Shiki

Shiki is, in summary, an anime filled with potential but ruined by execution.

Story: 8
The story the best thing about this anime. Shiki displays vampires in a refreshing way that cleanses my palate of the abomination that is Twilight and other similar sparkly vampires that have suffused mainstream media lately. The potential for the plot was definitely there with the mystery and supernatural elements reeling me in.

Art: 7
Standard colorful, spiky haired anime characters with decent design on the faces. Overall, I thought the art was classic anime fare, but without anything particularly distinguishable. That is to say, it wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. ... Just kind of... meh.

Sound: 8
I enjoyed the music in this actually. It definitely captured the horror setting and they matched the music with the scenes fairly well, leading to some good ole goosebumps every now and then. It was fitting and it sounded good. So no complaints here.

Character: 3
Now this. This is what completely ruins this story for me. The characters in this show were thoroughly unlikable. This presents a major problem because of the story's goal of forcing the viewer to ask the question "Who is right?"
But instead of being in contemplative mental torment due to the moral ambiguity of the story, I was left completely apathetic by the end of it all. There were two sides to potentially root for, but both failed to provide an emotional connection. The Shiki's were supposed to be pitiful slaves to their natural urges who you would sympathize with due to their individual internal conflicts. Instead, due to the piss poor depictions in the show, they come across as psychopathic murderers that take great pleasure in their systematic mass slaughter of the inhabitants of the village. The only Shikis who I felt even slightly sympathetic for were Richan and Tohru. But that wasn't nearly enough. Especially with filth like Megumi, Chizuru, and Tatsumi running around. The villagers, on the other hand, were equally disgusting. They reacted completely contrary to my expectations after watching those god-awful funeral ceremonies in the funeral home. They were a little surprised, but there wasn't nearly enough outrage at all. Furthermore, some of the villagers were repulsive before they even became Shiki, like Masao. Most importantly, however, they're a barbaric, cruel group of people. The fact that they murdered innocent people near the end of the show and called it a just cause made me give zero shits about all of the gruesome things that happened to them over the course of the series. Still, at least Kaori and Akira didn't make me hate them. They were pretty okay.

Enjoyment: 3
Due the previously mentioned issues, my enjoyment was greatly hampered. Characters are extremely important to me and without properly developed characters, no matter how great the setting and plot are I'm going to end up hating a show. Besides. The ending was absolutely awful. I was honestly hoping most of the villagers would die in the forest fire at the end of the show. And the priest and Sunako lived? Why? The little girl (who I treat as a woman due to her established age) is a mass murderer. With zero sympathy for her victims. She engages in some bullshit pseudo-philosophical tirade every time you see her and never displays any care for all of the horrible events she has set in mention. But when the old bastard is about to kill her, she actually has the gall to attempt to evoke sympathy by acting all meek and scared. Fuck no. After all the disgusting things she did and caused to happen I had zero sympathy. In fact, if I saw that stake go through her heart, I probably would have rated this series a point higher. Speaking of extra points, I would have given another one if that repressed pedophiliac subhuman priest died too. He actually joined the Shiki after all the disgusting things they did. He, for some reason, felt that they were pitiful creatures after all of the slaughter they engaged in. Well, maybe they would have been if they were a little more guilty, but after seeing countless smiling shiki sending people off to the grave over the course of the series, I had no pity at all. Besides, why would he even listen to that bullshit Sunako spewed. All creatures wish to live? Death is impartial? Oh please. If that's true, Mr. Priest, then you shouldn't be so judgmental about the humans who are trying to protect themselves from creatures who live only through the murder of humans. So it's okay if the shiki kill off all the villagers, but when the villagers, who our subhuman priest has known all this time, kill the shiki to protect themselves it's cruel and evil? Spare me. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. Tsk. Can't believe that asshole actually lived.

Conclusion:
Don't watch this if you don't want to pull your hair out. Story seems cool, but the miserable execution and shitty ending completely ruined any potential that was previously present at the beginning.

It was a major uproar when they started talking about the anime, saying he was good, deep, with a great plot, and such, but it is not so.
Shiki is understood a long, monotonous and boring anime, it's amazing how many say that this anime is a masterpiece, which he is not, it's pimp, is weak, very poorly done.

