Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories

, also known as Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai, is a 2013 Japanese animated series directed by Tomoya Takashima, with scripts written by Hiromu Kumamoto and produced by ILCA. Each episode was animated while mimicking the kamishibai method of story-telling, while featuring a different tale based on Japanese myths and urban legends. The series is organized into a collection of shorts with each episode being only a few minutes in length.

The first season ran on TV Tokyo on July 14, 2013 for thirteen episodes until September 29, 2013; it spawned a host of merchandise and a mobile game while also receiving mixed reactions at the end of its broadcast. A second season aired from July 6 to September 28, 2014. The third season aired between January 11 April 3, 2016. A fourth season aired between January 16 to March 26, 2017. A fifth season aired from July 2 to October 1, 2017.

A spinoff anime adaptation Ninja Collection was supposed to premiere on July 12, 2020 on TV Tokyo's animeteleto streaming service and on Crunchyroll at a later date.

Plot
The mysterious, yellow-masked Storyteller is a man whose true name and origin are both unknown. He appears at dusk where children gather and recites sinister tales based on Japanese urban legends, to which his young audience eerily intakes. However, the Storyteller is no ordinary teller of tales. He incorporates a kamishibai, a traditional paper-scrolling device, to add visuals to his already demented narration.

A series of short horror stories, Yami Shibai begins with a bachelor who, after moving into a new apartment, immediately starts sensing a malevolent glare being pressed into him. A single talisman rests on his ceiling, but he has no way of knowing it is one of the few safeguards that separate him from a bottomless pit of suffering. Each story is more terrifying, more appalling, and more sickening than the last as the Storyteller's audience find themselves being sucked into the vicious world of his words.