Tag: Scary

I’m so Scared: Pinkie’s Everyday Fears Top 5

Greetings once more from the island that lies beyond the twilight of make-belief and nightmares!…Well this month!  Normally it’s always sunny and happy! This month it is a very scary place! For realsies! So far we covered my close encounters, we came up with a way to fight off zombies..and we have seen plenty of supernatural spooky stuff on the blog!  So for a change I would like to talk about the mundane. These are my TOP 5 fears!

Fear #5 Phone Calls

I really REALLY dislike making phone calls. Getting calls is a hassle already and I get super anxious when a number that doesn’t know me calls me. With a hidden number that fear is even worse. I try to answer to the best of my ability but people tend to ask me if I am cold as there seems to be this shiver in it. I could also really struggle to find words and I get an absolute mess on the phone. Like the day before I wrote this I had a phone-call to relocate my internet to my new home location but the cue was too long so they offered me a callback. I had all the papers I needed needly spread out in front of me, yet when they called and began to ask me questions I lost it completely. I forgot my own zip code I forgot my ATM card number and did not get through the security check!  So I had to beg them not to disconnect for making a prank call and that I was really me! I just was moving and making lists and my brain was cluttered… I know that is a lie but it is better than “I am scared , I don’t remember”  I managed to get it done but barely!  I am better at getting a phone call than making one though if I have to start a conversation panic strikes me even more. 

This goes further than just “on the phone” as well. I hate Discord calls without camera’s as well. Normally I am very good at reading people and I do that by body posture and facial expressions, it is a “talent” that compensates for my social awkwardness. I can fish and adapt and I know I usually need to “tune” my conversation in real life. So when I lack that cue I feel super weird and am super afraid people might hate me or are not entertained by our conversation and think I am a bother.  This goes as far that I get panic attacks when I am in a discord call with friends and a person I know less joins in as well. From super confident I become super flustered and confused and feel like someone is clenching my heart. I am so afraid of choosing my next words that all that remains in my head is this intricate gameplan in the hope to draw out audio cues to give me some guidance and make me understand this person.  This goes for phone calls as well.. if someone sounds stern or unhappy.. I crash and burn fast.My phone is almost always on silent so I miss your first call so I can prepare a bit more for the next one!

This fear is fed because of a few things. First of all I hate my voice, it is weak and sounds unpleasant and doesn’t fit me at all. I sound like Cher or something.. while I kind of wound to sound like Wolfeychu (yes I bet it would annoy people but it fits much more with my persona). I don’t sound like me, and while I am trying to train to shift that a bit my weak vocal cords make that very hard.  The moment a call has an echo I feel as if I hear a stranger say my words… you know as if a demon would be in me and speak my words for me.  “Zuuul .. Mother-duck.. Zuuul”. It ties in with another fear that is higher on this list.  The second reason is that I got bullied from the ages of 7 till 16  for something I chose to say. One single complaint about people mistreating me caused 8 years of torment and in a way I never got over it. I am always so afraid that I say something new that will cause the same effect. So I don’t like speaking all that much unless I know how to handle a person.. and for that I need to see you first.I knew the people who started the 8 years of bullying and had I read them a bit better then.. I could have known this would happen.. so I can’t make that same mistake again. A phone ringing even if it is somebody else’s  is enough to give me slight goosebumps! So yes I do not like phone-calls. From friends and family I am sorta okay with them..but I still prefer some prep time!  Look at me being all weird.

Fear #4 Stairs

I don’t think a fear of stairs is that uncommon. Yet it is such a mundane object. I’ve fallen of a fair few of them and due to my motor skills being odd and my foot not always landing where I want it to go I think it makes a fair bit of sense why I fear them. I am one of those people who will never walk down a stairs without support because of it. Sometimes I risk the biscuit at train stations to give the arm support to the elderly but only on the tiny flight of stairs so I fall down like .. 10 steps at worst. If I can’t guarantee that I will take the elevator or wait for the armrest to be cleared. Moving up a stairs is less scary than down but with my stiffened limbs it is a bit harder for me.  I try it from time to time and my new house will have stairs I HAVE to climb and decent but weirdly.. there are gradations in what steps I fear and don’t fear.


Carpeted stairs for example are “safe”   Open stairs are a lot scarier but are manageable if they are made for a single person and in a house. One of those artsy white shiny glass like stairs you see in office buildings is terrifying to me. My psychologist has a smaller variant of that and it gives me some serious heebie jeebies. I descend that stairs so slow! I feel like Peter Griffin in that episode of Family Guy where he keeps falling off the stairs. I even a chance to work for the Iphone call center ones.. which had the huge variant of that stairs. While the interview went well they saw me struggle with the stairs on my way down and that was me shaking on my boots. They needed more “spunk” and walking up and down those stairs would be fairly common if I got promoted so I was out.  Metal stairs are even creepier though!  I climbed the Eiffel Tower because on the one day I was there, the escalator was out.   Filled with confidence I strudded upstairs ..just to realise the metal roster indefinitely peering down was something that frightened me a lot.  Once you get to the highest level the metal stairs become spiral and Spiral stairs are the worst.

