Ranked #879

Shikabane Hime: Aka

Story - 8/10
Ok. This series started on the "monster-of-the-week" formula, so it may be very misleading. Even the sypnosis that a Shikabane Hime must kill 108 corpses to go to Heaven is misleading. The real plot and story has really nothing to do with it. The truth is, this series does provide a reasonable and interesting plot development in the SECOND half of the season only. And the last four episodes or so does have enough plot to build up decent cliffhangers that forced me to watch the raws and chinese subs (instead of waiting for the english subs because of my impatience). But keep in mind that there is a second season that follows up directly, so this whole first season gave me the feeling of PREQUEL to the actual story (which turned out decent)

Art - 7/10
Sometimes, the actions are animated in a pretty sloppy way. The characters' design are sometimes too simplistic.But you may argue that it was done intentionally as a more "stylish" way of animation. The colors are all in the range of grey, dark red, black and deep blue, blending into a nice gloomy atmosphere befit of a horror action series.

Sound - 9/10
Nice fighting music and nice insert songs, opening songs and ending song by angela. The music is very catchy and the voice acting is not bad. Ouri (main protagonist)'s voice sound pretty unique and has a good touch of innocence and tonelessness, befitting his strange attitude towards death (a key element in the plot)

Characters - 8/10
I would say the characters are decently developped for an anime series. Ouri's evolution is clearly portrayed throughout the series. Makina's realtionship with Keisei is revealed bits by bits in a very good rythmn. At the same time, Makina and Ouri's relationship also evolves with each episode in the SECOND half of this series.

Enjoyment and Overall - 8/10
The first half was pretty random and generically boring. The second half really redeemed itself. This is series is underrated because the first 6-7 episodes didn't have enough to keep the audience from labelling this as "another generic action series". Although it is far from being a breakthrough, the second half really made good progress in terms of plot and character development. It does deserve the slightly above average rating of 7.5 to 8 out of 10.


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Shikabane Hime: Aka is an anime that deals with the issues of death and life in an interesting manner. However, despite some of this anime's strengths, there were weaknesses littered throughout this series.

The main thing that the story gives is uniqueness. After being murdered, Makina Hoshimura turns into a "living corpse". Armed with dual sub-machine guns, she must kill 108 other corpses in order to gain entry into heaven. She is assisted in this task by Keisei Tagami, a Buddhist priest with links to an anti-corpse group known as the Kougun Cult. The setup of the storyline is rather unusual, and there have not been many anime that look at a living corpse working together with a living person to try to destroy other living copses.

The animatioin was very decent. Each character had their own distinguishable look. The background was very well done and the action scenes are pretty good as well. Gainax is known for creating some of the greatest animation in the industry, but in this anime the art didn't deliver what it could have. Something the animators did very well was creating the mood with the dark animation. You couldn't help but feel scared in some scenes because of the dark backgrounds. Gainax did very well in creating atmosphere.

The opening theme was very, very good. Other than that the sound was meaningless. I don't remember the sound being a big factor in the anime.

This anime seems to focus mainly on Ōri and Makina. There was only one character that I truly liked, and it was Makina. She is the main character and a contracted "living corpse". She is tasked with killing 108 corpses to gain entrance to heaven. She has formidable physical skills and her weapon of choice is an Ingram MAC11 machine gun. Makina starts slow but develops faster than Ōri and by the end of the season she becomes a great character. The main male character, Ōri himself, was really annoying at points. Ōri Kagami is a normal high school boy who was raised at Keisei Tagami's temple. He coincidentally appears at several points where corpses appear and the reason of this is unknown. Ōri is a bland character that slowly develops as the story progresses.

I didn't really enjoy this anime. I kept looking at the time and wanted it to finish faster. It wasn't all that bad. It was pretty confusing but there were a couple episodes that were really good.It was a pretty decent anime. Nothing special but decent. read more

If there is one thing we all know that's a certainty in our lives is that someday, our hearts will stop beating, and we will die. Shikabane Hime: Aka is an anime about people whose hearts have stopped, but they continue to "live". Of course, there is a cost for living when you rightfully should be dead. Sometimes that cost is your very humanity because, well, you've given up your right to be a human. Humans die and stay dead, after all.

