DESCRIPTION

CAST

SPECIAL HorrorShiki Specials
MANGA HorrorShiki

REVIEWS

• 

  TheGruesomeGoblin

  100/100
  By far the best horror anime. Builds a terrific atmosphere and the monsters can be truly horrifying.

  

  You know what also had a castle and a village in it?

  DRACULA BY BRAM STOKER.

  ---

  Introduction

  

  I genuinely was conflicted on whether or not to start this review this way since I didn't want to spoil anything that isn't mentioned in the description of this anime, but I recalled literally one of the tags Shiki has on its page is "Vampire" so I think this is fine.

  Shiki is a horror anime--

  

  ...Shiki is a horror anime.

  

  The joke here is that apparently someone actually rightfully added horror to Shiki's genres at some point after I started the process of writing this review.

  Anyhow, It was originally a 1998 novel by Fuyumi Ono about vampires, then a manga with art being done by Ryu Fujisaki, and then it finally got an anime a whole twelve years following the original novel. Before we start, I'd like to state that I had at one point given up on this show. I did like three or four episodes, stopped, and only returned over a year later completely on a whim. Boy, did I feel dumb when I found out what the rest of this show had in wait for me.

  

  Impatience is bad. Because when I did return, I found out that literally the very next episode after the one I had stopped at, was when it began to start getting good for me. I suppose I had just became paranoid of build-up in things. Shiki starts pretty slow and just very gradually builds up, builds up, and builds up. Is it a perfect pay off in the end? No, I definitely had some problems, but there's a huge amount I just thought was completely glorious... and, as it turns out, this anime actually ended up giving me a scene that I genuinely think is perhaps one of my favorite scenes in anything I've ever seen.

  It's wonderful. But I'll get to that later. First, let's dial it back a little bit, and start with the concept and... a little bit of Bram Stoker's Dracula. That wasn't just a one bit joke, it actually has relevancy.

  Barring perhaps some sequences and the fact that this show is generally about vampires (its page literally has the "Vampire" tag and it becomes very obvious within a few episodes anyhow), since this is an anime I love, all outright spoilers will be outright tagged although there'll be a whole section on that previously mentioned scene that will be nothing but spoilers though they'll all be marked.

  THOUGH, IN GENERAL, I THINK SHIKI IS ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE ANIME YOU SHOULD JUST WATCH WITHOUT READING MUCH ABOUT IT BEFOREHAND. JUST SAYIN'.

  

  ---

  Vampires. What are they?

  Bram Stoker's Dracula was as far as I went into the realm of vampires (I Am Legend by Richard Matheson was pretty good too) and whatnot. They're not exactly my favorite horror creature, is I guess what I'm saying here. Although, I did genuinely love Dracula when I read it. Really got into the "YEAH LET'S FUCKING KILL THIS EVIL VAMPIRE" spirit. Anyhow, in Dracula, it's pretty clear, cut, and dry that the vampires are monstrous and evil beings that are in fact monsters.

  Count Dracula has no humanity whatsoever. He is a monstrous supernatural being who wishes to feed on humans while spreading the vampire curse as far as he can.

  "I saw... Count Dracula... with red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of." ~Dracula by Bram Stoker

  Shiki... is an attempt to do Dracula while making the vampires still be capable of various human emotions and feelings. They're capable of suffering, happiness, anger, sadness, etc. My biggest worry with Shiki as I was watching it that sort of began to grow after a certain point was Shiki was going to attempt to get the viewers to feel bad for the vampires. Which wouldn't have worked because in the end, they're still doing all of the horrible vampire shit and they straight up have a Dracula-esque leader who, while toned down, is still spreading the vampire curse.

  Thankfully, they don't go too crazy with it. As in... they don't try to erase the fact that it was the vampires who started it all. At no point do the vampires make any effort or attempt to on a wide scale peacefully coexist with the humans. Actually, when one of the humans try to bring this up, one of the vampires straight up says "no, it's in our nature to hunt humans."

  Unfortunately for them, humans are capable of being horrifically violent as well. Also need to point out, while I was negative towards the idea of it, the "vampire sympathy" idea isn't a complete flat line.

  There was a point where I went, "okay yeah they're monsters, but this is fucked up."

  

  ---

  So Much Build Up

  

  I kind of love and hate this aspect of Shiki and was probably part of the reason why I initially gave up on it. Throughout the entire show, it's hammered home that people just seem to keep getting really sick and dying a few days later. "Everybody's dying or moving away!" There is just so much of that in the entire show. On one hand, I feel like they may have overdone it... but on the other hand, with what happens towards the end of the show... if all of that had just happened without all of that build up, the impact would definitely not have been as great.

  

  Additionally, it definitely felt satisfying when the vampires (I should really be calling them shiki because that's the name the vampires are eventually given in the show, but I'm just gonna stick with vampires for convenience) started being shown more and more because at that point, so many people have gone "missing" that you can't help but wonder how the fuck anything is still operating in the town. There's that great scene where two of the vampires are hunting a human and the human makes it someone else's house and starts pounding on the door begging for help.

