A horror about urban legends, and a reassuring story about monsters.
Japanese folklore is a subject that can be explored endlessly. From urban legends such as the yokai to religious messages and imagery, all of these phenomena have found wonderful expression in anime and manga.
1. Theatre of Darkness: Yamishibai, 2013
Yamishibai is a dark anime series filmed in the aesthetic of Kamishibai street theater. Kamishibai is a street performance in which a story is told using a series of paper pictures.
In this anime series, each episode is dedicated to a separate story and the episodes are not connected to each other. All of the stories are based on either urban legends or Japanese mythology.
In each episode the viewer will find creepy stories about curses, ghosts and demons, which at the same time are not far from reality. After all, the stories take place in seemingly ordinary places: shopping malls, trains, and apartment buildings.
2. Beyond the Boundary, 2013-2014
In the universe of this anime, there are creatures from the spirit world – youmu. They enter the human world because of negative emotions. Youmu are opposed by specially trained people – Spirit World Warriors who protect humanity.
This story is about the friendship between high school students – the warrior Mirai and the half-youmu boy Akihito. Mirai tries to kill Akihito because she recognizes him as a youmu. She is always defeated because Akihito is immortal.
The relationship between the half-youmu and the warrior paradoxically strengthens over time as the characters get to know each other and go through various trials together.
3. To the Forest of Firefly Lights, 2011
The main character, six-year-old Hotaru, gets lost in the forest and meets a humanoid creature in a mask named Gin. Gin confesses that if a human touches him, he disappears because he is cursed.
Despite the danger, the two continue to spend time together and become friends. Hotaru grows up, and Gin does not age and continues to resemble a young man.
The couple tries to fight for the time they have together, overcoming the difficulties they encounter and the fact that they are separated by living in different worlds – the human world for Hotaru and the yokai world for Gin.
4. Kakuriyo: Bed & Breakfast for Spirits, 2018
Aoi has seen ayakashi, spirits from the other world, since she was a child. She inherited this ability from her grandfather, who taught her how to live with these creatures in peace. An effective strategy for building relationships with spirits is to treat them to something delicious.
One day, Aoi meets an ayakashi, and he insists that Aoi must become his wife. He turns out to be the manager of an inn in the spirit world and also claims that Aoi's grandfather owes him a huge amount of money and that by marrying him, she will atone for her grandfather's debt.
Aoi, shocked by the ayakashi's offer, refuses and declares that she will work off her grandfather's debt by opening a snack bar for spirits in the other world.