TV Tokyo began streaming a 15-second commercial for the upcoming third season of the Yami Shibai ( Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories ) horror anime series of shorts on Monday. The video previews some of the designs featured in the anime.

The series will premiere on TV Tokyo in January. The new season will feature more than 100 weird characters and will focus on urban legends.

Takashi Taniguchi and Tomohisa Ishikawa will direct the third season at ILCA, and Anima (Apocalypse Meow) will handle the CG animation production. Hiromu Kumamoto (Kagewani, both previous seasons of Yami Shibai) and Satoko Kishi will write the scripts. Norio Yamakawa (TV Tokyo) and Takuya Iwasaki (ILCA) are in charge of planning; and Nobuyuki Hosoya (TV Tokyo), Motoki Hirose (ILCA), and Kenji Sakurai (ILCA) will serve as producers.

The cast will feature the return of Ryota Murai and Risa Aizawa as regular cast members, as well as many guest cast members.

The original series of anime shorts featured six-minute horror stories based on urban legends. The shorts inspired by Shōwa-era illustrated paper theater productions premiered in July 2013, with Tomoya Takashima directing off scripts by Hiromu Kumamoto. Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired.

The second season featured directors Takashi Shimizu ( The Grudge , live-action Kiki's Delivery Service) and Noboru Iguchi ( Nuigulumar Z, Karate-Robo Zaborgar ), as well as scriptwriter Shōichirō Masumoto ( King of the Escape ). The second season premiered in July 2014, and Crunchyroll streamed the series as it aired.

Image © Yamishibai Production Committee 2016