  A lady opens the door and it turns out she's a vampire and just casually greets the two vampires that starts to drag the man away into the darkness. I loved that scene so much. It's just a meal to the vampires and hey it's not like they're doing anything too terrible. After all, their victim might "rise" afterward and they'd have immortality for the low price of just feeding a couple of vampire youths...

  ...The only cost of said immortality is being forced to feed on other humans and having to avoid the sun for the rest of eternity.

  

  ---

  A Brief Note on the Characters

  

  A part of me really wants to get into the characters of Shiki, but there are several reasons why I will not. To discuss the characters at length, for several characters, I would have to spoiler tag quite a lot of it to not give away who ends up dying or becomes a vampire. Additionally, Shiki has a huge amount of characters to the point where a part of me initially kind of disliked it, but it turned out that all of the extra minor characters that were either there to flesh out the town or die or become vampires don't actually detract from... the main cast you're actually meant to focus on.

  In fact, I really do love that there are all those extra or reappearing minor characters, because it does actually feel like a village and really adds to the impact when the town starts to become emptier and emptier during the day. With all this being said, I can't pass by without at least doing something, so I've arranged both my top five favorite Shiki characters as well as my top five least favorite Shiki characters. Without outright giving away who exactly is what.

  They're in ascending order, from right to left. Starting with the negative ones...

  

  I can't even go into my reasons for any of these without having a huge amount of spoiler tags thrown about, but I should mention that fucker on the farthest left is at least fifty percent of why I initially gave up on Shiki. Do not do this, trust me. He is NOT a main character, and I think one of the only positives of his character is that almost all of the other characters find him insufferable as well. Additionally, the only reason the one on the farthest right is there is solely because his entire character contradicts the previously stated idea that humanity and Shiki cannot coexist AT ALL without either side hunting the other.

  As for the positives...

  

  These guys, probably at least some of them, are showing up in other sections or have ALREADY shown up. So I'm not even gonna bother here. I just wanted to throw this out here to get the point across that there are some very bad/infuriating/flawed characters in Shiki, but there are also some very good ones.

  There are protagonists as well as antagonists in each list. One very good protagonist, one protagonist that feels wasted. One very good antagonist, one antagonist that is a complete let down. Etc.

  

  ---

  An Effective Horror

  

  Jump scares are not... inherently awful. They can be done in an effective or fun way, and they can be done in a completely obnoxious way. Just like how gore can be done in a fun and over the top way for the sake of gore, but it can also be done in a way that has impact. Especially if you actually care about the characters that it's happening to.

  Horror can be done over the top and silly, where's there a spooky monster chasing you down screaming to the top of its lungs BOO! BOO! over and over again, or a strange man wearing a mask invites you into his murder dungeon where he'll ask you to cut your own arm off to try and get a key or something. But horror can also be done with an atmosphere, and genuinely make you feel unsettled or anxious for the characters, or sometimes just make you feel bad or disgusted.

  Sure, there can also be a monster roaming around that's after you, but it could be stalking you while in the darkness, watching your every step and just waiting for the right moment to reach out and grab at your throat. You're simply running down the street during a rainstorm enjoying your days of childhood while following your little paper boat, but there's a pair of eyes gleaming in the darkness staring out at you from the darkness through a sewer drain.

  

  Shiki... is I think perhaps the most effective attempt at a horror anime I've seen so far. It creates an atmosphere that is almost suffocating at points. "The village is getting emptier and emptier!" and "The sickness just seems to be spreading..." and so forth almost the entire goddamned show. But the entire time, you, the audience are well aware, that there is without a doubt another force at play here in the shadows of this village that seems bent on thinning the numbers of the living.

  But in addition to the gradually increasing disappearances as well as the seemingly completely unchecked sickness rampantly spreading throughout the village, there was always that feeling like there's something there watching. There are actually numerous scenes or moments throughout Shiki that I really felt were either genuinely creepy or unsettling. Like one of the first vampire attacks we get to see, the victim turns and he just sees the vampire dropping down at him in the darkness.

  

  Normal jump scares try to be very loud because the noise helps startle the viewer. Just like out of nothing but silence, there's a loud noise while simultaneously a monster leaps at the screen! But with Shiki, it's mostly silent even when they show the vampire dropping toward his victim. I didn't leap out of my seat because my ears were bombarded by a loud noise, but I did feel a tad unsettled because from this demonstration, the viewer is shown that the vampires are SILENT hunters and that's how they've been able to operate with the villagers more or less completely fooled into thinking it's just a pandemic. Additionally, I also just genuinely think that the idea of something dropping down on me that remains entirely silent until it has me is way more terrifying than like a demon faced monster or a creepy girl standing down in a dark hallway that's gonna lunge at me with that janky "horror running" while screaming. But I don't know, that's just my personal preferences...

  Additionally, there are several sequences or scenes where like a character is fearful that someone is walking around outside, and like we're visually shown what this character is imagining happening outside. We're not shown who or what is walking around out there, and I think that is wonderful. Those scenes are wonderful. Because we are being treated with what the character is experiencing. Who the fuck is out there?

  

  The vampires in Shiki are a fantastic "horror monster" because not only do they not immediately show up, but like I previously said, there is a hell of a lot of build up before you really start seeing them around in full force. But perhaps one of the things I like the most about them is while they can be downright terrifying towards the humans they hunt, they just have ordinary conversations with other vampires like they never died and became such in the first place.

