History Anime / YamiShibai

* AnimationBump:
** The only but of conventional animation in the first Season is from "Tormentor", which helps to illustrate [[spoiler:who is being affected by a particular curse]].

* AnimationBump: Season 3 has notably better drawn character models, though still with the iconic stop motion animation.

** Three boys decided to play a cursed VCR tape. [[TrappedInAnotherWorld It doesn't end well for them!]]

** Kotone from "Cursed" has one inflicted on her so that her skin is black and blue with bruises and has a red as arm stretching around her wrist.

* BodyHorror: Satomi from "Merry Go Round" is [[spoiler: turned into a twisted merry go round horse, and is still alive]].

* HauntedTechnology: Three boys decided to play a cursed VCR tape. [[TrappedInAnotherWorld It doesn't end well for them!]]

A rather peculiar animated series from Japan, ''Anime/YamiShibai'' (also known as ''Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories or Theater of Darkness'') is a compendium of short horror stories based off Japanese folklore and urban legends, as told by an old man to the kids in a playground, through the paper theater (or "kamishibai").

* DrivenToSuicide: The season 1 story "The Overhead Rack" features a railway that has had jumping incidents with increasing frequency. [[spoiler:The meat blob whispering about pain and cold to especially vulnerable people might have something to do with it, as we see with out protagonist.]]

* CreepyChild: The boy in the season 3 intro.

* ArtifactTitle: In season 3, the original intro with the paper theater and the old man is replaced with a child drawing in a sketchbook on the playground, so the pun about "Kamishibai" no longer makes sense. [[spoiler: Then the season 3 finale reveals that the boy was the old man all along]]
** It's back for seasons 4 onwards.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The man in "The Next Floor" wanted to be left alone... So he's left alone in the closed-down, haunted mall at night (or ''possibly'' [[FateWorseThanDeath forever]]...).

* CatsAreMean: In "Tongue" a man is seemingly haunted by the ghost of a cat for the sole crime of burying it after it had been hit by a car. [[spoiler: Except it's not the CATS ghost, it's the ghost of a woman who's body he DIDNT find]]

* EvolvingCredits: In Season 3, a new singing mask was added to the credits every episode, until all 13 of them appeared around the drawing boy.

* EyeScream: Dont ''ever'' reveal that you can see ghosts in "If You Want to See Ghosts", because they dont like being seen, and will remove your ability to do so... and anything else.

* RashomonStyle: The episode ''Contradiction'' where a girl is called by her two friends who are trapped in a haunted hospital.
Unfortunately her [[NightmareFace friends]] are both [[spoiler: telling the truth about their dire circumstances.]]

* TaxidermyIsCreepy: "Museum Of Taxidermy". It's especially creepy when [[spoiler: The animal exhibits kill the visitors and staff and turn them into the actual exhibits!]]

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The man in "The Next Floor" wanted to be left alone... So he's left alone in the closed-down, haunted mall at night (or possibly forever...).

* DemonicPossession: "Tormentor", "Contradiction", possibly "Inside". The same also applies to "Calling Crane" and "Tomonashi Cave".

** It's back for seasons 4, 5 and 6.

** Kotone in the episode "Cursed"

** Asako from "That Side Festival" wanted to stay at the festival forever...

* BodyHorror: Satomi from "Merry Go Round" is [[spoiler: turned into a twisted merry go round horse, and is still alive]]

** [[spoiler: Nakayama/Honoka]] in "Calling Crane.

* DemonicPossession: "Tormentor", "Contradiction", possibly "Inside"

* FailingATaxi: "Red High Heel" starts with a salary man who's been working late finding it impossible to catch a cab home, and starts to walk home. Once a free taxi picks him up on an empty suburban road, he quickly wishes it hadnt...

** The main character in "Cassette Tape" returns to his parents home and finds one of the old cassete tapes he used to record audio diaries as a child. They start out normal, but the entries go on longer than he remembers doing the diaries, and become increasingly nonsensical and surreal. Eventually, it reaches his teen and adult years, long after he moved out of his parents home, and finally reaches ''the day he arrived back''. He understandably freaks out and pulls off the headphones [[spoiler: which he only now notices are not plugged in]].

* MissedTheBus: The main characer of "Night Bus" gets back on what he ''thinks'' is his bus at a rest stop...

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: The main character of "Tongue" is haunted for giving a dead cat a proper burial. [[spoiler: The ghost is angry that he didnt find ''her'' body!]]

** The later seasons basically all have the moral of "Dont do anything or go anywhere, because you got a good chance of being brutally murdered by ghosts or yokai".

** It's back for seasons 4 and 5.

* HauntedTechnology: Three boys decided to play a cursed VCR tape. [[It doesn't end well for them!

* EvilPhone: "Giveback-Sama" revolves around a phone number you can call and ask a mysterious entity for a favor. However, you have to call the number again the next day and say thanks, otherwise it will have deadly consequences. Moreso, you can only make the call one minute before midnight.
* EvolvingCredits: In Season 3, a new singing mask was added to the credits every episode, until 13 of them appeared around the drawing boy.

* GenreAnthology: The episodes are all independent from each other, with no revisited characters or horrors.

* HauntedTechnology: Three boys decided to play a cursed tape. It doesn't end well for them.
** The main character in "Cassette Tape" returns to his parents home and finds one of the old tapes he used to record audio diaries as a child. They start out normal, but the entries go on longer than he remembers doing the diaries, and become increasingly nonsensical and surreal. Eventually, it reaches his teen and adult years, long after he moved out of his parents home, and finally reaches ''the day he arrived back''. He understandably freaks out and pulls off the headphones [[spoiler: which he only now notices are not plugged in]].

* {{Hellevator}}: "The Next Floor". It takes the protagonist to floor [[FourIsDeath B4]], which is a totally dark floor that all the patrons (minus him) walk into as if in a trance. Then it goes to [[ThirteenIsUnlucky B13]], this one lit with a RedFilterOfDoom, and a bloodied man tries to drag himself into the elevator, but the doors close in time.

* MoodWhiplash: All the series have a far more energetic and positive soundtrack in the credits than in the intro or in the episodes themselves. Season 4 is especially upbeat.
** In-universe, we have "The Umbrella Godess". The sun is rising, the mood is cheerful [[spoiler: and the boy doesnt notice the Godess waiting right outside the door]]

* RapidAging: One of the stories in season 2 involves a young man who turns into an old man while using a cursed toy dispenser.

* TaxidermyIsCreepy: "Museum Of Taxidermy". It's especially creepy when [[spoiler: The animal exhibits kill the visitors and staff and turn them into exhibits]]

* WhamEpisode: The season 3 finale, which reveals that the boy from the intro is really [[spoiler: the old masked man from season 1 and 2.]]

NeedsWikiMagicLove.

* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler: The main character from "Copycat" is actually a ghost, which leads to her copycat friend committing suicide.]]

* ArtShift: Season 3 features bouncier and more fluid animation, and slightly more visceral styles for monsters. In season 4, each episodes will have close-up shots in live-action, usually on a small object or a note. In season 5, the art takes on more of a stylized from resembling watercolor or illustration, and some of the episodes feature film grain effects.