Shiki

Vampire anime has never been my cup of tea. I’ve seen a fair amount of such anime and for me, they usually turn out to be really corny (such as Dance in the Vampire Bund), boring (such as Shingetsutan Tsukihime), shallow and chockfull of fanservice (Rosario + Vampire) or just plain lame (Black Blood Brothers). I’ve gotten tired of seeing vampires presented to be as majestic, perfect, idol-like creatures, leading glamorous lives and just happen to suck blood for nourishment. Are vampires really monsters, or just sissies?

Then I saw Shiki.

It’s surprisingly good. I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece but it’s interesting, not to mention actually ... quite frightening, as horror stories should be. The first few episodes hint on what is happening, but you’re not completely sure what it is until the characters discover it for themselves. Because of that the pacing is quite slow for the viewers, but for the characters it’s actually timely and realistic.

Speaking of the characters, there are a lot of them and as expected with a large cast, development is hard to manage. There are some characters who disappear from the story for a bit, and when they come back, clearly a lot happened but not a lot about it is said so you’re left to ponder on it. There are some scenes that I would have liked to see, and I’d like to give some examples but I’ll leave it at that to avoid spoiling anyone.

Fortunately though, the most interesting character in my opinion is the one who is most developed, and that is the doctor Ozaki Toshio. You get to see a lot of what is going on in his mind - what he discovers as the story progresses, how he deals with it, what kind of person he is, etc. I really think his character is very fascinating, and will make you think what you would do if you were in his place. How far will you go to survive? Ozaki and the other characters all answer that question in their own way as the story progresses.

It’s generally a likable cast, and the voice acting only makes them even more so. Among the roster of the voice actors chosen for this anime, I noticed that a good portion of them are relatively new/under the radar, including the young and promising Yuuki Aoi. Regardless of tenure, all members of the cast, even those with the smaller roles, are good, capable and convincing.

What isn’t entirely convincing though, is the art. Sometimes the facial expressions of the characters are too exaggerated, that it seems fake, such as this scene: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lha4faBeSw1qdbg2p.jpg
I get that she’s really happy to see Natsuno, but I don’t think she’s that happy.

The character designs in general are a little cartoony, with the weird hairstyles and all, but only for the more dominant characters. The lesser characters look more subdued. The gore seems a bit over the top too, but I think it’s acceptable in this case because it’s part of the story-telling.

Overall, the art is okay. The visuals really compliment the story. It’s a little inconsistent now and then and the colors clash sometimes but I like how they went for something a bit more colorful, because usually with horror anime the visuals are dark and gloomy.

As for the music, I think the soundtrack is very well done. From the subtle sound effects to the background music, it all really contributes to the feel of the story and makes each scene more special. The OPs and EDs are very good too. I really like the first OP, “Kuchikuze” by rock band Buck-Tick. I think it really goes well with the series. The vocals are really good, the lyrics relate to the story and it’s quite catchy and memorable.

I think the main reason why I like Shiki is because it’s not shallow like most vampire anime. It allows us viewers to think, instead of blinding us with how “cool” vampires are. Sure, vampires are amazing beings with many traits and abilities that normal humans don’t have, but they are still monsters, and to survive, they need to feed on humans. If you think of it that way, vampires aren’t really that cool, huh? It seems that in the latest vampire anime, as well as in general media, they fail to emphasize that in their representation. Thankfully, Shiki does well in that aspect and in many others. If you don't mind gore and you want to watch a horror anime that’s a little more deep than the usual, then surely Shiki is for you.

I always hate when people do animes and mangas with the theme of 'vampire' because it's always ridiculous. The mith is put aside and the only things that remain are the fact that they have fangs and they drink blood. Mangakas and producers forget that they can't go out in sunlight and that exists pretty good ways to kill vampires.

Somehow, the vampires in anime/manga are ALWAYS too strong to the world bear they existence and there's too much romance to enjoy the mith. It's like they're humans, but they are dead and kill others to live. And this is SO ridiculous.

But Shiki is different. The ... vampires in this story are excellent. They're not humans anymore. Thay are selfish, evil and don't care about the ones who they left because they only want to eat. That's how the real vampires are and that's the reason I liked of this anime. Oh, and they can be killed like Buffy taught us, too, what is good because it looks like the old mith, but it's a little more modern.

The only problem is Megumi. That bitch needs to die.

I found Shiki to be a very un-original Anime. The plotline involves a small, isolated village that is faced with an epidemic of sorts during the summer due to some sort of paranormal/supernatural cause. Thing is, I've seen that plot with Higurashi. While it started in 2006, the series didn't really end until 2009. And then there is also Ookam Kakushi, which aired summer of 2010. It isn't even two years since these series end and we're faced with another of the same plotline, almost as if someone saw that these proved to be cash cows and decided to adapt Shiki for that particular reason.

And ... then we get into the whole vampire issue. I think to many people are jumping onto this Anime simply because it isn't Twilight and it isn't Vampire Knight, which have been concidered some of the poorer vampire storylines out there. However, this series is a far cry from Anime such as Hellsing, Vampire Hunter D and Blood Brothers, not to mention some of the other good, dark vampire classics in Anime that have their roots in Dracula. Even sola is better with it's 'our vampires are different". It simply doesn't have any charm to it, anything to make it stand out on its own.

Putting those two things aside, the plot is extremely slow. There is little action going on within the story. Not to mention, there is information overload. How does one keep the days straight? That in itself isnt' an easy task as the series progresses. Not to mention, there is tons of storyline that could have been chopped out, simplified. Of course, this is an adaptation of something else, so the fault in that lies in the original source, not the actual Anime adaptation.

One of the strong points is that a good deal of the characters have very fleshed out personalities. Unfortunatly, there are some problems with them being this good. The viewer isn't given long enough to get to really know and relate to the characters before they are even gone, either through death, or off screen time. The other problem, which relates to the previous one is, there are too many characters to keep track of. Truth be told, the same story could have been told with fewer characters put in here.

And then their is the artwork. I love the experimentation that the animators put in, but the thing with experimentation is, it doesn't always work. I know Anime hair is supposed to defy gravity, but some of the hair on females REALLY takes the cake, even more so then some of the really wierd hair cuts on some of the male characters from Asura Cryin'. While this does fit with the horror aspect of the show, some of it was taken overboard. Not to mention the light and dark sides of things don't mesh or blend well.

I'll admit though, the anime did happen to give me nightmares. Not the kind that causes you to wake up screaming, but the kind where you are restless and your dreams wonder. But... I wasn't watching this for the fear factor, I was watching for the storyline, which basically is no existant, at least through the first third of the storyline, which is all I am choosing to watch at this point. But I think the best thing to say is, don't get caught up in the hype that has resulted from people's frustrations with Twilight and such. The story... it simply can't compare to the greats in Vampire Anime.

Shiki was my first anime that is all about vampires and werewolves. If you are a vampire story enthusiast then you will like this one. Ja! Vampire enthusiast or not read my simple review so you can get an idea on how did I finish this one even though I am not into vampire stories.

Maybe at first you will hesitate to watch this one and I admit that I am one of them but for some reason I managed to finish the story and leave me "Amazed" and "Satisfied"

Ja! Let's start this one.

Art 7/10 : Art for location is really nice. Simple and very ... detailed. Art for Shiki is not totally good when it comes to its character. I can rate it as an above average only. Lines are too sharp especially on chins, and there are also some issues when it comes to colours. Especially when it comes to the "Risen" features. I've interpret this one as they were emphasizing the viewers on what is the difference between a normal person and a vampire. ( I think )
But, maybe behaviour and eye colours are enough to determine this.

Sound 8/10 : Sounds are really nice but still in an average tone. I've never encountered any issues when it comes BGM and SFX. Totally rhymes with the theme of the story.

Character 8/10 : I am really amazed with this part as handling a huge number of characters is not easy. Although Shiki has only "Four" main characters; the other characters are not generic and they had difference with each other when it comes to 1) Behaviour 2) Characteristics 3) Personality and 4) Traits.
Also I enjoyed the town atmosphere when elders are chatting outside their houses very typical. (Thumbs UP)

Enjoyment 9/10 : I am not a Twilight or Vampire enthusiast but I really enjoyed this one. The idea of the plot and the story is really impressive.

Overall 9/10 : Ending was really impressive.

Note : This review never intended to persuade or to please everybody. All of the words that you read are only based in my opinions.