  

  Also I brought up Dracula because some of the characters in Shiki do the classic scene of them going to dig up the grave of a person whose funeral they ALL had attended, to see if the corpse was actually still there. My memories of Dracula are vague as I read it years ago now, but I am positive that the human characters in that do something similar to once and for all prove the existence of vampires. Likewise, they eventually have to figure out how to kill a vampire...

  The viewer can of course just yell at the screen "STAKE IT IN THE GODDAM HEART OR TRAP IT IN SUNLIGHT, THEY'RE VAMPIRES" but the characters themselves are just now discovering that not only vampires are real, but the entire village is full of them.

  The entire sequence when a character actually starts to try and figure out how to actually kill the vampires is probably one of my favorite sequences out of all of Shiki. Because while yes, it's a bit overboard, it's fucking amazing. Especially because we also clearly see that what the character's doing is having a huge effect on him, when he's elsewhere and around the other characters.

  Additionally, you also have the whole "there's a fucking huge threat and I'm going to try and warn everyone about it, but they're not going to believe me and that's going to piss the vampires off" thing going on. Like you have this one doctor who's fucking trying to deal with this mysterious epidemic that is killing literally ALL of his patients... what do you think he's gonna do if he finds out that it's not an epidemic but rather an actual force or group of entities that are causing everyone to die?

  He's going to try and solve the problem, even if everybody laughs in his face, and then the vampires put him in the numero uno spot on the KILLING LIST.

  OF COURSE THE DOCTOR IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER.

  

  ---

  The Soundtrack

  Sweet mother of Christ.

  In most of my reviews and I guess just generally, I more or less really don't pay a huge deal of attention to the soundtrack. Mostly I suppose I only really do it when it's one of the two extremes: amazing or awful. There are some exceptions though, and Shiki is one of them. I couldn't do this review without at some point bringing up the soundtrack.

  There's only so many ways I can word it's amazing but like... emotional, creepy, haunting, quiet, there's a bit of everything in it and it just all works. Like the most recent horror movie I watched, while I genuinely think it's probably one of the better horror movies I've watched in recent time, the soundtrack was...

  While there were several portions of it I liked a great deal, there are various moments where it just suddenly starts blasting because that part of the track is where a jump scare happens. If it actually just gradually ramps up, it's fine. But if it's just quiet and creepy and then BAM the horror sounds cut in, then it's not fine.

  Shiki's soundtrack doesn't have any of that, and it's perfect. IT'S PERFECT. As a matter of fact, my favorite scene out of all of Shiki would not work anywhere near as well if the corresponding track didn't work and fit perfectly with the scene.

  Also, Shiki's first opening is probably one of my favorite openings of all. To the point where even when I at first FOOLISHLY gave up on the show, I searched for and downloaded the full version of the song. Please do not follow my example. It's illegal. Please do not break the law PLEASE.

  ---

  Are Vampires Monsters?

  

  It's important to stress that while this is a show about vampires and there are clear similarities between this and Dracula, that unlike in Dracula, the vampires created by the original vampire/s are not hypnotized to do their bidding. As a result of this, the Shiki vampires DO have an "enforcer" vampire to keep them all in line (at one point, threatening a newly awakened vampire who is hesitant about drinking blood which he has to do now to live by stating that he'd throw him out into the sun if he didn't drink), but they all have their free will intact. Interestingly enough, a lot of their problems would have been solved if this simply hadn't been the case. But obviously if they had simply been hypnotized and their free will stolen from them, the idea of creating a community of vampires would have immediately fallen on its face.

  So, imagine one of these vampires. They may or may not have been someone you knew or even a family member, and they are not inherently monstrous. Sure, they can no longer go out into the sunlight ever again, and they'll starve to death if they don't drink human blood. BUT, they're more or less the same person as before and can speak and think rationally and freely.

  Now imagine trying to catch that person, hold them down, and nail a wooden stake through their heart. Or simply catch them and throw them outside when the sun comes up to burn them to death. All while they're pleading for you to stop or even begging for their lives.

  The idea of "doing Dracula" while having the vampires more or less retain their humanity and there's no ultimate evil vampire lord to slay is far more brilliant than it has any right to be. But it mostly works. Especially when the typical idea of how you would kill a vampire isn't toned down AT ALL.

  

  But again, while it's to survive, the vampires are feeding off of and murdering humans. Rather, they use their vampire hypnosis to force their victims to allow them in (not being able to enter a place without being invited in is another vampire thing) for additional feedings beyond the first until their victim dies and then their victim rises as a new vampire or stays dead. They're forcing their victims to willingly let them in. Obviously... the humans are gonna be a little upset if they find out, and any thoughts of these vampires being past friends and relatives are gonna mostly go out of the window.

  Mind you, there ARE some vampires who can't bring themselves to actually go out and hunt, but any possible innocence is lost when they drink blood that the other much more active vampires supply for them.

  Additionally, most of the vampires that do hunt usually start out with their own families which... is fucked up a couple of different levels. There was a certain scene that really fucked me up where a vampire basically has her hypnotized relative come outside to her, and then not only does she bite her, but a bunch of the other vampires emerge from the darkness and just fucking FEAST.