 I can’t walk spiral stairs (down). During school trip to Italy, not sure if it was in Venice or Verona..but we visited both during our trip we climbed this old belltower. Because it was cheaper than going by elevator. However on our way down their was spirally stairs and I could not I got so dizzy! I started to hear screams in my head which was my own fear manifesting I think. I tried to hide it from everyone and not be a bother but once we decended one out of 17 stairs my teacher stopped me and told me to go up again and he convinced the elevator operator to take me down for free. Apparently  I was so pale that the operator asked if they needed to call an ambulance or doctor, at least that is what the teacher told me later.  I just heard screaming and after that day I never visited another belltower again. At best there is a bell up there! If I want something to ring in my head I just think about the look of those stairs again.

Fear # 3 Sports Balls

So this might be a weird one but yes I am quite afraid of sports balls.  This can be anything. Hockyballs , Golf Balls, Tennis Balls, Basket Balls, Soccer Balls but worst of all Volley Balls.  I am not really afraid of them when they are just laying in the grass or  in the stores.. but I still don’t trust them. I like plushies shaped like a ball or beach balls, but if a recreational sports ball has over a bar of pressure or doesn’t go “squeak” when it hits me.. I rather stay away from it. This fear goes pretty far. If I see kids play soccer on the streets I go out of my way to head through another street.  I once took a 15 minute detour to avoid a five year old kicking one of those super bouncy soccer balls against a wall.  I skipped an evening of cooking and did not eat because there was a fair with a basketball game next to the entrance of my supermarket. I would just eat crips I found at home instead and the next day I set my alarm clock early so I could go before the booth opened. 

Why? Because I always get hurt by balls.. (maybe that is why I am into women as well) . On this blog I oftenly identify with the Dojiko anime type, the adorable clutz. Yet I am not that much of a clutz.. I am.. but it is more as if luck bends in my disfavor. All those balls I mentioned before caused me a pretty nasty injury. So let to explain my fears let me explain what happend. The Hockey Ball hurt me during hockey practice at school. They did not use those tennis-like balls you often see on tv but these more solid white ones which felt almost wooden in texture.  By then I already hated spherical sporting goods and due to my motor skills I was made a goalie. When trying to stop the ONE ..coming to me I braced myself when I felt my legs slip onto the wet grass.. my legs got further and further and I ended up doing a perfectly horizontal split my legs and my pelvis aligned.. which hurt like heck.. I can’t bend that way. I did manage to stop the ball though.. but it ended up with a 50km per hour crotch shot.  WHich did not feel pleasant either. So as I groaned in pain the force knocked me backwards and I hid my head on the little wooden goalboard that functioned as a goal and my head was slightly bleeding. I could not get up cause my legs don’t bend that way so the match just got cancelled and people dragged me under a tree and bent me back so I could move again.

During a single basketball game I managed to bruise all my fingers one by one  (well the first one hit 2 and the thumb was safe)  flipping them over backwards till near breakage. The teacher forced me to play on saying i was not hurt and just pretending so I ended up bruisng the pinky on my other hand as well.  At the end the gym teacher was yelling why I did not catch a ball and I showed 5 purplish black rings around where my fingers are connected to my hand and said my fingers don’t bend that well anymore. He told me I should have told him and that I should go find someone to check it up at the hospital. No one wanted to do that so I went to my other classes for the day and had a panic attack when I realised my fingers were so bruised I could not ride my bike home anymore. Luckily I did not bruise my writing hand too much so I could still go to school the next days.. but no more basketball. 

The soccer ball was fired in my face so hard that it knocked me unconscious for a bit.. though I am pretty sure I was slammed into something and that knocked me out I don’t remember that I remember falling.. and then it fell as if I fell into another room. I took a golf ball to the eye and once during adventure putt putt golf I nearly lost my ball and had to pay for it so I went out of bounds to pick it up.. just to realise I stumbled into an area there was a flamethrower effect…I dodged that but the people of the course were NOT happy.  The volleyball also knocked me out once, it also broke my glasses at that time and before I had glasses a Volleyball once bruised my wrist when I was little. When I went to run to Daddy crying I tripped  on a door stopper thing from a garage door and got a huge head wound.  Even recently this summer I was visiting a pool late august when a group was playing soccer next to us I got a shot in the ribs. At first I thought it wasn’t so bad.. but then I noticed I had a bit more trouble breathing and I noticed a very big bruise around my ribs.

Fear #2 Being Forgotten, Being seen as something not me?!

So this is a fear I hardly am able to put into words but I fear this a lot. After that bullying I was a nobody, I had no one left. My relationship with dad was strained at best, my sister hated me for not endorsing her toxic relation and mom while sweet always saw something  that wasn’t necessarily me. Wanting me to do the normal things like go out and  go shopping and stuff like that. I did those things to see her smile but it was never really for me. When I got sick and confronted with an imminent early demise I thought no one would remember who I really was. Then I got better.. but that fear never went away.  I do not know how long I lived , I might equal you I might croak early given how many things are wrong with me on a health level.  I have come to accept that.. but what I can not accept is the idea of me going and people remembering that person I am not. “You are a sweet person” .. “You are a hardworking part of society” ..  “she had it all. .husband, children and a pet”  I would hate to be described in a way that applies to millions of other women.  When someone describes me like that I imagine myself laying in a coffin with no face. I have that as nightmares.

