Introduction
For the second time, the masked storyteller returns to tell children tales and legends of horror and woe, such as the tale of a ventriloquist's dummy, a locker that grants wishes, a capsule toy machine that returns lost possessions, and a strange food called Ominie-san.
Building on the foundation that was laid by the first, Yami Shibai 2 is a collection of Japanese scary stories of the unknown and the occult that are truly terrifying, narrated in a style of art that mimics kamishibai storytelling.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
Audience reviews
10 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
SkyBlue1012
The horror genre is pretty rare in anime, which is a shame especially for fans like me who love the thrill of a genuinely scary story. Not many shows or movies really give you that spine tingling feeling, the kind that makes your heart race and your breath catch.
Thankfully, I came across Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai. Unlike a lot of so called "horror" anime that focus more on psychological tension or just plain gore, Yamishibai actually delivers real fear. It knows how to build an unsettling atmosphere, and when the jump scares hit, they hit hard, even if it’s just for a moment.
The creepy music adds to the tension, it pulls you deeper into each short story. And the voice acting? It’s top notch, you can really hear the fear and panic in the characters’ voices, which makes everything…
Read at the sourcektulu007
Yami Shibai is a pretty decently sized horror franchise with nine series and a special. All from ILCA, the studio behind the unimpressive Kowabon. I have reviewed the first series. So, I thought it might be interesting to look at the second for this year's horror anime month.
Story:
This series follows the same pattern as the first. We open with an old narrator calling on nearby children to join him for the show. Then there's a horror short for about four minutes and the ending credits.
The biggest issue remains the same. The stories largely don't have much in terms of subversion. There are maybe two or three where you can't readily figure out where the episode is going a half a minute in. Which does significantly waken the impact.
That being said, I do appreciate the rapid fire for…
Read at the sourceironsakura32
Story:
Basically 13 short little stories based on Japanese urban legends or myths. In my opinion, this season is not as good as season 1. In season 1, every episode was scary, creepy and/or disturbing. This season 2 has only a few episodes that fill those criteria. Most of the episodes are just strange and/or make no sense. Still there were those few episodes that make me want to go on to watch the 3rd season. Just as a point of interest, in this season the narrator is in an amusement park instead of a playground.
Animation:
The animation is the same as in the 1st season. It is still done well and is based off of the Japanese paper theatre story tellers. I enjoy the style, even though it isn't anything fancy.
Sound:
The sound is done very well and adds to the general vibe of creepynes…
Read at the sourcecharlottadell
Like Yamishibai, Yamishibai 2 is very hit or miss, mainly misses. In a lot of ways season two is worse than season one but in some ways I think season two is actually better than one.
The writing's overall quality is improved in the sense that even though the bad episodes aren't scary they're at least interesting. What hasn't changed is that some stories feel like they were written by or for children. In episode 11 the moral of the story is literately "Plagiarism is bad" which is like ???? obviously we all knew that? Thanks mom for reminding me to play nicely lol. The way they go about telling the story is still interesting but by the end of the episode you feel quite unsatisfied nonetheless.
If you enjoyed the first season you should definitely give this one a try but don't expect to be…
Read at the sourceGlizzlord
I watched this right after watching the first season, and this was definitely a downgrade from season One.
Story
For the most part the stories in this season were ok, but my main problem is that the morals to most of the stories were very obvious and executed poorly. Season one felt like the story was made priority, but season two felt like they wrote the story around the moral, with the moral sometimes overtaking the plot.
Art
The art was definitely less memorable Than the first season's art. I still remember most of the art from season one, but I can’t say the same for this season. They definitely put less work into making the monsters disturbing which was pretty disappointing.
Sound
Sound was creepy in a few episodes, but they overused the jump scare “THUD” way too much. Season t…
Read at the sourceMISSed_Bandwagon
Ok..what the heck happened? Between season 1 and 2 there seemed to be a major overhaul in storytelling quality. I'm not going to be a total American weeb and say, "i DoN'T GeT IT, i DOn'T unDerSTanD!" I know that these stories are based off of Japanese folklore and urban legends so there are going to be lot of things that a Western audience just wouldn't understand. It seemed like this season was rooted even deeper into the lore and the "horror" aspect just didn't resonate with an American audience.
What bothered me, personally, with this season is the ongoing theme of "Wrong place, wrong time" that is prevalent in Japanese horror. The saddest episode I have to say was "Taro-chan". At the end when he kept lamenting, "It hurts, it hurts" really hurt my feelings. I wasn't creeped out by it,…
Read at the sourceSidewinder51
Rate a 5
English subbed
Story
A nice soft core horror show. Each episode mainly told hidden messages on why certain actions shouldn't be taken. Take for example one episode that was based on a genii of sorts. While some research was done having done a through one would have stopped that evil event from occurring. Reinforcing the point that letter A (smart) has a higher value than a C(average) than just on paper. Not convinced i will explain further from an example of my life. I used to work processing film. While i understood the basics of what was needed i thought i was a master. However, when certain components did not function right like the film ended up completely blank rather than having the actual shots visible. I must have gone through 20 or so rolls before i figured out the probl…
Read at the sourceCriscosandwich
Step right up and have a look...
It's time for disappointment
Yami Shibai's second season is... Very boring and forgettable. Keep in mind I watched all three seasons of Yami Shibai back to back, and there was a notable decrease in the story quality as I went on. There are more morals this season and a lot of them are blatantly obvious and a poor decision to add to a series that really doesn't need morals (more morals means turning more characters into complete jerks too, making you want the characters to suffer even more by the end of the episode). I don't remember many of the episodes this season, nor the stories (I'm writing this review a day after I watched it). However that's not to say there weren't any GOOD episodes in there, heck my second favorite episode out of the whole series…
Read at the sourcebro3112
Yami Shibai 2nd Season is obviously the seaon following it's prequel Yami Shibai. With these in mind, season 2 of Yami Shibai was completly lacking what was in the first season.
--STORY--
The stories in season 2 of Yami Shibai were not as scary nor creepy as the first season. I did not find myself getting as scared or feeling like I'm being watched from these episodes. The horro in the stories also didn't seem like it was all there.
--ART--
As usual, the art in Yami Shibai was very interesting and quite beautiful to look at. The effect of this art style adds to the whole creep factor of the Yami Shibai stories, but even the art style was not enough to make me thoroughly enjoy this second installment.
--SOUND--
The sound in Yami Shibai is often what extends the creep factor beyond what i…
Read at the sourceParaturtle
Story:
Far more cerebral than the previous season. And, while it's somewhat interesting to contemplate the themes in each episode, I'm not watching Yami Shibai Season 2 for mind puzzles, I'm watching it because I liked how Season 1 handled horror creep so well. All in all, maybe 3 episodes were what I was hoping for, 4 had something worth deconstructing, and the rest were downright boring. There's even some strange script issues which become increasingly apparent with the episode Funeral Confessional. You'll know what I mean if you pay close attention.
Art:
Same as before, but it forsakes the opportunity to use different forms of animation for different scares. Also, it feels a lot cleaner, which is something I wasn't hoping for. I liked the rustic look of the previous season.
Sound:
R…
Read at the source