This is a spoiler free review. Worst case scenario you will be sad after knowing the basic premise of the three substories in the anime. Ayakashi: Japanese Classic Horror is a collection of three horror stories Yotsuya Kaidan by Nanboku Tsuruya IV Tenshu Monogatari by Kyka Izumi and Bake Neko by by Kenji Nakamura and Michiko Yokote. I will talk about each of them highlighting their good and bad parts in the sections below. Yotsuya Kaidan Starting with the first and most famous Japanese ghost story of all time Yotsuya Kaidan written by Nanboku Tsuruya IV in 1825 originally in the form of a kabuki play has experienced numerous adaptations in the form of movies and plays. Many of them change the plot a little bit to introduce or omit characters or slightly change the ending but Ayakashi shows us a basically 1:1 rendition of the story. It even has the original writer as the narrator. The visuals and music arent amazing but they do the job good enough. Key scenes dont shine brightly compared to the rest but theyre not done badly like the combing scene. What I would have liked is more distinct features for some characters like Oiwa and Osode and a bit more emphasis on introducing some of the characters. The anime also tells us a bit about the storys influence on Japanese culture which I really liked. But the story itself is......well just alright but it certainly left a mark. They did a decent job at depicting the fate of each character but with a bit more screen time it couldve been more impactful. Tenshu Monogatari Now comes the second and frankly the worst story out of the three. Tenshu Monogatari written by Kyka Izumi again originally as a play hardly qualifies as horror but instead is just a bad love story full of arrogant selfish and idiotic characters. None of the stories here will scare you but theyre at least engaging and have some horror element. Tenshu on the other hand throws that element out the window in just the first episode. Every episode youre just holding your head and thinking Why are you doing this? Stop for a moment to consider your actions. Why is everything progressing at a breakneck speed? Once again some key moments couldve enjoyed a bit more screen time but I feel that wouldve just made it that much more unbearable. Bake Neko Coming on to the final and the best part of the series Bake Neko is an orignal story by by Kenji Nakamura and Michiko Yokote. Presented in an Ukiyoe style artwork it looks very appealing and is full of great dialogue from our main character the medicine seller. It doesnt force you to be scared but instead with the help of carefully made scene cuts and transitions amazing art and music and interesting characters hooks you to the story so much it gives you goosebumps. I wont talk about what happens in the three episodes this story gets since thats for you to enjoy but the more you watch it the more you feel like you yourself are experiencing whats happening in the story. Relation to Mononoke Mononoke is basically an expansion of the Bake Neko story and if youve come here after watching Mononoke and plan to watch Ayakashi since they have the same character I will ask you this. Do you want to watch it just because of Mononoke or because youre interested in it separately? If its the former well then just watch the last three episodes after youve watched Mononoke you can watch it before as well but I feel it serves better as a prequel and call it a day. If youre only slightly interested in it then Ill say watch the first four Yotsuya Kaidan and the last three episodes Bake Neko since both are worth watching if you have the time. Of course I cant dictate what you want to watch but its just my two cents. Final tidbits Ayakashi often gets overshadowed by Mononoke and rightfully so but if youre interested in Japanese literature or simply want MORE after watching Mononoke Ayakashi by no means is a bad watch. It can sometimes feel rough but not enough to hopefully make you drop it. Overall an alright watch that couldve been a bit better if they adapted a different story for the second one.