It is also a reason why I could not visit my demented grandpa a lot in the end. He did not remember me, he did not remember my sister either and mom the same. My sister became a cake girl.. as she used to bake a cake for him, mom remembered occasionally or otherwise he would call her nurse. Grandpa would try to make him remember me over and over again when we would visit and be like “you remember Pinkie right” and I could see the pain in his eyes of not actually knowing. Searching his head and if she would ask more than three times he would just say yes.. but I saw he did not. I had no real gimmick so I was forgotten a bit more , I lived further away so I could visit less anyway but for some reason I also spurred some violent tendencies in two of the others there.. it was a very scary experience for me.  Seeing someone they really disliked.. some sort of singer I think because sometimes they would ask me to sing songs I did not know.  Yet I am mostly concerned about my future with this fear. I do not blame grandpa but I do fear the idea .. of people remembering me..like him.. an illusion ..twisted by static .. or like those other two identifying me with something negative I am not.

I share a lot with you all on my blog as do I share a lot in real life. Sometimes works out great, other times it works out less. One of my best friends moved away and plans to stay away simply because I used to go along in his alpha energy a bit, pretending to be that more “normie” person.. spend money on drinks I did not care for, but it did not make me happy. I wanted to be me, drink the drinks I would like to order.. but it made him feel less classy. He wants to look cool with a glass of expensive whiskey and if I sit next to him with a glass of cheap wine or cherry beer they see through the high class act of his.  In the end when people less and less could put up with those fake shenanigans he just left us all behind. Which is fine, we are still friends just on different terms, I need A he Needs B.. the thing is however, he keeps imposing his values on the group.

He keeps seeing me as someone who likes everything he does, like shoving Kingdom Heart stuff down my troat. I told him I did not like the series because I do not like the way the story is told and the gameplay is just not for me either. Yet he keeps forgetting.. creating a me in his mind that loves the game because it suits him better. One the one hand it is sweet but who he is friends with its not really me. Somehow the thought terrifies me that I will be misremembered and that people in the end talk about a false me..an importer instead of the actual me! It keeps me awake sometimes and I am super scared of fading away. There was one episode of Buffy where a girl was so ignored that she became invisible.. that idea terrifies me.

Fear # 1 Wasps

I fear wasps so bad that once I spotted one closeby I have zero chill until I know it is absolutely gone, can’t reach me or preferably is dead. I don’t just kill wasps! I kill them dead. I poison them, squash them, cut them in pieces and burn them.. preferably I dump the ashes of my balcony as well. There is nothing I fear more than a wasp. As soon as I see a wasp everything the buzzes send me into a state of hyper paranoia.  During a family vacation we were once trapped in the car with a wasp while on the interstate. I went into a near catatonic state of fear where I can’t account for over an hour of driving. We could not swat at it because it was busy in traffic and dad had to focus. I remember that.. and then I heard it buzzing really close and I could not move and then nothing.  The next memory is mom handing me a cappuccino and it was suddenly dawn.  In a waterpark near Barcelona I cried in fear when the line ended up with me having to stand between two garbage cans that had wasps buzzing around them. I wanted to hold up the line until I could pass it.. so just one or two sliders in between but I was forced to stand there. It never seemed to end.

The reason I fear wasps so much is my bad luck! Dad was a wasp swatter and well he would always swat them onto me. Once under me while I was sitting down.. once he set a wasp on fire with an electrical  swatter and it landed on me and stung me.. before it finally died of the fire.  I went to a fairy tale theme park near me just to be stung in both ears on the same day and the teacher yelling at me for not listening to her.. (but I could not hear her due to the swelling … well unless she screamed) I also got stung on my nose that day. I got stung under my fingernail.. in that soft flesh between my toes. Even when I am not swatting at them in an attempt to get some piece of mind and even if I zone out.. for some reason they target me still. They look so evil as well. Not a single creature in nature I think looks as creepy as a wasp (if we would give them a universal size)  sure a Hippo should be scarier.. or a tiger.. but honestly I would rather jump into a tiger den and punch my way to safety  and being shredded .. possibly than walking the same distance trough a wasp infestation. For some reason I am the perfect wasp snack. 

One time I left my balcony door open .. the summer of 2018.. when a HUGE wasp got in somehow. It was like the size of Fat Alberts thumb! It kept buzzing around so I could not go to sleep. I set a light trap for it hoping to capture it in the hallway. But I had to find some materials so briefly would have to use the kitchen light as well.. it crawled into the light fixture there and now was in the lamp.. but I know he could crawl out. ..so I could not sleep again.  For a brief moment I considered flooding my kitchen with gas and tossing in my lighter to explode it.. that is how much I was panicking but instead I deactivated the light and made another one.. as soon as it crawled out.. it looked like something out of a horror movie. I almost emptied and entire can of hairspray on it then dove into my hallway and closed the door. 

