Yami Shibai 4

Excited children gather around the enigmatic masked Storyteller once more. His unique kamishibai storytelling draws them into tales of fear and dread. These are dark and foreboding stories, which could happen to anyone...

This season has tales of a salaryman who buries a dead cat, only to be haunted soon after; a college student and her cheap new apartment that hides a ghastly secret; boys exploring an abandoned haunted house before coming across a strange fish tank; a man who finds himself on the wrong bus, and in more danger than he thought possible; and a young couple's visit to an amusement park, which suddenly takes a dark turn. All these stories and more await in Yami Shibai 4.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Storyteller Main

Hosoya, Nobuyuki Producer

Hirose, Motoki Producer

Kumamoto, Hiromu Script

Takuto Theme Song Composition, Theme Song Performance, Theme Song Lyrics

Reviews

Oct 14, 2020

MoonSpider

Recommended

I first started looking at the Yami Shibai series thanks to a new short series running this year, the Ninja Collection. (It had much the same urban legend/ghost story idea but with the addition of a ninja-exorcist coming to save people at the end of each episode). As I started the main series, there are currently seven seasons of anime shorts and a current run of what looks like live-action adaptations of the shorts too.

I thought the stilted, animatic-like animation for this series couldn't be more fitting, and I can fit in a full season in roughly an hour before bed. I felt I needed ... to comment on this season more than the others, though.

The previous couple of seasons had some gimmicks involved. For Yami Shibai 3, I was less impressed with the direction. Each episode featured some creature that was so horrific in design that it actually lost all sense of fear or realism for me to really feel scared by the story. It culminated into an interesting finale, but ultimately I felt that it lessened the overall product.

This season, however... I like what they're doing. We're back to the kind of ghost stories you may expect from the opening seasons, but with some live-action shots mixed in that emphasize and bring to life something otherworldly. I'm feeling this a lot more than those creature designs they tried. At times, it felt genuinely stunning.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by MoonSpider (46)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Sep 4, 2025

SkyBlue1012

Mixed Feelings

Yamishibai Season 4 is by far the weakest entry in the series.
Many changes were made, but unfortunately, most of them were not for the better.

The storyteller has been replaced, and the new narrators talk so much that it's often hard to hear what the characters are saying. The animation feels noticeably lazier and cheaper compared to previous seasons, and the quality of the jump scares has also declined.

While a few stories manage to be genuinely scary, the majority fall flat. The visuals in the ending sequence are well done, but the song itself doesn’t fit the horror theme at all.

I hope future seasons will be ... able to correct the mistakes made in Season 4 and bring the series back to it's original glorious form.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by SkyBlue1012 (48)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Oct 30, 2023

ktulu007

Not Recommended

I've talked about Yami Shibai many times. It's a franchise built around short form horror from ILCA. Thus far, it's been pretty solid. Let's look at the fourth series in the franchise and see if it continues that trend.

Story:

We follow the same pattern as the first three series. The narrator welcomes us to the theatre of darkness and we get a bunch of short, stand alone horror stories. That being said, this is not on the level of prior series. The stories in this one are almost a joke. There are maybe two episodes out of the thirteen in the series that are kind ... of creepy. The others just come across as dumb and kind of silly. This is rated for young teenagers but it feels like it was written with small children as the demographic because most of these scares are not going to work on teenagers.

The two episodes in this worth watching are Calling Crane and Snow Hut. Those two actually have some creepy things happening.

Characters:

Like the rest of the franchise, the characters are designed to be very straightforward. That being said, this one has some problems. For one thing, this series has the absolute worst of the narrator. The third series had him at his best thus far, in this one he's at the worst we've seen. Not only does he explain everything you're seeing instead of just letting you experience it, but the actor they have voicing him sounds almost bored.

Art:

While I can appreciate the little paper theatre aesthetic they have going for it, the problem with this instalment of the franchise is simply that they don't have scary imagery. Even the two solid episodes aren't amazing in that regard.

Sound:

This is yet another aspect that's worse in this series than it's ever been in the franchise before. I've already mentioned that the new narrator just sounds bored but that's not the only issue. Performances continue to be relatively flat and with absolutely nothing to work with, it's even more noticeable. The ending theme is also completely inappropriate for the franchise. The song is really upbeat and, if you look up the lyrics, optimistic. Let me remind you, this franchise tends to end their episodes with the main characters being completely buggered.

Ho-yay:

There's none.

Areas of Improvement:

1. This really needs to make use of body horror the way the third series did.
2. The narrator does not need to tell us everything we're seeing. I'm sure it's useful for people with visual impairments who speak Japanese but for the rest of us it just ruins any impact.
3. They really should be directing the narrator to speak in a less bored tone. At least try to sound somewhat menacing/ unsettling.

Final Thoughts:

The last time I looked at this franchise it was the best I've seen from it. This time, its the worst. The episodes offer very little in terms of horror. The narrator is horrendously bad. The ending song might be fine in a different franchise but it's awful for this one. My final rating for Yami Shibai the 4th is going to be a 3/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

What did you think of this review?

Nice 0

Love it 0

Funny 0

Confusing 0

Informative 0

Well-written 0

Creative 0

More reviews by ktulu007 (661)

Show all

Read more

Show less

Open

Gift

Report

Non-professional VAs as the main characters Part 3

by GreatTeacherKen

28 Entries · 1 Restacks

Anime Onegai's Latin Dubs (Part 2)

by Shakitonu31

50 Entries · 21 Restacks

Spooky Horror Anime part 2

by Keizakomu

34 Entries · 11 Restacks

Recommendations

Fifth Season of 'Yami Shibai' Announced for Summer 2017

The official website of Yami Shibai announced on Friday that the short anime series will receive a fifth season, scheduled to air on TV Tokyo in July 2017. Staff and...read more

Jun 10, 2017 9:53 PM by Vindstot | Discuss (27 comments)

Winter 2017 Simulcast List [Update 1/13]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime acquired for simulcast release during the Winter 2017 season. Anime series licensed for home video rel...read more

Dec 29, 2016 11:23 AM by Snow | Discuss (39 comments)

	Poll: Yami Shibai 4th Season Episode 8 Discussion Stark700 - Feb 19, 2017	38 replies	by Eyth »» Nov 15, 11:08 AM
	Poll: Yami Shibai 4th Season Episode 5 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 29, 2017	42 replies	by Eyth »» Nov 15, 10:15 AM
	Poll: Yami Shibai 4th Season Episode 3 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 15, 2017	48 replies	by Eyth »» Nov 15, 5:54 AM
	Poll: Yami Shibai 4th Season Episode 2 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 15, 2017	32 replies	by Eyth »» Nov 15, 5:43 AM
	Poll: Yami Shibai 4th Season Episode 1 Discussion Stark700 - Jan 15, 2017	48 replies	by Eyth »» Nov 15, 5:37 AM