  That got me pretty good, I'm not even going to lie. Like the idea of just luring a former loved one WHO HAS BEEN MOURNING OVER YOUR SUPPOSED DEATH out into the darkness so you and your vampire brood can feed is fucked. It's just fucked. Thus, when things started going south for the vampires later on...

  Like what did they expect? Sure, humans kill and eat animals all the time but it's not like the animals WANT to be eaten. The humans may or may not have went a bit overboard and crossed some lines themselves, but the vampires themselves were pushing the thought process that humans and vampires couldn't coexist.

  Oh, and that whole part where we're shown a funeral at the newly opened funeral home that's in actuality ran by a vampire was amazing. Because we're clearly shown that since they treat the funeral like a literal celebration/party, that's how they think of death. Since the vampire running the funeral home is now essentially immortal, it's not like he has any need or reason to take death seriously. If anything, they're basically celebrating the possibility of the entrance of a new vampire into the world...

  ---

  Gore Can Have a Purpose

  

  Gore! I love gore! Saw, Final Destination, Nightmare on Elm Street, Child's Play, slasher movies, tons and tons of other general horror movies... I'm a big fan of the gore! Gratuitous, senseless, random, and unneeded gore! Decapitations, dismemberment, heads exploding, faces melting, self mutilation, disemboweling! All good stuff! Just... if you're gonna do cannibalism, just please don't... go in that direction.

  But you know what I love more than random and gratuitous gore? Gore that has a purpose, gore when it is used sparingly enough to really have an impact. When a show starts almost immediately with the gore right away... like you already revealed your hand! You already revealed your hand! But when you start slow and actually introduce your characters, introduce your setting, and you've got the atmosphere going...

  

  When the carnage really starts, it feels appropriate and doesn't feel like complete schlock. Not to mention there's an actual effective trigger moment, and while I felt like I was waiting the entire show for that moment to happen, it wasn't an unpleasant wait. Then afterward, there's no going back. It is more or less COMPLETE carnage from that moment on.

  And one of the reappearing minor characters that you think is just another part of the village becomes a hulking walking AVATAR OF VIOLENCE and is eventually covered in blood from his feet to his head. I thought nothing of this character early on, but GEEZ. He sure... gets his hands bloody!

  Also, the two OVA episodes Shiki has both take place in this later part of the show and contribute even more to the carnage! What are your favorite type of OVAs? Fan service, extra character interactions, anime original episodes???

  "Uh no, my favorite type of OVA is the sort that primarily features DEEEEEEEEEEEEEATH."

  My favorite scene actually from one of these OVA episodes. Thus, it's not even a part of what's considered the "main carnage"... like it's actually mentioned in the main episodes, but TECHNICALLY, you can watch the final episodes without watching the OVAs.

  Absolutely do NOT do that, though.

  ---

  Not Entirely Flawless

  

  There are SOME flies in the ointment. For instance, the vampire responsible for spreading the vampire curse is... well, a huge disappointment. They don't really do much, to be honest. Additionally, I don't know if there was more to their backstory in the novel or the manga, but it was pretty... lackluster, what we got in the anime. They didn't seem like they should have been the "Dracula" so to speak. But at least we had the "enforcer" character... would have totally been fine if he had been more of the... main antagonist, I suppose.

  Additionally, I consider them not having the "Dracula" die in the end as a dropping of the ball. That whole portion of the end was the largest thing that soured me on the ending. Granted, I suppose I can see some reasons for it... admittedly, since she was turned into a vampire as a child, I sort of predicted she was gonna make it out in the end. In fact, I was honestly surprised when she actually got hurt AT ALL. However, the ending kind of worsens one of the already pretty bad characters of Shiki because it's clear that the sole reason why the priest character was still around was because there had to be someone still alive to save little girl vampire in the end. Actually, to add extra salt to the wound, he apparently just happened to rise as one of the super vampires... yeah, it sure would be hard to be able to smuggle vampire girl safely if her chaperone would burn to death in sunlight.

  

  Furthermore, one of the two protagonist characters, is I think another one of the weakest parts of Shiki. Specifically, the purple haired one, Natsuno. But I don't think it's that huge of a problem because of how comparatively strong the doctor protagonist is. Still, it's worth discussing...

  In the first half or chunk of Shiki, I kind of really liked Natsuno. He's kind of flipping out to the extent that he's one of the first ones who seriously considers the possibility that the "Risen" are actually a thing, and actually does have the grit to grab a shovel and tell his friends, "Let's go see if this corpse is still in its coffin." He's even the one who floats the idea of humans and vampires coexisting out there, only for it to immediately shot down. Then, in the second half of the show after he is believed to have been killed but was actually turned into one of the vampires that can actually walk around during day, he just outright vanishes from the show entirely. I get that in actuality, he's watching stuff from the shadows, but to the viewer... he just suddenly shows up again after being gone for a while wearing a coat and oh... now he's one of the "super" vampires! Plus, he's gonna help doctor protagonist reveal the other vampires so they can all get wiped out, and then he sacrifices himself to trap the enforcer vampire in a corpse pit where they are then exploded to death. His final line "I've been dead for a long time" is supposed to come off as badass I think, but I could only think WE DIDN'T EVEN SEE YOUR ASS ACTUALLY RISE AS A VAMPIRE. WASTED CHARACTER.