I got into the bathroom and took a shower.. also closing the door.. believing that if it crawled under the door the downpour or water would certainly kill it. I hid in that bathroom for almost an hour before I slowly walked back and I saw it on the floor.. it was still alive. Too afraid to step on it with my shoes I jumped over it, dropped my heaviest book on it and trapped it and put the remains in an empty wine bottle. I filled that wine bottle with some aggressive corrosive drain clog stuff and boiling water, closed the bottle and put it on my balcony … in a double trash bag. I could finally sleep after that.. even if it was already 6 in the morning by the time I had that all done! Even then I was still scared it would somehow return or have spawn! When a wasp is around I feel like there is a vice around my entire body!

What are some of your fears?! Do you fear something mundane?  Any fear you know is silly but you can´t help it? Let me know in the comments! If you happen to fear money.. I have the perfect solution for you! Support my Kofi and get rid of some of that nasty cash you don’t want! It would help us both out!

Scary Short Stories The Anime: Yami Shibai Season 1 Review

Anime is great! I love it! It has so many genres. Even when I compare them to western genres like action, sci-fi , romance and …… well…… there is one genre that I don’t think anime ever does “right”. With a few exceptions of course..but horror anime usually add additional genres like action or mystery and they tend to be heavy on that other genre and low on the horror. Which was weird to me! As anime has some amazing ghost stories! Luckily I found an anime for my Haloween month that I actually classify as Horror.. I even found it scary… I am just not sure it’s “anime”……….

The Devil is in the Details

Yami Shibai, whose official title is Yami Shibai: Japanese ghost stories is a fairly long running anime that actually still seems to be more or less ongoing. Currently having 7 seasons with  91 episodes in total. Each season being 13 episodes. It is produced by studio Ilca who almost exclusively produce horror content…. and the Love Live School Idol movie! However this year the same studio brought us Ninja Collection..which is a  summer anime but I am not sure if anyone is watching that. They also made a show about a fart solving problems like only a fart can do… but I am pretty sure I included that when I said they did horror. Each episode features a stand alone story but they are tied together by a masked Story teller voiced by Kanji Tsuda.. whom you might know from… Yami Shibai Season 1 through 7.. or as Kamen Rider Ryuki.   He did more things but none of it sounded familiar to me.. so he already is kind of like a ghost!

The concept of Yami Shibai is to mimic the Kamishibai theater storytelling. This is a traditional form of Japanese storytelling with picture boards being presented in a wooden cabinet. There is an old man telling ghost stories using a Kami-Shibai and his call for attention functions as the show’s intro with the stories being the actual episode. Each episode lasts for about 4 minutes. The show including the intro.. and a very creepy Hatsune Miku outro  lasts 5 minutes which means you can watch an entire season in about an hour if you skip out on the outro! The animation is very static, almost still as if an actual Kamishibai with only very minimal animation, think high budget Visual novels.. or the execution scenes in the Danganronpa games. But more on that later! Here we just factually describe the style!

Every episode is a classical ghost story, usually with a twist/bad or open ending.  For all intents and purposes I will exclusively be reviewing the first season giving episode summaries but not full on spoilers. Reviewing each unique episode in terms of how spooky they are.Micro-reviews! Yay!  I just might review other seasons throughout halloween month as well. So sorry for the spoiler.. but I did really enjoy this first season! The director changed and remained the same into the second season so I assume that is going to be even better.
Now join me as we enjoy some classical Japanese storytelling. Attention kids and adults alike come join us for story time this is Yami Shibai!

13 Ghosts

So before I talk about the entire show let’s talk about the episodes a bit first! And measure how spooky they are! The basic premises of an episode will be discussed here so if you think that is a spoiler …. which it is not… I would advise you to skip to the next section. 

Episode 1: The Talisman Woman

A man moves into a new apartment and finds a mysterious seal on his ceiling! When he removes it a mysterious woman stares at him from afar.  When he gets home the next day, there is yet another talisman on that same spot! Could it be there is something living in his house?

A great benchmark episode! It has some eerie vibes to it, some nice subversion and even a possible jump scare! Mind you that I do watch these after midnight with all the lights off to set a proper atmosphere when reviewing these.. but this one is a great standard. It is mid-tier for me which is a nice way to start this series off. It doesn’t peak nor does it disappoint. It makes you anxious enough to slowly raise your heartbeat!

Episode 2: Zanbai

A traveler/tourist gets himself hospitalised with a broken foot when mountain climbing. He has to stay overnight in a hospital. But some other patients in the hospital are whispering together..of making sure he does not escape?! Did he mishear, are they even talking about him? What is with that strange greeting they gave him?!

This one builds up tension but let’s it fizzle a bit..which weirdly kind of makes it work still. This one did make my blood a degree colder or so… but the ending is slightly too odd and very implied. Look up what Banzai’s true meaning is before looking at this one or things might go over your head a bit. Got uneasy but I never startled

Episode 3: The Family Rule

A man that married into an old family gets told that he has to perform  a ritual with his new family to keep an ancient demon at bay! However when his son wakes up to investigate the ritual  is put at risk!

