History Anime / AyakashiSamuraiHorrorTales

* StarCrossedLovers: Zushonosuke and Tomihime. As a Forbidden God, Tomihime cannot fall in love with a human under any circumstances, else she give up her immortality and condemn herself to death.

* TooDumbToLive: The band of thieves and their women are practically walking around with death flags over their heads in the beginning of ''Tenshu Monogatari''. They knowingly enter a supposedly haunted building complex, ignore the warnings of the mysterious old woman near the door of Shirasagi Castle, and (with the exception of one) decide to get [[DeathBySex down and dirty]], leaving them distracted when the Forbidden Gods come and kill them.

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: ''Tenshu Monogatari'' has poor Shuri as the losing end of a romance between Zushonosuke and Tomihime. While he did seem to love the former woman before meeting Tomihime, he barely acknowledges her after the fact and Shuri's left accidentally stumbling on to the two consumating their love. None of this is portrayed as a moral wrong, merely tragic on Shuri's end.

* HauntedHouse: To most humans, Shibbasaka Catle is this, as the castle is unoccupied by humans and is decrepit and old.

* TooDumbToLive: The band of thieves and their women are practically walking around with death flags over their heads in the beginning of ''Tenshu Monogatari''. They knowingly enter a supposedly haunted building complex, ignore the warnings of the mysterious old woman near the door of Shibasaka Castle, and (with the exception of one) decide to get [[DeathBySex down and dirty]], leaving them distracted when the Forbidden Gods come and kill them.

* StarCrossedLovers: Zushonosuke and Tomihime.

* TheFortySevenRonin: "Chushingura" is mentioned in Yotsuya; the samurai characters were involved.

* ''Yotsuya Kaidan (Yotsuya Ghost Story)'', an adaptation of the classic Japanese ghost story about betrayal, murder, and revenge from beyond the grave.

* AnimalMotifs: Every time Tamaki appears, she is always surrounded by cats. [[spoiler:This [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows]] her involvement with the birth of the Bakeneko]].

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler:Nearly everyone in the Bakeneko arc]], and most of Oiwa's victims.

* BlueIsHeroic: Odajima, one of the samurai retainers from the Bakeneko arc, wears blue. [[spoiler:He along with the family servant Kayo was revealed to be completely innocent of the aristocratic family's crimes against Tamaki and the titular Bakeneko.]]

* CatsAreMean: Just the ''Bakeneko'' story...[[spoiler:though the titular character didn't start out that way]].
* Creator/ChiakiKonaka

* CovertPervert: The Medicine Peddler carries feudal-style porn, as well as rather interesting medicines. Kayo was intrigued.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: Osode, Naosuke, and Genshiro]]. [[spoiler: Oiwa]]'s death may have been this or accidental (Yotsuya Kaidan).

* FanDisservice: Tamaki, a very attractive woman, is naked in most of her appearances. [[spoiler:Her body is covered in horrible bruises and she's repeatedly raped and beaten.]]

* GainaxEnding: Yotsuya Kaidan.
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Tamaki fed a kitten trapped in the family basement until it grew strong enough to escape, starving herself to the point of emaciation in the process. When her abusers beat her to death and the cat risked getting killed in protecting her, Tamaki bade it to run so it wouldn't die senselessly for her sake]].

* JacobMarleyApparel: Oiwa keeps her disfigurement as a ghost.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: While he does have his moments, Odajima (Bakeneko) is friendly to Kayo, the family servant, accompanying her to pray in the room where Lady Mao's body is held when she gets scared, and [[spoiler:trying to rescue her from being strangled to death by an increasingly deranged Sato. Then it's revealed that he (and Kayo) were completely innocent of their family's crimes against the Bakeneko]].

* MegaNeko: The Bakeneko (which represents its immense hatred).

* MurderTheHypotenuse: Oume tricks the object of her crush into poisoning his wife. It's a nonfatal poison, but the results were horrific and convinced the husband to discard the wife.
* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:The Bakeneko in its titular arc. Its feelings of guilt and regret for failing to protect Tamaki twisted it into a vengeful and homicidal spirit bent on revenge]].

* NeverMyFault: Sato (Bakeneko) isn't directly responsible, but she refuses to take responsibility for her complicity and spends much of the story screaming that it isn't her fault.