  To be honest, those are really the only negatives I had with Shiki. I mean it's not like they're small things, but in the grand scheme of things... one of the protagonists and the main antagonist being disappointments or wastes is overshadowed by everything else.

  ---

  Favorite Scene

  Unlike a bunch of my other reviews, in which I usually describe entire characters and scenes I really liked or disliked in detail, with Shiki I tried to restrain myself from doing this as much as possible. Not only is it because I truly do love this show, but also because I genuinely do think the less you know about the show, the more you'll get out of it. But there is one scene that I must go into because it's perfect and I love it to the point I have rewatched the scene itself after actually finishing Shiki probably an unhealthy amount of times.

  It is probably one of my overall favorite scenes out of all of the anime I've watched and etc. It's basically a crystallization of everything I love about this show as well as the sort of "horror" I really like. However, it's a part of the very end of the show, so I can't really go into it without spoilers.

  Do not read/look at the spoiler if you're going to watch Shiki and have remained more or less unspoiled on it. Because this scene is best experienced without having seen or read about it, but I cannot complete this review without going into this scene so...

  

  ~!This scene, or rather, the entire OVA episode 20.5, is why after the doctor protagonist (Ozaki) and the vampire enforcer (Tatsumi), a relatively minor supporting character makes it to the third place of my favorite Shiki characters. Her name is Nao, and she is one of the relatively early first victims of the vampire attacks. She and her husband are both killed, but only Nao arises as a newly awakened vampire.

  Nao and various other villagers, after they are turned into vampires, begin to hunt their mourning family members. First of all, they make good and easy targets. But secondly, it's easier to get them to hunt by making them believe they're simply trying to get their family to join them on the other side. Which is something that Nao wholeheartedly chooses to wish for and believe in. But the tragedy of it is of course, that there is no guarantee that they'll actually rise. Therefore essentially, throughout the show, Nao singlehandedly kills her entire family one by one. Her husband's parents, her son...

  And none of them rise. When Megumi, one of the especially crueler vampires begins to freak out since Tatsumi has planned Natsuno's death (whom she was obsessed with prior to even becoming a vampire) and Nao tries to comfort Megumi by saying he might arise as a vampire, Megumi fires back with the knowledge that not a single member of Nao's family has yet to arise, causing her to fall into tears on the spot.

  Then finally, once the vampires have finally been revealed, and the humans have begun slaughtering them, she and some other of the vampires try to flee the town through this pipe system. But vampires go to sleep when the sun arises, so the humans are hot on their trail and are still slumbering. Granted, they awake when it becomes night, so they manage to resume fleeing before the humans have fully gotten over the hang ups of what they're doing which is essentially a SLAUGHTER of their former friends and neighbors. We have one human character named Hasegawa who we're shown to have known Nao before her transformation and he is VERY much in conflict about what they're doing, even as he continues to get splattered in blood as the other humans around him begin to start laughing as one of the first vampires they kill wakes up screaming as they put the stake through his heart. Meanwhile, we have Nao who between the fear of being killed and having had killed her entire family without them rising, has begun to hallucinate the spirits of her victims.

  Nao and Hasegawa briefly encounter each other in the sewers while the other humans and vampires enter a struggle, and we can see clearly from the way the two react to each other that they remember meeting each other before. Nao doesn't bother to actually attack Hasegawa and simply runs away, and Hasegawa simply lets her go while still clutching onto his cross that had protected him from another vampire who HAD possessed a full intent on killing him.

  

  Finally, we come to the actual scene of Nao and the other vampires choosing to try their chances by fleeing via a smaller and more narrow pipe of the underground rather than further try their chances with resisting against the humans, who have now killed so many vampires they have ran out of stakes. As they crawl along the pipe in the darkness, Nao begins to break down and claim that this is her punishment for killing her family. The vampire behinds her tries to assuage her of her guilt as he says she did what she did to survive, like all the other vampires did.

  

  However, this scene has Nao admitting herself that she wanted to change back. But because she couldn't, she tried to bring them to their side. As she is dragged away into the darkness as the second to last vampire to be removed from the pipe, she realizes as she sees a hallucination of her dead husband that she'll never ever see her family again. They've all died and gone on, but as the vampire who killed her own son and parents-in-law, she likely has no reason to believe there's a paradise in her future following being executed along the rest of the vampires. The pure horror in her face and scream as she looks back and sees the ghost of her son Susumu holding down her leg rather than the vampire hunter who has caught her is... amazing.

  

  I really loved the solution the humans came up with when realizing they had run out of stakes as well. Not only is it a genuinely simple and rational decision to decide to just tie and leave the remaining vampires outside for the sun to deal with, it is also horribly cruel. The vampires thrashing about like worms and screaming in agony as the rising sun begins to burn their flesh as the other humans who are all drenched in blood by that point just stand around watching is wonderful. Combined with the perfect timing of the music (aka the track I specifically put in the soundtrack section of this review), the entire scene and its emotional impact is just... PERFECT.

