatives

I'd like to say Yamishibai produced thirteen tales that will leave you terrified. But, we can’t always get what we want.

Let me repeat, the good outnumbers the bad. However, a few of these are BAD. My least favorites were:

3) The Umbrella Goddess

2) The Family Rule

1) The Overhead Rack

The Novelty Runs Thin

I had no problem with each episode being short. The quick burst of horror was addicting…at first. There's a trade-off with the show being so quick.

Each segment had a jump scare. In fact, the whole point of many them was to lead to a jump scare. I must say, though, the series did use jump scares effectively…once…in the first episode.

The fear factor lessened the series went on. The show ended on a good note, but by that point, you only saw how it was meant to be scary. The segment itself wasn't scary anymore.

The reason behind this is simple. Yamishibai reused the same formula again and again. You knew an episode was about to be over the moment you started it. There were only so many places where a surprise could be put. A segment could have the best build up in the world. But when you know a jump scare's at the end of the road, there’s no power behind it.

Take Hair for example. It was pure build up that knew what it was doing. And the result was effective. It was terrifying. Yet you had to be completely new to horror in order for the jump scare to work. I was sitting there thinking, “It is going to happen in three…two…one…there".

Final Thoughts

This wasn't an easy anime to review.

Unlike everything else up to this point, Yamishibai stood out. The issue wasn't the fact that each episode was only five minutes long. The problem was there not being an overarching story. Each episode was its own thing.

In theory, I could've reviewed each one by itself, but I'd only spoil everything.

The things I've pointed out were part of the bigger picture. There is fantastic stuff here. I don’t want one or two flops to prevent you from checking out this show. If you get a kick out of horror and folktales, Yamishibai is for you.