This anime follows a boy named Ouri who lives in a shrine with his brother and a group of children who appear to be orphans. One night, Ouri accidentally comes across the dead body of a teenage girl in one of the rooms in the shrine and witnesses her "rebirth"--the dead body reanimates back to life. From there, his life changes and he gets involved with the supernatural, the girl who is known as the Shikabane Hime, and Corpses (the undead brought back to life because of their strong will to live). Shikabane Hime: Aka really is just a zombie anime, if you think about it. It's just that the zombies aren't Thriller-esque with dragging feet, missing eyeballs and their vocabulary is definitely not limited to 'Unh...!' In fact, the zombies are so close to being human that it's rather difficult to discern one from an actual living person. So, I will give Shikabane Hime: Aka kudos for trying to put a spin on zombie anime. It's just that the story it actually tells is rather uninteresting.

The plot is rather formulaic and episodic. Corpse appears, we learn about their tragic background and death, the Hime appears and kicks their butt, and...that's about it. We get very little detail to the rest of the story. It's development is rather slow and ploughing though monster after monster becomes rather tedious to watch. There is very little background info for the rest of the story as well. We're just placed into a situation that we have to accept--there is no explanation given at the beginning. I suspect Shikabane Hime: Kuro might give better answers to the innumerable questions that arise.

Now, I had a rather hard time with the art. Sometimes it looked great, but most of the time it was rather sloppy and not detailed. Also, there were moments when it looked downright cartoon-y. Somehow I felt that making the animation seem rather comical at times (eyes got larger and faces got a little warped) took away from the overall scary feel that I suspect this anime was supposed to evoke. There are some stellar fight scenes present though; battles between the Shikabane Hime come to mind.

The sound was rather good, I have to commend it. The score had a medley of acoustic work and tenser beats. It really does sound pretty nice, and it provides good background music for the rest of the anime.

And here's another hard thing to discuss: characters. There are some truly good characters, while the rest of the cast is extremely weak. Ouri (who seems eternally destined to come across Corpses and Shikabane Hime) is scarily aloof about the things around him. He communicates telepathically with a cat, he sees a dead girl brought back to life, he witnesses bloody violence, and yet...it doesn't bother him. He doesn't bat an eyelid. Why is he so unmoved by the extremely strange? In fact, he keeps a mostly cheerful disposition, so it's not as though he doesn't care. More importantly, he's not afraid of death, yet he is suddenly constantly surrounded by it. Although, as this short series progresses, we see that maybe he isn't all what we think he is, and that he's not all that he thinks he is as well. His development is seen through the breakdown his taciturn nature.

Then there's Makina, the trigger-happy Shikabane Hime with a shady past. She exists (I can't really say she lives) to avenge. She has a duty and nothing will come in her way, but she does play by the rules. Mostly. I can't say that she's a good character because we see very little of her personality. Most of the time she's just looking menacing and shooting things. The rest who make up the supporting cast aren't exceptional. There's Ouri's brother, who is sort of the competent, secretive, pervy older brother/leader type. We don't get into his personality at all, really. The only character with any sort of depth is Ouri.

Shikabane Hime: Aka is wracked with various plot holes and numerous unexplained situations. For example, why is Makina always wearing a sailor fuku school uniform? She doesn't need to go to school--her "life" is centred around destroying Corpses. I assumed maybe she would have found more suitable attire for fighting against the undead. Also, why does the Kougon Cult even exist? Do they search for and sign people up for a job of saving the human race from zombies? Are they simply a philanthropists' association with supernatural power? And then, why are there only mostly Shikabane Hime? No Shikabane Ouji?? Why not? I suspect nobody wants to see a guy running around in a school girl outfit killing zombies. Also, I found the ill-timed slapstick and random humour (that borders ecchi) sometimes killed the moods created. This is a horror anime, right?

Overall, Shikabane Hime: Aka is a rather disappointing anime. I expected much more from it. Perhaps the sequel explains things better, but as it stands right now Shikabane Hime: Aka isn't worth spending too much time on.

Watching this series felt like the equivalent to seeing a promising writer decide that scribbling bathroom poetry bears more interest to them than anything else: potential wasted. read more

Very very nice!
Did not like it much when I watched some episodes while it was ongoing.
Had almost made up my mind to drop it, BUT then I changed my mind, and started watching it all over.

