Shiki is about a village which where the death count has been significantly been high as off August. This sudden increase in the number of deaths especially worries the village doctor Toshio Ozaki, who believes that it might be an epidemic.
On the other hand, teenager Natsuno Yuki is sick with worry, when a girl named Megumi Shimizu is stalking him. Yep, a pink haired girl is stalking him . And you know what the scary part is, she’s dead!This then gives him the idea that maybe it’s not a disease that’s killing all these people! No, what if the people who passed, have risen from the dead to haunt and kill the natives off the village?
Well, that’s possible too! Also, holy shit what a coincidence that this a horror anime which has a doctor who is not really a saint, a pink haired yandere in love with a boy named Yuki (Mirai Nikki, anyone?), and not to mention our story takes place in a village! If you watched Higurashi, then you can agree with me that fucked up shit happens in villages. Well, in anime at least!
However, disregarding the fact how this anime reminded me off several other anime, Shiki is an interesting and thrilling story of its own. Then again, there is one thing among several tiny issues that is Shiki’s major let down. And that is, it’s pacing!
The show not only starts off slow, but you don’t get a sense of what direction it really is trying to go. It’s kind of like your parents strapped you onto a car and is taking to you some unknown place. It could be Disneyland, or it could be to Boot Camp, who knows, because it’s a surprise!
However, when the show seemed to go some where after some big yet not so big reveal, it seemed to go backwards again. Like at first they focused on how much the people where mysteriously dying and that Osaki was frustrated as he was unable to save them. Even after properly establishing that, they still needed to show more people dying. I swear it’s just Game of Thrones, except in Shiki’s case, no one cares who dies or not!
They also keep on introducing character after character every single episode. Even probably towards the end! There are so many characters being introduced that they have toshow captions of their names, when they first make their debut. Some are important, some are not, and it doesn’t matter if you know these characters or not because there is hardly more to them than meets the eye.
For example Megumi Shimizu, acts like and behaves like a spoiled, ungrateful brat. And on in the inside, she is still a spoiled, ungrateful brat. Even after she dies, she is still just as pathetic. She cares about no one but herself and she cares only about leaving the village. She has no redeeming qualities, like seriously none! Even her love for Natsuno is pathetic, because she obviously only likes him because of his looks. If he was as ugly as Masao, she wouldn’t even give a damn about Natsuno.
Speaking of which, don’t even get me started on Masao. This character was basically created to be loathed alongside Megumi. I mean, I love Todd Haberkorn and all, but if had to choose between looking at Masao’s face and getting punch in the face, I would pick getting punched the face. Trust me, it would hurt a whole lot less!
The doctor on the other hand is more or less what he seems on the outside. A determined guy, who is skilled at what he does, however whose life is hell. Things became even for worse him, with all these deaths. As the show progressed, he did get some development, because his life did do a 180 after dealing with all of these dying people. However, there is nothing that interesting about him, until midway through the series when he has to do quote unquote research on the living dead. And if you watched the series or even midway, you know what I mean by quote unquote, and that’s when I put my hand on my head and go ‘wow’!
As for Natsuno, he happens to be my favourite character, even though there is again nothing that spectacular about him. He is very cold, unsympathetic, selfish and introverted at first, however like any normal teenager in a horror show, he has to do some investigation. Especially, meeting Kaoru and her brother Akira who also believe that the people who died have risen up and are living in that huge ass mansion, where the new people live!
After this Natsuno gets some fair amount of development, where we learn exactly why he acts like the way he does- but I wish the show would have done a better job off displaying that instead of showing more people dying. I mean, we get a sense of it, but they didn’t really dig deep with his character. The show does do a good job of making him more likeable by showing us how much his best friend Tohru meant to him, not mention the friendship he forms with Kaori and her brother. But, after fifteen or so episodes Natsuno’s screen time is limited and we don’t get to properly see him until of course the finale. The show could have done so much to make Natsuno a fantastic character, but they missed the opportunity completely!
However, Shiki’s greatest strength is that it is able to make a strong impact on the audience. During its 22 episode run, Shiki will definitely put you on an emotional roller coaster even though you have no idea where you’re going because of its pacing. But, enough bitching about the pacing and let’s talk about this rollercoaster. Shiki excels at making its undeveloped characters seem real people whose lives gets upside down. You feel sorry for them because of how their lives turned out. It just goes to show how things can change in the blink of an eye, which is very terrifying. The vampires in this anime are not the scariest thing if you ask me, no, it’s the battle between these two species and final outcomes that are truly horrifying. I mean after I was done with the show I had this chill down my spine you get when Ballaika whispers something to you in your ear. Just wow!
Shiki will suck you into its world *no pun intended* and will probably make you feel as if your part of this battle for survival. It will make you question about who is the real enemy and it will also stir up a lot of debate on which side you should pick or is it even worth picking a side at all! And for making me feel that, it was really hard to stop thinking about Shiki for a while.
Another important theme I want to discuss about Shiki which I don’t think people mainly focus on is the loss of innocence in this show. I mean, it all started with Megumi Shimizu and it sort of ended with her if you think about it. She turned into a cold blooded killer ( not that she didn’t have the potential to be one), despite the fact she was only fifteen. One day, she was day dreaming about leaving the town and the next day, she was killing people left and right.
Also, Natsuno despite his mature appearance was still a kid and the tragedy he faced prior to him hunting vampires, was also a major wake up call for him. However, this loss of innocence theme didn’t really scream out loud until Natsuno, Kaori and her brother had to dig out Megumi’s grave and then go to the mission to kill the vampires. I mean, I don’t think many people will give it importance, but I personally found it heart wrenching how messed up their lives all of a sudden became because of these vampires. The way the show displayed that was handled really well!
The animation on the other hand is alright and I feel like it suit Shiki’s tone very much. However, the character designs especially the hairstyles can be over the top and just cartoonish (even though this is an anime). Another thing that bugs me is the black eyes that the female vampires have, but surprisingly not the male ones. Also, it doesn’t seem everyone has these black eyes, which I thought was ridic. Also, some of the characters, even the living ones look anorexic as fuck!
Now the ending of Shiki was very predictable and I was hoping that may be it will be different but no, it travelled in a straight path and managed to reach its destination which was basically nowhere. The ending just left us wanting more, well at least it left me wanting more!
The music for Shiki didn’t really stand out much, even if some of the music was creepy which was intended for the show. I mean when I was watching the show, I never got the feeling that the music contributed in building up a scene or making it intense or scary in any way. The music was simply just there because nobody wants to hear secedes be a bunch of noisy assholes!
Both the openings really complimented the show and foreshadowed a lot of what’s to come. However, I personally never got attached to the openings and I don’t think many people would. I mean, yes the animation for it is just superb but it’s usually the song that makes or breaks an opening rather than just the animation.
With that all in mind, I am awarding Shiki with a 7 out of 10, and that it's worth giving a try!