Top 5 for certain! The build up was great, the visuals really worked wonders and  the resolution was both equally horrific as satisfying. This one cleverly uses fear to instill fear and to create an exciting incident that within four minutes worked very very well for me! You know exactly what happens, what people are thinking and what unfolds.. by minimal dialogue and simple but twisted expressions! Quite creepy!

Episode 4: Hair

A woman is working late trying to make copies for something that looks like a school newspaper or something. However when the machine is used black.. almost hair like streaks appear all over the paper.. and as the woman investigates the machine an incident of freaky events occurs. 

Great scares, great effects.. dumb woman! I mean I know work ethic is a bit stricter in Japan but if I saw something living inside the copy machine.. I sure as heck would not begin opening some drawers to reveal the creepy entity! I would dash out the room and come back  the next day. While I liked the story it is also the story that follows that western trope of stupidity the most which makes it less spooky..because well… serves them right for being this dense?!

Episode 5: The Next Floor

A man ditches his kid for his birthday!  Because he has work to do! When his wife gets angry at him for leaving his son on his birthday.. the man gets in an elevator, wanting to be left alone. Then suddenly goes below it’s lowest level.. and each floor the man encounters begins to be creepier and stranger.

This one is among my favourites as well potential top 3. It has a great sense of mystery, there is an ominous feeling from the get-go and there is a lot of cool stuff done with lighting and atmosphere in this one.  What is happening?! We are kept in the dark until the very end.
This one had a scare that actually startled me! So it is pretty spooky!

Episode 6: The Overhead Rack

On a subway ride home an overworked man hallucinates a fleshie mass staring at him from the overhead rack! He brushes this off as a figment of his imagination and long hours.. but when suddenly the subway hits a person and all electricity is cut off for the rescue workers to do their job..it is revealed he might not be hallucinating stuff after all.

A mediocre episode that uses the Kamishibai art brilliantly. But cutting a whole in a drawing they manage to project real human teeth on a drawn creature and it is unnerving as heck!  The static paper movement versus the more natural behaviour of the real teeth really convey a sense of confusion! Of being something from between two worlds. While not the most scary story due to the weird logic in some elements of the story it is definitely a noteworthy one.

Episode 7: Contradiction

A woman receives a disturbing phone call from her friend.. telling her boyfriend got possessed by something scary during a visit to a haunted hospital. She said her boyfriend changed and asked if she could sleep at her friend’s place that night. Yet she sounds strange. Then the boyfriend shows up at the woman’s house telling how his girlfriend got possessed by something scary during their visit to a haunted hospital. .both accounts are fully animated. Who can the woman trust.. only one of them is speaking the truth here clearly?! Right?!

A strong episode that had quite a bit of kick! Seeing both the male account as the female account offers a duality in choices that conveys an anxious decision at the likes of cutting the red or blue wire for defusing a bomb. We as the viewer are not cued in on the truth so we have to discover it along with the main character and it works very well. There are some uber creepy visuals here as well.. and because they only MIGHT be true.. it is even creepier for me! Where is the real monster? Definitely one of the  highlights in this season! 

Episode 8: The Umbrella Goddess

While visiting his friend during a sunny day a young boy sees a woman with an Umbrella in her mouth! This causes the friend’s boy’s father to seal the boy in a shed..giving him the key to unlock the door.. telling whatever he does he should not open the door.. and that what he has to do now has to do with the Umbrella lady! If the boy can hold out untill daylight he should be safe.

Another top 3 episode for me! While a classic story the four minutes short tosses everything in it’s arsenal at you to confuse you!  It had some amazing visuals, incredible sound design and the Umbrella Goddess is even in the siple drawstyle something that does genuinely seem creepy! The voice acting is great.. and  the cinematography is really amazing!  That final line the narrator tells at the end before saying “the end” might be my favourite line in the series.. no it’s stronger than that..it IS my favourite line in the series.

Episode 9: Cursed

A young girl is afflicted with terrible skin conditions. Someone else his hand is burned on her skin and she is filled with dark necrotic spots! So far no one has been able to help her but then her mother discovers a female priest that might be able to help! From there on out things do not go as one might have expected.

A very strong ending visual redeems this story from being “boring” but this one felt.. a bit cheap. It reminded me a bit of the movie Drag me to Hell but we never get the payoff.  It almost feels as if we have seen the wrong part of the story. I think this is because the workings of the curse are not clear enough, having a skin condition does not seem that harsh compared to what we’ve seen before. Visually strong but little spooks to be had from this episode.

Episode 10: The Moon

While at a baseball training camp some of the players reminisce about how they went to this camp when they were kids as well. Explaining how one of them fell in a pit toilet. (A hole in the ground but with a sort of bowl to pee and poop on)  all those years ago. The boy can not remember this and goes to the pit toilet to wash up and see if he can jog his memory… then he memorises.. he wasn’t the only presence in that hole all those years ago.

A strong story with some amazing scary visuals and some great atmosphere! It would be among my favourites if this basically was not a “poop-ghost” There is literally something evil living in a hole filled with crap!  It kills suspense for me.. a lot. I am  not exactly sure how pit toilets work and had I known I might have had a different visual in my head but for now.. this one is mid tier.