Okay, lets try this again since my last review didn't go so well :p

I finished Shiki just recently and i was very pleased with it especially in the beginning. The exposition was suspenseful and exciting. I noticed some people didn't like the slow start, i guess it's preference because i seemed to enjoy the build up. There was a vast cast of characters, typically these characters would be cannon fodder or they would lack substance. The cast of Shiki was the opposite. The show made you care for the characters and developed them well. Dr. Ozaki specifically had an really good voice acting performance. There ... were one or two characters that were slightly annoying and came off as whiney, or were slightly underused, but saying this is nit picking. Now back to the story, there was a slow build up but it was necessary to introduce the large cast of characters, and to build tension and anticipation. It also acted as a hook to keep me wanting more. Also, it felt pretty grounded even though it's obvious fiction. The animation looked great, all the colors and designs were pretty and fun to look at. The first intro suited the series well and the second wasn't half bad. And the score for the series sounds really good and suits the anime well. The sounds are very eerie and dark which is good. The middle of the anime is the best in my opinion. For some reason the ending didn't set as well with me as i was expecting. There were some things that were left un answered and some characters i felt just died for no reason at all. But overall there weren't really any plot holes and the story was great all the way through. I liked how in the beginning there was a mystery element which was interesting. So overall this was a great anime, i'm gonna buy it on blue ray and i most definitley recommend this as a starter anime for those just getting into the genre like i am. Or i'd recommend it to anyone in general.

Hope this review was helpful (:

[Note: This review contains minor spoilers.]

To say that the vampire’s image is but a shadow of what it once was before the massive influx of “twilight vampires” would not be an inaccurate statement. Slowly but surely, vampire’s have turned from sexy, murderous beasts into little more than humans that sparkle with no fangs. However, there have been a few shows that have truly re-established the old dynasty and mystique of the vampires that people used to fear. I can confidently say that Shiki is one of these shows.

Shiki (or 屍鬼, if you prefer) is a suspense/horror show adapted from a novel that surrounds the town ... of Sotoba, a quiet town secluded away from the rest of the world. When a new family (known as the Kirishiki, ironically) moves in, people in the town mysteriously start getting sick, dying off, and otherwise disappearing when they shouldn’t. As the doctor of the town, Toshio Ozaki, begins to panic and look for a solution to the supposed mass outbreak of this ‘killer disease’, many of the other members of the town fear that something much more sinister than an epidemic is at hand. From here, we meet NatsunoYuuki, our main character who desperately searches for an answer as to why he keeps seeing a girl, Megumi Shimizu, who supposedly died. A Fair warning to those who do not like slow-paced stories: Shiki starts out very, very slow. The first 3-4 episodes are filled with the Exposition, and it can be tedious to watch, especially if you’re expecting something that hits the ground running, like Deathnote. Think Monster when watching this. The story moves to go at a slow, crushing pace, and each episode has eagerly had me awaiting the next as one mystery is solved, only for another to be introduced. Overall, the plot so far has kept me on the edge of my seat, and I can’t want to see the conclusion.

In terms of the characters, I would say they are the weakest aspect of Shiki. There are 20+ characters that play some important role in the show, and with a majority of them being introduced in the first couple episodes, it can often be hard to keep track of just who is who, or who they’re related to, or what exactly they’re trying to accomplish. Additionally, many of the characters are fairly two-dimensional. Natsuno is a typical male ‘ice-queen’ lead with a girl hopelessly in love with him, Seishin is a failure at life and completely useless (never seen that before), and there are many other characters that all act very predictably throughout the series. Not that this is a bad thing, as you can sometimes feel yourself rooting for a character to (not) do something, and yet they do it anyways. However, none of the characters seem very memorable aside from the insane (literally) Toshio, who I greatly enjoy watching.

As if a complete opposite, the music is one of the higher points in the show. The first OP, "Kuchizuke" (くちづけ) by Buck-Tick, is one of the better openings I’ve heard, and the lyrics are quite relevant to the show. The second OP, "Calendula Requiem" by kanon x kanon, is also an excellent opening, but weaker than the first. Neither of the ED’s are especially good, although they give off a nice ‘evil’ feeling for the end of the episodes.. The background music is fairly well done, and the strange, melodic chorus’ that Shiki features add a lot of depth to some of the scenes. While the music isn’t especially top notch, it makes sense, although I still would have preferred something a bit more involved with an orchestra.

The animation seems to fall in the middle of the pack. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible either. There have been a few times when I’ve noticed the animation getting a bit jittery, however there are not many action-packed or frame intensive scenes in the show, so it hasn’t really been a problem so far. The character designs also seem to be just okay (personally, I despise the long, lanky characters, but I know that many people enjoy them.) On the whole they aren’t inherently bad, and they fit the style that Shiki was aiming for. One thing that was very impressive were the eye designs. They range from interesting to downright creepy, and they make watching the show just that much more enjoyable. They’re also a key plot element, so pay attention.

While the show isn’t completed yet – Shiki is a very strong show based on the 17 episodes that have aired so far. If it keeps up the way it has been (and I plan to update this review when it finishes) Shiki may just be the best suspense show I’ve ever seen. It certainly rivals the ‘big’ suspense shows such as Deathnote and Monster, and I am eagerly awaiting the conclusion of this show, as it’s been one hell of a ride so far.

[To the Reviewers that didn’t find this helpful (or even if you did find it helpful) – feel free to drop a comment on my profile suggesting anything that I could improve upon.]

Ah, Shiki.

If you're willing to put up with a few plot holes, a large amount of rather graphic violence, and some strange stylistic flairs, then you're in for a real treat with this one.

This anime does something few other vampire stories manage to do these days: captivate you with the thrill of the genre. There is a mystery unfolding, a morally ambiguous danger in the air, and a whimsical sort of horror to it all that puts Shiki a cut above the rest.


- Story: 8 -

For the most part, Shiki's plot is very solid. There is a very strong impression of suspense that builds as ... you discover what exactly is going on in the secluded village of Sotoba. Unfortunately, towards the second third of the story, there are some glaring circumstances that seem almost inexplicable, which you may very well shout at as an observer of the whole scenario. It gets to the point where you really have to give the story some liberty, sadly.

That being said, stick around to watch the whole anime (including the 2 specials!) and you won't be disappointed. There is a subtle point to all the absurdities that do transpire, and it is worth absorbing in its entirety. I only wish it made just a touch more sense. But, it is about vampires, I suppose, so how real can it honestly get? Some ridiculousness seems necessary to make the more horrific parts more accessible, oddly enough.

Forgive Shiki of its sins. It recognizes its own fallibility as a fiction, and it often plays off that self-awareness by inviting us to accept the madness the story is all about. Just go with it, and you'll have a great time.


- Art: 9 -

The artwork in Shiki is quite pleasant, but at times, it feels a little less focused than what might be expected. Perhaps that's the point, though. There are moments of raw terror that are exquisitely well-illustrated, but those are occasionally mixed in with lightheartedness and almost comical facial designs. One truly impressive feat, however, which should not be overlooked by any means, is the fact that pretty much every single villager of Sotoba looks unique. The animators painstakingly took the time to create a genuinely new character in every single one of these people, including those that don't have any dialogue.

So, there's something to be said for the diversity of artistic style in the show. A few times, including a few hairstyles and color palettes, it feels jarringly juxtaposed into the horror atmosphere, but if you look past the beady-eye tears and the dyed hair, you will see a strong continuity of creative, stylized characters in a rich, grounded village setting. Some of the angles taken for the backgrounds are very well chosen, harnessing a certain degree of cinematic precision to the whole rigamarole, such as with the 'helicopter' overview of the village and its castle.


- Sound: 10 -

Shiki doesn't disappoint in the audio department. It should be noted I watched in dubbed English, and this happens to be one show you might want to watch dubbed. The VAs do a fantastic job, and each character feels original. A couple of voices are grating, but there is always a reason for it.

Besides voice acting, the sound effects are phenomenal and really on-point. The horror is amplified greatly by careful decisions to accent scenes with crisp, sometimes disturbingly real sounds.

There are a few musical tracks that repeat perhaps once or twice too often, but overall, the musical score for Shiki is also quite impressive. The tracks are always fitting and pull you further into the scenes. Additionally, for such vocal-heavy intros and outros (which I normally find off-putting), Shiki's opening and closing OSTs are rather catchy, and I was pleasantly surprised that I ended up watching them more often than not, since they seemed to build the excitement into and out of each episode quite well.


- Character: 10 -

This is the department in which Shiki really shines. As mentioned already, every character is visually unique and has their own personality. Even the old folks sitting on the bench in the first episode eventually have separate lines of thought established. There is a sentiment that builds around the structure of the show that, while watching it, one is embarking upon a journey to discover just what it is like to be a villager in Sotoba. At the same time, we also gradually learn to understand the Shiki as well, so that the two sides of the story are eventually clashing in the mind.

