Honto ni Atta Kowai Hanashi: Summer Special 2011 (2011)

In case you're not familiar with this summer special series, this is a special that comes out every summer to help you "get the chills" in the summer heat.

The 2011 special contains 5 stories, each in varying levels of scary. In between each story Goro-san and some elementary kids and a priestess comment on the stories, talk about ghosts and what to do about them. These in between segments are like a palette cleanser to help you calm down between frights.

I'll list the story names, in English because the description is missing #5, and put the main actor's name beside so that you can match them up with the description.

The story's names, in order of appearance are:
The Last Bus (Nakayama Yuma)
Alumni Association Notice (Takei Emi)
The 13 Day Nightmare (Mukai Osamu)
Lost Child's Abyss (Ashida Mana)
The Ruby's Anger (Katahira Nagisa)

Each story is believable and the acting sells each story.
The cast was picked well.

The effects are not cheesy. The ghosts are terribly, hideously frightening, as one would expect from a Japanese horror story.

The music suits the genre perfectly. The music alone gives you the chills.

These elements all come together to give you an overall satisfying scare.

This special may or may not have rewatchability for you.
If you rather like horror, you might find yourself coming back to revisit a story (I have rewatched The Last Bus a few times... it gets me every time!). If horror is not your thing, you may never watch this again.

Either way, this is a solidly made Japanese horror story special.

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