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I see you there, old man, leering at me with your head full of creepy stuff.
Don't you give me that look.
Its the last leg of our Yamishibai season 2 tour, with the last 4 episodes all queued up and ready to go. So let's dive right in, shall we?
We'll start with a episode that's a lot like the Creepshow vignette with the angry old man in his apartment. The difference is just the choice in the insects. Everything else is just about the same. Including the ending.
Bugged
A young man with anger issues writes faithfully in his journal about all the things that just bug him through out the day. It starts sometime in July, where the weather in Japan is at the height of humidity and heat (this follows the summer rain season, though it still has the tendency to rain), and it seems everything is getting to the guy, from his co-workers, his neighbors, even people on the street. As time goes on, his anger grows and grows, as do his insect problems.
If you guys are squeamish about bugs and body horror, this is your episode. The persistent buzzing of flies coincides with the young man's fury of his place in the world. We've all had those days where every little thing seems to bother us. The difference is…those days are every day to him. As he slowly starts to lose his mind, his writing also degrades, right up until the tragic end, where his final scrawling simply reads, "help me". As mentioned above, there's a Creepshow story in the first film that's very reminiscent of the episode, so this is a sort of homage. The man in Creepshow is obviously very well-off and wealthy as well as powerful, whereas the man in this episode is the complete opposite: poor, degraded, and a mere cog in the machine. Still the ending is about the same; and internalizing your own rage can only result in something ugly being born of your body.
A creepy crawling one, anyhow.
Picking Up
A young man discovers a novel manuscript on a train ride, and after finding himself almost supernaturally drawn into the story, resolves to toss it away. But he catches sight of a novel contest for newcomers. Of course, the young man's manuscript wins, but since its not necessarily on his own merits and this is a horror series, things aren't going to turn out perfectly for him….
Ok, kids, let's all use this episode as a reminder of the very important issue of plagiarism. Don't do it or you're going to pay with your soul, right?
Right.
Its a cut and dry episode, with clear consequence of a bad deed, and while formulaic, is still of importance. This is the season's morality tale, and its best to heed it.
Netsuke
Kaoru is helping her grandmother out with her shop and is taking trinkets from her childhood home with her. She comes across late grandfather's netsuke, 2 golden faces sitting in a box. Seeing them as very pretty, she fashions them into earrings and takes them.
But soon, she's accosted by 2 people who chase her through the night, demanding she "give it back". After losing one--it falls and breaks when one of the figures attempts to grab it off her ear in a mad dash to the bus--she returns the other to her grandmother. Granny, curiously, tells her someone has been asking for her. At least…asking for her to get something back.
Netsuke are little sculptures meant to hang from cords attached to boxes that held items for people. Traditional clothing in Japan lacked pockets, so these containers were made to hang from belts and the such, with the netsuke becoming a sort of toggle weight to prevent the container from slipping loose. These ones appear to have faces (and many netsuke are carved as faces); the difference is that Kaoru's grandfather may have made (or gotten them from someone who had) them from something other than traditional materials.
Also of importance, the phrase "kaeshite" means "give it back [to me]", and carries the connotation that the object in question belongs to the person asking. This is important since it indicates that the netsuke Kaoru has did not actually belong to her or her grandfather in the first place. And its a creepy thing to hear whispered in your ear (the phrase is also used in Zero_Mask of the Lunar Eclipse on one phone recording, and its just as creepy).
Bringer Drums
A young couple move into a country town, and are greeted by 2 rows of pellet drums leading to their house. A villager explains the drums symbolize the local god and that their trail intends to bring good fortune to the house.
The wife is up at night, and happens to hear the drums begin to play. By themselves. As the drums grow closer, she tries in vain to wake her husband. But when he does, its not really her husband. And is the god that comes a good one? Or a bad one?
The final episode of the season closes out with tradition, and breaking of tradition, even if it wasn't maliciously. By picking up the pellet drum off the street, perhaps the young wife caused something to go wrong with the god attempted to come to their house. Did she invite evil or did she somehow cause the god to manifest in a way that wasn't proper? Either way, it goes a long way to show that picking up things off the street may not always be the best of ideas.
As we close out, I wanna add the ending theme is again done by Hatsune Miku, and is a much poppier, cutesy, even catchier theme. I actually like it better than last season's which was actually really good too. There little ending portion is just so catchy, you might find yourself singing it, albeit without the multicolored masks all singing along with you.
Be sure to save time and marathon both seasons before october ends! It'll put you in the right mood for Halloween, which is to say, paranoid and creeped out. Click images for episodes.
Oshimai….
--Dio (10/27/14)
Videos from crunchy roll, screen capped by me.
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