Episode 11: Video

While doing homework before the start of school after vacations three boys get bored and decide to watch a haunted tape completely covered in tape to seal it! It is said that a real ghost lives in that tape. The boys watch and see a fault in the movie..that might be a ghost..when one of the boys notices a statue seems to have moved. It might not be a statue at all upon closer inspection..his friends do not notice ..but no matter if he rewinds pauses or fast forwards through the video.. the boy begins to notice the ghostly presence is going closer.. and closer to the screen.

I expected the story of Ringu ..but instead I got something that had a much more immediate pay off. Seven days, my sitting-meat!  This is a potent video. Creepy visuals and vcr levels of details on the screen make you lean towards your screen to watch it more closely.. Something the episode uses to it’s advantage to make your heart skip a beat…or all of them!  A bit generic of a plot so a higher mid tier episode for my taste! Pretty sweet spooks.

Episode 12: Tomonari Kun

A girl exits school and sees a bunch of younger boys stare at a black shadow like mass, that is then named Tomanari Kun. They ask if the girl wants to play with them and she promises she will, but she has no time today! As time progresses the boys ..and according to them Tomonari Kun begin to grow more impatient and then one day they decide to play at her house instead. 

Another highlight! I had quite a few. but this episode might actually be in that top 3.. in fact it might be close to my favourite . The ending employs a technique I really love in horror , letting a part of the scary stuff happen far in the background.. it makes everything feel so much more inevitable ..  you as the viewer feel more powerless to stop it or will it away and then there is plenty of good stuff to fantasies about here in terms of what actually is happening there! We never get an answer but we do get a new mystery! How do we interpret the story ? It is left up to us to decide. The kids are pretty creepy and the voice acting is pretty nice here as well. Having some children of the corn vibes or Wicker man sensation through the story! (Not the Nick Cage one)  Great episode! 

Episode 13: Tormentor

Based on the ghost story about a dancing spirit whose moves you are doomed to repeat until you die from fatigue  this episode starts of with a Disturbia like scene of two boys playing with a pair of binoculars when they see a few blindfolded monks being up to something. A mysterious woman seems to be dancing behind them the boys try to take a peek when one of them starts dancing. The boy is retrieved by his parents but the binoculars are left with the other kid.. who goes to return them the next day… noticing everything is getting stranger by the moment.

This to me was the weakest story of the bunch! The dance used is very weird and almost just flailing your arms around. That is an effective way to kill someone.. but if you do not know the original story here.. like I did not .. you have no real idea what is going on it feels more unintendedly hilarious It tries to go for one final jumpscare in the end..but this one is blatantly obvious..It made me learn about some folklore though! Still not scary at all!

The Light in the Darkness

if you like this show will depend on three factors.  Firstly you have to like implied endings. Not a single one will tell you what really happened with maybe  Overhead Rack being the only exception and even then we aren’t exactly sure. You never find out the faith of a person and it is up to  you to assume if they got a good or a bad ending. Japanese ghost stories also have a bit of a different flow than western ones. Culturally they are a bit different and we will not know all of these things are based on actual ghost stories.  We will not know the subtlety in some shows as a western audience. The four minute format works mostly because these are urban legends people know.Not everything will resonate with us and you have to be ready for that. This show is vague and doesn’t hold your hand when it comes to narratives. I honestly hope you have enough depth to take a peek into another culture ..but if you just want a spooky Naruto clone.. this is not your show.

The second thing is the animation! It isn’t fluid! It isn’t fast and at times it looks cheap. On CrunchyRoll I saw a lot of people rip on the art style. Yes some drawings are “ugly” but that is the whole point. That water painted look is something that is reminiscent of an ancient art.. and they do great things with it. Making holes in the film to bring in certain creepy light effects or monster effects is all very unique and fitting. It disorients you as well. Because everything is basically slightly animated still shot jump scares hot so much harder. You can not see things approach.. not it is there when the creators want it it to be there! I adore this style! I love this style for this short show format. It has these extreme close ups that remind me of Ren and Stimpy suddenly showing something zoomed in to make it look extra horrible.  The music and the animation serve it’s exact purpose.. to unnerve you! Some of the creature design is really good as well but this is a show best watched in the dark after midnight!

Top 5: Favorite Ghost Type Pokemon

Hello little subjects it is a fine day to be a princess/ I wish you could have experienced the same, but to let you bask in my radiance, it is time for another top five. Since it is the month of halloween, i figured it would be nice to do some spooky lists as well. So today I will list out my top five ghost pokémon for you.  Each Pokémon is allowed as long as their first or secondary typing is ghost. Only one pokémon per evolutionary line and for the future if a pokémon appears on this typing list as my favorite it will not feature on the favorite list of it’s secondary typing because that would get boring. Finally no fakemon or unreleased pokémon. So Polteageist .. unfortunately for you, you can’t make this list.

