A collection of three classic Japanese horror stories: "Yotsuya Kaidan," the story of a wife betrayed by her husband who seeks vengeance even in death. "Tenshu Monogatari," the story of forbidden love between a goddess and a human, and "Bakeneko," the story of a mysterious cat monster with a vendetta against a certain family.
Yotsuya Kaidan
Starting with the first and most famous Japanese ghost story of all time, Yotsuya Kaidan written by
Nanboku Tsuruya IV in 1825 originally in the form of a kabuki play has experienced numerous
adaptations in the form of movies and plays. Many of them change the plot a little bit to introduce or
omit characters or slightly change the ending but Ayakashi shows us a basically 1:1 rendition of the
story. It even has the original writer as the narrator. The visuals and music aren't amazing but they
do the job good enough. Key scenes don't shine brightly compared to the rest but they're not done
badly (like *the* combing scene). What I *would* have liked is more distinct features for some
characters (like Oiwa and Osode) and a bit more emphasis on introducing some of the characters. The
anime also tells us a bit about the story's influence on Japanese culture which I really liked. But
the story itself is......well just alright but it certainly left a mark. They did a decent job at
depicting the fate of each character but with a bit more screen time it could've been more impactful.
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Tenshu Monogatari
Now comes the second and frankly the worst story out of the three. Tenshu Monogatari written by Kyōka
Izumi, again originally as a play, hardly qualifies as horror but instead is just a bad love story
full of arrogant, selfish and idiotic characters. None of the stories here will "scare you" but
they're at least engaging and have some horror element. Tenshu on the other hand throws that element
out the window in just the first episode. Every episode you're just holding your head and thinking
"Why are you doing this? Stop for a moment to consider your actions. Why is everything progressing at
a breakneck speed?!" Once again some key moments could've enjoyed a bit more screen time but I feel
that would've just made it that much more unbearable.
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Bake Neko
Coming on to the final and the best part of the series, Bake Neko is an orignal story by by Kenji
Nakamura and Michiko Yokote. Presented in an Ukiyo-e style artwork it looks very appealing and is full
of great dialogue from our main character, the medicine seller. It doesn't force you to be scared but
instead with the help of carefully made scene cuts and transitions, amazing art and music and
interesting characters, hooks you to the story so much it gives you goosebumps. I won't talk about
what happens in the three episodes this story gets, since that's for you to enjoy but the more you
watch it the more you feel like you yourself are experiencing what's happening in the story.
# Relation to Mononoke
_TW// Minor Spoilers, Mentions of Abuse, Rape, Murder (not mentioned in this review aside from name, but heavily present in Ayakashi)_ I watched Mononoke a few months ago after having it on my plan to watch list for YEARS. As someone who enjoyed other anime like the Monogatari Series, which has a similar storytelling style and directing approach to Mononoke, I fell in love. In my senior year of college, I took a course in Edo period history, and now possess more knowledge of the period than I could ever need, so when I saw that the prequel to Mononoke was just more Edo period ghost stories, I decided to give it a try. Ayakashi does what it sets out to do; telling classic Japanese samurai horror stories. However, I think the reason that Ayakashi is so underwatched compared to Mononoke (which is also underwatched in my opinion, but certainly has a sizable cult following) is because of the inconsistency in the story arcs. Ayakashi has three different directors for each of the three story arcs in the anime. The arc order depends on whether you watched the US release or the Japanese airing release. I will be referring to the arc order based on the US release, which puts Tenshu Monogatari first, then Yotsuya Kaidan, then finally, Bake Neko. In my watch, I started with the Tenshu Monogatari story. After completing the first episode, I was unsure if I wanted to continue the show. The art felt very dated, which does of course make sense since it aired in 2006, but comparing it to the innovative and ecletic art of Mononoke (and the last three episodes of Ayakashi), it felt a bit jarring and nearly turned me off from the show. I did not expect the whole show to look like Mononoke, but after watching it, I forgot that most 2006 anime looked like this, and NOT like Mononoke. I personally think the first arc is the weakest in the show. The episodes tell a very famous Japanese horror tale of the forbidden love between god and human (which I'd argue isn't even really a horror story at all, but...), and while I do think that this anime tells it well, nearly everything else about it is severely lacking. Additionally, the pacing in the first episode was abnormally fast in my opinion, but that didn't seem to be an issue in the later episodes. The second story arc, Yotsuya Kaidan, was much stronger in my opinion, and I liked the integration of the real world elements in the final episode of this story arc, and getting the perspective from the playwright woven throughout the story was interesting and kept me engaged in this story more than the first one. Now of course, the characters are terrible and unlikable, but that's just how it is with these stories. The stories in this anime, like with Mononoke, serve as a warning, almost a fable of sorts, about what happens when you do bad things and mess with ghosts and spirits. This arc was definitely hard to watch at times with various instances of sexual assault, abuse and of course murder, but I was much more engaged with these episodes than the first 4. Now of course, the main reason that people watch Ayakashi is the final three episodes, the Bake Neko arc, featuring our beloved Kusuriuri-san, and cats. Who wouldn't love this final arc? It has the same charming art, sound design and direction as it's sequel, and the story is an original story written for this anime, so it fits the direction and art style chosen perfectly, and every element of the final three episodes was done to perfection. This story is told in a much different way than the first two, and a lot of the storytelling relies on atmosphere and subtle visual cues rather than explicit narration. This may turn some people off of the show as it can be confusing at times to figure out what is going on, but I thoroughly enjoy this, and find it a lot more interesting over the "tell" rather than "show" approach that is present in the first two story arcs. Overall, I did enjoy Ayakashi quite a bit. It is not one of my favorite anime, and I don't know if I would rewatch or necessarily recommend it to the general anime watcher, but I would absolutely suggest it to someone that is passionate about Edo period japan and ghost stories. If you enjoy Mononoke, but don't really care about other Japanese horror tales, then this may not be the anime for you, as the Bake Neko arc falls at the end of the anime, and the other story arcs have no shared connection or resemblance to Mononoke. However, I do think it is worth the watch, even if it falls behind it's successor in various ways. The low ratings on anilist/MAL do not necessarily reflect the quality of the show as a whole, but I believe they are this way because people do not go into this show with the right expectations.