The synopsis on this page is the story in its most basic form and this already sounds very good. There is simply nothing wrong with it and there is nothing wrong with the story in general either. The interesting thing is that after a while the makers thought it was a good idea to deconstruct the vampire story like we know it. The vampires don't just suck your blood for the sake of it. No, they need it to survive. It's just like a lion killing an antilope. It doesn't kill it for its pleasure but to feed the pack. Knowing this doesn't make the lion less dangerous but you get to sympathize more with her. The same principle stands for the vampires in Shiki. Where you first might damn them to hell you eventually will start to at least feel bad for them.
Which automatically brings me to the study of the characters. I must be honest here, not every character was a hit. Megumi for example seemed annoying to me for a long time and Masao never did gain any sympathy. Don't get me wrong, the makers did an excellent job making everyone interesting which is already impressive when dealing with such a large cast. It's just that not every character was a likeable one while the story actually needed this. Luckily the main cast was spared of unlikeable characters. Everyone from the doctor finding out the truth about the strange deaths to the main villains had a good reason to do what they did. This ultimately makes it hard to pick a side but it's not like that's the point of the story anyway so no need to complain here.
Now, I could say that the story is one of the better ones you encounter in anime and that even with their flaws the characters are still well written. Unfortunately the atmosphere here is totally wrong. The soundtracks they choose for certain scenes are either bad or a mismatch and the character designs, a weird mix between Yu-Gi-Oh and Code Geass, and vibrant color palette don't fit the overall tone of the anime at all. Now, the last two things don't have to be a problem. Higurashi for example has questionable character designs throughout and the color palette isn't always the best for its genre. The thing is that it's actually saved by the underwelming animation which makes things look bleaker than what you expect with this combination. Shiki however has nothing to turn things for the better. The animation is way too clean for that even if it's not exactly Miyazaki animating here. This atmosphere takes lots of the good things I mentioned and tries to drown them.
So is Shiki any good? Yes it is. Is it a masterpiece beyond comprehension? Not even close. The atmosphere is not fitting the story at all, which is a shame because it's one of the better vampire stories I've encountered.
