#yamishibai Japanese ghost stories

[sillygoblinantics]

wat r yur faverit anime?

👀 I have a few:

Wolf’s Rain

was my first anime so it has a special place in my heart

Also has a banger of an opening!

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Yuri!!! On ice

was such a motivational anime for me to get in shape in high school and the animation/story of the show is *chef kiss!*

Also yuri is bi

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Cowboy bebop

Same people who did wolfs rain too :D love the music! Big band, bebop

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Ouran high school host club

Classic, haruhi is a mood

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Beastars

I’m a furry, I don’t show it… I really need to read the manga and rewatch it!

Also music is really good and reminds me a bit of cowboy bebop!

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Ancient magus bride

Elias… and the slowburn and relationships that are built as well as

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Snow White with the red hair

There are not enough gifs of this anime >:(

Bah! I just really love the story and characters in a sucker for this type of romance!!!

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Ghost stories

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Yamishibai — Japanese ghost stories

A bit obscure but I have watched all of it subbed!

Love the paper theater aesthetics

I think it was volume three or four that was bad because they narrator wouldn’t stop talking over the scene

If you like vocaloid they use a few songs as the outro

I know there’s a lot of movies I could’ve listed and the staple shows of American Saturday mornings but I wanted to list my genuine faves! I still need to watch some of the current hype ones but I also want to get into reading the mangas too! I’ve begun an Junji Ito collection hehehehe

[animemakeblog]

“Yami Shibai” The Gets 11th Season in Summer 2023

The 11th season of the horror-themed short animation series Yami Shibai (Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories) was revealed by TV Tokyo. The key image was all made public on the official website. The first episode of this season, which will comprise urban legends tales centered around the theme of "Again," will air in July 2023.

[ljaesch]

The Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories Anime Is Getting a 12th Season in January 2024

The staff of the Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories anime has announced that the series is getting a 12th season that is scheduled to begin airing in Japan in January 2024. The new season’s theme will be “rules.” The original Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories series of anime shorts featured six-minute horror stories based on urban legends in a modern day setting. The shorts draw inspiration from…

[newsintheshell]

📢 THEATRE OF DARKNESS - YAMISHIBAI: LA DODICESIMA STAGIONE DELLA SERIE È STATA CONFERMATA PER GENNAIO!

Al centro della nuova stagione della serie di corti horror ci sarà il tema delle "regole". Tutte le precedenti stagioni sono online in streaming su Crunchyroll.

[canmom]

Animation Night 193 - Harpier cries: 'tis time! 'tis time!

PREVIOUSLY, in the dark halls of ANIMATION NIGHT, you have born witness to such horrors as these...

Animation Night 25: HORROR, featuring Kakurenbo, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Birdboy: The Forgotten Children, and many episodes of Yamishibai

Animation Night 77: Once More, Halloween, featuring Blood: The Last Vampire, Seoul Station, The Wolf House, and Shoujo Tsubaki - and more Yamishibai...

Animation Night 129: Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed..., featuring Hellsing Ultimate, The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb, Mad God, Ujicha's Violence Voyager, and guess what? Yamishibai...

Animation Night 176: The Hedge-Pigge Whin'd, a rather scuffed production which, contra the writeup, ended up just showing the Darkstalkers OVA from 1997. And some Yamishibai of course.

And now, my friends, and now... the witching hour is soon to be upon us once more, and it is time we revelled in the darkness and terror, for tonight is hallow'een, easily the best festival in the western calendar.

Many thanks go to @glitch-critter and @muzothecat, who provided me some excellent suggestions for animated horror that I have yet to see. Not that reruns would be the end of the world, there's some excellent shit on the list above I would be immensely glad to see again.

To begin with, we have the recently-released The Birth of Kitarō: The Mystery of GeGeGe (幾多郎誕生：ゲゲゲの謎). Which provides an excellent excuse to get into the subject of Kitarou. So let's begin our dark and sordid tale... well, it's actually a pretty positive tale, but that's not really in the spirit of things.

