Anime Hajime Review: Yamishibai Season 2

Original Run: July 6, 2014 - September 28, 2014
Number of Episodes: 13
Genre: Horror, Supernatural

***Warning, the following may contain spoilers Yamishibai Season 2. Reader discretion is advised.***

Series Synopsis

It’s time to begin our second journey into the dark and the macabre, the strange and the creepy. Listen to the stories of the things that go bump in the night.

It’s once again time for Yamishibai.

The Stories

• Taro-chan – A ventriloquist performs his act with his old wooden puppet.
• Kitchen – A woman visits her friend’s new apartment. While there, she can’t shake the feeling she’s being watched.
• Inside – A boy returns home with an old Russian doll. The boy’s mother takes the thing to throw it away but returns hours later, cradling the doll.
• Wall Woman – A man sees a strange creature climb up the side of a building and into an unsuspecting apartment.
• Locker – A girl struggles with love and decides to test out an urban legend rumored to grant any wish.
• Nao-chan – While a family sleeps, a young son smiles at the ceiling. While looking into the shadows, the boy whispers the name Nao-chan.
• Capsule Toy Machine – An office worker passes an elderly man collecting capsules from a toy machine. The next day, the worker decides to see what made the old man so obsessive.
• Farewell Confessional – A man attends a funeral with an odd ritual where attendees get the chance to tell the deceased their long-held secrets.
• Omine-san – A new teacher can’t stomach a popular local dish.
• Bugged – A man complains in his journal about the many things that annoy him.
• Picking Up – A man finds a draft of a novel left behind on the train. On a whim, he decides to enter the manuscript into a literature contest.
• Netsuke – A woman moves into her grandparent’s home. She comes across a pair of earrings her deceased grandfather was very protective of.
• Bringer Drums – A couple moves to a small country town, and the path leading to their new house is lined with small pellet drums.

Series Positives

Like season one, the best thing about Yamishibai was its lengths. When you add all of season two, you’ve got an easy two-hour viewing session to quench your horror fix.

If I had to list my favorites, I would go with the following:

• Capsule Toy Machine
• Wall Woman
• Inside

Of these three segments, Wall Woman and Inside were significantly more intense than they were scary. And with Capsule Toy Machine, I just thought the idea behind it was neet.

Once again, the selling point about Yamishibai remains its kamishibai art style.

These visuals add so much to this series’ creep factor, even when a story isn’t that great.

The jagged movements, the stop motion-like animation, the brilliant camera work, all these elements returned for this season. Thus making it another fascinating watch.

If this series ever gets a third season, I’m on board as long as it retains this style.

Series Negatives

Because this series is so short, it’s incredibly easy to sit through it. The art was great, and there were definitely some creepy moments.

Please note that I am only saying “creepy.”

In my review of the first season, I said that there were several scary moments. For season two, I can’t claim the same; without question, this installment season two was inferior.

The majority of season one’s stories still get to me, particularly at night as I lie in bed in the dark. I cannot imagine a single entry from season two doing the same.

From this batch, the following were my least favorite entries:

• Picking Up
• Kitchen
• Bugged

Yamishibai’s art style can create disturbing imagery, and this season went overboard in exploiting this fact.

For many of the stories, elements were only creepy for the sake of being creepy. Often a shot was disturbing for no discernible reason. In the case of something like Bugged, that’s all there was to it.

It’s a problem when you can’t figure out what is meant to be scary. in a horror anime

Before going further, let’s recognize that horror, like comedy, is subjective. Therefore, it is possible that season two’s stories just happened to not get to me. However, I will say there were a few examples of me not knowing what the hell was happening.

For example, in Kitchen and Picking Up, I didn’t have a clue about what was going on. I don’t mean this in the people-fear-the-unknown kind of way, but rather in the more literal this-does-not-make-any-god-damn-sense sort of way.

Final Thoughts

To make a long story short, this season was not as good as the first. In fact, it wasn’t even close. Nonetheless, this installment had its merits.

The art style is still fantastic, and there are some very creepy moments throughout this show. Therefore, it is still worth work a look.

If you’re looking for something to add to your next horror night, Yamishibai Season 2 has earned a recommendation.

But these were just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this series? How would you advise Yamishibai Season 2? Leave a comment down below because I would love to hear what you have to say.

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