Ghost Type Number 5: Mismagius

This pokémon is known as the magical pokémon and it is nice to start this list of with a witch-like thing. Not only is it one of my all time favorites it fits the brief for this topic so well. It’s design is steller I can’t say anything bad about it, I just love it’s colouring, it’s little hat and the elegance to it’s design.  It really has this spectral quality that a lot of ghost types lack. If this list was purely on design this one might even have been on the top of the leaderboard save for one entry on this list. Yet even outside it’s design it has soooo many good things about it. Even now I feel like the number five spot is to low for it.. that’s much how I love it.  It is funny because I do not particularly am keen on Misdreavus. It’s cute but it never feels as much more than a “female” gastly. Mismagius just feels so much more connected and as its own thing. Like most ghost types most if it’s pokedex entries are misery and woe. It’s cries sound like it is chanting a spell. These chants are said to have the power to torment people with migraines and  hallucinations. However there is some cuteness in it’s lore as well. Because sometimes these chants can also create positive effects. Most notably it’s chants can make people fall in love. It means people actively seek it out at times. As I am almost a spinster and just lack a bunch of cats to complete that transformation , I think having a ghost pokémon that can bless people with love is kind of neat. It fits the witch theme again, oftenly they are bad but there can be some good ones too.  The last one I used I named Glynda, but it never gave me shoes. 

On a more technical level Mismagius has some more then solids stats allowing to to be a great speedy special sweeper and even a good special wall (defender) in the pokémon games.   It can hit like a truck.. but also take a truck to the face… well it can hit like Kamehameha and take one to the face would be more accurate. Having access to a lot of ghost, fairy and psychic moves gives it some great coverage as well plus it movesets is very in line with it’s theming which is always nice to see as well. It evolves from Misdreavus when a dusk-stone is applied to it, the item is not always THAT easy to get but this is definitely worth it. It’s cry is quite spooky.. sort off .. at least it has that ghostly quality too it.  The only thing I do like less about it is that it is a mono-ghost type. It could have real easily gotten either a psychic of fairy typing as well to convey that sense of magic it has, now it lacks STAB in it’s main offensive moves aside from ghost which is why it ended up in spot number five. While the additional typings would have potentially increased it weakness to dark, that type is predominantly physical anyway so it would take my little witch down anyway so I would have preferred it if it was just that tad more offensive. 

Ghost Type Number 4: Marshadow

Definitely the cutest ghost on this list is the fighting-ghost type Marshadow. It is so adorable to look at. You just want to hug it and never let go. Made of spooky grey shadows this little fellow lurks in hiding. It’s hair can flare up green when it enters it’s “zenith” mode which isn’t actually a mechanical thing it is just the name of his hair changing colour when it attacks.. most notable seen when it uses its gorgeous custom Z move, Soul Stealing Seven Star Strike. It is just such a cutie making it’s little punches like that.  It’s lore obviously is tied to shadows. Based on this name it’s hard to expect anything else. Marshadow has the ability to hide in your shadow where it mimics your or a pokémon’s movement until it learns it and eventually even becomes stronger than the pokémon it mimics. A little boxing shadows of sorts. The fact that they made it one of the few physical ghost types out there just reflects this so well. 

It’s fighting and ghost typing gives it coverage over so many typings it is hard to believe how strong this little fellow is. It is super effective against, dark, ghost, psychic, rock, ice ánd steel types.  This also means it is super effective against two of it’s four weaknesses giving it great weakness coverage as well, and that is just it’s Same Type Attack Bonus movepool. It’s general learnset includes coverage against ALL it’s weaknesses. Given how fast this little shadow is that is quite frightening. Marshadow even becomes borderline broken when we start to look at his signature attack. Spectral Thief,  is an attack that steals all your enemies buffs (like it removes them from your opponent) adds to its own (so all multiplier effects become Marshadows) BEFORE damage calculation. This means that Attack boostin is extremely dangerous and even kinda stupid against this little monster. It really is the strongest ghost type out there with a shot of being one of the strongest pokémon out there due to this attack. Of course since it has the mythical status it is near impossible to obtain unless you hack it in your game or get it through an even. This is what keeps it back on this list, I can’t have one!  Luckily it is playable on Pokémon Showdown and each time I get it in Random Battles I can’t help but to grin from ear to ear, which is not very princessy.

Ghost Type Number 3:  Chandelure

This one isn’t receiving much love in Pokémon community, it isn’t THAT good in battle because it dies so easily, it’s best moves require a bit of set up to make it work.. and it won’t live that set up, it has a LOT of weaknesses.  All true! Chandelure is weak to ghost, dark, ground, rock and water moves. Which means virtually anything in the online battling scene, except for maybe a Mega Venusaur or a a Klefki and other hazard setters. It doesn’t learn any moves by leveling up so you have to make sure you teach it all it’s moves on previous evolutions.  It’s move pool is fairly weak having only access to fire ghost and grass moves in terms of offence. This is not a great pokémon by any standards when it comes to battling. At least not in the mainline games. It actually is my favorite pokémon in Pokken Tournament, and even there it is deemed not very good because it is to slow and all. It was my favorite pokémon though during my first playthrough of pokémon Black, you like the ones you carry on your journey more because a bond forms. This shows the beauty of the game. Of course as the one that is factually right I just saw through these rough edges to see the true beauty beyond.

