After stumbling upon and watching Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain on Netflix last week and reading up on the origin of the Medicine Seller, I decided to look up the original anime the movie is based on.
If you’ve ever found yourself at a crossroads between fascination and fear, then Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales is a journey you might want to take.
This anime is a veritable rollercoaster of eerie encounters, blending the grace and discipline of samurai culture with the chilling and uncanny world of Japanese horror. If you’re not yet acquainted with the show, allow me to take you through its eerie landscape of blood-soaked folklore, absurd situations and genuinely unnerving moments.
THE SAMURAI WORLD, WITH A TWIST
Let’s face it, samurai films are a dime a dozen. We’ve all seen the stoic, sword-wielding warrior, resolutely standing in the face of conflict. But Ayakashi doesn’t just stop there. Oh no, it takes samurai culture and steepens it in the ominous shadows of supernatural horror.
Imagine a world where honourable warriors battle not only for justice but also against the ghosts, demons and vengeful spirits lurking in the dark. Now, that is a recipe for something uniquely captivating.
First airing in 2006, Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales is an anthology series that adapts several well-known stories from traditional Japanese literature.
The series doesn’t shy away from fear, diving straight into the unsettling world of yūrei (spirits), yōkai (monsters), and oni (demons). So, if you’ve ever thought “samurai are cool, but they could use a few more ghosts”, this anime’s for you.
The series has this peculiar ability to turn a simple samurai tale into something much darker, where the stakes are no longer just the battle for honour, but for survival against terrifying entities.
There’s an episode where a samurai finds himself trapped in a series of yūrei hauntings, slowly losing his sanity. Now, in any normal samurai flick, this would be the moment he pulls out his katana and saves the day with a glinting flourish.
But not in Ayakashi. Here, our heroes face some very real existential dread, where the horror feels less like a monster encounter and more like a deep, unsettling psychological unravelling.
TALES TO KEEP YOU UP AT NIGHT
Take, for example, the episode ‘Bake Neko’, where a seemingly innocent cat turns into a massive, vengeful creature that harbours ill-will for an entire family. It starts off with something as simple as the death of a woman, and before you know it, the cat has become the embodiment of revenge.
A fluffy feline gone rogue? It’s the stuff of nightmares – except it’s not the kind of nightmare you’ll wake up from.
No, you’ll lie awake in bed at 2am wondering why your own cat is staring at you a bit too intently.
Of course, Bake Neko is the final part of the Ayakashi anthology series that finally introduces the Medicine Seller.
The anthology starts off with Yatsuya Kaidan that comprises of four episodes. At the core of Yatsuya Kaidan is a story that’s as old as time, or at least as old as the Edo period. The tale is based on a kabuki play written by Tsuruya in 1825, and it’s been a fixture of Japanese theatre ever since.
But here’s where it gets particularly interesting – this anime adaptation does something truly unique: the episodes are narrated by none other than Tsuruya himself. Yes, you heard right. The playwright, long deceased, takes on the role of the narrator, guiding us through his own ghostly creation.
It’s like the author is reaching out from beyond the grave to walk us through the chilling story, as though we’re all gathered in an ancient theatre, waiting for the lights to dim.
But don’t expect the usual spooky, “I’m-a-ghost-who-wants-revenge” routine.
This is a tragedy of the highest order, drenched in the traditional aesthetics of kabuki theatre – emotions are heightened, and nothing is as it seems.
Love, jealousy, vengeance and spirit world interference all collide in this brilliant web of human folly.
Then there’s Tenshu Monogatari, a story adapted from a famous 19th-Century horror tale. In this one, it’s a story of forbidden love between a deity and a human, add in a crumbling castle haunted by ‘forgotten beings’ who kill trespassers, sprinkle in some tension that builds slowly with eerie silence and just the right amount of dread, and you’ve got four episodes of darkly romantic anime.
Probably.
But the thing that makes Ayakashi truly remarkable is how it merges these supernatural elements with the struggles of its characters.
It’s not just about the ghosts – it’s about how these terrifying encounters unravel human emotion. The fear becomes deeply personal, with episodes exploring grief, guilt and revenge. The result is a more cerebral kind of horror, the kind that lingers long after the episode ends, gnawing at you in that “Did I lock the front door?” kind of way.
So, would I recommend Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales?
Absolutely.
It’s a dark, mysterious, and beautifully eerie ride into the heart of Japanese folklore, and it does so with a level of style that only a samurai can pull off.
You may not find yourself wielding a katana anytime soon, but after watching this, you’ll certainly have an appreciation for the art of blending samurai culture with the supernatural.
Fair warning though, the anime aired in the early 2000s, so expect the graphics to be from that time period.
If you power through and ignore that single element to immerse yourself in the storylines, I’m sure you’ll enjoy a few episodes. – Izah Azahari