This may be a potential bug.
It seems that in PRD 3.9 bar chart's shadow is set to TRUE by default. The problem is it cannot be switched off AFAIK after looking thoroughly at the bar chart's editor/options and general.

To recreate this I've used the JDBC's SampleData
First: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1a1K7VSr3I
Then: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRP210sdaUg

The chart generated is as such:


Prior to upgrade (from 3.8), my graphs were looking fine --

Now, post-upgrade it is looking like this:



Is there a way to switch the shadows off or is this a bug?
Any help appreciated. Many thanks! Hear from you soon!