Some might argue that a few bad apples ruin the core of Shiki. However, if the show is given some liberty, it will not let down. It is well aware of the characters it is crafting, and it feels as passionately about the circumstances that transpire as its audience does. There is a deliberate effort being made to place the audience in the shoes of the main characters, such that we observers feel as emotionally involved as possible. If something disturbing happens to a character we like, be assured it was intentional. This is a classic horror in the sense that anyone and everyone is likely to be a victim, and there's no telling who will be sentenced next.


- Enjoyment: 9 -

Because of its shortcomings in terms of the plot, Shiki doesn't deserve a perfect score for entertainment. Sure, it's a gripping tale with lots of suspense, thrill, horror, and poignant moral dilemmas, but let's just say the second third of the show is a little bit of a letdown. Certain things happen that seem illogical, and it does take a little bit of a mental hurdle to excuse the rationale of some of the seemingly wiser characters. Some of the conclusions of the show actually get foreshadowed a little bit too early, and the logic behind some individuals only makes sense in the aftermath of it all. Again, sit tight and let it run its course, and Shiki will, without fail, be very entertaining.


- OVERALL: 9.2/10 -

As someone who rarely looks forward to the next inclusion of vampires in modern fiction storytelling, I went into watching the anime Shiki, or Corpse Demon, with very low expectations. I came out of it with a smirk and a head full of thoughts, happy to write my first review on MAL.

If you can excuse a bit of graphical intensity, give Shiki a shot. It delivers in full, and it lives up to the genre it seeks to redefine. It may cut a few corners, but honestly, it didn't mean to hurt anyone. If you forgive it for its forsaken ways, you might just let yourself get bitten. Enjoy!

The opening scene, in which a search party of villagers find in the woods the body of one of their own, a young girl, sets the tone for the 22-episode funeral that is Shiki. In terms of narrative, it breaks no new ground; a remote village is infested by vampires (not romanticized here as has been the trend in recent years, but portrayed once more as malevolent predators with whom the living cannot coexist) who kill the villagers one by one and replace them with their own kind.

It works through its cold-blooded commitment to its moribund atmosphere, existing in a perpetual state of grief for ... those already lost and those about to go. The cast is not the most nuanced or memorable, but it is good enough for the repeated tragedies to evoke more than apathy. They are normal people; few with any heroic strain, most unaware of why their parents, children, friends, neighbors and lovers are dying, their love for one another the only vigil against the night where the dead supplant the living and death supplants life.

The series is utterly enveloping in its sadness; from only a few episodes in I could not stop watching except to eat and sleep, and I ended up finishing the whole series within the span of 24 hours. My one major gripe with it is the fanservice. It is thankfully far from ubiquitous, but a few female characters are very unrealistically proportioned and when an especially dramatic scene (a few in the series' second half come to mind, but I can't go into details without spoiling things) has comically oversized breasts bouncing around it is about as distracting and inappropriate as a stripper at a funeral. I haven't read the novel series that served as the basis for this adaptation, but I'm guessing it didn't have this problem.

As the Sun sets below the mountain peaks, the rural village is masked completely in an inescapable darkness. Silent. Untouched. Tranquil. Unknown to them, the horrors that lurk outside, the villagers sleep on in blissful ignorance, as the creatures of the night gather in the confines of the woods. Darkness is broken; tranquilly smashed, to the sudden crimson red glow of eyes, illuminating the area with the red allure of blood. The Shiki have arrived for their next meal...

Horror and anime are rarely synonymous with one another, and, despite the medium barely producing anything horror related to begin with, the few horror titles that ... are out there don't exactly evoke fear in me. They either become unintentional comedies, such as in the case of Another, a show that took itself way too seriously, featuring the plot of a B-movie, while I laughed my ass off at every single stupid plot revelation and death (as I type these words, I feel more like a sociopath since I keep repeating the scene of the girl falling down a flight of stairs unto an umbrella, with it piercing her throat, as I chuckle to myself in amusement), or the character designs for the show are too distracting for me to take seriously and end up ruining the horror elements, such as in the Higurashi series. The only anime that has ever actually lulled me into a state of fear is Shiki, a show way back from 2010, and is one of the few vampire-esque anime I can think of that doesn't use their vampires for yaoi fanservice (although to be fair, Shiki does feature some hella pretty boys!) However, while excelling in the audio-visual department to create a genuinely creepy atmosphere, Shiki's narrative is less than stellar unfortunately, reducing it more so from a show with themes about morality in regards to the idea of survival and human instinct, to instead that of a campy B-movie, with a finale that is an absolute bloodbath, reminiscent of the level of gore found in 90s OVAs! Anyway, I've talked for too long now. Let's grab our stakes, our torches, and slaughter some Shiki!

During a particularly hot summer in a rural, isolated village in Japan, a young, 15-year-old girl dreams of a glamorous life in the city, free from the hardships that come from living in the countryside, until she mysteriously dies, causing a stir in the once quiet community. This subsequently triggers a series of mysterious deaths within the village, which just so happens to coincide with the arrival of a new family by the name of the Kirishikis (no surprise, that, from their name, this family are indeed the "Shiki", the family of vampires who have been indulging in the blood of the villagers). As this unknown epidemic begins to take more and more lives, the town's doctor slowly loses his own humanity in order to solve this mystery, and to discover the true intent behind the new family's arrival!

One can divide Shiki's narrative into three main arcs. The first arc in which the villagers attempt to learn what this epidemic actually is, and what is causing all of this death, mainly serving to slowly build tension and atmosphere, the second arc in which we see the Shiki transforming other people into vampires (or killing them, as the viewer learns that when bitten, some turn into Shiki themselves, or just simply die), and the battle between the humans and Shiki for survival right at the very end. While this concept does sound good paper, it's execution leaves a lot to be desired.

For starters, Shiki's pacing, especially at the beginning, is rather slow and tiresome, although the slow pacing can perhaps be argued as a positive element as it helps to build narrative tension, resulting in a rather fun payoff, and helps to create more mystery surrounding the Shiki themselves. Not only that, but the setting of the narrative complements this idea. Since it is set in a rural village, deep into the mountains, it creates a feeling of paranoia and isolation, which only grows more and more as the episodes go along, so the pacing is important in establishing atmosphere. However, the slower nature of the show always came across as more aggravating to me, than anything else, since many of the characters are stupid beyond belief! While the villagers originally believed that the cause of these deaths was that of Mosquito bites, it takes them a rather long time to figure out that Mostiquto bites do not come in pairs, nor are their bites always at the same distance from one another. Of course, I'm not expecting them to jump to the conclusion immediately that vampires are indeed behind this, since that seems rather far-fetched and silly to assume in reality, but the amount of time they spend on the Mosquito bite theory is truly annoying, since, we, as an audience, already know what is happening and just want the plot to actually go somewhere. The narrative attempts to try and hide the fact that the Shiki are vampires and slowly stretches out the answer, which, not only ruins any chance people may have of possibly re-watching the series since the revelation is so obvious, but it can also be rather tedious to watch. Hell, Stevie Wonder could have figured it out before these guys could!

Another problem the narrative faces is the sheer amount of characters introduced, and the lack of much time to flesh out anybody, making it hard to remember who is who. That's not to say that there aren't some decent characters, however. Take, for example, the doctor who I mentioned before, Ozaki, who is the only character actively trying to discover the secrets plaguing his village! Ozaki's transition of losing his humanity for the survival of the villagers is easily one of the most interesting parts of the show. We see him slowly transform from man to monster and this is handled well enough to never feel forced; the transition feels natural and well-paced taking its time throughout the duration of the early parts of the series as we see this man become more and more obsessed with finding the truth. As such, it makes for an interesting character study of a man's internal turmoils regarding ethics and survival. Another somewhat interesting character is the leader, so to speak, of the Shiki, a young girl (only in appearance mind you!) called Sunako, whose back-story was actually pretty interesting and was enough to somewhat justify why she acts the way she does, which helped me greatly in being able to sympathise with her and her struggles. Her character allows the viewer to understand the Shiki and their way of life, as well as the inherent hardships that come along with it. She brings attention the idea that the Shiki have no choice but to kill the humans for their survival otherwise risk being killed themselves, bringing forth interesting ideas about how ethics and morality change dependent on the context in which one views it from.

The rest of the cast, however, were just really unlikable, and I honestly didn't care if most of the cast survived or died. The worst example is a girl called Megumi, who I mentioned at the very start of the review, and was the first person to "die". I put die in inverted commas, because, even though she did technically die, she came back as a Shiki. While the other characters who do come back as such are played out in a tragic way, represented more so as victims of circumstance, and while Megumi falls under this to a certain extent, she takes active pleasure and delight in killing the humans with very little justification as to why she would do this, aside from, perhaps, because she had a crush on a guy who paid her no attention, as we are told in the fourth episode of the show. By the time she inevitably kicks the bucket, the show tries to convey it as a tragedy and expects us to feel sorry for this twat, which doesn't work since she had been such a horrible person the entire time. It's this sudden juxtaposition in victimisation that rubs me the wrong way and is present a lot in the show. Every time a character in Shiki does die, they expect me to be sad, through the use of victimising them, instead of actually building up a character I can care for; it feels more cheap and lazy if anything else.

