These are questions I was certainly not expecting from this show when I started it. I am not fond of horror anime, or horror in general, to say the least, simply because I do not see the appeal. So I had some misapprehensions when I chose Shiki as my next-to-watch popular anime. I was prepared to drop it after a few episodes of scare jumps, blood and gore, but got nothing of it, got quickly hooked and can now definitely consider this show a great one.
The story takes place in Sotoba, which is, let us not forget it, a remote Japanese village of the 90s and steeped in traditions and isolationism, without internet. This is the typical place where people live their own way and do not want to be disturbed. Of course, this is also the perfect place for the events to come. Who will care about the rumours of some deaths in a backwater village? The mystery is building during a good part of the show. As viewers, we know something is wrong, we might even already know that vampires are involved. But what is interesting is how the village reacts to this mystery from an episode to another, from the rare ones desperate to find answers to the majority denying anything upsetting their daily life, and how Shiki reveal themselves progressively, stronger and stronger.
The narration here is driven by its vast cast of characters, mainly four of them that I try to briefly analyse below.
Ozaki Toshio. Heir of a locally reputable bloodline of doctors, he inherited the role of the village practitioner, as well as the local clinic. Even though he is pressured by her mother's expectations, he fully embraces his medical career and devotes himself to the villagers. As such, he is among the first ones to notice something is wrong and is terribly affected by his powerlessness to stop or even explain the string of deaths. After overcoming his “modern pragmatism” and accepting the existence of vampire-like creatures, he takes upon himself to bid his time in order to bring an end to this threat, whatever the cost, even if this means the death of other villagers.
Muroi Seishin. Similarly to his childhood friend, Ozaki, he is the heir of the local Buddhist temple and, as such, is expected by everyone to take up his father's mantle as head priest and pillar of the community. However, his approach to his legacy is the opposite. Even though he seems perfectly fine with it, he is pressured by his family and the villagers and loathes his fate internally. Out of despair, he even tries to end it all during his studies, when he was “free” of the village's shackles. In Sunako and the Shiki, he progressively sees another way. In the end, making the link with his allegory of Abel and Cain, he kills his despised human self to free himself.
Yuuki Natsuno. He is maybe the weakest main character, in my mind, as he did not leave a lasting impression to me. However, he is still crucial in the narration. From the city, he had to follow his parents, who wanted to distance themselves from the modern cities and live in a rural area, even though they vehemently oppose any kind of rural superstition. And indeed he is important, as he is the one who prevents Ozaki from being hypnotised by Kirishiki Chizuru, then hypnotises Kirishiki Seishirou in order to hunt Shiki, and at last brings down Tatsumi, sacrificing himself in the process as was his plan.
Kirishiki Sunako. At last, our “young 100-year old vampire” was also forced into her current situation. She obviously did not ask to become a Shiki. Her parents, for an unknown reason, did not kill her, confined her and sent her each day a new servant to satiate her thirst, making her used to the act of killing to feed, despite herself. Then followed decades of lonely vagrancy until the modern era. She wants now to belong somewhere and have people to live with, thus her plan of making a safe place for her kind from a remote village.
To me, the main characters are linked by the same thing: they are forced into a position. However, they do not deal with it the same way. Ozaki embraces it, Muroi rejects it, Natsuno is engulfed in it and Sunako drags others in the same position.
But there are also a good number of side characters, fleshing out the village and the story, particularly on the Shiki side, thanks to risen villagers, from Megumi to Ritsuko, who are as varied and “human” as humans are. However, the Shiki could (should?) have been more developed to reinforce the main theme of the show. We do not really see how Shiki become insensible to human life. Is it their nature? What then about the ones rejecting it, like Tooru and Ritsuko? Or are they forced to kill, out of starvation, much like Sunako, before getting used to it? We obviously see they have impulses to feed, but is it only when starving? Basically, how much is due to their nature or to the “guidance” of the Kirishiki? And what about the Kirishiki household? How was it formed? Where do Tatsumi and Yoshie come from? What is the story behind Seishirou? These are all questions whose answers might have served the narration and make some characters more impactful in my opinion.
Who is in the right? The humans or the Shiki? Ozaki, Muroi, Sunako? Well, all of them and none of them. Humans are obviously in their own right when they do not want to see loved ones die. And so are the Shiki who must consume human blood in order to survive. However, do Shiki really have to kill their victims? Is hoping their deceased loved ones would rise, and thus forcing them to forsake their humanity, even out of despair and loneliness, a right thing? Do humans have to kill every last Shiki, without trying to understand them, even when they are behaving the same way as before and are crying for their life? Do they have to enjoy butchering them and seeing them suffer, as well as being emotionless in front of the corpses of the ones they once loved? What about the ones bitten, hypnotised or merely suspected who are killed without any remorse? In the end, there is no true right answer and this is a strength of this show: each viewer has his own answer. Personally, both sides are ultimately wrong and all paid the price.
The fire ultimately destroying Sotoba can be seen as a retribution. Some may think this is simply for the genocide perpetrated against the Shiki. Others may think about the generalised insanity and frenzy of the villagers, losing a bit of their humanity, becoming desensitised to death and murdering fellow living humans. At last, we can also see the fire as a divine retribution for the desecration of the local temple, climax of the insanity, spilling the blood of innocent monks on sacred ground. On another note, this presents a new start for the villagers, stuck until then in their fear of the other and of change that, in some way, led them to this disaster.
There is much more that could be said, but this is enough for this review. In the end, Shiki is a show that I will definitely remember. To me, it is less a horror show than a mystery and psychology thriller that asks philosophical questions and makes the viewer think about humanity.