  

  But then, THEN, we see Hasegawa's reaction to the vampires burning. His shoulders are twitching and we can see the horror clearly displayed on his face, but then he just closes his eyes for a second, and then it's as if he LITERALLY killed his emotions like the other human characters were talking about doing earlier in the episode. Because he then picks up the sharpened metal pipe the other guy had been using, and very calmly walks around and starts impaling vampire after vampire, putting their suffering to an end. The other humans notice and don't understand (apart from his wife) what he's doing ("I told him we could stop, but..."). They had perfectly been willing to just let the vampires keep burning to death because they had already detached themselves and ceased seeing them as humans. They didn't see what Hasegawa was doing as what it was. Mercy.

  

  Hasegawa finally makes it to Nao who simply turns toward him with most of her face burned and melting, and she simply smiles and begins to laugh in a horrifyingly sad way. Before she was dragged off from the pipe, she was screaming and struggling and begging to live. Now, as death approaches her, she simply smiles. Silently and quickly, Hasegawa puts an end to Nao's suffering, and collapses and falls into tears.

  

  This scene manages to be a great horror scene, have a deeply effective emotional impact, and also to even have great gore. Sure, the gore is mostly just characters getting stabbed with an iron pipe and a bit of melting and burning faces but... what would I rather have? Amazing and flashy gore with no emotional impact happening to characters I could give less than two fucks about? OR... simple but effective gore done with emotional weight happening to characters I'm actually able to sympathize with despite them being more or less monsters? Like the atmosphere of the vampires crawling along in that cramped, dark, and dirty pipe as the humans outside sing as they periodically drag a vampire away into the darkness... everything about the scene works harmoniously together. I mean, Nao lured her mourning mother in law outside into the darkness and then made a vampire buffet out of her, yet I'm still able to get this much of an emotional reaction out of her death because we get to see the aftermath of her killing her own family and her realization that she IS a monster, although the original transformation into a vampire was entirely forced upon her, she did choose to feed... as well as try to take her family with her.

  I can't end this section without mentioning the beautifully done flashback scene between Nao getting dragged off into the darkness and then all the vampires being tied up to be left for the sun to finish off. The flashback had an actual purpose for happening, and it transitioning back to the present when past Hasegawa says "Everybody here is just so nice" while LITERAL TRUCKS ARE DRIVING ENTIRE LOADS OF VAMPIRE CORPSES AWAY. That's how you do a goddamned flashback.

  !~

  ---

  Conclusion

  10 out of 10. Not joking here at all. My opinions sometime shift and change, but I don't think Shiki will ever fully leave my top ten shows, no matter how it may change overall in the future. Mind you, I'm perfectly willing to admit and have even somewhat gone into some flaws I do think are present within Shiki, but there is just... there are just so many scenes and sequences that I just outright love. Even the worst/most wasted characters are just completely overshadowed in my opinion by the really REALLY cool/good ones.

  Additionally, I also fucking have to respect the series as a whole because it actually does vampires perfectly. Covers the actual conflicts and the reactions to transforming into a being that can only ever go out during night and have to actually feed on human blood to survive, the actual horror of humans being stalked or hunted by vampires, and the actually grisly thought of undergoing the procedure of KILLING a vampire. Out of all of the horror monsters of yore, vampires got a raw fucking deal, so it's cool that this thing that does vampires PERFECTLY exists.

  Until I stumble upon some obscure never heard of horror anime that's amazing, Shiki is hands down my favorite horror anime. I wish I hadn't initially given up on it and then... went off and watched another show. Perhaps watching that show deepened my capability of appreciating everything Shiki is when I came back to it like a year later.

  Shiki is the best horror anime (so far).

  
  Continue on AniList
• 

  biogundam

  65/100
  sop opera with vampires

  Warning: this review contains spoilers.

  First impressions: Before i got into this show, I’d heard it was one of the best horror anime ever to come out of the anime medium. Not only that, but and it has a lot of thematic depth and grey morality and hearing that kinda got me interested. It's about a small town and there odd things going down with people dying by a mysterious sickness and there apparently sighting of the recently departed hanging around town at night.