GeGeGe no Kitarō is a truly classic manga series dating back to the 60s, created by Shigeru Mizuki. But it's actually older still: the earliest incarnation of Kitarō is in a kamishibai performance written/illus. by Masami Itō and Keiyō Tatsumi back in 1933, called Hakaba Kitarō (Kitarō of the Graveyard). It tells the story of a ghost boy called Kitarō who lives in a graveyard; like many kamishibai it was aiming at straight up horror. Here's a board from the original (photo by translator Zack Davisson, thanks wikipedia):

So, you know yōkai? You're reading this blog, so probably, but just in case, they are the various freaky spirits of Japanese folklore, from kappa and tengu to nekomata and chōchin-oiwa. And the reason why they are such a popular feature of modern popular culture (you all know what a kappa is, right?) is in large part due to this manga.

Shigeru Mizuki, born 1922, had a pretty wild life. He was drafted into the army in 1943 at age 21, and lost his left arm in a bombing the next year; during his recovery he made friends among the Tolai people of New Guinea. He came home after the war, and found work renting out an apartment building and drawing kamishibai on the side; gradually the kamishibai work took over. In 1953, his brother Sōhei moved in after being tried for war crimes (the timeline does not mention the outcome of the trial); in 1957 at age 35 he moved to drawing manga, debuting in rental manga with Rocketman.

Starting in 1960 at the behest of Mizuki's publisher, the Hakaba Kitarō manga adapted the story of the yamishibai, introducing a wider audience to ghost boy Kitarō with his floofy hair and little third eye on a stalk. It proved explosively popular (despite being at first deemed too scary for children), telling the stories of Kitarō's encounters with all kinds of yōkai. The state of English translations is a bit scattershot; some of it is available on mangadex.

In 1964, at age 42, Mizuki debuted in serialised manga in Garo magazine - a name you might find familiar, the avant-garde magazine which also published authors like Suehiro Maruo (ero-guro mangaka, the author of Shoujo Tsubaki) and Hiroshi Masamura (the guy who made the cat manga we looked into on AN188). There, he rebooted the Kitarō manga, starting once again with the story of the birth of Kitarō. Before long he jumped over to the much larger Monthly Shonen Magazine, and retooled Kitarō to be more kid-oriented. From then on it's Kitarō city - and the immense success of the manga gave him the chance to regularly return to the newly combined state of Papua New Guinea.

In 1968, Kitarō arrived in animation land, one of Toei's early projects. It quickly became one of those classic famous Toei anime, you know the type, the kind of thing that every Japanese person of a certain age would have seen on TV. Mizuki himself composed the OP, and it continued to get sequels throughout the ensuing fifty years, with the most recent being in 2018. This is an old and widely beloved anime so there is a lot of it: the 1968 series accumulated 65 episodes, the third series in 1985-88 is the longest at 115, but the others are no slouch either; even the 2018 series pulled out a mighty 97.

As such, it's... perhaps a little daunting! But...

The Birth of Kitarō is a prequel to the 2018 series... and rather than being a spooky-fun kids anime, it's intended as a genuine horror story aimed at adults, presumably adults who grew up watching Kitarō, returning to the earliest Garo-era tone of the manga. Set in the 50s, the story sees salaryman Mizuki arrive in a village in pursuit of a mysterious medicine, where he finds the village ruled by an old superstitious family. Naturally, before long, murders start happening. And a mysterious white-haired man is somehow involved...

Seems like the perfect way to get into Kitarō. I missed the chance to see this film at Annecy this year, but it's already out on nyaa, so let's jump on it.

So that's our first act. What of our second?

Junk Head is a stop-motion scifi film pretty much enitrely solo animated by Takehide Hori who, at age 40, heard about Makoto Shinkai's solo-animated film Voices of a Distant Star (AN44), and was inspired to spend the next seven years working on a stop-motion scifi epic of his own. It tells of a cyborg from a future where humans have lost the ability to reproduce, venturing into a strange underground realm full of freaky creatures that, I'm told, invite comparisons to the art of Giger, Bosch, Escher and Gorey, and the films of Švankmajer (whose Alice we watched on AN50), Gilliam, and the Quay Brothers. del Toro lauded it as a 'work of deranged brilliance'.

