Anime Hajime Review: Yamishibai Season 3

Series Synopsis

Round three.

The mysterious masked man has been replaced with a small boy calling over his friends to look at the drawings in his notebook. What sorts of chilling things will we see from the mind of this child?

Lend it to Me

A man is on his way home when he passes a public bath he has never seen before. On a whim he decides to use the facilities and appears to be the only customer. However from the women’s side, someone begins asking to borrow a few items. Slowly, the requests start to become much stranger.

Tunnel

Two friends get lost on a road trip and come across a tunnel that is not on their map. Because they're running out of gas, they chance it. Unfortunately, their car runs out in the darkness.

Rat

Moving into a new apartment, a young wife gets scared after seeing a rat and is bit by one that night. Unsure if she can handle the pests, her husband goes on a business trip. She then learns
how aggressive these rats really are.

The Noisy Hospital Room

A man wakes up from a nightmare in a cold sweat. He goes looking for a nurse and comes to a corridor where there's a lot of noise from the room at the end of the hall. It is the same room that he was specifically told never to go into.

Museum of Taxidermy

A married couple on their vacation make a stop at a Taxidermy Museum. The exhibits on display are extremely well made, almost as if they will start moving at any moment.

“That Side” Festival

Two friends are having fun at a festival when one asks "wouldn't it would be great to stay". They become separated and everything turns to a horrific version of "that side".

Behind

On a class trip, a group of friends stay up talking to each other. One confides that he has been having a really scary dream lately. He's in classroom and something comes in from the back. He knows that no matter what, he must not look behind him.

The Empress Doll

A group of friends arrive at an abandoned house for a test of courage. The place it pretty rundown, but there's a well-kept doll display. It would be in pristine condition except the empress doll is missing.

The Fourth Man

A rumour is going around known as the handshake man. Should you run into him, you will do so four times. For the first three, shake hands. Failure to do so will result in you getting crushed like a meatball. But under no circumstances should you shake the fourth man’s hand.

Merry-Go-Round

There's a amusement center on the roof of a mall. It’s small, quaint, and full of nostalgic memories. There’s even a merry-go-round where it's free to ride for whoever's holding the red balloon.

Cuckoo Clock

While visiting her grandmother, a young girl comes across an old cuckoo clock right at the hour. Having never seen one before, the antique is quite interesting; so interesting in fact that the girl becomes enthralled by it.

In the Water

A young swimmer is under a lot of pressure before the big meet. He heads to the school’s pool at night to get a bit of practice in. His gut tells him that the water is a little creepy; he should have listened.

Drawings

A new teacher is starting her first day when she sees our storyteller drawing alone in the park. She goes up the boy and tries to talk to him. And that was the mistake, this is Yamishibai and you do not talk to the storyteller.

Series Positives

Season one was really good and creepy. Season two was…not so much. Now we've come to season three and well…why don’t we start off like we’ve always done.

My top three episodes:

3) Drawings

2) The Fourth Man

1) Lend it to Me

These three are the ones that best maintain the standard set by the first season. But they are without a doubt, entries from this season; they’re unmistakable.

Something all three seasons have illustrated is the ability to create tension. Once again I found myself covering my eyes out of anticipation of what might be coming next. Though none have been able to top the first, it's still there. Sadly it has lessened over each season and this is the weakest of the three.

Drawings

Why am I talking about this? Sure it was in my top three, but it wasn’t number one.

Well that answer depends on something. As you're reading this, I have a question for you. Is there a Yamishibai season four? If the answer is no, fantastic because this is a great ending to a trilogy; despite this season not being that great.

I can’t say what happened in this story because I don’t want to ruin it, but it made me smile; and that's something I've never done before in this series. It was a good send off.

However, if the answer to my question is yes, then s@#$. Hopefully season four is good, but it does muck up the episode. Therefore, Behind would be my next number three.

Series Negatives

I was hoping that this was going to make up for season two’s mediocrity, but alas. Instead it was a bit of a disappointment. Thus here are my top three least favorite stories.

3) The Noisy Hospital Room

2) Tunnel

1) Rat

I don’t know if I would go so far as to say that these are the worst of entire three seasons, but they're definitely not great. They were pledged, as were all the stories, with problems specific to season three.

The Art Style

Wait Odyssey what? You’ve praised the art style of the two other seasons, what’s wrong this time?

It’s not about being bad because I don't believe that. In fact just the opposite, I think this season is incredibly well drawn. It’s simply different, but not in a good way.

This is going to sound weird. Season three feels like…an anime version of Yamishibai. Hear me out for a second. In the first two seasons, the art work was much more realistic which added a lot to the creepiness. This one looks like an anime and it does take away from the atmosphere.

If you don’t believe me, simply look at The Fourth Man which retains the art style from the first two seasons and compare it with every other story.

Again this isn’t bad art, but it doesn’t feel like Yamishibai.

Delivery

A staple of Yamishibai is that each episode is building up to something. Then at the last possible moment we see...something. It's usually fast and hard to see, which is why it's so scary; you aren't entirely sure what you saw.

What the hell happened in season three?

First problem, there's way too much reliance on detailed, anime monsters. The second problem, we always get a good look at all of said monsters; there’s no longer any uncertainty. The third and biggest problem is with the animation; why is there so much animation? This one was amazing to me. The first two seasons had movement, but it was ridged and jittery. It was so unnatural and that’s why it worked. Here, lips and limbs move, ruining the illusion.

Combine all of these problems and your left with something that’s no longer scary, no matter how good the build up is.

Final Thoughts

As a show on its own, Yamishibai season three is the first in the Yamishibai series that I will not recommend. Watching it alongside the first two would be better, but you'll see a noticeable drop.

The tension is still here, but it’s wasted through the delivery. You see things coming a mile away, you get a clear look at the unknown, and it is simply doesn’t have that Yamishibai feel that you’ve come to expect.

If this is the end of the series, then so be it.