  Story,5/10
  During a normal summer in the small rural town named Sotoba, all seems well. But after this new family has moved in there has been Theses case of mysterious deaths that have Been happening in the village With people dropping like flies. the local doctor Toshio is trying his best to find the root cause of these deaths with the help of his best friend the local monk named Seishin While there investigating. Local City boy Natsuno Yuuki has this feeling that someone is watching him after the mysterious death of his best friend toru and his local stalker Megumi. So are these deaths caused by some mysterious virus or is something more sinister afoot. Well spoiler alert it's actually vampires. So to start off there is a general consensus in quite a few circles that anime and horror don't really mix well and feel that Shiki is no exception to that mindset, because even if it's a more realistic take on vampires in a modern setting. I wasn't really scared and the only reason I kept watching was that I felt was a small case of morbid curiosity to see where the story would go. Because at face value it has quite a bit going for it theme-wise as it talks about survival, criticisms of human society and the evils of humanity. Which honestly has been done to death already at this point in time and done better but I digress. Now I feel that Shiki does a great job of building up its story the first few episodes of Shiki are probably some of the best episodes setup wise and when I first originally watched this show I had this feeling of morbid curiosity as I wondered what was going to happen next, and shiki does a very good at pulling you in and getting you intrigued in a similar vein to Higurashi where you don't really know what's happening and your just along for the ride.
  Now when it comes to the conflict between the humans and the Shiki which is the main focus, I feel from a collectivist standpoint both sides are pretty much as bad as each other in my viewpoint of morality, ethics and etc.
  But from an individual standpoint i would say certain characters are more justified in their actions and behavior than others, because most of the people in this village are to put it nicely are assholes during life and during unlife. one of the villagers who becomes a shiki is actually a pedophhie who exclusively targets little boys and one villager who is so xenophobic towards outsiders to such a degree that she would even make the ku klux klan seem tolerant by comparison, so none of these people is innocent or clean as some people may think and it kinda takes away the moral ambiguity of the conflict as human/shiki seem to use this conflict to justfly there inhuman acts towards each over. Which causes the major underlying issues that I have with Shiki is that it tries to play off as an emotional series with deep themes to make it seem mature. but handling wise it's anything but, because it pretty much plays out like a slice of life/ soap opera with vampires and it not like I am against this more emotional driven narrative but the problem is it doesn't really work past a gimmick, when they try to expand upon the story you start seeing these big holes in logic, which evidently makes me not care about what happens.
  Like to list a few examples of things not making sense, One of main themes of shiki is survival and the reason i bring this up is It was established that Shiki take at least a cup worth of blood per feeding until the person dies or becomes a shiki. yet why didn't the shiki just cycle through different people in rotation, because if your a shiki who doesn't want to kill humans then surely that's a more efficient way of survive with the added bonus of not having an angry mob after you. Because what's the worst that could happen? cases of mild anaemia popping up at random.
  when I think about that's it kinda makes the grey morality conflict kinda Null and void and any drama that comes from it now feels forced and to make it worse. I have seen people trying to defend it by saying the shiki had no choice and the humans are truly evil for trying to defend themselves against the bloodsucking undead that will suck them dry.

  Another example is the main villains the Kirishiki goal of making a vampire village so that shiki can have a home and not have to worry about humans, that all well and good but my question is how exactly is this vampire village going to work exactly if they don't have any blood. I know that people will say they can just kidnap people from other towns, But people will notice. For the basic reason, that soba doesn't the ecosystem to support such a village in the long run and to prove my point sotaba was a village with give or take 300 people and when the local shiki set up shop in the span of a few months they reduced the local population by half With an attrition rate like that they would have a better chance of making a vampire ghetto in a city than a village in the countryside.
  Also even though they wanted to make this vampire village they seem to be doing things that are very counterproductive. because it's also established that Shiki can mind control anyone they have bitten, so why didn't the shiki just bite everyone and then mind control people to do what they want. Which is more safer and easier than killing people to build up this undead population. Because having a bunch of the undead running around at night is totally not suspicious at all?

  The other little nitpicks i have is that this series, is that I wish it had more episodes because there are actually scenes that were cut out from this series and to add insult to injury the scenes that were cut out had a lot of background details. which takes away from the experience as a whole and makes it seems hollow.
  I also feel that shiki supernatural elements are poorly defined as a result and also the fact the original source material never expanded upon it, like what makes a person rise up as a shiki or in some cases transform into super vampires with cheat mode enabled. The only thing we know about shiki is that they defy medical science along with other laws of nature and that only the special snowflake people get to rise up or if you're super special snowflake transform. Which translates to plot convince and plot holes as the definition of special is very vague and allows anything to happen.
  It would have nice been if they had said that humans with certain personality traits, morals and life philosophies that aren't common or strays from the norm have a higher chance of becoming a Shiki because of X and Y reasons. That's would be more grounded and it also makes you think what kind of person are these characters really underneath all the surface level social interactions and obligations, but no we couldn't have depth or good writing. when you take away the creep factor and the horror element this series dose feel like twilight the animation.

  Characters: 6/10
  There are three Main Characters in this series, so I’m going to talk about each of them separately, rather than as a group. First main character, Natsuno Yuuki is this emo/loner teenager with a heart of gold, something I initially found slightly interesting and out of the main cast I could relate to him the most in some ways, but which disappointed me all the more, when he turned out to be, by far the weakest link out of all the series’ mains. Even though he’s most certainly better written than your usual highschool protagonist, outside of that, he isn't really that interesting, because of his lackluster handling. To add insult to injury, after 11 episode they kinda drop the ball on him and don’t give him the screen time he deserves afterwards, even though he continues throughout the story to play a big role. it like they didn't know what to do with his character so they decided to push him to the sidelines and also out of the main characters he is the one that gets the least development and fleshing out. he pretty much treated like background character after a certain point and I didn't really like it. Considering he had some potential because of what type of person he is and what happens to him in the series. but in practice, this potential wasn't fully realized.

