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Season guide

Tales of the Bizarre: Season 1

39 episodes Premiered Apr 19, 1990 Updated Jul 19, 2026
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Season 1 Episodes

Episode Guide

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Season 1 Progress Shield

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Binge Efficiency Engine

Season 1: Filler vs. Essential Canon

Filter episodes by narrative weight. Focus on essential mytharc and skip standalone side quests.

10%
90%
Mytharc (4): Crucial lore & season climaxes
Core (35): Character development & subplots
Side Quest (0): Standalone / filler
S1·E1 Mytharc

The Touch of Terror

Apr 19, 1990 · 15 min

Satomi Ayukawa (Miho Nakayama) has a strange power: when she touches an object, she sees the past of the person connected to it. She's just seen an unpleasant part of an arranged-m

S1·E2 Core

The Rumored Makio

Apr 19, 1990 · 14 min

High schooler Natsuko Yamazaki (Kaori Sakagami) discovers various rumors written on her younger brother's floppy disk. On a whim, she adds a rumor she invents herself: that if you

S1·E3 Core

Consort Yang's Board Game

Apr 19, 1990 · 15 min

Kazuyuki Yamada (Hironobu Nomura) was thinking of marrying Yoko Karasawa (Azusa Nakamura), but she's easily stolen away by a rich man, leaving him bitter. A strange old man appears

S1·E4 Core

Locker

May 3, 1990 · 15 min

Industrial spy Satoru (Yuji Oda) sneaks into a bio-chemistry research lab. While copying classified documents he's caught by researcher Kunio Saguchi (Yasunori Danda). Fighting des

S1·E5 Core

The Spirit of Darkness

May 3, 1990 · 14 min

The old woman who runs a candy shop (Kyoko Kishida) tells the children who visit about the spirits of darkness. Enraged at humans for destroying nature, the spirits — who once atta

S1·E6 Core

My Home

May 3, 1990 · 15 min

Yoshimi Sato (Yu Hayami) and her husband Kenji (Hisayuki Nakajima) buy a used property and get the home they'd always wanted. But right after moving in, a string of incidents — sma

S1·E8 Core

The Garbage That Cannot Be Thrown Away

May 17, 1990 · 15 min

Career woman Kaoru Sawada (Junko Sakurada) lives alone in Tokyo, having left her husband and child in the countryside. One day she comes home to find the trash she'd put out that m

S1·E9 Core

The Breath Taking Dinner Table

May 17, 1990 · 15 min

A week has passed since the mother died. Ever since, the father (Toru Masuoka) has been acting strangely. Fumiya is always afraid of him. Meals make the tension worse — everything

S1·E10 Core

Present

Jun 7, 1990 · 15 min

Naoto (Masatoshi Nagase) is drawn to college student Yoko (Sayuri Kokusho), who has a rich boyfriend, Takuya (Yoji Sawamukai). One day the couple comes into Naoto's part-time workp

S1·E11 Core

The Murderer Who Regrets It

Jun 7, 1990 · 15 min

Toshio Sugita (Kai Ato) and his wife Kogiku (Kumiko Oba) are celebrating their wedding anniversary alone. But one interruption after another prevents them from even toasting. Frust

S1·E12 Core

The Family Who Is Too Kind

Jun 7, 1990 · 15 min

Kazuhiko Sagawa (Masato Furoya) runs a con-like gold-selling business. Neglecting his family, his wife and child have left him. On another sweltering day, tramping around rural far

S1·E13 Core

The Monkey's Paw

Jun 28, 1990 · 15 min

The small factory run by Torao Ishikawa (Hiroshi Fuse) is buried in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy. The Ishikawa family owns a "monkey's paw," a keepsake from his father that

S1·E14 Core

The Devil's Video Game

Jun 28, 1990 · 15 min

Around Tetsuo Makimura (Ryo Takayama), his parents, the family dog, and his grade-school teacher have all gone missing. Meanwhile, Tetsuo and a friend sit at a computer. Moments ea

S1·E15 Core

The Hardship After Death.

Jun 28, 1990 · 15 min

Newlyweds Fukuko (Yuyu / Yukiko Iwai) and Yukio die in a traffic accident on their honeymoon. They come to before God (Seijun Suzuki) and beg to be brought back to life. God says h

S1·E16 Core

Halfsies

Jul 12, 1990 · 15 min

Housewife Eiko Kitazawa (Yoshie Kashiwabara) is hesitating over a supermarket bargain — more product than she needs — when Midori Yamagishi (Miyuki Kosaka) offers, "Shall we split

S1·E17 Core

Habit

Jul 12, 1990 · 15 min

Mariko Yoshinaga (Momoko Kikuchi) is beautiful but always dresses and behaves plainly — because whenever she's complimented, she unconsciously steals something. One day she meets R

S1·E18 Core

I Love You to Death

Jul 12, 1990 · 15 min

Junpei Hoshino (Eisuke Tsunoda) has a crush on classmate Mika Saeki (Hikari Ishida), the school beauty. Once he found a Valentine's chocolate from her in his shoe locker, but assum

S1·E19 Core

The Girl in Mourning Clothes

Jul 26, 1990 · 15 min

Heartbroken Kazuhiko Saji (Toru Kazama) sits on a park bench, wistfully looking at a music box he'd meant to give as a gift. He notices a girl in mourning clothes crying and works