The entire anime I tried to find something that would change his mind after his image, but even that could, Shiki made me almost want to stop seeing him, contributing to this was nothing less than its plot, characters and pace, is painful watch the anime you get ... face of boredom and want to stop to see, the characters are horrible, very poorly done without charisma and without an underlying hint of emotion, and it frustrates, and when I say that frustrates even frustrated. The other problem is the pace, he goes slow, remains slow and ends slow, it's amazing how even the action parts give no emotion and no deaths have an impact do you surprised or feel sorry character, the only thing I want is to end soon and fast.

Not that I think Shiki is all bad, on the contrary it could have been better if they had worked more, but wasting a good potential is a little something foul, no content and that many find

I heard many great things about this anime without really spoiling it for myself. I read that it will mess you up, has great themes and is ab overall great horror..but man I was disappointed.

WARNING SPOILERS MAY BE MENTIONED I will try avoid anything ground breaking.


Story- 6

Here is where I was most disappointed. I can live without great art if the story is on point but I was promised the world and was left feeling flat. Having recently watched shinsekai yori I was looking at something similar something that would leave me cradling myself asking what just happened ?!

I think Shiki had ... a promising plot and tries to make the viewer understand both sides, but I feel this was left way too late and the overall plot didn't make me think deeply about morality, or the deeper themes, it felt kinda shallow to me despite what other reviews say.

There is a scene where a character has to do some awful things to his wife to prove a point let's say and it did captivate me but at the end it kinda felt like it was recorded for no reason really and instead goes the long way around to get the other villagers to understand him.

I just felt the story had a good potential and it does have its moment it isn't the worst thing ever don't get me wrong, I just think there was a lot of needless flapping about on the way, was kinda predictable and some of the actions felt pointless. Some scenes were pretty cool though just too few of the moments that left an impression for me.

Art 6

The art was decent , character design were either really simple or flamboyant as hell. Not much to say about it really I'll keep this section short.

Sound 7

I thought for the most part the osts were pretty good and the sounds used to build suspense was well done. Voice acting (watched subbed) was solid.

Character 6

So you follow a character for the most part then he kinda dips , there's not much development to the main characters. Natsuko is your moody teen he was ok though I just wanted a bit more, when you thought ok we will see some developments, zilch but he wasn't awful.

The doc had some badass moments and there are some flamboyant characters who on the surface have interesting looks and personalities but not much comes from it again, they don't expand on it. There is a bit nearer to the end where it shows how a certain character was but is cut short.

There are 2 maybe 3 characters who have some sort of good qualities and interest me then there are a bunch of characters who just waste space.

Enjoyment 6

Same thing really.. I expected a lot more maybe this review seems harsh but I was promised a lot more. I never thought deeply about anything , I carried on watching thinking this big thing will happen that will mess my head up but nope, it was slightly captivating and again I'm not saying that it is horrible. But no I will not be rewatching this again like others have.

This show is kind of like a mediocre adaptation of an early Stephen King book. It has a very interesting and intriguing setup and a ton of characters with great potential, but it doesn't hit the mark quite right and ends up being a good horror anime, but nothing spectacular outside of that. The art isn't bad, but the design for the characters is pretty ugly and just weird looking (not just with the monsters, either). Most of the music is average, nondescript, but some just seem completely out of place. The three main characters range from mediocre, to good, to great. Most of the ... side characters are rather forgettable, but some stand out.

In terms of being scary, this show was at its strongest at the start before hitting a climax at the end; nothing out of the ordinary for horror. This is one of the few anime that are truly "horror" that I'd say is decent. It tries, and often hits, but some potentially creepy moments are ruined by the music.

I also just wanna say that I don't really recommend this show's English dub. It lacks emotion for many characters and has odd pronunciations for Japanese words.

Overall, if you want an anime that is different from the rest, give Shiki a shot, especially if you are a fan of classic horror. It isn't the best and doesn't always hit the mark, and avoid the English dub if you can, but it serves as one of the only true horror anime out there.

This review doesn't contain twilight references so don't worry

I have learned one thing after watching this anime.

You sure become fashionable after becoming a vampire lol.

When I stumbled upon this anime, I thought it would turn out to be another romance horror but I was glad and surprised that it didn’t. Though the anime itself has a unique concept, however I still think it failed to deliver.

Story:6/10
The story is extremely slow paced to say the least. You get the gist of what is happening/gonna happen in the starting episodes. It takes a fair bit of time to develop the tension and horror that it ... unfolds. What I like about this anime is the element of surprise. There were some twist and turns that kept me interested to watch.

