Review by Frank Plowright

If there’s any doubt that Shadows of Kyoto is full-on horror, a gruesome opening sequence of a corpse being dragged into a house and then feasted on by a selection of ghoulish dolls puts the record straight. It’s followed by more creative, but ultimately deadening short stories in which people are shocked, tortured and killed.

The first longer piece is pretty well representative of all that follows. Haruki Aono livestreams and her speciality is graveyards at night, always hoping to see something supernatural. Her visit to Kyoto is prompted by a legend that visitors during the hour of the ox gain the power to issue a curse. It follows a formula by first being dark without much happening, before she’s met by Kotone who claims to be a tourist guide. Kotone is an expert on grim happenings, and the stories escalate until Haruki meets an unhappy fate.

A greedy guy, thrillseekers, and callous schoolgirls all meet Kotone and their weaknesses ensure their card is marked. While they’re all unpleasant, Kotone takes them to places even they don’t deserve to be before they die gruesomely. While the premise is imaginative, the execution is lacking in stories with confusing moments where it’s unclear what’s happening.

On two counts the saving grace is Yumeya’s art. There’s a delicacy and beauty to the people who occupy full locations, and the appeal is immediate. Less desirably, there’s also going to be an appeal for those who relish sadistic torture of others, here explicitly and unpleasantly rendered. Other material translated from Japanese has worked the same idea, but far more imaginatively, leaving Shadows of Kyoyo a disappointment.