“The Sound of Laughter”
What They Say:
Yamishibai is a picture-story style of animation whose motif is surrounded and based on the rumors, and urban legends throughout the history of Japan.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With some strong material continuing on with this season, Yamishiba takes us to a tale of a high school student deep in studying for exams. At home in the house one late night, he hears a noise outside that draws his attention only to find nothing there. But as the night goes on as he moves through his house, he just keeps hearing the sounds of what he thinks is an old lady outside. He’s not alone as his mother is there in the house as well, but he’s quite unnerved by it even as his mother tells him he’s probably just studying too much. But when he hears that laughter even while taking a show, the whole thing just pushes him closer to the edge. Watching this build as he attempts to wind down his day and stay calm makes for a really great sequence of events and tension.
In Summary:
The trick of it all at the end is definitely delicious in its small scale insidiousness of a ghost story and it delivers the right kind of chills as we see the kid’s life fall apart around him, making him panic even more as everything comes to a dark, bleak end. Yamishibai definitely continues to deliver in what it attempts to do and this episode hits a sweet spot for late night scares in all the right ways.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
