Shiki struck me as being an honest to goodness horror anime. You felt like the whole town was going down and they were in denial about it. but then you realize that real people probably would act the same way, dismissing seeming 'vampire deaths' as something else because, vampires aren't real. How ridiculous! They really get down to the wire, killing off so many characters you wonder who is left to fight back, but they do and the ending is as tragic and cathartic as the rest of it.
I wasn't crazy about the artwork, but it works for the series. In fact, were the animation any more realistic and its creep factor might be too much for me to handle. The opening and closing musical pieces are creepy and hard to forget - a lot like the series itself.
I liked this series, though I seriously doubt I'll ever watch it again. It shreds you as you watch it, but you can't look away and at the end you feel emotionally drained and wrung out, like you've just run a marathon. If you like deep angst that is almost too credible to be entertainment, then Shiki is for you.