S1·E20 Core

Forbidden Games

Jul 26, 1990 · 15 min

Masao Tanizawa (Kenjiro Ishimaru) and his wife Yoshiko (Mako Ishino) go camping with their children. On the way, Masao tells the kids about the cycle of life. They reach a river, w

S1·E21 Core

The Hotel Outside of Time

Jul 26, 1990 · 30 min

Kaoru Inoue (Koyo Maeda) and Haruka Tono (Marina Watanabe) head to their reserved hotel in Karuizawa. But the roads are jammed and, thanks to Kaoru's mistake, the reservation was f

S1·E22 Core

The Man Who Gave Chase

Aug 9, 1990 · 15 min

Officer Norihisa Ninomiya (Tsurutaro Kataoka), who hates lies, is a bundle of righteousness and is admired by his colleagues. Lately a "hammer robber" has been active in the area.

S1·E23 Core

Psychic Power!

Aug 9, 1990 · 15 min

Paranormal researcher Professor Iwase (Noboru Nakaya) has become a leading authority by exposing the tricks of fake psychics one after another. Yet he never denied their existence

S1·E24 Core

The Too-Late Lover

Aug 9, 1990 · 15 min

College student Natsumi (Yoko Minamino) is pregnant by her boyfriend Tatsuo (Takeyuki Yue). But fed up with the mama's-boy Tatsuo ("everything's up to Mama"), she intends neither t

S1·E25 Core

Rooftop Scenery

Aug 23, 1990 · 15 min

Job-hunting Nishihara (Shingo Tsurumi) visits a company, relying on Takano, a senior from his seminar. But Takano's meeting runs long and Nishihara is left waiting. To kill time he

S1·E26 Core

The Woman on the Hill

Aug 23, 1990 · 15 min

Kono (Masaki Kyomoto), an editor at a women's magazine, is on his way to visit the apartment of Endo, a college senior who writes a serialized novel for his magazine. In the rain,

S1·E27 Mytharc

Someone Who Resembles Someone

Aug 23, 1990 · 15 min

Office worker Nishikawa (Keiko Saito) is diagnosed with a mild stomach ulcer at the hospital. On the way home, at a café called "Symptom," she sees someone who looks exactly like a

S1·E28 Core

Live Crabs

Aug 30, 1990 · 15 min

Yukari Matsuoka (Nana Okada) buys live crabs together with a neighbor housewife, Kyoko Kawasaki (Tokie Hidari). When she brings them home, her son Kenichi protests to his father Ko

S1·E29 Core

The Miracle at the Game Arcade

Aug 30, 1990 · 15 min

One day a boy skipping cram school to play at a game arcade is approached by Motoji Toyoda (Kei Tani), who urges him to play a pinball machine in the corner. Score 100,000 points o

S1·E30 Core

Countdown

Aug 30, 1990 · 15 min

Shunichi Saito (Kai Shishido) moves into a run-down apartment. The previous resident, a Russian, left his belongings behind — including what look like suspicious classified documen

S1·E31 Core

Plastic Surgery

Sep 6, 1990 · 15 min

Machiko (Saya Takagi), a country girl who ran away from home, is reborn beautiful through plastic surgery and tries to start a new life in Tokyo. Her wish granted, transformed into

S1·E32 Core

The Man of Great Interest

Sep 6, 1990 · 15 min

Masao Watanabe (Shingo Yanagisawa) is an unremarkable, ordinary salaryman. One morning his family suddenly starts staring at his face. "Don't look at me like that," he says, but th

S1·E33 Core

Hail, Alma Mater

Sep 6, 1990 · 15 min

Yamaguchi (Jun Hamamura), a middle-school teacher during the war, moves into a nursing home. The one who greets him there is a former student, Yoshimura (Goichi Yamada). But Yamagu

S1·E34 Core

Visiting the Grave

Sep 13, 1990 · 15 min

Taichiro Ochiai (Nagareru Hagiwara), consumed by gambling and drink, is chased by debt collectors every day. One day, heading home after drowning his sorrows, he meets an eerie for

S1·E35 Core

The Undelivered Letter

Sep 13, 1990 · 15 min

Keiko Kawasaki (Karin Yamaguchi) despises Yukiko Kawasaki, who lives in the same building. One day a letter addressed to Yukiko is delivered to Keiko's mailbox by mistake. Keiko se

S1·E36 Core

The Human-Faced Grass

Sep 13, 1990 · 30 min

Konatsu Makimura (Manyo Hamada) encounters a strange procession on her way to the village where her grandfather Ryusuke (Masami Shimojo) lives. It's called a "swamp-sending." She r

S1·E37 Core

The Commuter Train

Sep 20, 1990 · 15 min

Twenty-four-year-old salaryman Yuji Sato (Ryosuke Miki) takes the plunge and buys a detached house in the suburbs. The day after moving in, after a two-and-a-half-hour commute to t

S1·E38 Mytharc

Automatic Deposit

Sep 20, 1990 · 15 min

Nobuko (Mariko Kaga) has worked at Orient Trading for 20 years and is the oldest in the office. Nagging and prickly, she's shunned by the younger women. One payday she's stunned to

S1·E39 Mytharc

Grandpa's Love Letter

Sep 20, 1990 · 15 min

Heihachi Negami (Hideji Otaki), posing as his grandson, has been corresponding with a high school girl named Miki who looks just like Yukiko, the girl he loved long ago. One day Mi

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