A spin-off from the more well-known Yami Shibai/Theater of Darkness franchise, The World Yamizukan is a strange series indeed. Unlike its parent franchise, which based itself on Japanese myths and urban legends, The World Yamizukan seems to be more focused instead on “Western” material. From aliens to clowns to mysterious Amazonian tribes to rods/skyfish, this short series exudes such a pulp-y atmosphere, that it would be easy to believe this would have been shown back in the 70s when this type of magazines were at their peak.
For those not familiar with its parent, The World Yamizukan has a very simple format. It’s an anthology series of completely unrelated stories with a supernatural component. About five minutes each, which is usually more than enough to give a good hook and premise, though the conclusions (more often than not) leave something to be desired.
The presentation, ironically enough, is both its weakest and strongest asset. On one hand, the art style is gorgeous, very similar to the pulp magazines it’s trying to emulate, and with one exception (that uses live action photography), pretty much every single episode has a different style, which keeps the visuals fresh and impacting; and if I’ve got to be honest, it’s what carries the series as a whole.
On the other hand, the “animation”, or lack of it, really lets the series down. For those who’ve watched Yami Shibai before, it’s not a big surprise. The animation consists mostly of several still images in succession, but even when compared to its parent series, Yamizukan comes short in that sense. With the exception of the first two episodes, where the characters are “cutouts” that we can see move around the scene, every episode after is just a series of full images where the “animation” consists mostly of just changing the zoom in each image.
As for the writing itself, I won’t deny it, it’s complete camp, something which is not helped with the deadpan narrator’s voice. If what you’re looking for is horror, you won’t find much of it here, and I’d argue that it’s more so a sci-fi anthology. However, take into account that I’m so used to killer snowmen and hitchhiking dangers stories already, and the series might be scarier for someone that has not been bombarded with all this themes throughout their whole life.
I don’t know if this was studio ILCA’s way to attract more of a western audience, or if it was a sincere attempt to showcase western myths to a Japanese audience, but all in all, I’d say that if you’re interested in this series, give it a try.
Is it a good series? No, but it is fun. It is also short. So, even if you don’t end up liking it, it’s not like you wasted a big amount of time anyway.
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