Story (9/10)
The director, Tetsuro Amino, sure has something in his sleeves when plotting a great script for this anime. I never heard about the Shiki novels and mangas that were released at first but soon as I watched the anime fully, I am blown away on how this apparent horror story could become something unique and fascinating to see. No love clichés, no fan service, just straight reality check on how humans and vampires live and fight in this one-on-one war for survival. It all starts at a village called Sotoba which experiences mysterious deaths that spreads like a pandemic that all focuses on one mysterious European classic house that was just suddenly appearing out of nowhere. As the story progresses, the mystery gets more interesting until found out that vampires are spreading the plague to the villagers and some brave souls, including the handsome and deadly Natsuno Yuuki and the serious doctor, Toshio Ozaki, are investigating this horrific phenomenon that wreck chaos to the village. What I like about the story here is how the story develops smoothly in 24 episodes and how the director resolute the entire vampire-human war in a unique way that even I sometimes care about some vampires who still have a humane heart surprisingly. Even though the pacing is a bit slow for something from 2010, but I have to say that the director really outdone the impossible by packing the plot into one fluid and solid story telling. The overall plot gives the entire dark horror feeling of Twilight but with balance in the characters. Plus, the final few episodes really manages well on one important decision: Self-preservation or Murder. Some might think that humans should survive and beat the hell out of those evil vampires but what about some vampires who still cares about his human life and then there are some who is being mind-controlled by those evil vampires as the villager’s threat for survival. One things for sure, the directors have indicated for the viewers to think on their own opinions about the humans and vampires’ self-beliefs right until the final Survival War and I got to give credits to them for imagining this creative idealism on human-vampire interaction. However, even though the ending feels like a decent wrap up for the story, I might have a feeling that they could make a second season because the ending felt too open for everyone to tell their opinion. However, all in all, solid storytelling and the mystery vibe that lives up to expectations surely makes Shiki the horror anime that made the grade.
Animation (6/10)
The design of the characters gave Shiki some horror vibe that the anime supposed to be. With those glaring red pupil on the sinister antagonists makes the tone of this anime dark enough to realise that Shiki’s horror and scary and not another cheap rip-off. Plus, with the darkness envelop Sotoba during night time, it has a perfect tone for this anime to attract those who wanted a darker, more cutting edge horror anime to be perfectly tone in animation. Though some of the animation designs are questionable sometimes like lack of hair movement in characters like Ritsuko’s ponytail (as cassiesheepgirl pointed) and some characters are not that visually attracting to those who wanting quality. However, luckily, some gripe from the character’s animation is balanced out with the perfect dark and eerie tone of the surrounding environment that surely has some meaning to this anime and although the art is not as breath-taking as today’s anime standards, this anime still provides some gem in enhancing those horror fanatics to enjoy.
Sound (9/10)
Shiki’s main attraction point however is amazing musical scores and sound effects that set up the entire gory horror tone to the anime. Yasuharu Takanashi have amazed me as an anime fan with haunting choral tracks and scary violin rhythm just scares the hell out of me, the soundtrack is absolutely a win in my books and I have to give credits for the music director for arranging a spectacular music score particularly to set the dark tone up. Plus, the sound effects also gives this anime life at its fullest and gives the viewers the real world experience into the entire vampire plague situation. On top of that, the seiyuus have done a wonderful job on portraying their characters well. Who could not forget the ever lovable Natsuno Yuuki, played by Kouki Uchiyama, who I adore so much with his serious expression on how the survival war goes and let’s not forget other seiyuus who have done well in making their characters amazing like Shinya Takahashi, Haruka Nagashima, Haruka Tomatsu (Hate Megumi so much, but ADORE her voice perfectly) and let’s not forget the KICK BUT AWESOME Toru Ohkawa. (Gotta love the Doctor Ozaki there) Overall, they have outdone themselves in managing the vocals and the voice behind this anime that I would feel like watching A TRUE horror anime thanks to the beautiful sound effects and character voices. AMAZING!
Characters (8/10):
The characterization in this series is quite interesting and wide in variety, which I like it decently. Yeah, some characters might be too annoying or rubbing too much salt to the viewer’s eyes like Megumi (that darn goth girl…) but some characters were pretty decently executed like Doctor Toshio who I think he executed his job well as the doctor who always keep focused on stopping the vampire plague and save the village although he’s a bit annoying with his smoking attitude sometimes… I also like how Natsuno still being in confidence to end the vampire-human war although I felt that Natsuno was a bit nervous when fighting vampires before becomes one of them few episodes later and that’s when Natsuno becomes an awesome cunning character that I love so much. The only problem with this anime is that with the abundance of characters, the creators might be in a rough edge to define each of the characters in the limited number of episodes. Some characters are one-episode wonder but then, they’re just forgotten in the midst of main plot. Don’t get me wrong, a few of those characters are interesting to watch but some… well, you get the point. However, the most compelling aspect of Shiki is the mass characterization of the Sotoba villagers’ reactions to their own villagers becoming vampires and how would they cope with the entire survival war. I am quite impressed on how some of the main characters interact each other and how would they impact their mentality in some sort of form. This is not just vampire kill’em all spree. Some vampires do left some caring perspective towards themselves and afraid of killing their enemies: humans, obviously. They just felt that being a vampire does not make you immortal and have super strength. They sometimes struggle to felt the guilt of exterminating humans with no mercy. Sure, there are some generic vampires who always kill humans LIKE A BOSS, but with the contrast of feelings of care and sympathy towards his/her dignity, I guess this anime surely delivers the punch it needs to make this anime really compelling to observe, especially making viewers rethink about all those assumptions that VAMPIRES ARE MONSTERS or VAMPIRES ARE EVIL and prove to them that even the hunger for blood really have their costs in their lives.
Overall (8/10)
Overall, Shiki left some enjoyable feelings to those die-hard anime fans, especially those who love vampires and eerie mysteries. Tetsuro Amino have delivered what it supposed to be one of more interesting horror animes that many fans have enjoyed. However, do in mind that this anime is not about comparing vampires or humans like being the antagonists or protagonists; hence this is not call a typical action anime that is the bread and butter of anything with action. However, this anime is more towards the value of humanity and reimagining the survival of the human race in a whole new meaning. Definitely, after you watch this anime, you will understand that not all humans are good and trusted and not all vampires like to suck blood and kill humans. It’s what their perspective in their hearts that is important and Shiki surely delivers this really well. It’s a horror, dark, eerie anime fill with mysteries and shocking truths that will satisfy your senses in all aspects. Shiki, a horror anime, redefined like no other.