I adore this design, it’s one of the most beautiful pokémon ever. There is a trend to hate pokémon based on objects.. but  those people are wrong. If you want to see animals fight go to mexico or something. I like the diversity and sometimes objects work wonders for me to bring a sense of magic to the world. A ghostly chandelier that evolves from a simple candle is something I really like as a concept as well, especially when we consider it is basically a will o’wisp.   It’s cute as a candle and scary as chandelier it just works really well for me. Litwick is great, lampent is a nice in between and Chandelure is a great final evolution. There is a journey of kinds.. a literal evolution as it grows more ominous. I can actually imagine seeing a chandelier floating in front of you with its big yellow eyes being quite menacing. It’s shiny with normal orange flames might even be creepier.. it feels more hot and dangerous. It’s Gijinka is something I REALLY want to cosplay one day. I can’t put a hand on it why this is this pleasing to the eye for me but it is the atmosphere colour-use and the amount of contrast in this pokémon. It just hits the nail on the head.  The pokédex lore saying that it will burn away your spirit leaving behind an empty body just gives it that extra level of creepiness which makes this one of the actual ghost type pokémon I could see myself actually being afraid off.

Ghost Type Number 2: Mimikyu

I doubt this one is a surprise. I talked to Mimikyu a lot before and it’s lore makes it an easy pokémon to care for. It has gotten songs , it featured heavily into the anime it has some amazing lore and a sense of mystery to it.  Mimikyu again is one of the few physical attacking ghost types out there but is a lot more widely available then Marshadow, but not as powerful by far. It does has his own custom Z-move like Marshadow though so that is a thing.For more info about this Pokémon I will happily refer you to earlier post which you can find here. I talk about all the aspects of a pokémon I talk about here so it feels weird to redo it. So read all about it here.

Of course the Pokémon that actually wears a costume should be on this halloween list. It only lacks the move Trick-Or-Treat to be the ultimate halloween pokémon. Of course there is Pumpkaboo which is cute.. but that is the only thing that one has going for it. Mimikyu is a solid to use as a pokémon, features a nice cute but somewhat creepy design as well. It has this unnerving quality while also invoking empathy and this duality seems to fit the pokémon greatly. Something you can easily bond with and that will be more than just a soldier on your team.

Ghost Type Number 1: Gengar

Do you know that moment when you feel a chill down your spine for no apparent reason, that means  a gengar is close. A sudden temperature drop while the moon is out, that is most likely a Gengar. It pretends to be a shadow, or sometimes merges with a shadow to cast curses on those who travel through the mountains. Gengar unlike most other pokémon doesn’t go in for the kill quickly they, they like to toy with their victims and revel in their victims fears. Like most ghost pokémon they  feed on the life force of random living targets. Gengar is called the Shadow Pokémon, but in a way conceptually he is much more the “fear” pokemon. It encompasses so much fears. That shiver down your spine, eyes staring at you from the dark, evil shadows, and malicious laughter. All those types of spooks gengar is accountable for. In Pokémon Ultra Sun and Moon it is even told that it can invade your house and lurk in the shadows your furniture and there are rumors and tales about Gengar visiting naughty children at night. Thus gengar is quite literally the Boogeyman , the monster under your bed and is very much related to primal fear. Gengar is a pokémon who knows it was once human (even if the theories say it’s a clefairy that got consumed by shadows) and because it wants traveling companions it keeps killing other humans in the hope one of them will become a Gengar for it to travel with. So this means Gengar is a serial killer, who kills without remorse, to fill its own agenda, at least when not caught. This is a universally scary concept, and regardless of how brave you are or how faint of heart , you will know one of the basic fears Gengar represents. It’s design also appeals to those primal fears with that insane smile and those deep red eyes, it’s warping body. 

Mega-Gengar was banned from the competitive battling format because it was to powerful, and even regular gengar is no slouch when it comes to dealing a massive amount of damage. Mega Gengar has a special attack stat off 170, which is STRONGEr than regular Mewtwo and it also gains the ability Shadow Tag, which means it’s targets can no longer escape from battle.With a base stat in speed of 130 it is fast as well. It being a ghost and poison type means it has same type attack bonus on moves like Shadow Ball Sludge Bomb and Venoshock (which  with the proper set up can be a killer) but Gengar also learns the most powerful Fairy-type and Dark type Special Attacks. It can use electric moves with ease and even the strongest fighting special move Focus Blast is in it’s learnset. This means Gengar can wreak havoc on any Pokémon it encounters, and you’ll never know what it’s set actually is. You can never truly prepare for it, you can bring something faster.. but perhaps they equip it with a choice scarf, you can try to use your ace against it to one-shot it but perhaps it brings destiny bond. In battle gengar is an enigma but a puzzle you have to solve or it will certainly mean doom for you and your team. A ghost type that is THIS scary on and off the battlefield certainly deserves the top spot.

Question to my Readers:

What is you favorite ghost type Pokémon?

So these are the five factually best ghosts, because I Princess Pinkie have ordained so.  On this day let it be known we finally have our objective answer. I know people on the internet can be mean and say that I should die for having this opinion, but if you wish me to death.. I will become a ghost and will come haunt you! And I am a ghost you definitely do not want.

The Pinkest Poké Blogger is blasting off again
XO
Pinkie