Watching it back to back made one helluva difference.
It has some comedy, which often means I don't like certain series. Heavens be blessed that did not happen while I was watching Shikabane.

I'm so happy I decided to give it another try. The story and the characters interaction makes it a great watch.

I want to watch the sequel Shikibane Hime Kuro, but I'll hold my breath and try not to start watching it until it has finished airing. read more

Gainax is know for producing great anime and though Shikabane Hime: Aka may fall short in some anime viewers opinion I for one disagree.

Story: The story followed a cliche of "woman fights monsters, guy waits in sidelines" & "protagonist is the only one who can kill the monsters".

though people may think its cliche and played out (which it is) Shikabane Hime doesnt stray from its cause.
Bleach anime held the exact same features that Shikabane Hime: Aka did with "monsters come from people who don't yet want to "pass on" and thus become monsters in order to stay".
but what Bleach didn't do was keep that motion of helplessness where the hunter was alone and had to fight alone the majority of the time. Shikabane Hime: Aka is still catching the feeling of weakness where the protagonist is still fragile though she is almost immortal.

Art: isn't very catchy. Very simple scenes like bullets dropping wasn't new but felt satisfying. Hair styles where done cheaply (a first for Gainax). backgrounds and such weren't a letdown. some scenes depicted chibi or other comical relieving art which in my opinion made lite of the story or progression of it. and fight scenes were shortened in a disappointing way.

Sound: The music, sound effects, voice actors are all decent.
though none of them are renown voice actors they still play their parts well catch people into the story. the music wasn't bad in-fact it caught my attention and made me check out the song artist.

Character: Cliche, slow development that builds its way up. not much to say.

Enjoyment: i for some reason found the anime very catching after i watched it. read more

Well, to start, I binged Watched this one thanks to our friends at funmation. So I have one review for both seasons (plus bonus).

I was both pleased with this one, and also very displeased. I know, I know.. you want me to make sense. Lets get the mechanics out of the way.

Character Development: Not bad.. Most of the main characters (I stress MAIN) are developed well. they have depth. Some of the secondary and lesser characters are paper thin (Ie: the otaku Hime).

Animation: Well done. At least to my preference. Detailed back grounds, interesting colours and scenery, smooth animation.

Sound: Also Well Done, except for some of the music overlays. I felt them to be too loud, and were drowning out the convesations.

Sigh.. Story: I felt the premise to be interesting. and the action and story development for the most part were good. And this is the part that kept my attention, Dispite the rest.

I found the ending to be poor (EDIT: By ending here, I am refering to Climax of the story), the story lacked the substance needed to pull of such a strange twist. It ended like so many other animes.. Feeling rushed. Also, I felt the whole segment about Shikabane Mother could have been chopped from the story line. It did nothing to advance the main story line. they could have used those few episodes to make the main plot clearer.

I did like how the very end (The wrap-up portion after the action) left you hanging. Perhaps a movie? or another season. It was left in such a way as it could stay the way it is, or not.