Characters:3/10
The characters play an important role in one's liking or disliking an anime. For this anime, the characters are mostly unlikable and annoying. You feel no emotional attachment to any character. This is the main problem with this anime. I expected a lot more backstory of the kirishiki family and the origin of shiki. I still cannot comprehend why that bland monk was given so much screen time. I personally believe that there should not have been such a vast cast of characters.

Art:5/10
The art style itself is fairly unique. The village, surrounding areas and backgrounds are nicely done. The real concern is the character design. Almost every other had weird super Saiyan hair which felt a lot of out of place.

Sound: 6/10
I don’t usually care about this category as much as the others as I don’t listen to anime op/ed these days. The op/ed were ok. It was not something that I would listen over and over again, neither something that was so bad that would make my ears bleed. I liked the creepy mysterious music. It works well overall with the creepy tone of the anime.

Enjoyment: 6/10
It was surely something that made me keep watching it and was interesting in its own way.

Conclusion:
The whole situation of who’s going to die next? What going to happen next? How will it end? Was compelling in its on way. I was really happy when I found out that this was not another romance vampire series and used the old school vampire tropes. But, bad characters, slow plot, moral ambiguity thrown at me at the end of the series ruined it for me. To conclude this, it was an anime that had the potential to become even better.
Will I recommend it tho? Well yes but actually no. Well if you have nothing to do with your life and you happen to be a vampire fanatic, I hope that you will enjoy it. Other than that, I don’t recommend this anime. It is not worth the time.

in all honestly im not really a fan of vampire anime but i heard that sikki a really good and well made vampire story(unlike twilight) so even though i was hesitant at first i decided to give it a shot. to my suprise the anime was just one big MEH....so before i start getting flamed ill give it some credit were its due. though the overall idea they present in the anime(whether its right to kill if it means you can live on) is intresting the way they try to show this idea and answer it is just unintresting.also the fact that none(if not most) ... of the caracter get no development whatsoever lowers the anime as well.since the begining of the anime you can tell that they are simply streching it out, trying to make it longer than what it needed to be, more so when one of the caracters said in the anime that something was wrong in the village while evyone who heard him just laugh and said yea some strange things are happening, if thats the case shouldnt you do something like i dont know get the hell out of there.which leads me to another aspect. if there trying to go for a more real take on the anime then why didnt more of the people left, aside from the one the vampires hypnotized to move out. most of the people remained there which to me didnt seem very realistic. that also brings me up to my las bad note. why didnt the vampires try to find a diffrent way of dealing with the situation. they know what their doing is wrong yet they just go and do it anyway.that just didnt really feel very real in my opinion and it didnt help me sympathize with the vampires i think that they couldve looked for a diffrent solution insted of just accepting it and start killing people. and even if they did go and do it they would be killing their food source which wouldnt really help them at all. with all that said i cant say i hated the anime its nothing like that i just simply felt that though it had potential it didnt really make anything out of it. its like if your good at a sport but you dont practice or develop it then your never gonna get anywere with it even if you are good thats the problem this anime has, even though i dont think its unwatchable and some people will enjoy it(vampire fans) i think theres better anime out there and honestly i wouldnt recommend this anime unless you really like vampires(NOT TWILIGHT) but other than that theres better mystery and horror to watch out there.

Spoiler free review.

It was okay. I wouldn't call it bad. And I don't regret watching it. I probably would only recommend it to people that specifically like the subject matter in the show (read the synopsis). As someone going into it looking for a decent thriller/mystery/suspense it was pretty mediocre.

I thought the tonal dissonance that we're introduced to right off the bat (sunny quiet village life vs. the horror backdrop) would be either amped up as the story went on or would resolve itself one way or the other. It mostly didn't and just kinda felt like a show that wasn't sure what "vibe" it ... wanted to have. But in trying to stay in the "grey" area it just kinda fell flat on all fronts for me. It was hardly creepy and it wasn't scary, and I say that as someone that doesn't particularly like horror. There just wasn't that quintessential "off" feeling that good horror has. But it also wasn't thrilling. It felt like a waiting game for the characters to hurry up and figure the obvious stuff out so something could actually happen.

Like there's a slow burn up to the climax of the show, but there isn't really much "pay off" for that slow burn. And that's not because the show does a good job revealing things to you over time or because there are any kind of worthwhile twists. It's more like there wasn't really much to reveal and the climax is just the show being like "well, let's get things started I guess!"

