Shiki’s story starts surprisingly simply. An old European style mansion is built in the middle of nowhere. Of course, a castle of it’s like is quite uncommon in Japan and gets a few odd glances from the local townspeople. Few of them even know who live in it. Then, suddenly, people start to die. The blame is placed on an epidemic that is sweeping through, but Dr. Ozaki, owner of the local clinic, finds himself wondering if that is really the cause. At the same time, a teenage boy named Natsuno Yuuki finds himself being confronted by the recently deceased Megumi, a girl who was infatuated with him. And concurrent to that the junior monk at the village temple, Seishin Muroi is getting visits at night from the strange little girl who lives at the castle, a girl who has read his books and is a big fan. But she has a disease that prevents her from going out during the day.
The story is slow but not in a particularly bad way. There are so many deaths and we see pretty much every one. At the same time though, the characters have internal conflicts they are resolving as well as conflicts amongst themselves. We are constantly introduced to more and more people, each of which adds a bit more to the story. Because while they may not accomplish anything and may die, they do show essentially the chronicles of what took place in this tiny village.
The problem some may find with the story is quite simply how generic it really is. Old castle, vampires, small town. The only difference is, we’re seeing this classic European tale in the Japanese countryside. Does that make it any different from any other vampire stories you’ve seen before? It really does. It embraces the rural Japanese culture as well as makes the characters from those tales much more modern. Dr. Ozaki is a chain smoking badass. Seishin is akin to the catholic priest of the small European town. Of course, there’s that one villager who catches onto things, Yuuki.
This is not to say that the story is without its faults. If you are a vampire moving into a rural Japanese village, would you build a castle or just a normal home? The castle drew unwanted attention, just as it should. And when you don’t come out during the day and play it off as being because of some sort of disease, you’d think someone would wonder even more. Small villages are suspicious of new people who don’t introduce themselves, and this idea is in the anime but I spent half the anime feeling like the village was defending the creepy people in the castle.
Major Spoilers Here:
Other tiny problems I had was Sunako Kirishiki’s backstory not being totally explained. It was kind of half explained and you are made to imply why she is in Japan with the other Kirishiki’s. Also, are werewolves the name given to vampires more powerful than Shiki or are they actual werewolves? I’m assuming they aren’t, but why would you name a vampire a werewolf? That’s goddamn confusing.
Spoilers End
The anime wraps up nicely and the last six episodes are classic horror conventions that remain effective, especially because of the feelings you have toward the vampires. It’s not a giant ending that is awe-inspiring, but it isn’t too subtle. It just ends things perfectly.
The animation is not good for 2010. Characters look old-fashioned in a way. They look like they belong in an anime from eight or nine years ago. The motion is somewhat jerky and it’s all very bare bones. The environments look good though, I can’t say the village is in any way badly animated. Later on, toward the end, blood is getting all over the characters and it looks really bad. It’s like a red film was put over their faces and clothes.
The one really good thing about the animation is the facial melting is lovely, if that’s even possible. And the use of red circles in the dark as the vampire’s eyes at the beginning of the series is eerily effective. Later on, it’s not used at all because we don’t need that to tell us the vampires are coming, we know. The anime doesn’t treat us like idiots.
And then there’s the hair. Whoever animated this anime had to have been fired from Square Enix. The hair is almost unbearably stupid. Ozaki and Seishin have decent hair, but then Ozaki’s wife and mother are shown and…God almighty…Hell, I think the most annoying hair was found on Tatsumi who, I guess, has taken a flat top and cut it up so he appears to have ears. How can you even take a guy with hair like that seriously? And on top of that is the way these people dress. Some of the clothing choices are ridiculous. Tatsumi’s jumpsuits are weird, Natsuno’s eventual pink shoes and leggings with a pair of shorts over them and a hobo coat is awful. Megumi and Sunako are the only two of the females who dress in a conventional and/or cute manner. Of course there are minor characters who dress fine, but some of the main characters are having fashion problems…
And that brings up a good point. You can usually tell a character is important because their hair is ridiculous and they wear idiotic clothing. This is not always true, but there are many characters who prove this.
The sound is actually quite good. The two opening themes are good, with the first being excellent. The endings are good as well. But the music really shines during the show. Dramatic moments are tinged with eerie music and even normal moments have good music. There were no particularly annoying voice actors.
Characters range from awesome to annoying. The three main characters, Ozaki, Seishin, and Natsuno are all good, Ozaki more so than the other two. Ozaki is a character that starts as important for a completely different reason than how he ends up being important. He’s pretty much a badass. Seishin is kind of a wuss, but at the same time I did like him and found his actions to be honorable. Natsuno is kind of an asshole. While Megumi was bitchy, I did like her and found that Natsuno treated her like total crap. He was just an all-around douchebag at the start of the series, though grows a little more likeable toward the end.
As far as the vampires go, none of them really stuck out besides Sunako. Her parents weren’t all that exciting. She seemed to be the emotional focal point of the series, and you do feel bad for her. At the same time, I was kind of emotionally invested in Megumi for some reason. Maybe it was her “screw everyone” attitude. I don’t know why I liked her. But the last episode hurt me quite a bit concerning her. More so than anyone else. Talk about brutal…
Another character I may as well mention is Masao Murasaka, or as my friends call him, Mr. Gayface. This guy was the only character I totally hated. Every time he appeared on my screen I wanted to reach through and strangle him. He was so annoying and the ending doesn’t show him getting what’s coming to him, which annoyed me. I saw Megumi get it, but not this piece of crap.
Shiki has a large cast of eclectic characters, a good story, an interesting point of view, and is an all-around fun ride. Its animation is pretty bad, but that doesn’t detract from it much. If you can look past the fact the characters look ridiculous and the designs are idiotic, you’ll find something very fun. It’s slow paced, but it keeps your interest by jumping around and inserting key moments at just the right times. It’s eerie, it’s character driven, and it’s effective. And it ends. Which is something absolutely lovely because rarely do I find myself watching an anime with a satisfying conclusion (at least lately) and this one wraps up with only a few holes, but not enough to totally detract from the experience.
Fans of horror will enjoy this series and be able to make parallels between this and other works such as Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Even if you’re not a fan of horror, this may have some things you are looking for. It’s not scary; it’s an effective story about the persecution of a people who are not unlike us.