Which is to say this is exactly the kind of thing we like to show here on Animation Night. I can't believe I didn't hear of this film before. Sources are not exactly abundant, but I was able to find a hardsubbed 720p version with a few seeds on it, so that's what we'll be watching tonight.

Speaking of the Brothers Quay, who enjoy a remarkably in-depth and thorough wiki page, they have yet to appear on Animation Night, and it's about time we remedied that! A pair of identical twins from the Pennsylvania who moved to the UK in 1969 to study at the RCA, they got their start in illustration before making a turn to stop motion film using bits of dolls and various other materials in the vein of Švankmajer.

They are incredibly prolific as a pair, making shorts in nearly every year from 1979 to 2021 (bar a couple of hiatuses). Most of their films are without dialogue, set instead to the music of Leszek Jankowski and a great many other other composers. They are huge book nerds too, adapting authors from Lem and Kafka to Emma Hauck; honestly there's a ton to dive into here and I will for sure be returning to these guys on a future Animation Night. Tonight, however, our pick will be Street of Crocodiles (2021), a musical piece in which a puppet walks through a desolate realm of "mechanical realities and manufactured pleasures", widely celebrated as one of their best films.

Stop motion seems to be a theme tonight, huh? Somehow, stop motion is just spookier than traditional animation. That theme continues with The House, an anthology piece for Netflix depicting three different stories taking place in the same house. Animated in London, each piece brings in a different director, respectively Emme de Swaef and Marc James Roels co-directing the first, Swedish director Niki Lindroth von Bahr the second and Mexican-British actress turned director Paloma Baeza for the third.

The stories span a few hundred years, from the 1800s to a flooded post climate change future. In each case, the house is the stage for tales of obsession and misguided ambition leading to disaster, whether it should befall anthro rats, humans or anthro cats. Widely praised for its animation and general weirdness, I'm quite excited to see what this mix has in store.

And returning of course will be Yamishibai, the wonderful long-running series of ridiculous cutout-animated creepypasta horror in the vein of old-school kamishibai boards. You know we gotta. And hey, if we're feeling in a really good mood at the end of the evening, I might bring Shoujo Tsubaki out of the vaults too. We shall see.

Animation Night 193 shall begin, with its gruesome course of animated horrors, at seventh hour.... which is to say 7pm UK time, just over four hours from the writing of this post. Be there, or be forever haunted by the ghosts of frames unseen (unless you gotta go trick or treat or something, we understand). The place? Upon the heath... of twitch.tv/canmom!

Hoooohhooohohoohooohooohohoooooooooo!

[dreamyghostie]

🍃tell me 17, 20 and 26! 🦔

yay :) will do!

17 - What is your favourite fall weather?

either a fresh, windy day around 15 degrees or a crisp, cold and clear day just above freezing. i think it depends on whether fall has just begun or its almost winter, but in any case the air has to feel fresh and cool :)

20 - Favourite fall treat?

lebkuchen of course, i think you know that quite well. :D (though id say this is more of a year-round favourite treat) other than that, one thing i really like are martinsbrezeln :) maybe ill bake some again this year

26 - Favourite ghost story?

i dont have one particular story to share rn, but i often enjoy semi-realistic ghost stories that blend everyday life with supernatural or spooky elements ^^ anime like kaidan restaurant or yamishibai are great in that regard, for written works i have not yet found much but i have a book with japanese short stories that have a few such ones inside them, i just dont know their name rn :D

[fandompost]

Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories Season 13 Episode #13 Anime Review (Season Finale) http://dlvr.it/TFCzGV

[gonagaiworld]

L'anime horror Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories avrà la 13ª stagione a luglio Akira Funada dirige nuovamente l'anime presso lo studio ILCA Info:--> https://www.gonagaiworld.com/lanime-horror-yamishibai-japanese-ghost-stories-avra-la-13a-stagione-a-luglio/?feed_id=453652&_unique_id=6663798b28125 #Anime #YamishibaiJapaneseGhostStories #闇芝居 #闇芝居十二期

[esthillay]

Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

[myanimerecs]

Theater of Darkness

Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

Rating: 2/3

Categories: episodic, horror, original work, supernatural, urban legend

A collector of short ghost stories. From a boy who witnesses a horrifying family secret to mysterious calls there’s always something new to be told.

