Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

Synopsis

Every week at 5 p.m. an old man in a yellow mask (the kamishibaiya or kamishibai narrator) shows up at a children's playground and tells them ghost stories based on myths and urban legends of Japanese origin. The man tells the stories on the back of his bicycle using a traditional kamishibai (紙芝居, Paper Drama) method and features a new tale each week. In the third season, instead of the old man in a yellow mask and his kamishibai stage, a boy (later revealed to be the narrator in the form of a child) sits on a playground slide and sings, "Friends on that side, come to this side... Friends on this side, go to that side..." as he draws illustrations of the creatures in the stories. At the end of each episode, the narrator's mask sings the closing song to him, multiplying in number as each episode ends. As of Season 4, the kamishibaiya returns, telling the stories to children at a playground every 5 p.m., going back to the original format of Seasons 1 and 2.

Production

The first season of the series is produced by ILCA and directed by Tomoya Takashima along with script writing by Hiromu Kumamoto and narrated by Kanji Tsuda. The series is animated in such a way as to mimic a traditional Japanese method of storytelling known as Kamishibai.

The second season was directed by Takashi Shimizu and Noboru Iguchi while Shōichirō Masumoto wrote the script.

Release

The 13-episode first season premiered on July 14, 2013 on TV Tokyo during the station's 26:15 (02:15 JST) time slot, which technically resulted in the episodes airing on the days following the ones scheduled. The series was later aired on AT-X. Crunchyroll also acquired both seasons of the series for online simulcast streaming in select parts of the world with English subtitles. On April 4, 2014 All-Entertainment Co., Ltd. released season one in its entirety on a single DVD volume in Japan. The first season has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks. A second season aired from July 6, 2014 to September 28, 2014. A third season aired from January 11, 2016 to April 3, 2016. A fourth season premiered on January 2017.

Music and audio

The first season of Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories uses one piece of theme music: an ending theme. The soundtrack music was composed by nico. For all episodes the ending theme is "Kaikai Emaki" (怪々絵巻, Mysterious Picture Scroll) which was arranged by Teniwoha and AVTechNO! using the Vocaloid singing synthesizer Hatsune Miku. The ending theme was released in Japan as a track on the Vocarock Collection 5 CD on December 25, 2013 by Farm Records.

Other media

A mobile game for smartphones tentatively titled, "Yamishibai" was released by ILCA, Inc. on iTunes and Google Play. The app was created Yuichi Ueda and allowed people to explore the urban legend of a particular town. Numerous products including T-shirts, bags and coffee mugs were released in response to the series.

Reception

The first episode was described as generally cohesive despite the relative inexperience of the members of Studio ILCA. It was also compared to that of reading a moving book rather than watching an anime due to the animation style used along with the minimal movements of the characters. On the other hand, critics felt as though the series may have only been compelling to those interested in Japanese mythology. The first season received mixed reactions following the end of its broadcast.