Ayakashi - Samurai Horror Tales (2006– ) User Reviews

A composition of 3 completely different classical Japanese ghost stories made up as anime.

[loony-801-63342 · 8/10 · 25 September 2013]

If you expect to be scared witless by these series, you should probably reconsider watching them. Japanese horror is of a very different kind than western one, as everybody who ever saw the Japanese version of "The Ring" and compared it to the US one is probably aware of.

So "horror" in this case doesn't mean your heart pumping madly or sudden scares - it is much less bold and will instead be leading your mind into the realms of the absurd, of the eery and the strange, maybe leaving you with a subtle feeling of fascination, maximum making you feel a bit weird. Having said that, here's the actual review:

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Out of the three very different stories (being actually made by completely different teams), the last one is definitely the most marvelous, enveloping the viewer in a burst of colours and patterns, helping to create a fantastic and surreal atmosphere. Leading figure is a wonderfully mysterious medicine seller one can never quite figure out. (This storyline was by the way adapted to be an independent series with overall 12 episodes, called "Mononoke")

However, one who appreciates subtle storytelling and doesn't need a firework of explosions and action to feel satisfied might also like the two others, as they present a very classically Japanese experience.

If you love being tickled by strangeness and bizarre stories without actually looking for fear or thrill, this will be worth your time.

Three story arcs where only the final one is worth watching

[tobba_lobba · 8/10 · 12 April 2008]

I began watching this series thinking it would be great to see some classic Japanese horror as the name implied. The good score here on IMDb was what drove me the most i guess.

The first story is about a woman who's betrayed by her husband, dies from being poisoned and wants revenge. It was all really dragged out. Only the final episode was descent and the animation over all was really bad. You could see that they tried to make it look just like an old Japanese painting which was a nice touch yet the animation and overall quality just didn't make things work out for the best. The arc also included a documentary, sort of woven into the story, about this tale that apparently is a classic Japanese theater play. I'm sure it had been a lot more interesting had the production been better though.

2/10

The second arc gets a little better. It looks much more like classic animé. Character design is so so, but it works. You are presented with a castle haunted by forgotten gods that eat humans. A man from a town near the castle meets the princess of the castle and they fall in love with each other. Complications arise. The story is pretty generic and you've probably heard it all before.

5/10

The final chapter is another matter though. Although the artistic style might be a bit hard on the eyes at first with bright colors every where and it's hard to know where to look. But it's unique in it's presentation and also very beautiful at the same time. Also the animation is top notch. The story might seem a bit cliché but is really well executed. A group of people in what i can guess is Japanese 18th or 19th century are trapped inside a house where a Demon Cat is about. The only one who can stop the demon cat is a traveling medicine salesman who's also in the house. But to do that he must unravel the mysteries of how the demon came to be in the first place. There are some interesting intrigues and it gets pretty exciting at times. This chapter i would recommend anyone watching.

8.5/10

Seems my opinion is completely different from all the other reviews

[TooKakkoiiforYou_321 · 7/10 · 8 May 2021]

Since the first two segments are excellent, with the first a 9 out of 10 and the second a 8 out of 10. Where the series crashes is in the third segment, especially the 9th and 10th episode are equally beautifully drawn AND extremely boring. Nothing really interesting happens for two episodes. I'll give it a 6 out of 10 just for the ending and the artstyle but other than that I don't see real reasons to recommend it. I hope the spin-off I'm planning to watch turns out better than the original. On a minor complain, since this series is so heavily based on Japanese mythology and historical facts I would have put an intro based on Enka music instead of rap. This one does not fit well.

Great Thrills, Great Story

[Gold_Fish · 10/10 · 15 October 2007]

When I first saw Ayakashi I was amazed by the strong animation and the story behind it.

There are 3 different separate stories, each having about 3 episodes. First deals with an angry ghost, originally a beautiful woman cheated and disappointed by her husband Iemon who chose a younger girl over her. Her curse will finally destroy him and everybody that surrounds them. The second story is about a beautiful demon princess (a lost god) who lives in a castle who falls in love with a mortal and thus dooms her kind. A tragic battle is fought between humans and demons and the end is somewhat unexpected. I guess the main idea of this second story is freedom and having the right to choose whom to love. The third story (which I loved the most) is about a magician who enters a house haunted by a Bake Neko, a black cat. His purpose is to find out what the spirit is and under what circumstances did it appear, why does it hate the humans living there so much. When I saw the magician sprinkling salt on the floor I remembered an old tale from my country saying that salt keeps bad spirits away and you should sprinkle it on the doorstep so that no-one with bad intentions should enter your house.

I loved these stories and I would recommend them to anyone who loves a horror tale with a twist of evilness.

I gave it a 10 out of 10. By the way, if you liked this, you will also like the Requiem for the Darkness series of tales.

This is majestic!! I wish more people knew this piece of art!!

[akichan-63169 · 10/10 · 5 January 2016]

I wish more people knew this piece of art!! The drawing style is too beautiful!! They are three stories that I think are divided into 3 episodes or 2 each. About the opening song: Yeah...is good more or less. The second 0:09 is good, traditional. But the other part, I feel that is not consistent with the traditional Japan. The ending song is better, it is very beautiful, very beautiful, majestic. The OST totally majestic, beautiful, for example Jyo - 01 - Ayakashi Japanese Classic Horror OST. It is beautiful but get chills. I'm glad to have known this beautiful anime. I met him on a video where gathered anime recommendations of terror.

Trilogy of story

[manjuldubey · 8/10 · 27 February 2020]

NOTE :- it was my 269th Japanese anime . 1st story - interesting , somewhat predictable , and last part has bad anime quality 2nd story- normal and boring 3rd story- 😍 is love , out of nowhere one of the peculiarly good animation , I bet you it's marvelous and is the reason to gave it 8 stars.

Kenji Nakamura! And some other chumps!

[wandereramor · 5/10 · 19 June 2012]

Ayakashi is an anthology series adapting three classical Japanese horror stories into animated form. That makes it sound like an eat-your-vegetables series, but it's willing to anime-ify the stories enough to make them more palatable to a mass audience. There are lots of things you can fault the series for, but being too dry and educational isn't one of them. (It also reminds me of the superior Aoi Bungaki/Blue Literature.)

The first two stories are pretty humdrum, full of bad people doing terrible things to each other and being punished for them by supernatural entities. The animation is good, but not really interesting enough to be worth viewing by itself. The main issues is that these stories just aren't scary -- they're more of a historical tragedy and a fantasy story respectively, although they don't do too well at those genres either.

The third arc suffers from similar writing issues but is noteworthy for being the directing debut of Kenji Nakamura, one of the most striking and bizarre directors working in TV anime today. These episodes might be an example of some of his best visual work, with strange designs and beautiful effects, producing if not horror at least a kind of intimidation. This story (the last three episodes) is worth seeking out, if only as a visual treat. Since the arcs are completely separate stories, you can safely skip the rest of the series.