S1, 13 eps

S2, 13 eps

S3, 13 eps

S4, 13 eps

S5, 13 eps

S6, 13 eps

S7, 13 eps

[animemakeblog]

“Yami Shibai” Gets 12th Season in Winter 2024

The horror short animation series Yami Shibai (Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories) received a 12th season announcement from TV Tokyo. Set against the topic of "Rules," this season of Urban Legends will debut on TV Tokyo in January 2024.

[ljaesch]

The Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories Anime Is Getting a 13th Season in July 2024

The staff of the Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories anime has announced that it is getting a 13th season that is scheduled to premiere in Japan on July 15, 2024. The new season’s theme will be “reminiscence.” The original Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories series of anime shorts featured six-minute horror stories based on urban legends in a modern day setting. The shorts draw inspiration from…

[jusadode-blog]

NASHIMOTO-P GOT THEIR MUSIC IN A ANIME

In “Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories” the season 2 ending is a song known as  “Shijukunichi Eyes” with Nashimoto-P’s distinct style. I almost fucking screamed in excitement, but remembered the issue with copycat musicians in the Vocaloid fandom (as seen with Nashimoto We Kill Me, albeit it’s more of a tribute song). Apparently Nashimoto made this song under under the album VOCAROCK collection 5, and it’s actual name is “ Shijuukunichi Me” or  “Forty-Ninth Day Eyes”, and the misaccreditation made it unnecessarily hard to find Nashimoto-P’s name.

Like, holy shit man Nashimoto-P was my beloved musician for AGES due to their grungy guitars and disgustingly deep lyrics. Hypervenalation Dance was the biggest mood for me for years, and to see Nashimoto make it into an anime is so mind-blowingly awesome for me! Sure, Yamishibai is a budget anime, but it looks like season 2 got a bit more funding than the last due to how much more fluid the animation is in this first episode, and apparently it’s gone on for over four seasons I think??? 

By the way, check out Yamishibai Japanese Ghost Stories if you want a good Goosebumps style anime but a bit less cheesy and a bit hard on the jump scares. There’s also a coherent story going on outside of the ghost stories if you pay close attention to some of the subtle cues it gives, albeit it’s very shallow so far after season 1 and you have to start season 2′s first episode to understand some of the connotations. About six episodes in you get used to the art style, but the budget is a bit noticeable even afterwards sometimes, especially with elongated stills and bad voice acting. (Please note, I’m watching the Japanese version with subtitles.) It uses mixed medias to create really creepy aesthetics, and although it doesn’t look the best it still comes off decent enough.

Also, please note it’s trying to mimic the kamishibai story telling method, which involves traveling story tellers changing images in front of a audience to portray a story as it is told. It’s actually a pretty genius way to keep the budget soft with the animation while going for a really unique and memorable style.

[newsintheshell]

🔴 THEATRE OF DARKNESS - YAMISHIBAI: LA DECIMA STAGIONE DELLA SERIE DI CORTI HORROR ARRIVERÀ DA GENNAIO! 

Lanciato nel 2013, l’anime presenta miti e leggende metropolitane in una forma digitalizzata dello stile “kamishibai”, un tipo di spettacolo teatrale con immagini di carta in auge tra gli anni ’20 e gli anni ’50. Ogni stagione ha delle tematiche differenti e un cast adibito a molteplici ruoli.

Tutte le stagioni della serie animata sono disponibili in streaming su Crunchyroll, assieme allo spinoff intitolato “Ninja Collection”.

[horrorjapan]