Yes, Shiki is a vampire anime, which actually isn't very apparent at first glance. Something I thought was good was that vampires were considered completely out of the question as a blaming point for the 'disease' that was circulating. However, after over half the town is dead and there are living corpses walking around, wouldn't you think the residents would blame something other than a disease? The story itself was actually quite interesting, I give it props for that. However, after reaching the last few episodes of the series, the quick pace of it made me realize how slow the first half was. This anime easily could have been crammed into 12 or 14 episodes, but I do recognize that this was for character development purposes. What I liked about the plot was how it makes the viewer question the actions of people, and the real definition of humanity. Insanity and plain disregard for human life is apparent here.
The art was honestly... kind of sad. Believe me, I really like how unique each character was, and I understand that the anime is relatively older. But to be completely honest, their hair is just outrageous. For whatever reason, this girl has bright pink hair in a totally dark color scheme, which makes no sense at all. Then a guy with blue hair that looks like he has cat ears? Ugh. I may sound like I'm totally dissing the art, but can I say one more thing? Dorito faces.
The gore was actually relatively well animated, and when this anime wants to be scary, damn it really can be. Seriously. If you can't stand the slice-of-life-ish stuff or the art style of the average character, skip to episode 20 or so for some gore and spooks. It really shines through at that point. The action sequences are actually pretty well animated.
The opening sequence art was honestly a little disappointing. Props for not inserting the generic "all of the characters running for no apparent reason", but it wasn't visually striking in the least. All they did was insert all of the characters and just introduce them in some way or another. Some of it was okay to watch, but it didn't stand out.
The soundtrack in this anime was... okay? It honestly had little background music until near the end of the show, except for some little girl going "Ah..... Ah" every now and then. The opening songs, I feel, didn't really suit the anime itself. They were both really upbeat and dance-y. I feel like the songs should have been more solemn (think Higurashi). The only time I really felt the second opening fit was around episode 20. However, when the anime did have some background music, it was quite pleasant and fit in well with what was going on in the show.
The characters and their development were actually pretty decent. We get to see a good amount of backstory and hear inner thoughts enough to feel connected with them. I could feel myself rooting for who I would like to live, and who I would like to die. BUT, this connection with the characters could most likely have been stronger. The character's personalities were... I wouldn't say cookie cutter, but KIND OF generic. They were still entertaining to watch. Their interactions are what makes it gold.
One thing that threw me off about the characters is that... I wasn't really sure who the main character was. I'm not sure if this was intentional, but this made it pretty difficult to chose someone to root for.
MY personal enjoyment is so much different than everyone else's. I am entertained, especially when watching with someone else, by being able to make fun of or at least talk about what's going on. I felt a lot of emotions, but mostly my inner thoughts were "well that's stupid", or "that's cool", so I got to feel a mix, which is definitely a good thing.
I don't really dislike this anime, as I feel it had a really good amount of potential. I wouldn't say I regret watching it, because it's story was very interesting. I wouldn't tell you to not watch it, because it's known as a good horror/gore anime, and that it is. So if you think I'm dissing this anime, I'm definitely not. I just tend to like to pick out the negatives. So if you like dark themes, this is what you want.