It's hard to care about the tragedy in the narrative since most characters acted like idiots, and got what they deserved, with the humans killing their reborn loved ones, without any remorse or sympathy. The show tries to convey the idea of who the real monsters in the show actually are: the humans or the Shiki themselves, but since each bunch of characters are so unlikable, I didn't give a damn really. In order for this tragic story to work, we needed to have characters in which the audience could care about as actual people, instead of the cheap victimisation the show utilises to try and manipulate us into feeling something for these cardboard cut-outs. That's not to say that the show is completely devoid of emotion, however, since it is effective in one or two places. One such example is in the first episode of the Shiki OVA, but the scene was mostly enhanced by the music and voice acting than the actual writing itself. It's not as bad as some of the other moments in the show, like Megumi's final scene which uses cheap writing, since, in the OVA scene, Nao's character, a human turned Shiki, is given time for one to learn about her ordeals and regrets at being a Shiki, while being tormented by those in which she has killed out her hunger, which actually results in a very emotional moment. If the show had more scenes like this, it would have improved the overall.

As a spectacle, however, Shiki is entertaining as hell! The bloodbath at the end of the series is extremely entertaining to watch unfold and is pure blood-shed, fan-service in its purest form! Not only that, but the music and the atmosphere this show evokes is fantastic! Each track is eerily creepy or heart-wrenchingly sad, enhancing each scene wonderfully. My favourite tracks being "Day and Night", "SHI-KI" and "Requiem". The two openings end endings are also of a pretty high quality, with both openings representing their respective story arcs very well. As a fan of horror, Shiki was a treat to watch, and there were many scenes in the early parts of the series that were handled with a lot of care and made me feel genuinely frightened. The best example of such is the ending scene of episode four, where we see Megumi, now a Shiki, stalk her crush, one of the other main characters by the name of Yuuki, who is staying over at his friend's house. The scene builds tension perfectly, and, after both we and Yuuki let our guard down as we believe we are safe from Megumi, she appears from underneath the bed, sliding and twisting her body; the sounds of bones and joints clicking into place, her cold crimson red eyes staring directly at both us, and Yuki. Everything about the scene is intensely disturbing and creepy and has stayed as a vivid image in my subconscious for years to come, and there are many other scenes like this too! Visually, Shiki is consistent but also pretty bizarre in terms of its character designs, with each character having insanely strange hairdos; it feels pretty gothic-like, which is something I can always dig; it's like a romanticised version of Bram Stocker's classic novel.

When it comes down to it, Shiki is a fun show to watch due to the sheer amount of blood and death, while genuinely creating a horrific atmosphere all the while featuring an amazing original soundtrack. However, the script falters in many areas, unfortunately, and aside from maybe two or three characters, I didn't care for the rest of the cast at all. It's one of those shows you watch for the spectacle of it alone, rather than a well-written narrative or developed characters, and I certainly believe Shiki achieves its goal on that end. While its use of victimisation to make the audience feel for a character that hasn't been built up is not as bad as other shows I have talked about before, such as Elfen Lied, it does feel somewhat lazy and cheap to do so, but, despite all that, I still had fun watching the show, and I believe that's important. Shiki, to me at least, was fun! It's shlocky, sure, but watching Shiki, especially for the final third, is an incredibly enjoyable time, and for that, I'd recommend giving the show a shot!

OK Lion Tamers, we'll look at "Shiki"!

I decided to give this thing a look. And I think most people, who like suspense thrillers, might actually go for this thing.

I am usually quite picky about Vampire offerings, because people have done this thing to death (pun intended). More importantly, while almost every authorship has done Vampire stories (comics, novels, plays, movies, and now anime), what is worse is the slow evolution from the original rules for Vampires; a la Bram Stoker- to something where the original idea has begun to evolve into a completely new beast.

While even I have created a new type of Vampire from ... time to time, in fan-fiction; it is refreshing to find a story that actually sticks to most of the original rules of the game.

"Shiki" is such an offering. Even the characters offered share similar character types to the original Bram Stoker novel of Dracula; even though they carry different names, professions, and characteristics (on the surface), they fit the original places for each Bram Stoker character.

In Shiki:

Dracula is a little girl, Sunako Kirishiki

Renfield is a young teenager, Natsuno "Koide" Yuuki

Mina Harker is another teenager, Shimizu, Megumi

Doctor Van Helsing, Doctor Toshio Ozaki

The above is just a short list. You will find other characters that substitute for Bram Stoker archetypes as well. And some of you may differ on my selections. But I think you'll see where Shiki has parallels to Dracula, in characters, basic behaviors, actions, and finally the reactions of all players.

I found it very enjoyable to predict the next thing to happen, because the story is laid out (in general) so closely to Dracula. What a pleasure to see the town becoming less and less of itself; as Vampires increase in number pyramidically. It was even fun to watch, as Doctor Toshio Ozaki finally came to the conclusion that the only way out, was to apply a liberal dose of "... wooden stake through the heart ...", in an attempt to save his town. In the end, instead of a dose of Sunlight, the ultimate solution became a forest fire. Clever!

For those of you who like a dose of humor in your suspense thriller, you are out of luck. Shiki is entirely and totally camp (or in newer English, deadly deadpan serious). Think dialog from Godzilla, and you'll get the idea. This is not a bad thing, in fact it matches the tone intended by the makers, perfectly.

The dialog leads us through each scene, from one nasty piece of work to the next, extracting tension in ways that look innocent enough; but almost always has double meanings. Music is excellent, and fleshes out each scene and major event; always pregnant with expectation. The opening and closing music, while inappropriate at points, has lyrics that matches Shiki's story and intents (which is fairly rare, as the music is usually more important in most offerings, than the lyrics).

There are a few rough spots. Pacing is sometimes irregular, and there are times I do not understand some references that are plainly a Japanese intention (not being Japanese is a handicap for us Anglo's ).

But if you like traditional Vampire tales, you might truly enjoy Shiki. I give it a 7.

Am I the only one who thinks the whole "humans doing inhuman things" as really trite and cliche?

Well, if you think that this is an utterly original and deep idea, then I have the show for you: It's Shiki, where the vampires don't sparkle but do rival the Cullen's tendency toward being vanilla as hell.

Shiki's main praise seems to be that it isn't Twilight and it's more about traditional vampires. However, most of the people who say this have no knowledge about traditional vampires in the first place so you shouldn't put too much stock in that.

No, the switch midway through to the humans being ... the "bad guys" doesn't make this show intelligent. Perhaps if it was executed decently, you might be able to argue this but Shiki doesn't manage that.

Doctor Osai has been the most interesting and sympathetic character throughout the show and trying to paint him in a negative light doesn't work when the rest of the characters are pants-on-head retarded. Seriously, what the hell is the Monk even on about? How does Cain-and-Abel-are-one-and-the-same make any sense? What does that have to do with anything? The vampires are never fleshed out other than being either total douchebags or struggling vampires who don't want to kill but totally do anyways.

Oh, and the OPs suck. They fail at being scary or creating a mood or being halfway interesting.

Story: The series started out a bit slow, but it quickly picked up the pace and delved into what started to feel a bit like Higurashi. It has a similar atmosphere of mystery wrapped up in the cloak of a peaceful environment. However it became quickly and dully apparent what was killing the villagers and from this point deteriorated what feels like a very contrived form of despair. Most of the characters (and there a lot of them) seem to possess no real intelligence or logic and have very few realistic reactions to the events that keep occurring around them. This eventually infects the "main" ... characters and things go even further downhill from there. I wonder if these people have ever heard of a telephone?

Animation: The style in this is very unique, I have only seen it used in one other anime which I can't remember at the moment. I thought it was a bit weird at first but it kind of grew on me and I also appreciated the fact they disguised the characters so well. Rather than trying to make all the characters attractive as many anime do, there is a large variety of appearances to distinguish everyone. Ugly, fat, average, old, young, middle age, and a few good looking characters -- making it quite well balanced.

Sound: The music seems fitting for the setting and I have no complaints about the voice acting. Other than the fact a few people have awkward appearance / voice combinations.

Characters: As mentioned in the story section, the characters are very shallow. It seems like the creators purposely made them all stupid in order to allow the antagonists to rain free without any real thought or purpose.
Update: It seems the doctor in the village does possess some intelligence as well as strength of will, but he doesn't seem to want others to know what he does. It's like... oh I saw a guy with a axe walk by the window outside, but I shouldn't tell the others that are staying in the house... right.

