Shiki....... at first glance some people may think that this is another Vampire Anime. Another tale of forbidden love or Revenge or maybe an unlikely Vamphero. What one is left with though after watching this Anime is a wonderfully told story that when you get right down to it, has very little to do with Vampires. What it is, is a very intelligent and creative plot that by it's end crosses into it's own genre about the walking dead. Be they Corpse or Living.
Despair, forsaken, Obligation, honor, pride, sin, Dread.... These are the terms I would use to convey what Shiki is about in a few words. Centered mostly around Toshio Ozaki, the head doctor at the hospital in Sotoba, and how he comforts the growing death count in the Village he believes is his duty to protect. The methodical process that takes him from believing his village is under the influence of an epidermic to understanding that it is really under attack by demons, is the man attraction of this series. And his medically grounded approach only adds to the realism of the premise. His transformation very much reminded me of Dr. Tenma of Monster, becoming the man needed to stop the crisis at any cost.
Also you follow Natsuno, a high school aged boy who parents have decided to make a change to a slower paced life and against his wishes has moved from a big city to Sotoba. Very much feeling like an outsider, he resents the expectations that the "community" weighs it's residents down with. The relationship between Sunako Kirishiki and Seishin Muroi round out the main focus of the series.
Set in a late 20th century rural Japanese Village Sotoba, in the midist of an August heat wave, you as the viewer are dropped into an idealistic small community where everybody knows your name. A Village that is surrounded by mountains and Fir trees, isolated from the world. A village that deals in death per the only export of town, caskets, and a village that has been surrounded by death ever since Kanemasa mansion, a European style Castle, was recently built.
This back drop not only sets up the right conditions for the story to unfold but it also puts you in a state of timelessness. Almost like a dream, because there are no real amenities that make you say without a doubt the year is 199X. A feeling that is enforced by the chime like melodies that are played threw out the Show. La, La, La, La, Laaa.
A true Romantic lives in the heart of Shiki. From the bright colors to the wild hair styles to the very fashionable clothes that some of the characters wear( looking at you Yasuyo and your see threw nighty=) this is with out a doubt a very "left brain" creation of this town and it's people. It might turn off some people, but it shouldn't because it adds to the Day Dream surreal atmosphere. Do the Shiki really float away when they leave or are you in a daze. Even the Villagers are in some what of a day dream when they try to recall, "hey those two young men look familiar" as you see the unknown arms of said men wrapping around the forgetful villager. And much of this interpolation is left up to the viewer, as if you are being told a bed time story. Which I thought was excellent.
I thought the series was great, because it took the norms and threw them out the window. It was serious yet very light hearted. The characters were engaging and they had depth, so much that the absent of some of the minor characters for a few episodes doesn't completely write them off in your "don't care any more" section of your brain.
Don't expect a horror show, except a real hard look at life and how unfair it is for everybody under the sun.I would say it's a must watch for most.
Update: 2/4/12
After watching this show again I just wanted to expand on two things. One being that this isn't really about Vampires. Yes that is the transition used to take the villagers from being in one group to another, but in my mind it could have been replaced with pretty much anything and held the same message. That the human condition is inescapable and not even shiki where immune. Out of many to choose from, I think the scene where the Ookawa's meet summaries this thought completely. Not give too much way, but in death the son was weighted down with every bit of burden the his father put on him in life. The vampire was not glorified, explained or even on display for most of this series. Humanity is.
Also, there isn't anything that resembles a horror show in this series. Way too light heart when people are basically wasting away or when you actually get to see an attack on a human for blood. It was pretty much conveyed as being no big deal. By shows end, the scene where you see the house wives of the village covered blood and eating there lunches, tells you alot. Everybody does what they need to do to survive, not matter how ugly or grim. The story is truly more dreadfully than anything, meaning that it plays more viewers understanding of their relationships and social background. A child watches this show, knowing nothing of loneliness or trying to live up to expectations, or find a place in life and probably get's nothing out of the shows plot.
Really a great show again. The ending is open, but if you have to leave a story with somethings left unanswered, this is the way you do it IMO. A short series, but it tells everything that needs to be told. I love this take on the undead/vampires, because it really makes look at when did this people turn into monster. And under the right circumstances would you prove to have already been dead inside from the this confine we call Modern society.
