vampire films and TV shows have made a rather big comeback since the humble days of Dracula and the night flyer, but the comeback seems to have taken the horror genre out of the equation all together, with twilight dominating the vampire genre at the cinema and true blood, moonlight and blood ties (to name just a few) being the main proponents of television. these romantic and melodramatic takes on the vampire genre stray so far from the accepted view of vampires that it would leave any vampire fan with a bad taste in their mouth.
so as you can imagine I went into watching shiki expecting to see it suffer the same fate as the other vampire films which mock the genre all together (looking at the poster with Natsuno among the graves lead me to have these expectations as it seemed melodramatic and somewhat twilightesque)
needless to say my preconceptions where as hastily obliterated as they where conceived, for shiki does something that vampire films haven't done in decades: STUCK WITH TRADITION!
I say it stuck with tradition but that's mainly in terms of the vampires themselves, the actual setting has elements of modernism that are in conflict with the traditional ways of the older members of Satoba's community however I'll get to that later. let's do a run down of the show.
story: 10
the story starts out quite slow with the first few episodes establishing the characters and their views and opinions whilst presenting the mystery of the sudden deaths in the village. After this the show starts to gain momentum, which steadily increases until about the last 5 or 6 episodes at which point it's pace switches to full speed ahead. the first few episodes I must admit can be rather tedious as the pacing is very slow and doesn't progress much in that time, and those who don't have a lot of patience may decide to drop this anime because of this, however those who are patient will be greatly rewarded in later episodes where mystery, horror and madness come together to play with the audiences preconceptions and expectations like a rag doll. What I mean by that is that this particular anime has a very curious power to it in particular with the way it wields catharsis. The anime moulds its audience to its will by manipulating their emotions but at a certain point it will suddenly flip your original feelings on their head, so for example: they will show you a horrific travesty and the one responsible which will persist for several episodes but then it will switch from the victims point of view to the perpetrators and suddenly we find ourselves feeling sympathetic for the perpetrator.
there are several themes that are explored in shiki, some of which are quite unexpected, for example one theme which we would expect to see more in westerns than in horror is the theme of the old world making way for the new world. although this particular theme has been used in vampire films before such as interview with the vampire, in this case the way they explore this theme is somewhat confusing as, in shiki, it is the vampires who represent the new world and the villagers who represent the old world.
another theme which is explored is prejudice which is explored mainly through Ozaki and Natsuno, who's prejudices against the vampires lead them to form a campaign against them. however, although the prejudice against the vampires is for the most part warranted, as we begin to explore the vampires psyche's we begin to realise that they still possess some element of humanity which in turns makes us pity them.
and finally the main reason i think this story is great is its traditional view of vampires. in particular their traditional weaknesses are all there for example, they cannot go out into the sun or they will turn to ash, they can't enter a persons house without invitation etc. with all the romance films where they either sparkle in the sunlight or it just has no effect at all this is a refreshing reminder that vampires aren't cuddly creatures or wishy washy melodramatics.
Art: 9
the art is an acquired taste, and harkens back to the higarashi series. at times the characters movements can seem quite basic and minimalist however this reflects the atmosphere of the series as the series is patient in its execution of the story and the minimalist action creates an ethereal almost dreamlike atmosphere which since the vampires attack their victims while they sleep gives it that extra atmosphere. but where the art truly shines is in the characters expressions, particularly their expressions of madness and despair which the art style seems to exaggerate so there's no way the audience can't know what the characters are feeling at that particular moment.
the characters hair is somewhat insane, and here it feels like the character designers became artistic as the hair of the characters come in every possible colour under the sun as well as every shape, from the neat school boy cut, to the downright absurd with hair appearing to defy gravity, it is here that i felt the art fell short as this seems to make the characters appear somewhat silly and somewhat ruins the atmosphere of the show.
Sound: 10
the sound was superb, and every piece of music fit every scene like a glove from the haunting and creepy child a'ccapella pieces erupting into a full on choral and orchestral epic, to the simple atmospheric pieces with harpsichords piano's and harps. all the music reflects the sorrow, anger, madness and pain that encompasses every episode. in particular i found that every piece of music that played while Seishin and Sunako where together and talking fully reflected the feeling of pity and remorse felt by both those characters. so in shiki's case the music isn't just to reflect the atmosphere but to intensify the emotions of the characters and mirror them to the audience so that the audience better understands the characters themselves.
although one would expect to find a lot of Gregorian and
Gothic choral pieces there where none to be found in shiki, in fact the majority of musical pieces where lullaby-esque and intensified the dreamlike atmosphere. one element which i found particularly new for a horror anime was the complete and utter lack of pathetic fallacy (weather reflecting the emotions of the characters) which is used quite extensively in most horror films particularly when the characters find themselves in a thunderstorm meant to represent their fear, shiki does not do this which sweperates it somewhat from the horror genre, but in that respect I would call it a thinking man's horror series.
character: 10
this is where the show truly shines, each character is distinct and unique and many of them are characters that you rarely see, such as for example Ozaki Toshio, who reminds me so much of house that I wondered about his uniqueness for a long time, but if you watch the anime through you notice that he couldn't be more different.
the characters are excellent with perhaps the exception of Natsuno who i felt was too melodramatic, however this does not hinder the show that much despite him being a main character, the characters truly create the show however the characters that steal the show are Ozaki, Seishin and Sunako who the shows creators use to play with the audiences ideas and feelings in particular with the audience's growing sympathy with sunako and Ozaki's clear descent into madness we find that the line between who the bad guys are and who the good guys are becomes so blurred that we can't truly say who we should be rooting for. the characters are part of the philosophy in particular they represent a statement about morality, that it is not set in stone and that no-one is all good or all bad.
many people will hate Megumi throughout the show but she is perhaps one of the best characters because of the power her emotions have on the audience as the audience remains consistently against her to the point where they feel she deserves whatever is coming to her. but it only takes one 10 minute segment in a later episode to make the audience feel incredibly guilty for feeling that. to understand what i mean you'll have to watch it through to the end yourself.
Enjoyment: 10
this show will mess your emotions up in a good way, and through this it will open up avenues of thought that many of the audience may not have considered before but overall this show is very enjoyable and although it doesn't have the re-watch ability of other anime's it is still something worth seeing every few months.
Overall: 10
Overall this is an excellent show and perhaps the best one i've seen since casshern sins came out. highly recommended