I will say that the show does a pretty good job smoothly transitioning between different characters. There isn't really a main character but the story doesn't feel jumbled. That's not easy.

But on the other hand I didn't really care about any of the characters either because it felt like the main focus was just slowly progressing to the climax and on the way we'll see stuff from different characters' points of view – the consequences we view all felt like plot devices rather than actual heavy things that would impact the direction of the story and/or arcs of the characters. I'm not sure that any characters gradually change over the course of the show. Some snap and some "give up"/"give in" I guess, but those are inflection points and don't create interesting characters.

And lastly, the "moral dilemma" was weak, felt uninspired, and came off as straightforward rather than a "dilemma" to me. It's not even like the show felt that preachy it just felt like it wasn't really that concerned with the moral question it repeatedly lobs at the audience. Honestly, the "story in a story" one character tells sounded much more interesting.

Ultimately, it's a melancholy type of show, and you suspect as much while watching it but hope that it's going to do *something* by the end. But it doesn't really do much once everything is said and done.

Very disappointed with Shiki.
It is slow, inolves a lot of thinking in circles by main characters. I feel its attractiveness for the fans comes from the easily accessible emotions from a) introducing a likable and well drawn character b) have it die horribly. The characters are really slow and inconsitent in their actions.

Feels like you are watching a 4+ hour of dragonfly being eaten by ants.

Very disappointed with Shiki.
It is slow, inolves a lot of thinking in circles by main characters. I feel its attractiveness for the fans comes from the easily accessible emotions from a) introducing a likable and well drawn character ... b) have it die horribly. The characters are really slow and inconsitent in their actions.

Feels like you are watching a 4+ hour of dragonfly being eaten by ants.

Story: 5/10
Animation/Art: 5/10
Plot: 5/10
Characters: 4/10
Sound: 6/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Rate/Overall: 5/10

STORY: 5/10
Promising story, but the development is the worst/slow (IMO). Average plot, lack of effort on development. Too many plot holes, too many important events off screen.
...
Animation/Art: 5/10
Average, could be better.

Sound: 6/10
Average

Character: 4/10
Characters are so lame and dumb, even the main characters, at the middle of the anime I couldn’t feel any sympathy for any character. Character development sucks. Worst character is the Pastor Seishin Muroi

Enjoyment: 4/10
I was excited at the beginning, but from the middle to the end this was painful to watch, the characters and the development are the main reason, it's not scary, even if it was scary wouldn't make it better, but would be more interesting, or at least it should have a darker atmosphere.

Rate/Overall: 5/10
This one doesn't belong on my top 10 vampire animes, and I will never re-watch this.

CONCLUSION
Watch this if you like vampire stories, if you’re looking for a great story, plot and great development, this is not for you

Boy oh boy, this has been one of the most profound anime I've seen , and I'm not sure if it was in a good way or a bad one. I can say that it was not my favorite at all though, because I just felt like the ending was all too sudden and I expected a little more. I do like the concept though. Throughout the story, at first it seems like a simple terror plot, but especially towards the end, it progresses into FAR more than that. I won't give out any spoilers but it if you want an anime that really picks ... up and changes drastically towards the end then this is the one for you. This actually really reminded me that sometimes humans are more devilish than actual monsters. The way in which the humans become the monsters (figuratively speaking) is just what made the anime so profound for me.

I wish the ending could have been a little better done though. After I watched it, I just felt really empty but filled with a lingering "wtf just happened" feeling. It's hard to explain, but this anime is definitely something special. It is worth checking out in my opinion. The intense emotions of characters brought the anime to life and made a bigger impact as well. The tragedies and all had the same impact.
This anime is definitely something to check out, if you want the emotional and moral impact.

Ever heard of Studio Daume? Well, at least director Tetsuro Amino is known from such works as Iria, Macross 7, and Break Blade among others. He is a diverse talent and in order to make a compelling horror anime and something unique out of a vampire story needs a unique perspective.

It is summer in the remote village called Sotoba. All of a sudden the village is stricken with mysterious and sudden deaths brought on by a strange case of anemia. The village doctor by the name of Ozaki Toshio is baffled and frustrated to find an answer. At the same time, a strange family has ... moved into a giant mansion up on the hill of the town. Will the doctor be able to put a stop to these deaths or will he need to rely on the town to pitch in as well?

