Audience reviews
9 · Sample from the first available page, separate from the total number of ratings.
SkyBlue1012
Horror 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 actually deliver that spine-tingling feeling, the kind that makes your heart race and your breath catch.
That’s why I was so glad to come across Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai. Unlike a lot of so-called "horror" anime that rely more on psychological tension or just straight-up gore, Yamishibai actually brings real fear. It knows how to build a creepy atmosphere, and when the jump scares hit, they really hit even if it's just for a moment.
The eerie music adds to the tension and pulls you deeper into each short story. And the voice acting? Honestly, it’s top notch. You can really hear the fear and panic in the characters' voices, which make…
Read at the sourceironsakura32
Story:
Basically 13 short little stories based on Japanese urban legends or myths. In my opinon, this season is not as good as season 1, but better than season 2. In season 1, every episode was scary, creepy and/or disturbing. This season was just weird. A few creepy/scary episodes, but most were just gross and/or wierd. Also, in most of them it seems like it's a girl or young woman that is the victim, not sure if that has any significance. The Story Teller is replaced by a young boy drawing while singing a creepy song. The theme of this season seems to be "body horror", which to me personally is less scary than supernatural or psychological horror.
Animation:
The animation is the same as in the 1st two season. It is still done well and is based off of the Japanese paper theatre story t…
Read at the sourcecharlottadell
You know how sometimes the finale of a show can ruin the whole thing and negate even the episodes and aspects you really liked? I feel like the opposite of that is what happened to Yamishibai 3. Allow me to explain:
Up until the final episode, I hated most of the episodes because the stories were shallow, the monsters looked goofy and the characters had a total of 0 personality. The reason I picked up Yamishibai was because it had a mature way of dealing with horror. The scares weren't purely based on shock value or visuals, but worries and fears that are innately human. That's why I've found even the bad episodes of season one and two enjoyable; if the horror wasn't there the stories and concepts were at least worth thinking about.
I've mentioned in my reviews of the earlier seasons tha…
Read at the sourceXaeveax
“Gather around, gather around, it’s time for Yami Shibai....”
Yami Shibai is complicated to review. It’s obviously got problems, but I find that overall it is enjoyable as pure entertainment at the very least.
Season 3 is, in my opinion, the highlight of the series. It contains (light) continuity throughout the episodes, though they aren’t fully touched on until the finale, and the themes presented were more interesting to me.
The stories here were varying in quality, as is the usual case for this show. Most were unsettling, and the ones that weren’t acted as great comedy, even though that may not have been the intent. The final episode is by far the highlight in my books, as it manages to do something the rest of the series hasn’t touched since, but I’ll leave that to your imagination…
Read at the sourceMISSed_Bandwagon
For some reason I found this season...humorous? I don't know why, but I found myself laughing at a few of these rather than be scared. As I mentioned in my review for season 2, I believe the deeper we go into the seasons the deeper we go into Japanese lore and history.
I'm not sure if the reason we're just not getting it is because we as Westerners don't understand or if it really is bad storytelling. Perhaps because these stories were told from the perspective of a bored child that the stories ended up being childish, ridiculous or just cruel for no reason. Yeah, that's gotta be it. The fact that it was told from the viewpoint of the storytelling child through drawings made the story aspect less important than the past two seasons.
I do have to say I miss the original "puppet theater" ar…
Read at the sourceSidewinder51
Rate a 7
English Subtitled
Plot
Introductory was a nice change of pace. First and second involved the same cast but only the scenery had changed. Here i am sure you can put two and two together to realize that you are looking at a different piece. Although sadly the wording could have been chosen better. For not only was in not scary but seemed a bit off like a poor translation.
As for the ending that won it for me. Sure all the proceeding episodes were at the same horror level as season 2(somewhat tame) but it played into the introductory in a somewhat unexpected approach. In doing so made it into the final episode. And at the very end while it was a somewhat expected reveal it provide some informative approach to the gathering. In other words people can't help but to link two and two t…
Read at the sourceCriscosandwich
Wow.
Just.
Wow.
I don't think I've ever seen a series fall so far from grace before this.
This is both impressive and really depressing. ---
Story: 2
They follow a "monster of the week" type of story in this season. I'm not even sure these are based on actual Japanese folklore and scary stories anymore. The stories were extremely bland and boring, with maybe only an episode or two actually entertaining me rather than frustrating me.
Art: 9
I'm putting sound and art in the same category here. They were by far the only good aspect of the show this season. The art was a major improvement from the last season and was aesthetically pleasing. It fit the tone of the show well. However, there were a few episodes where the art style changed DRASTICALLY for no reason. It was pretty jarring.…
Read at the sourceParaturtle
Story:
This is, essentially, one giant call-back to the first season. Everything was done really well here, even if a few episodes have that "Season 2 charm" (Read: aren't that good.) We've returned to the general idea of horror creep where viewers are subjected to a steady increase of fear. There's a law implemented, either explicitly or non-explicitly shared, and then the following events follow through with that general characteristic.
Now, I will say that it's possible certain parts didn't deliver due to fatigue. I did marathon every episode, so it's likely that my 'lackluster' perception on a few episodes is due to me growing callous to the tropes within these episodes, but I also know that some of these genuinely gave me the creeps, so I don't think that this is the case. I think th…
Read at the sourceUseless_Goddess
Step right up and have a look… at why Yami Shibai season 3 doesn't live up to the first 2 seasons
Being a big fan of the first two seasons of Yami Shibai I was super excited when i heard that there would be a third installment in the series. It's sad to say however that it fell completely flat and lost somthing that the other seasons had.
Art: 7
You can tell from episode one that the art has drastically improved from the first two seasons and the animations that they do have in the show flow much more smoothly.
Sound: 8
The ed to the third seasons switched up from the vocaloid track and went with something that felt much more suited towards the genre of the show yet still keeping the electric vibe that I'm a fan of. it defiantly does its job of creeping me out for the 30 seconds it play…
Read at the source