** Bakeneko: [[spoiler: Tamaki]]'s story.
** Yotsuya Kaidan: [[spoiler: Yomoshichi isn't dead, Naosuke had murdered another man by accident]].

* SpoiledBrat: UpToEleven, and lampshaded with Oume.

* TraumaticHaircut: Iemon rips out a fistful of hair from Kohei's head to torment the servant as punishment for stealing. Later Oiwa attempts to comb her hair after being poisoned and ends up ripping out whole chunks.
* UnreliableNarrator: In ''Bakeneko'', the elderly patriarch of a noble family [[spoiler:who was ultimately responsible for the Bakeneko's creation]] believed in his version of what happened to [[spoiler:Tamaki, despite it being completely bullshit and a total lie]].

* WomanInWhite: [[spoiler: Tamaki. Her few appearances had her dressed entirely in white, which is a symbol of death in Asian cultures. For the audience, this [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows]] her ''very'' tragic backstory]].
* WomanScorned: Oiwa from ''Yotsuya Kaidan''. When she learned that her husband Iemon was involved in the plot to kill her, she was DrivenToSuicide...only to come back as an extremely vengeful spirit.
* YamatoNadeshiko: We are continually informed that Oiwa was a perfect wife before she went crazy.

* WomanScorned: ''Oiwa.''

* SwarmOfRats: A common motif in ''Yotsuya Kaidan''. A woman's corpse is swarmed by rats, and later another woman is eaten alive. Also invoked at [[spoiler: Iemon]]'s death.

* WomanInWhite: [[spoiler:Tamaki. Her few appearances had her dressed entirely in white, which is a symbol of death in Asian cultures. For the audience, this [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows]] her ''very'' tragic backstory]].
* WomanScorned: ''Oiwa''.

* AssholeVictim: [[spoiler: Nearly everyone in the Bakeneko arc]], and most of Oiwa's victims.

* CatsAreMean: Just the ''Bakeneko'' story...

* DerangedAnimation: Oiwa's curse results in a couple strange sequences.

* {{Flashback}}: How [[spoiler: Tamaki]]'s story is told.

* ChiakiKonaka

* ''Bake Neko (Goblin Cat)'', an original creation and the most famous of the arcs; it was later continued with ''Mononoke'', featuring the Medicine Seller as the main character. The story would appear again but in [[AlternateContinuity radically different form]] in the SpinOff.

Not to be confused with ''Anime/AyakashiAyashi''. For more tropes about the Medicine Seller, see ''Anime/{{Mononoke}}''.

''Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales'' is the less remembered anime series from which ''{{Mononoke}}'' originates. Eleven episodes long, it consists of three self-contained arcs, each with very different animation styles:

* ''Bake Neko (Goblin Cat)'', an original creation and the most famous of the arcs; it was later continued with ''{{Mononoke}}'', featuring the Medicine Seller as the main character. The story would appear again but in [[AlternateContinuity radically different form]] in the SpinOff.

Not to be confused with ''AyakashiAyashi''. For more tropes about the Medicine Seller, see ''{{Mononoke}}''.
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* RuleOfScary: Oume's poison, administered orally, can permanently disfigure someone's face in just a couple hours. [[hottip: *: For why this is problematic, see PerfectPoison.]]

** Also Tamaki.

* MurderTheHypotenuse: Oume tricks the object of her crush into poisoning his wife. It's a nonfatal poison, but the results were pretty horrific and convinced the husband to discard the wife.
* NeverMyFault: Sato (Bakeneko) isn't directly responsible, but she refuses to take responsibility for her complicity and spends much of the story screaming that it isn't her fault. Even more remarkably, [[spoiler: Tamaki is beaten to death because she was raped. By the rapist's father. Who had also raped her frequently.]]

* AttemptedRape: Takuetsu (Yotsuya) , but he couldn't go through with it and seemed genuinely apologetic about it.

* ''Bake Neko (Goblin Cat)'', an original creation and the most famous of the arcs; it was later continued with ''{{Mononoke}}''. The story would appear again but in [[AlternateContinuity radically different form]] in the SpinOff.

* InexpicablyAwesome: The Medicine Peddler just turns up out of the blue with no explanation of who he is, how he got there or why he can do what he does. Then awesome ensues. And he's off again.

* BrotherSisterIncest: [[spoiler: Naosuke and Osode]]

* MegaNeko: The Bakeneko