I will do this review in two parts:
1. General thoughts and comments
2. Psychological discussion (main focus of this review)
1. I finally finished watching Shiki and I must say it was a spectacularly dark and a very psychological horror series. Oh and did I mention extremely bloody?
In recent years, we have seen an spike in vampire films. From the Blade series to Twilight, modern media has been infatuated with these "bloodsuckers" . However, Shiki diverges from the "romanticism" of many modern vampire fiction. This series depicts the Shiki and humans in a very primeval way. Deep down the nature of the "Shiki is to suck blood and the humans will do whatever it take to survive even if it means throwing away their humanity.
Blabbing about how good I personally thought the about series was won't be of much help in this review because in the end enjoyment of any series will be subjective. However, I will quickly go over the elements of this series.
The story of Shiki was great. It builds up slowly towards the beginning and becomes more captivating as the series progresses. There is suspense at every corner and really helps to captivate the audience. There are plenty of flashbacks to aid in character development and explanation of events. Many characters will have you sympathizing with them or simply resenting them.
The art work seems very colorful and the hairstyles very exaggerated at first glance but don't try to pick up hints on how the story will progress on the color alone. I think the director almost intended throw off the audience's expectations by using a very colorful and vibrant visual.
The characters are very diverse and developed pretty well. Their attitudes and beliefs can be easily picked up on by observing their dialogue and association with others. Their facial features or clothes can also reflect on their attitudes and behavior.
When it comes down to the sound, there isn't anything too special worth noting but the opening and ending songs I really enjoyed .
Over all enjoyment I would place at a 9/10.
2. Aside from the general comments, this is where I will put most of my thoughts and to me this is a very psychological series. As stated earlier, the take away from this series I got was "who decides what is good and what is evil? Towards the end of the series, the line that separates humanity and the "Shiki" become blurred. Which side is evil and which side is good? Whose actions are correct and whose are in the incorrect? Are "Shiki" wrong to want to sustain themselves by feeding on humans? Are humans wrong for exterminating the "Shiki" in order to protect themselves and preventing a further outbreak? In terms of survival, the Shiki are not in the wrong for wanting to feed on humans to survive. Like how humans survive by killing animals, this is only natural of the Shiki to feed on humans.
On the flip side, why do the Shiki believe every human who becomes one of them wants to be treated the same way? Blood sucking certainly seems like norm but there are a few exceptions.
As for the humans trying to protect themselves, when does taking measures become excessive, so much that they would discard their humanity just to exterminate the Shiki?
Though in some extent the "undead" problem was started by the Shiki, but the humans that become so driven by revenge and blood lust might be ultimately no better than the Shiki themselves.
These are pretty tough questions to ponder but that's one of the reasons I enjoyed this series so much. As the series progresses, you will begin to wonder which side was evil and which side was good. But that line between the goodness or evilness of Shiki and humans will become blurred.
I hope you all will find this series very enjoyable as I did and perhaps ponder the same questions.