Enjoyment: The story had some potential initially, but the mundane characters and progression are slowly destroying any enjoyment I may have had in the initial and very short lived mystery.
Update: The only mystery left is why in a town of 1300+ people no one has seen fit to tell anyone outside the town about the very bizarre events that have been taking place. Even diffusion of responsibility has it's limits, or perhaps I am overestimating the villagers? I suppose there is nothing strange about 6 members of my family suddenly dieing in a short period of time when they had no prior health problems.

Overall: If the story had been set about 100 years ago it would of probably been much better. Being based around modern times and people however, makes it absolutely horrendous due to a utter suspension of reality. The writer needs to take technology and education into consideration when trying to write about vampires in modern times. Particularly since the plot clumsily tries to deal with it, if they had outright ignore it as least the viewer wouldn't have been compelled to think about it.

I gave this series a 9/10 overall i find it to be quite amusing, this anime is filled with mystery/suspense and a good amount of horror which makes it amusing to watch at nights.

The story so far is about random deaths occurring within a small village which begins to alarm the local doctor into making an investigation. While some believe the deaths are due to an epidemic, a group of children begin to believe that the deaths are actually murders being pulled off my vampire type creatures.

There's a certain degree of information that I will have to keep to myself based on your decision of how much would you like to know about Shiki before going into it. But to properly review and describe most gripes I have with the series, I'll have to go really deep into the series. So I'll classify this review in parts. At the start there will be no spoilers and I'll explain beforehand why that is.

To sum up everything I'll say:
- As a mystery it won't work because what is happening is revealed in the fourth episode. Also because the series is really easy ... to spoil on the whole mystery aspect
- As a thriller the series has too much momentum and while it takes its time to get where it gets, it never focuses on things in the same way a slow paced thriller would, making sure you understand every possible viewpoint beforehand.
- As a drama, it plainly doesn't work, because the characters are impractical in their action, their sense of morality is almost cartoonish, and any semblance of competence in the writing gets fucked by the end.
- As a horror, it's a bit more subjective, but I wasn't really actually scared and thought that it felt more edgy than disturbing. Blood, disturbing imagery and some gore. Not really anything lacking outside of the horror genre. It's just amplified.

Now very important, if you want to go completely blind into Shiki, you should really avoid reading anything about it on its MAL page, and I do really mean everything. There's really high odds that if you visit the page for Shiki that you will know exactly what the mystery aspect of it entails, and will then have little to no appreciation for it from that side of things. It doesn't last a really long while, and by the 3rd to 4th episode, you can probably figure out exactly what is going on your own, even if you barely paid attention, point at which the mystery is revealed. But it does put some focus on it early. I wouldn't value Shiki as a mystery anime personally, as it isn't designed with that goal in mind.

And let me warn you that you shouldn't really treat this anime as a thriller either. A thriller builds suspense and doesn't really have momentum, as it will progress slowly and let you take in the whole situation from every important perspective you could go for. However, this anime keeps running forward with the essential of what you need and never really takes a break. If you dislike or enjoy thrillers, make of this what you will.

Now let me give you a rundown on the things you CAN know beforehand and still maintain the mystery intact, by giving you the same level of information the characters know collectively. There's an epidemic that makes characters die of anemia, that presents with very mild symptoms early. The characters start acting strange upon contracting the symptoms as they will sabotage themselves from getting treatment for it. The anime focuses on how the village tackles this new disease and what decisions they make from a moral standpoint to tackle said disease.

Now at the point in the anime where the mystery is alive and the audience wasn't confirmed on any of their suspicions, the anime is a little campy, but is otherwise fine. It does seem tropey, with characters making stupid decisions such as not contacting the government about the epidemic or getting any autopsies, which is a common horror thing, where the characters are like, yeah, we can deal with this. Besides their decisions, some of the characters that have focus put on them are appalling to say the least. One of the main characters we have is an edgelord that wants to avoid having friends and leave the place he lives because he hates the country side. He doesn't want any sort of attention, doesn't seem to like anything, but somehow he seems to be widely liked by most people he goes into contact with. His name is Yuki. And this Yuki also has a Yuno, a pink haired stalker that also hates where she lives because people don't like fashion and has a crush on him mostly because he's from the city, probably. There's also a priest that can't say no to lolies and wanted to kill himself once, and some doctor that is a doctor and a bestfriend type character who's personality is that he's your best friend. There isn't really much depth to the characters, some would classify this anime as horror. I wouldn't, I would classify it as E D G E, but I can't detail it in this section quite accurately.

The nitty gritty is the fact that it deals a great deal with morality, on decisions that aren't exactly immoral since they mostly concern survival. There are degrees where people get really fucked up at points in terms of morals to a very ridiculous degree that it becomes hilarious and tragic at the same time. But again I can't detail this due to spoilers.

If you want to watch the anime for the mystery aspect of it, I need you to be aware of the fact that it is short lived and it doesn't really last for a very long period of the anime. You will understand what's happening before the characters do. The mystery should be somewhat interesting but the overarching story details revolve on you knowing exactly what's going on, so the story doesn't truly start until you learn what is going on. The mystery is merely the set up, and that is all I can give you thus far, with some details about who the characters were. It's merely the setup, there isn't really anything wrong with the setup, and outside everyone's reluctance and stupidity of not wanting to accept outside help, there isn't anything wrong with the anime at this point, unless, like me, you'd think the characters are cardboard. I don't think this anime would be a good choice for you as a mystery, as it is merely there to add spice to what is going on in the story at that moment. And besides that, it isn't something hard to figure out, as there are enough details to figure out what's actually happening in the first few episodes, and very shortly after, the jig is up. If the air of mystery is what you demand in this story, stop reading after this paragraph, as you know the essential information you need about the early story, and I've already said my piece on whether or not the mystery part is essential. My recommendation is avoid Shiki if the mystery aspect is the most quintessential part of the story for you since it's shortlived.

• From this point on, I'll talk about details after the mystery. (contains non-plot specific spoilers)

Ok, now that I can speak more freely, the story is about a bunch of vampires trying to suck off all the villagers, so they could turn the village into their nest. Progressively, we learn more details about how they work and what is happening overall, and the series focuses on the struggles of the doctor and the guy that I said displays only edginess and is rewarded only affection. Now until the point there are flaws on how the world of the anime treat everything. The government somehow didn't notice a major spike in deaths despite death certificates being made, and although there is an explanation done later for that, it doesn't solve the problem before it started being one. There are also lack of autopsies done on the corpses of these people like that isn't even a choice, and was only brought up once and refused. You see, one way the series tries to justify it, is that vampires have a hypnotic effect on the people they end up biting. However, this hypnotic effect only works on who they have had bitten, and they haven't bitten the family members or the remaining people who wouldn't even have a say in the matter, especially if they were the last person in that family to die. The village also tries to claim that they can't really communicate with the government anymore, at some point, but all you have to do is use a car and fuck off, or maybe use a fucking phone. You can still get help from the outside. And if they chose to, this whole story would've been very different. The plot really goes through hurdles to try and justify why it is still going in the direction it is going, because the vampires wouldn't have a convenient setup. And there is one point where one of the characters says "I'm sorry x, but we can't think that way due to modern rationalism." which is the most artificial way to present disbelief ever. That's the same as making a character say "that person is no longer capable of placing one foot in front of the other in a repeated fashion in over to travel large distances in a fast motion" when they notice a guy got tired of running.

In terms of writing the series has a few positives but eventually the series devolves into a cynical outlook on human cruelty, which I can't give much details on because that goes into late game spoilers. But it mostly stems out of the fact that is it immoral that they kill to eat? But when you really think about it, the series asks whether or not it is right to kill to survive? But you can see it is impossible to survive without killing by simply drinking a glass of blood, which is given as a choice. You see, the show is very hypocritical of the humans, but very lenient on the vampires, even if some of them act like serial killers that pick only a type of person they suck blood from sadistically, having a specific MO of killing. If you went to hunt, and shot a deer, and as it lay there dying and scared, you should proceed to stomp the fuck out of it rather than mercy kill it, you're a fucking dickbag. A lot of the vampires act exactly like that and the series treats human as needlessly cruel and the vampires as an endangered species at points, being really forgiving of the cruel acts done by the vampires and very lenient of the "misdeeds" of the humans. This will somehow get worse at one point, but I can't go into detail then, where neither side will be remotely believable anymore. There are still some decent moments that do deal with morality, which is why I claim that the cruelty in it is very cynical, it's not that I think the writer is incapable, but rather that he was terribly cynical and has forsaken the possible nuance the characters could have.