Yes, a rather simplistic sounding story. However, it does revolve around a village slowly being taken over by the undead and a plot for vampires to reign supreme. How many bodies must stack up before one starts to believe in the unbelievable? Fun little questions and seeing the cast of characters adjust to the situation given to them over time is quite enjoyable. Each episode up until a point does leave plenty of cliffhangers to keep the viewer going. The story even diverts focus onto other characters perspectives ultimately leading to the same end result.

The use of sound in Shiki is at times top notch or obviously bad like static in a radio program. When done right, the use of sound be it contrasting amplitudes of bells to the creepy use of screeching and growling to invoke fear on both sides of the screen. This helps settle into a low toned and all be it lonely atmosphere within the village itself. Shiki is ultimately quite dark in lighting most of the time and visuals are brought into the foreground with the use of artistic hash-markings creating lots of moments of symbolism and foreshadowing in the story.

So what is wrong with Shiki then? Really it comes down to a mixture of character overload or focus and the misstep to the show’s message with losing one’s humanity. There are too many characters and whom one thinks is pivotal to the story never has enough resolution for their personal quests. The show is way too bogged down with nonsensical philosophical exposition mainly expressed through allegories and the like such as moments with the priest and “head” vampire. Characters remain so static with little to no character development that in itself the story becomes overwhelmingly static as well.

Is Shiki ultimately worth watching? If slasher films are found entertaining, then Shiki would be at least a hit in the ballpark. Otherwise, an unnecessarily large cast with an extremely slow pace plus exposition trying to be too smart for its own good might cause Shiki to be skippable.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

There was barely anything good about this one. The ending and the fact that it ended were the best parts. The last 3 episodes brought it from a 4 to a 6. The art was nothing to write home about. I liked the second op, but an anime's likability comes from bias. Frankly this is not my cup of tea. This is a recurring complaint, but I gotta say it: the anime starts off super slow. It took what felt like forever for the characters to get with the program. I understand it is a supposed mystery, but still it was like the ... characters would not get a clue at all. There was basically no characters to like. The horror only kicked in in the last few episodes when we finally got to see some killings.

There were a lot of characters, but little to no development. The only character who got any type of real development was Natsuno and it felt a bit forced. Megumi was a bitch to the end. Muroi sucks. Felt trapped by the villages expectations and did not want to disappoint them, so he didn't care if they were killed. Nice. Great character. Real intelligent. Definitely won't forgive him for what he did in the end. Oogawa was that badass old guy. He did mess up in the end by talking rather than doing what he should have. Ozaki was a pretty good character. There was only one thing I did not agree with him that he did and if you watch you may figure it out. I think the character I hated the most was Tatsumi. He was way too cocky. Did he think he was invincible. 1 v 1 my man Oogawa.

I gave this a 6 because while I did not enjoy 80% of it, the brutality in the end was marvelous. Humans are so nasty when they feel threatened and it is truly a glorious thing. Plus most of it was self defense. Human's do not drink blood to live, that is why we kill what we eat. These things had no real reason to kill the humans they drank from. Create more shiki? Why? To fight for food? To have companions? That's just too dumb. If I were to kill something, I would expect something to kill me. "We kill to survive". What garbage. Any vampire anime says if you wanna survive you keep your food healthy too. The shiki got what they deserve. My advice is go into this knowing everyone is brain-dead, but the shiki are ultimately the bad guys.

Sad story overall and VERY VERY gory!! It definitely can be hard to stomach during some scenes...really it is quite a hopeless and heart wrenching series...did I finish it despite that fact? Yes. I believe it was only because I fell in love with the character Natsuno. *sighs* I don't particularly like this take on vampires at all. I MUCH prefer the vampires from Vampire Knight.

I'm going to keep this short and brutally honest. I didn't really like Shiki...

It has interesting characters, a solid back story, and clear motivation for the characters... but that said... meh. It doesn't really end so much as leave room for a sequel never to come, so you feel like you've read the first half of a book. Which is sad to me because it had a lot of potential. If it had lead to something cool, it would have gotten a higher rating, especially because it has one of the creepiest scenes I've ever seen in an anime, gave me chills...

Still though, not jaw ... dropping, and the ending isn't worth the wait.

There's no spoilers in this review.

It's an interesting setup that goes nowhere. The first two thirds of the show are just the characters figuring out that "it's vampires", and then being convinced of that fact. That's way too long for a show that the viewer knows is about vampires. There are groups of characters that vanish for large stretches of time and then reappear. There's character development for some characters but not others. Characters act in ways that don't match how they've been portrayed.