Overall: I do not regret the time watching this, and I will likely buy it (when I see it), and watch it again. However, I do not feel this will be an anime that will be remebered in the long run
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So let me start by saying I haven't finished this series and that is very uncommon and under normal conditions quite stupid to review a series before you have completed it (after all if you drop it half way through or finish it half-way and decides its bad who are you to call it such after as far you know the next episode could very well be the redeemer for the whole series and all of a sudden bring the spark of life it needed to be good). So now let me get to why I am reviewing this one without finishing it (other than that it has completed airing yet). This is more of a warning than it is a review, if you're planning on completing this series be prepared to fork out some cash because every subbing group out there has dropped it now while I believe it is important to support artist and creators I must point out that the money you pay for DVD's and such barely even benefits them...that's right most of it goes to the company (the same is not completely true for manga and if you have the money I suggest that you probably should buy them). So yeah back to what I was saying you will only find to episode 6 online or at least that's the cap I reached after searching for hours on end for episode 7. It's a good series I honestly want to know how it ends so now I will sit here and wait patiently until I can be the DVD set cheaply off amazon.com. I promise I will come back and give this a proper review once I have seen the whole series but for now you must excuse my unenlightened and slightly negative attitude towards the series.
Story- This story is about the shikabane hime (misguided souls/demons that hunt other demons/misguided souls) and how they must kill 108 shikabane (demons/misguided souls). The plot indeed thickens out more to that but because of the limited number of episodes I am able to watch this is about all I can sufficiently provide you with (sorry blame funimation).
Art- The art for this series focus on a unique combination of well drawn normal looking characters (okay not that well drawn or normal the eyes and nose seem a little strange in my opinion) with the monsters being drawn to be absolute abominations to the human vision (they seem to using a different coloring and drawing style for each monster which I for one think is amazing if not a little unnecessary).
Sound- Surprisingly enough what impresses me most about this series is sound I love the voice acting as I'm quite familiar with a few of the voices I here from other series. Also I love the opening to this series it perfect matches the context of creepy, undead people fighting to the death. This section however lost points from the gun sounds I've fired a lot of weapons in my days and while they did a decent job of capturing the sounds they seemed to have flubbed a little when it came to the sound of the 9mm and rifle.
Character- There the leading role (by which I mean the one we follow around the most) Ouri surprisingly has very little to do with the actual story just like us he just seems to be a confused observer that seems to get more in the way of the real heroes rather than show some bad assery of his own however we have a good understanding of his character and how his mind works by the third episode. Makina however our other main character kicks serious butt this only flawed by the fact that she is so cold and mysterious and that even by the sixth episode we only know enough about her to assume things rather than know them (but that's fine and dandy since that's her character type). Kesei I for one think should be the leading role in this series he's charismatic, funny, strong, and has the slight hint of mystery that you always need to make a good story unfortunately the story seems to be focusing more on his brother than him and that can only need to disappointment (also he's a pervy monk hehe he's tries to give his brother porn).
Enjoyment- Despite my whining I really do enjoy this series and do hope to finish it one day as the way things are left off now I want to near tear my finger nails to know what happens in the next couple of episodes. What can I say I have weakness for violence, hot girls, pervy monks, and killing monsters which this series has no lack of. read more

Shikabane Hime… I wasn’t going to do this one either… seemed a bit too generic. But I bit the bullet and watched it anyway. It wasn’t good. It wasn’t bad. It was just… decent. I’ll probably watch the next episode to decide if I keep it on my roster for the season. Production values were all right. The OP isn’t really memorable, and neither is the ED. The general BGM throughout the show is okay, but isn’t really memorable either. It’s kind of a shame that music isn’t memorable at all in this show. I thought it could really have potential, considering the premise of the show is somewhat Bleach like, and Bleach had great music. The animation was all right as well… a bit jumpy in some spots, but generally fluid. The character art was decent, and semi-consistent, though I say that their noses are far too large for anime. Its just kind of a shame that nothing really stands out as spectacular in this anime. I suppose I should give it time to see if it blossoms, but my cynicism won’t let be get my hopes up.

The premise of the show is very Bleach like, which is not to say that it’s a knock off of Bleach, but they are very similar. Spiritually sensitive kid lives in a temple, and sees spirits. He has three friends that have anime stereotype personalities (Rukia is the only good female main character in Bleach, god dammit!). He stumbles upon the main female character Makina, who is a shikabane hime (someone who hunts shikabane, I’m guessing) and he is startled that she’s dead. He has a trippy run in with a spirit cat that tells him things, but eventually he shrugs it off. Yagami, the male lead, moves out after this incident. It turns out that Yagami’s aniki Keisei is the head of this secret society that hunts shikabane. Shikabane are corpses that have enough will to keep moving after death, and its Makina’s job to hunt them. I’m guessing that Keisei loves Makina or something, because they make it pretty damn obvious when you compare his attitude towards her to the other members of the society. Well, nothing really happens for most of the first episode, then at the end, Makina kicks ass with sub-machine guns and takes out the shikabane for the episode.

We can all guess that soon, Yagami will delve into all of this business, as he has met Makina. He saves her from being permanently dead (which had a trippy mind-fuck sequence) and then she slaps him and books it. I’m kind of disappointed in the first episode. It had real potential to be memorable, but it just didn’t wow me. Check it out if you want. I’ll probably watch the next episode before deciding anything. I give the show a total 6/10. I should note that this show is already slotted for a sequel, even before the first episode aired. It better turn out damn good, or I get to get out the pimp hand.

Produced by Gainax. Airs on Thursdays. Subs by Lunar.
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