Any depth they could have was done over with the simplfication of how unconflicted they would be in morally grey situations. Which wasn't the case for the entirety of the series and there are some characters that still have some duality to who they are, even by the end, but they are few and far between and most characters act cartoonishly and very simplistic. Basically they're a collective conciousness. Which completely fucks everything, because the moral dillema the series poses becomes very flawed. It's not that you should root for both sides, neither side, one side or the other. It's that you can't be in the moral highground if you do for either. It's that the sides aren't consistent to what they want and act against their own moral preachings and don't think practically to any degree. Anyway, this is as far as I will go about morality. I can only be vague as to spoil you and have merely given you a clue about the direction the series will take through this. I'd talk about a few characters that succeed as an arc, but those are the good part of the series that I'd rather you go on with them unspoiled.

If you can tackle the problems I've described with the series going in, then you should be safe. But in my case, not only were the characters impractical, but they also became wildly irrational, and I ended up disagreeing with everyone's sense of morality. And this made it feel really edge. Horrifying for the point of being horrifying. Cruel for the sake of being cruel. This whole situation they've been through could be solvable in a wild variety of ways that could've solved things for everyone. The events were avoidable and the characters were unbearable. The story simply became unsatisfying and just some animated gore and some disturbing visuals aren't enough to horrify or entertain me. I could describe what exactly the moral dillema was, but that's a spoiler so I'm sorry if I'm being vague, bbut I will give more details later in the review if you decide you are willing to sit through more spoilery information or just have given up on the idea of watching the series.

You see, I think you should watch this show if you really want to see edge, because it's filled to the brim with it. The main character is edgy, the moral dillemas are often edgy. And it gets ridiculously so after a certain point. Even so, it will take a long time to get to metallingus edgimus maximus, and will even have some good questionable grey morality outlines at some points, even if the edge will be constantly present, but don't worry, those get largely overshadowed by the end of the series. It is filled with convenient actions and consequences that feel shoehorned in. I don't advice to watch this series, as a thriller, as a drama or as a mystery but rather as an edgy vampire romp. It doesn't remotely excel in any of the things it sets out to do, and even if there are some elements that almost get there, but due to that, it might get really fun to watch because of how atrocious everything gets. Everything gets terribly written by the end, and as such, seeing everything crumble into a terrible edgefest might be what you will enjoy. The edgeparty is what will happen, but it will take its time to get there, so keep that in mind. If you want any more information, past what I've already given, you can continue reading this review, to understand what my exact problem is with the morality of the show, since you can understand how I see things as incoveniences and how I found the characters appalling due to their traits in the first part of the review. Don't read past this paragraph if you want to avoid plot specific spoilers as I will go all in & make your choice on whether to watch or avoid this series on whether or not you can enjoy hardcore edgy vampire melodrama.

• How the endgame gets fucked up (Full on plot specific spoilers from the ending of the anime and its course)

So, at the end of the anime, the doctor manages to prove that a vampire is a vampire and they end up killing said vampire and the villagers start a purge on them. Now the vampires and the anime itself start arguing that the villagers are evil because, unlike the vampires, they don't kill just to feed themselves, when you can simply just make the argument they are killing them so they can survive, since they were their food. If a boar kills you, when you are hunting them so you would have some food on your plate tonight, your family isn't gonna sue the boar to send it to jail because it did something immoral. It killed its hunter to survive. Same case scenario here. But note that the humans will not be without fault too. Because while they do kill the vampires because the situation kinda forces them to, they are extremely casual and horrific about it. The women will casually speak about how they are middle aged women as they are throwing piles of corpses. The men will attack any hypnotized people and kill them, despite the fact it isn't by their own choice that they take that course of action. They will throw away any morality they had and empathy.

And the vampires are just as annoying. Plenty of the vampires made the choice to kill sadistically and without thinking about how their victims would feel, and had no regard of whether or not they could establish a peaceful resolution. You see, there is a valid choice for a vampire to either drink blood from a glass, or suck blood from a human as an initiation right. So that is proof enough that they could probably drink blood from outside the human's body. So, if they chose, to accept blood samples from donors from the village or anywhere else in order to survive, they would have had no reason to kill. So they aren't killing in order to survive either. There are clear collaborators they could get that would be more than willing to help with the blood. Aside of that, there are vampires that do get sadistic pleasure out of their killings, and even choose an MO on who to kill, when and how and even have vendettas on certain people they used to know. And when they start acting in a manner where they are like, this is horrible and humans are horrible they become even more disgusting.

You see I sided with neither side because of each side's action. I could forgive incompetence from either side, but not lack of self awareness. Not feeling any sort of conflicting emotions when killing former acquaintances and relatives is something both sides are guilty of. They are both monsters. They don't have complex human emotions, they're just part of one sick twisted game that believes that is how these people would act in the given situation, without understanding how conflicted they could get in such a confrontation. That's why it became full on edge. Everyone on each side is a shitlord.

It is really the only thing I had left to explain. Now, as I've said formerly in the review, I'd just repeat myself, so choose wisely on whether or not to watch this series. It becomes a real edgefest at one point, and if you are looking for that, you can squeeze enjoyment out of it regardless how bad you may consider it. There's plenty of series I went into with that mindset, that I've ended up enjoying while being completely aware that are awful. If you have some of those examples yourselves, you might like Shiki despite the spoilers I gave. For me, it's far more dissapointing because Shiki had some potential to be a heavily flawed anime that still manages to be somewhat decent, but it doesn't, because it is simply far too cynical.

As for someone who is big on horror, thriller, slice of life, etc, I find this anime rather hard to watch. I knew a lot of people who have watched it & found it amazing, so I gave it a shot, & by the end of watching it I was disappointed. As much as I wanted to like it I just couldn't. The characters are really just annoying, poorly thought out, & sometimes even forgetable. The main character was too typical emo styled, & well I'm not going to lie I felt the only person who had any credibility was the doctor, who I felt ... was a badass, all the other characters just seamed too mellow or too typical. The story was decent I give it that but after a while it started to get real dragged out & over time you just stop caring, there were some fucked up moments I give it that, but the story was just that, decent, not great, but not the worst, the way it ended just made me upset because in the end you want to know more about what happened to the other villagers. But here is the thing, who really cares about this story, as to you don't know what the characters were like before the incident happened, or hell even after, so therefore you couldn't care for them due to lack of flashbacks & character development, you get small backstory on some characters but that's about it, I also hated how they didn't really make the main character seam like the main character until later in the story, the artist & writer threw tits into the first episode to seam to get people watching, & well it seamed to work.

The art was decent, but it seamed low budget for something that had done so well as it did, enjoyable but low budget, there wasn't much to complain about. The sound, as far as soundtrack it was good, seamed generic though, the Japanese dub was decent for what it was, much preferred to the English dub, which the English dub also sounded low budget, surprisingly Funimation didn't do a better job, the dub could have been better. I enjoyed the anime a little bit, but I doubt I will really go back to watch this anime,it just didn't leave a good taste in my mouth, maybe someone else will like this anime, but I didn't as much as I should have.

Throughout history, there are many myths and the topic that gets focused on the most is vampires and ghosts. These topics are controversial because they can’t be proven real, yet they can’t be proven false. There are documentations stating their existence, but most people would rather have firsthand experience to believe it. What led to this topic was the fear created by humans. We have a subconscious to think that supernatural events happen and we blame an oddity. Media however protrudes vampire is another essence. Vampires are seen as eerie monsters, but some may be seen in a different light such as romantically. A good ... example would be Twilight or Vampire Diaries for the Western media. An anime example would be Rosario Vampire or Vampire Knight. A manga example would be In Bura!. These are popular titles, yet they don’t show the true meaning of fear. What brought about these myths is the fear created by humans. Is it true to say that we don’t fear vampires and ghosts now?

I am a sucker for dark themes. I always enjoyed watching horror movies when I was young and would be frightened. It is the fear factor that made me watch it. I grew curious and soon attached to dark genres. What I do like about dark themes is that it shows what the author was thinking and how the director puts the story into place. Soon my attention was brought about to anime. I was suddenly in love with the vampire genre in anime. There have been many genres for vampire anime, but the best would probably be mystery and thriller. Shiki has the genre of thriller and mystery and I believed that it was brought out well throughout the anime. The plot started within the first episode and the suspense started growing.

The plot started off beautifully. It shows a young maiden that wants to achieve a dream that could never be reached. This is important because dreams are far from reality. Not only that, but we hope to achieve it. This is used to build up a bigger plot, the myth of deaths appearing in the village. This is pretty common when you see many people start dying suddenly in a small village. Not only that, but all the victims have two small marks. They were assumed insect bites…What is there to expect except superstitions.

