Shikabane Hime: Aka (Corpse Princess: Aka)

Living at a shrine with other orphans, Ouri Kagami is no stranger to corpses. But when he sees the patron of his orphanage, Keisei Tagami, seemingly revive the scarred corpse of schoolgirl Makina Hoshimura, he cannot help but feel incredibly shocked.

Intrigued by the mysterious circumstances surrounding Makina, he learns that she is a Shikabane Hime—an undead being tasked with eliminating others like her who pose a threat to society. As Ouri goes about his daily life, his inexplicable run-ins with her are shrouded in abnormality. But as each encounter grows more intense, the two are brought closer together, and it may be their intertwining fates that hold the key to unveiling the secrets behind the world of Shikabanes.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Adaptation:	Shikabane Hime
Sequel:	Shikabane Hime: Kuro

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Characters & Voice Actors

Hoshimura, Makina

Main

Akiyama, Nana
Japanese

Tagami, Keisei

Main

Fujiwara, Keiji
Japanese

Kagami, Ouri

Main

Hasome, Tatsuya
Japanese

Ruo, Minai

Supporting

Hirata, Yuka
Japanese

Hokuto

Supporting

Fujimura, Chika
Japanese

Hazama

Supporting

Ookawa, Tooru
Japanese

Touka, Akira

Supporting

Yuuki, Aoi
Japanese

Kuroneko

Supporting

Horie, Yui
Japanese

Yamagami, Itsuki

Supporting

Nakamura, Chise
Japanese

Sougi, Takamasa

Supporting

Kawashima, Tokuyoshi
Japanese

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Cook, Justin

Producer

Yamaga, Hiroyuki

Producer

Murata, Masahiko

Director

Mima, Masafumi

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

"Beautiful fighter" by angela

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Ending Theme

	1: "My story" by angela (eps 1-3, 5-12)
	2: "The Pale Sands of the Sleeping Star (眠れる星の蒼い砂)" by Mayumi Iizuka (eps 4)
	3: "Beginning" by angela (eps 13)

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Dec 25, 2008

wakka9ca

Recommended

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 ...

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Jan 31, 2009

ManU-Alchemist

Recommended

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 ...

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Jun 17, 2011

NeverKnowsBest26

Recommended

Shikabane Hime is a action horror hybrid from Gainax. It centers around undead girls who are given a chance to enter heaven if they fight and kill other undead. Equal parts exhilarating and disturbing, Shikabane Hime feels like a shounen with heavy horror undertones. This combination is what makes the show worth watching, especially in its later stages, despite its numerous shortcomings. Just for the record, this review covers both seasons: Aka and Kuro.

Shikabane are monsters born of strong regrets a person might have when they die. Ageless, powerful, and bearing an animosity towards the living, shikabane are a threat to mankind. The only line ... of defense against them is the Kougun Sect, who employ the use of undead girls, called shikabane hime, to eliminate shikabane under the supervision of a contracted monk. If a shikabane hime is able to kill 108 shikabane, then they can enter into heaven. Makina Hoshimura is a shikabane hime with a vendetta and a strong bond with her contracted monk, Keisei Kagami. However, things begin to unhinge when Keisei's adopted younger brother, Ouri, becomes involved in the secret battle between shikabane and the Kougun Sect; a battle neither Keisei nor Makina want him to be involved with.

The show starts off with an episodic "monster of the week" type deal. These opening episodes are in the same vein as Vampire Princess Miyu (the TV anime, not OVA), with our heroin hunting down and destroying shikabane; just done much better than Vampire Princess Miyu, namely because of the more exciting fights. At the same time, the show follows Ouri as he slowly finds out about shikabane and the Kougun Sect. These episodes are the show's weakest because while the fights are all good, the scenarios are hit-or-miss, and time with Ouri is usually dull. Luckily, the show starts getting better mid-way through the first season, when Ouri gets deeply involved with one shikabane hime, having tragic consequences. Characters get some god character development: Ouri struggles with the fact that shikabane hime are dead, Keisei laments Ouri's increasing involvement with shikabane, and Makina's reasons for being a shikabane hime and past with Keisie are relieved. All the while, the viewer is treated to more grotesque scenes of horror and gleefully violent action sequences. Near the end of the first season the main antagonists, a group of shikabane called the Seven Stars (because there are seven of them), appear and aline with the previously introduced Traitor Monk Akasha. In retrospect, I wonder why they didn't do this earlier in the series, as it would have made the show more evenly paced.

The second season, Kuro, moves at a break-neck speed compared to the first. It is so overstuffed with twists and plot revelations, there is no doubt the show as a whole could have been paced better. Still, it can't be accused of being boring. There is a certain shounen-esque excitement to having a villain league like the Seven Stars in the fray.It is fun to watch Makina take them on one at a time. There is also a lot more drama in this season, mainly concerning Makina and Ouri, which is pretty good; but also some drama involving minor characters which really doesn't go anywhere, just adding more fluff to the already cramped running time.

One thing the show definitely could have handled better was its themes. The show deals a lot with death and regret, but scarcely actually explores them. There are a few occasions where it does, like at the end of both seasons, but for the most part the concepts of death and regret are thrown around like "friendship" and "courage" are in a typical shounen. There is also the issue of the relationship between shikabane hime and their contracted monks, which is somewhat like the Fratello in Gunslinger Girl (except including complications of having more matured bodies...), but handled far less maturely. Their relationships range from being as complex as the one between Makina and Keisei (and Ouri), to as simplistic and one dimensional as the one between Saki and Rika. One particularly nasty one is Minai and Itsaki, which is the equivalence of Jean and Rico from Gunslinger Girl, unfortunately does not get enough development (even though an extra episode was dedicated to them).

As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, this is from Gainax, which means it is going to at least look decent. The show goes for a dark look, even with the vivid color pallet found in most Gainax series, with shading which borders on unnatural but still suits the show well. Backgrounds are fairly well designed and characters have that certain cartoon-ish expressiveness you will usually find in a Gainax work; the shikabane are a bizarre looking bunch. There is also the copious amount of fan service we've come to expect from Gainax as of late. The animation is for the most part solid, a bit of spottiness here and there but nothing to complain about; the action scenes are treated well. The music does its job of controlling the atmosphere, especially during the tense moments, but honestly you are just not going to remember it. Not the best of Gainax's projects, but certainly not bad at all.

Taken as an action horror, Shikabane Hime is a decent show. It doess have some major problems with its themes and pacing, which are honestly kind of a mess. However, if you are in the mood for violence, disturbing imagery, and maybe even some solid drama, then you might want to give Shikabane Hime a try.

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