It's poorly paced and the ending isn't satisfying. If it had less characters, fewer episodes, and ... told a more concentrated story it could have been something unique, but as it is it's just another vampire romp. If that's what you want, it's not totally unenjoyable, it's just nothing you aren't expecting.

I liked the beginning, something really interesting. They managed to change the personality of the characters in a way that, over the course of the anime, became a little unnoticeable (not that it's a bad thing), and when you least expect it you think "when did that character get like this?". Overall I really liked the anime, what I really hated was the ending, maybe I'm being "brute", or I just didn't realize what it really means. People who shouldn't die died and people who should die survived (my opinion), this wasn't exactly a criticism, what I wanted to convey was a feeling of "disappointment", ... but I really like this anime...

Silly, campy, vampire schlock. Fairly self-contradictory and as a result lacking of any real depth, but if all you're here for is blood, guts, and scantily-clad vampire babes then you're in for a good time. Extraordinarily frustrating at moments in the way that many shows falling under the genre of horror can be (Read: Stupid characters, lack of common sense, melodrama, etc.), but there's always enough going on to maintain interest, and it makes things all the more satisfying once the ball really starts to roll in the last 5-6 episodes. The show is, admittedly, a little bit too ambitious with its scope, and there ... are more than a couple plot threads that barely resolve or never resolve at all, but the ones most central to the plot are wrapped up neatly enough for my tastes.

In terms of production and artistic vision, I really enjoyed the more unconventional lineup-- very distinct, visually interesting character designs are often woefully nonexistent outside of battle shonen, and the way Shiki embraces the oddity and exceptionality of its cast is very much to its benefit. Not only do the eccentric designs help to build up the odd and obtuse atmosphere of the show, blending well with the frequent use of dream sequences and surreal imagery, they also do a wonderful job helping the viewer keep track of the different characters in the show's many different plotlines. For a horror series, the scene direction is well-managed; tense, uncomfortable shots linger just enough to unsettle without overstaying their welcome, while much of the violence is fast moving and eclectic, flowing quickly from cut-to-cut to embody the abrupt, chaotic nature of death. The directors really knew how to portion their gore, keeping the gratuity on a leash for most of the show before finally letting lose in a brutal, bloody fashion that perfectly accentuates the finale. All of this is to say that while Shiki probably isn't going to blow anyone away animation-wise, it certainly has its charm and I personally prefer its unique nature to a lot of the uber-polished, stylistically drab stuff coming out nowadays. I don't have anything of substance to say about the sound-design or OST; besides a pleasantly disgusting cracking noise when ailing thralls turned their necks, it was all pretty much standard fare. Oh, and bonus points for having the best dog designs I've ever seen in an anime. 𝑳𝒐𝒗𝒆 alone was enough to raise this show from a low 5 to a 6.

Spoiler-Free.

I'll give Shiki credit, it had a compelling (enough) story, and the spooky parts were spooky-ish. The art is odd but unique, and the sound fits the tones/mood well.

Now, the not so good.

I'm fine with a slower paced show, but if it's gonna spend so much time focusing on multiple characters that end up doing nothing in the end or do nothing the whole time, then JUST CUT IT. (This show could've been a solid 18 eps)

This show introduces so many new characters each episode that after episode 3 i stopped trying to remember names and faces. In the end it doesn't matter if you ... know anyone outside the "main" cast, since they either aren't important or wont last.

Who is the main character? I still have no idea who the main characters actually are. They make you think that it's some people, only to have them disappear for half the show. Or to have other people do nothing until suddenly they take up all of the screen time in the last 5 episodes.

The logical thinking and progression of the characters in Shiki was laughable. Not one character actually feels or thinks like a human being, which is deeply unsettling. The show repeatedly bashes the same motifs and themes into your head": "who is the REAL monster, humans or demons???" The answer is EVERYONE, they all suck and you're not clever!!

Finally, let's talk about the very foreign idea of character motivation, because the writers may not know about it. The characters in Shiki either do things for no reason, do nothing at all, or act like they'll do something, but do nothing. It's impossible to predict what any of the characters are thinking at any moment, because they will act completely out of character, become non-characters until it's convenient for them to return, or are just there in the first place to die.

Too many characters, too long, no logic, and it tries to be way more clever and meta than it should be.. Only watch this show if you're looking for a shallow spooky supernatural mystery (with good music).