As hell breaks loose in the village, what is the possible answer for the massive death toll? The only solution is vampires. What do you call people that died, but rose to life again? What do you call people that hide in daylight? What do you call people that feed on human blood? The only answer is a vampire. The aspect of vampire in Shiki is the fact that each villager is dying, yet some are turning into a vampire. Shiki means corpse demon, but then again, it fits to the questions I said before. Shall humanity fall into the hands of vampire? Of course not, we shall be the hunters, not hunted. We shall not cower in fear and we shall fight against. We have always been the dominant species. As we journey through hell, Shiki was an everlasting journey that brought happiness and sadness.

There are many other situations beside the main plot. Those small plots are well put and they do connect with the main plot. I would say that the more I watch this anime, the more intense it gets. It is very dark and I enjoy the aspect of it. Besides the dark scenario, what else can we have by a one sided love? The love is to an extent to stalking. I feel as if I have to keep my windows closed and have the shutters on. Hold up; let me turn on my night light too in case. Besides that, we also have a situation of seeing families corrupt and how to adapt to changes. It is truly a sad thing to watch, but I have seen much of it already. I felt that the anime took the right approach that humanity must do whatever it takes to retaliate.

The art style is alright. I wouldn’t say it is amazing, but if you look at it, the characters look extremely skinny for some reason. The hair styles are a bit weird, but some are fine. The colors are beautiful. I do love the color pink and they made Megumi look beautiful. Pink hair is just to kawaii. A bonus was that Megumi has twin tails. Megumi was the only character that I find favorable along with the doctor. Her character reminds me of Gasai Yuno from Mirai Nikki. You already know… “Yuuki-kun” in a kawaii voice. It also happens in this anime too. Now only if Megumi was a loli too… The eye colors are pretty too. The animation is pretty good. I have to give credit to the opening because the animation is high quality and well made. It wasn’t what I expected. The scenes were similar to those from a horror movie as the flashing, the camera angle and the fading.

The music is appropriate for this anime. The goal was to bring out suspense and was able to achieve it. I feel like the first opening is impactful. When you watch the first episode, you want to have a good impression. While I was watching the first opening for the first time, I was amazed. The lyrics are suitable and it does explain portray future thriller scenes. The first ending took a different approach. It is a slow pace song which is my type. It is beautiful in its own way. The vocalist’s voice is good. The piano is beautiful. I have always wanted to learn either piano or violin, but I didn’t have the effort to put in. This is my loss, but I still admire great musicians. The lyrics for the first ending are quite vague, but it brings back to the topic of dreams. If you recall, dreams are far from reality. We hope that one day we achieve it. The second opening was alright. The animation is superb, yet the lyrics were unrelated. The second ending was meh. The lyrics are good, but the animation is like half assed. The animation is good. The OST is slow paced. Slow paced shows the horror that is upcoming. Since this is also a mystery genre, you would want to hear some eerie sounds. The music was able to fit my expectations.

The characters are ordinary I would say. It isn’t like those characters that are perfectly made. First off, I would like to say that almost every character in this anime is important. Even though they are not the center of the spotlight all the time, they will have an impact on this show. The show starts off with a dark aura so there would be misfortune everywhere. There are antagonists, but I don’t think I should cover it. It would be pretty confusing if I were to explain the aspects of the antagonists. I believe the protagonists contributed more to the story rather than the antagonists. There are four main characters that the story relies on. Each character is an important factor because we see the story with their views. One of the main characters is Natsuno Yuuki. He was forced to live in a village and felt that he was out of placed. Due to this, he develops a cold behavior and tries to avoid anyone who gets close to him. We also have Toshio Ozaki. He is the doctor of the village and has to deal with all the cases of death. I would have to say that his character is the one that brought about the fear. Ozaki couldn’t discover the causes of these deaths and blamed the fact that there are vampires. There is no solid proof… but the village is filled with fear.

If you like gripping onto horror, Shiki is for you. I honestly thought there was no ‘scary’ anime at all. I was told Another was scary, but it was alright. I wasn’t terrified as much when I saw Shiki. The expressions the character had was true fear. I couldn’t think, but the animations, the lighting and the disturbed radio waves… It was just too good of an anime. Another aspect I like about Shiki is the creative titles. They are pretty good and I enjoy the title scene. If you are interested in Shiki, you should watch Another or Hellsing Ultimate. Another is another great anime that shows thriller and mystery combined. Hellsing Ultimate shows the true power of vampires. Hellsing ultimate however takes more into the action genre rather than vampires and thriller. Though, they are both well made and should get a spotlight. Also, before you watch Shiki, it is very gruesome. If you are a light hearted person, you should stop and go find some pictures of cute puppies. This anime is for those who wants to see despair. I have always questioned the fact that humans won’t survive till the end. After seeing Shiki, will humans still be the dominant species?

NOTE: I write this review out of sheer enthusiasm for the series, which I watched pretty recently and eventually became one of my favourites.

Story: 7
Vampires try to take over an entire village. OK.
Not an original story taking into account the trend back then, but still the evolution of it tried to make it one. The story is not just gore or about how cool vampires are, but about humans and vamps try to eliminate each other.

Well, try and think how possible would be for you to convince your fellow humans that monsters exist in order to save yourself as well as them. Tricky ... huh? And this would be only the 1/100 of what it would take to just stay alive...That's what I call 'on the edge of one's seat'.

Art: 6
The most contradictory part. Well, to tell the truth, I didn't like it much. It was too kitsch for me. Also it was inconsistent - the nurse friend of Ritsuko was like a character from 'Perfect Blue' despite most of the characters looked like the average anime. Yes, some of the characters' hair and clothes were plain rediculus, BUT I did not hate it for that - try to make a character out of an entire village distinguishable without overdoing it in the design of him/her and I will call you a genius! The artist(s) did what they could do about it and I don't blame them for that.

Sound: 9
OT and ET fitted nicely, but I was completely taken by the rest of the OST. Orchestral music at its best.

Character: 8
All characters displayed consistency. Given that everyone that played a significant part to the story had to be distinct, some aspects were exaggerated. That's what made the viewer sympathize with them though.

*SPOILER*
The only non-consistant character was Tatsumi. At first he was a no-brain sadist and at the end, he showed such tenderness towards Sunako. And then when asked from Muroi why he was serving her he gave a surprisingly sophisticated reply. I mean seriously?
*END OF SPOILER*

Enjoyment: 10
I really really really enjoyed Shiki. Really. I couldn't stop myself from watching many episodes in the row every day and believe me I don't have much spare time on the weekdays. It was utterly suspensefull. Not to mention that after the end of the series I had a fucked up mind for 3 days.

Overall: 9
Maybe it is one of my favourite anime, but I can't overlook its flaws. The story had holes. Personally, I couldn't get the 'kind' and 'justified' part of vampires that the series tried to communicate - I just wanted them to disappear as they should - but that's another extended conversation. Nevertheless, it was amazing for me. I hope you 'll enjoy it as much as me if you plan to watch it.

Shiki is one of the most surprisingly good animes that I've watched. Definitely one of the few outstanding ones out of all the "good" ones. It is gripping, intense, exciting, deep, but the number one thing that stands out of it all - it is incredibly REALISTIC. And realism is something most animes, especially animes that have vampires and other mythical creatures in them, fall short of.

TL:DR

Story: 9/10
Art: 6/10
Sound: 6/10
Character: 8/10
Enjoyment: 9/10
Overall: 8/10
...
Good points:
+Very good allusion and foreshadowing
+Suspenseful, exciting, thrilling
+Wide cast of multi-faceted and unique characters
+Very strong main protagonist
+Moral discourse on murder, death and survival
+Good second OP and ED themes
+Excellent background music
+Realistic reactions and plot line

Bad Points:
-Underwhelming resolution
-Bad first OP and ED themes
-Some repetitive episodes towards the middle
-Confusing set of antagonists

Story: 9/10

We start off in a secluded village that is quite isolated from the rest of the world. Megumi may have been a rather annoying, ignorant character, but her opinion on her own village helps to set the entire scene in the first episode. And of course, what happens at the end of the first episode just makes the audience want to watch more. And it's basically a horror roller coaster ride from there.

A seemingly wealthy family called the Kanemasa move into a house on top of the hill in the village, but everything is not quite what it seems. People start dying one by one, for reasons unknown, leaving the only village doctor, Ozaki, perplexed and most of all frustrated at both himself and at the situation. His other friend, Muroi, a temple monk, similarly is haunted by sadness and tragedy of all these deaths, and expresses his feelings in his literature.

As the story progresses, Ozaki learns about the true causes of these deaths in the village and vows to put an end to it. He learns about the true nature of the enemy through brutality, he essentially turns into a monster in order to learn about the monsters he is fighting. Then, after many tries, he convinces the remaining villagers to fight back against the vampiric race called "Shiki".

I absolutely loved the plot's overarching horror, and I thought that the show put across this suspense, terror and drama in an excellent fashion. You would usually expect the Shiki to have some form of special magical powers, they don't, under than the fact that they can turn other people into Shiki of their own, but even then, not at a 100% success rate (though this is rather ambiguous). The story maintains realism, and brings out natural reactions of both the Shiki and humans in the conflict that they are in.

