Episode 13 – The Tormentor
Plot: A bunch of elementary school kids in the country spy on a mysterious house through binoculars. One of their friends states that their grandma told them when she was a little girl, she and a friend walked by the house and someone came out of it. When whoever or whatever it was came out, her friend disappeared and was never seen again. What’s really in that house? And are you safe from it even while spying through binoculars?
Breakdown: The season finale of Yami Shibai ends on a great note because this is one of the best entries in the series. You expect the kids to witness something that will come back to attack them later, but it doesn’t go that direction at all.
This is yet another story where it would be nice to have backstory. What is that dancing thing and why can’t you look it in the eye? Why does every adult seem to accept that this thing exists, wears blindfolds around it, yet they don’t warn the nearby children to not go anywhere near there or to not even look over there?
I will say that this episode has the best animation of all of the shorts. It’s still done in that paper cutout puppet manner, but you can tell more detail is put into various shots and several shots actually seem like they’re legit animated. The final jump scare of the short is the most animated I’ve ever seen anything in this show, and this was definitely the place to put it. I can’t tell what type of animation is being used for this shot, but it seems extremely realistic.
Overall, this was a spooky and scary finale to the season.
And yes, I said season. Yami Shibai has a season two! Here’s to another 13 episodes of ghosts, demons and horror!
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The Anime Madhouse 