Twinkietaem

Oh where, oh where do I begin with Yami Shibai season 8. I've been following this anime since I found it during season 6 and I've binged through it quite a few times and I'm just so disappointed.

The first 3 seasons are astounding, truly something that made me shiver and look over my shoulder and now.... Season 8 is the weak, heat tinted wind that blows through the garden on an extremely hot day and merely taunts you with the expectation of coolness whilst slowly cooking you faster.

I didn't expect too much from this season — since season 4, Yami Shibai has been slowly declining in quality on its horror, as to be expected from something that only allows four and a half minutes to actively terrify you. I expect a few bad episodes here and there, you can't provide ten out of ten levels of horror with every stab in the dark that you take, but season eight leaves the viewer horrified upon realising the episodes have ended with barely any context to what the episodes were about at all.

Yami Shibai had a good run of not revealing anything to the viewer whilst still scaring us via the art of hiding, making us realize things are much scarier in the dark — now, I merely turn the light on and can't figure out what was making that weird shadow, scratching my head in confusion as I stare around my room, lost, annoyed and confused. I lost count of how many episodes I spent praying to any deity there was an explanation in the comments of what had actually happened.

It's time to start letting Yami Shibai go; the eighth season is purely about quantity not quality, and the only way this show can now be saved is if the horror greats themselves wrote the episodes. It's painful to see what Yami Shibai has become, after it's long reign of terror, but now the horror lies in its screenwriting, unable to tell a story coherently enough for viewers to know what's occurring. Let the series rest, revive it in a few years perhaps when there's better ideas floating around, but for now, the show needs to rest on the back burner before further seasons tank even worse than what season eight did.