There are humans who vow to kill Shiki no matter what, humans who feel like they shouldn't be killing things no matter what, there are also Shiki who feel that they are not wrong to kill humans to survive, and Shiki who vow not to kill humans no matter what. It's a comprehensive and complete picture about the idea of morality, of rules, of freedom, of what constitutes murder and a realistic discourse of right and wrong.

You have a father who kills his own son, a sister who kills her own brother, a man who kills his own wife, family members turn on each other, friends who end up killing each other... wait this essentially sounds like the story of Cain and Abel right? Brother on brother, son on father, this is EXACTLY what was alluded to during the discourse between Muroi and Sunako in the temple. So that's what it was about! The question is - what is the intention behind killing, and is killing ever justifiable? Sunako states "there is always a reason behind killing." She doesn't think killing for survival can be wrong, but if that's the case, does that make it right to kill? Most humans, even those that have converted into Shiki, act like they don't think so.

There are also several plot twists in the show relating to Ozaki's plan. The plot is completely compelling, exciting and exhilarating to watch. I did not give the plot a perfect score only because of the sub-par resolution at the end. There were some loose ends not completely tied up, such as the ultimate fate of the surviving villagers, or of Muroi, Ozaki, Sunako and of course, our favourite, Yuuki. And I thought that the ending episode felt abit rushed and not completely thought-out. Motoko's sudden urge to burn the whole of Yamairi seemed like a convenient way to explain the ending, in episode 21.5.

Still, the plot is definitely impressive. I would have given this anime an 8 for plot, but I actually noticed a detail that was good. I went to count all the number of times that Shiki were killed and I found that the numbers tally. (for more explanation, see below in "other comments")

Art: 6/10

Everywhere is just blood, blood, and blood. It's disgusting, gory and downright suits the horror theme best. The general mood of the art work is dark, gloomy and suspenseful, and that added a lot to the anime. The red eyes are everywhere, and so are those white fangs. It's even giving me the shivers. Animation wise, everything was quite smooth, it was pleasing to watch.

Sound: 6/10

I really disliked the first OP and ED. But I enjoyed hearing the second OP and ED. Also, throughout the show, suspense is built up and the sense of eerie dread is made clear through the carefully composed music, which, was probably quite repetitive, but still effective enough to bring across that dark tone to the anime.

Character: 8/10

There are so many characters in this show, that it is nearly impossible to develop them properly. But this anime has excelled in bringing out the back stories of so many characters, and so realistically that it's possible to empathize with every death of every important person who goes through a conversion into a Shiki. Their feelings are conveyed very clearly and their emotions hit you right to the core.

Even the character interactions are solid. Every personality is unique and stands for something in the anime. Nobody is just a "sheep" or a "follower". Most characters bear weight in this anime, whether they are main or supporting. In fact, I would say that this is one of the few anime which reduces the plot impact of the main cast and distributes them to rest of the supporting cast, and does it magnificently without diminishing the value of any of the main characters.

Favourite character? Definitely Ozaki, the main protagonist. He's smart, scientific and all, but he's also determined, willing to make sacrifices, has incredibly high tolerance for sadness and pain, and while he seems cold to some people, he is just incredibly focused at the task at hand. The amount of blood that appears on him increases drastically from episodes 16 onwards, because of all the Shiki-slaying that he's been doing. What a badass.

But he doesn't outshine the other characters, all of whom also have their awesome points. We have a crazy lunatic woman, and independent old lady who managed to uncover the secret of the Risen before many other people do. We have a bearded, muscular old man whose role in the entire anime is to scold people and punch them in the face, and generally be the tough guy. We also have the cast of werewolves, who are, in my opinion, much cooler than any of the Shiki.

The main downfall of the anime are the antagonists, who basically are just a confusing bunch of people. Also, we have the main antagonist, Sunako, who looks too innocent to be a main antagonist, and is instead just lamenting her sad existence as one rejected by God. Tatsumi looks more like the evil mastermind, but he isn't. There is Seishirou who ends up killing one of their own werewolves? Then there's also the scantily-dressed Chizuru whose main job is to seduce people for... fun? They are not convincingly evil in anyway, and they don't seem to have any real motivation for "survival", I thought that they survived well enough in that mansion of theirs and they honestly did not need to attack villagers to "survive". It was more like to "increase their brethren" but that was never brought out in the anime.

But it's' still a very balanced cast of characters, and I must say, a job well done!

Enjoyment: 9/10

I cannot give the anime a perfect score for enjoyment because there were honestly parts that tired me out. The beginning of the anime was very gripping, and so was the all-out war at the ending few episodes, but somewhere down the middle, it seemed as if the episodes were just repeating itself over and over again. There was a simple recipe: A person dies, some situation leads to that person dying is revealed, Ozaki is frustrated he can't save the person. And the "epidemic" carries on. This was essentially the main plot line of many episodes near the middle, and kept repeating itself. Perhaps it was to show Ozaki's persistence and determination, but I thought it went slightly overboard with detailing so many number of deaths in the village, and the constant "impending doom" effect.

Still, I really enjoyed all the suspense and horror that was just a recurring theme and tone throughout the anime. It never deviated from this theme even once. I was completely hooked to this anime start to end, and I basically finished watching this in two days. That was an exhilarating ride!

Overall: 8/10

This was one of the better animes I have seen in the recent months, and I would recommend it to all. Just don't watch it at night, or you might have some trouble sleeping. (NEVER invite people into your house!)


Other comments:
In episode 20, Ozaki stated that the villagers managed to kill exactly 20 Shiki. Tatsumi later explains to Sunako that they lost around 30% of their Shiki collaborates. A quick calculation leads to the conclusion that there were around 67 Shiki under their control before the purge broke out.

Following that, I counted every Shiki that died from episodes 20 onwards until the end, and the number indeed turned out to be 67. If you're interested, EP 20 - 20 kills, EP 20.5 - 33 kills, EP 21 - 13 kills, EP 22 - 1 kill, total to exactly 67 kills. Of course, there is some ambiguity about whether some of them were actually killed or not, but this leads to at most a discrepancy of (+-2). I was impressed by the mathematical detail to put into this, so bonus 1 point for that.

"Onegai", let me first ask for your indulgence if my writing it's not as accurate as I'd want; English is not my first language...
Bear in your mind that you may find some SPOILERS in this review!!!
I just wanna talk about the characters. I've never found that many bunch of numbskulls in all the time I've watched animes.

1. If you Know there are shiki/vampires in your village, make you a favor and don't go out at night; if you do, knowing that, carry at least with you some countermeasures like charms, crosses, Buddhas or whatever thing you may think that works against them.

2. Vampires ... needs to kill people in order to survive, therefore they are killers (I'd daresay murderers) Killing people, murder is not as a grey area as one the main characters (the moral one) thinks and this anime depicts; it's something very bad, a crime, a sin... Once said this, I don't understand why one of the main characters, the one that should how to deal with demons, defend these creatures on the basis that they are beings on their need of surviving. Idiot, their survival means the dead of humans, your kin!!! family, friends...
The conversations between the priest and the girl should be awarded as the most dangerous relativism pedant nonsense of the year...

3. If your best friend, brother/sister, parent... has turned into a vampire; remember that he/she is no longer your kin; don't let him/she suck your blood out of sympathy, it's most likely that you'll regret it in the end.

I thought that it was a serious anime when I started it, my mistake. My hopes for a mature story about vampires or demons, were turned down and flushed down to the privy by the author of this dumb light novel/manga/anime.

Vampires have been in the minds of people for centuries as myths first.. then books and movies.
Shiki is an anime that sees the concept of vampires through the prism of those legends which says more about it than productions simply made so they can sell rather than be enjoyed.

It starts off with a series of mysterious deaths in an isolated village that seed unrest in the hearts of the main characters that begin to act trying to find an explanation. Their conclusions trigger major changes in the plot that intensify the thrill and provide fuel for the psychological underlay.

Shiki provides a variety of sounds that ... intensify the atmosphere and can keep the audience on the edge even if they are clueless morons. For such tasks there are haunting hymns, peculiar bits of modern music.

Since the first episodes a great deal of characters are presented ,which have their moral portraits clearly defined, that receive screen time untill the end which is something unique considering that modern productions focus more on the protagonists.

The reason why I really liked Shiki wasn't because of the story or the gory scenes but because it actually poses pertinent questions for the viewer to ponder unlike some productions that are meant to be flashy and simply poke you in the eye.

Overall if you enjoy an anime that has a good degree of philosophical questions or simply has something that makes you ask yourself questions then Shiki would be a wise choice.