YureiTales

Japan's ghost stories and urban legends, told the way they were told: as warnings.

Every episode on YureiTales takes one legend — Hachishakusama, Kuchisake-onna, the Kodama in the tree at Kayashima Station, the Gashadokuro of the Tenmei famine, the games you should never play — goes back to the documented sources (Edo-period catalogues, Lafcadio Hearn, newspaper panics, village lore) and ends with the rules that, according to the stories, keep you alive.

Animated as ukiyo-e woodblock prints and paper cut-out lightboxes, built in code. Voices are AI-generated and the music is AI-generated or composed in code; the animation and sound design are original.

New legends regularly. If you know a story from your own region, tell me in the comments — the best ones become episodes.