  Second main character Toshio Ozaki Who is very determined and serious about this job as the local doctor, as he will go through whatever it takes to make sure his patients are safe and healthy. even if he sometimes he comes of as rough around the edges And throughout the events of the series he goes through so much pain and turmoil because for once in his life he doesn't have the answers and he can't do anything to stop these mysterious deaths and the vampires behind it. In fact his inability to stop these mysterious deaths pushes him to the braking point of where the lines of human/inhuman really start to blur for him as a person Which was very interesting and asks the question for his character how far is he willing to go to protect the villagers at the cost of his own humanity. Which he learns the hard way and has to live with his actions for the rest of his days as he almost loses everything in his blind pursuit of justice which I find quite funny in a very tragic and ironic way because a doctor duty was to protect and save lives but now you have a doctor who is now destroying and taking the (un)lives of the former villagers he once tried to protect.

  Now the last main character seishin Muroi who is the local priest and on off writer in the village. Who on outside seems like a pretty calm and well-natured guy basically he like the total opposite of the dr Ozaki. but underneath this calm exterior lies is a very deep rooted hatred for the village that has made him and his father life miserable because of the roles there were assigned to in their local community without any choice or anyway to escape from it and he also a person with a very bleak outlook on life which was created by his environment,Which probably makes him one of the more interesting characters in the series and also goes through some pretty nice development and fleshing out which was pushed along with his friendship with Sunako, who is probably one of few individuals that truly understands him . This relationship and the dr actions eventually leads to him having an a ultimatum forced upon him, He can give up his morals and save the village that he Hates or keep to his morals and pursue his only chance at freedom. Of course I am not going to tell you what choice he picked but his inner conflict to reach a conclusion was very interesting to watch and also does well from a thematic standpoint as one of the series other themes is how human society places roles on people and expect people to stick to those roles whether you want to or not.

  So when it comes to side characters. I feel this series sufferers from the same issue that Tokyo ghoul had where they have a lot of characters with personalities and etc but not enough time is focused on them for character fleshing out or character development, and it doesn't really help when most of the supporting cast feels very distant and it hard to feel invested emotionally,especially when the horror element of the series is banking so much for you to care about these characters. why should i feel bad or care about characters that i don't really know. the only few characters i cared about was toru who becomes consumed with guilt after murdering his best friend who tried to help him or Ritsuko the local nurse who goes out of her way not to feed on anyone because she would rather die than willingly bring harm others so she could live and these characters are the most human and some of the more realistic characters in the series. But the other shiki didn't really consider the consequences of their actions until it was to late, like for example Megumi who like many of the characters were strong armed into becoming shiki yet she takes the whole vampire thing way too far. Like I understand that she has to drink blood to live and she kinda a bitch but does she really need to start enjoy killing people which also included her former loved ones like some demented sadist. I understand there was more introspection in the original source for her character, but it sure as hell isn't in this anime and I think it was quite needed. It would have been interesting to see considering what she becomes. Because there still things she cares about like her one-sided love/obsession with Natsuno, which showcases she's isn't just a heartless monster she just kinda a bitch.

  Last thing I want to talk about is the kinda the main villain Sunako. Who isn't exactly evil per say she more like an anti-villain because nothing in her personality or actions really scream evil to me.The goal of having a vampire village so her kind could have a place to call home and not be threatened by humans is quite a noble goal and I am pretty sure lots of people would do the same if being put in her shoes and the humanity still with her is more fleshed out with her relationship and interaction with seishin. But the problem is that even though she lived for about 100+ she has the mental capacity and foresight of a small child and doesn't really understand what exactly she putting people through to reach those goals she’s similar to Peter Pan in that respect because she the girl that never truly grew up, And That's her character in a nutshell. she doesn't truly understand or feel anything for the victims of her actions because at this point her psychology is so alien and disconnected from humanity. but what I dislike is how they're trying to make her overly cute to make her seem more innocent than she actually is and It almost feels at times that they're trying to manipulate your emotions, When It comes to her character as a whole with this very dishonest presentation of her character.

  Art:7/10
  The animation is pretty decent and maintains a very consistent level of quality. Unfortunately, the backgrounds that match it leave a lot to be desired. One of the series’ greatest strengths is the way it occasionally changes the color scheme for certain scenes of tension to create an atmosphere that benefits them. This is by far the most effective visual element the show implements, as it adds a lot more energy to the series as a whole, which also helps you get through some of the slower parts. The artstyle is fine, but I think it's a bit too cartoony and over the top at times with the character’s expressions, which conflicts with the series’ dark and ominous tone. The artstyle’s greatest sin though is in the character designs. While not bad on their own, they’re probably the worst thing they could’ve picked for this show. I mean neon pink hair, purple eyes and hairstyles that look straight out of the 80s aren’t exactly the best thing for a horror show. I’m not even joking when I say there’s a character that looks like he has cat ears, making him perfect husbando material, but simultaneously impossible to take seriously. Details like this make the show lose all credibility as a serious show and instead make it look extremely silly and jarring.

  Sound: 7/10
  First off, the opening songs are alright to listen to on their own, but their pop and rock style doesn't really fit the type show that Shiki is. Even though the lyrics fit the series well, that still doesn't fix the fact that the openings don't fit the tone the series is going for. The ending songs while not really the type of music I’m more partial towards, fit the series way better because they’re more depressing and ominous tone. One notable nitpick is that the opening’s visuals spoil some major plot points, through painfully obvious symbolism. This is unfortunate as it serves to kill a lot of the tension and suspense that is crucial to such a show dead. The ost by Yasuharu Takanashi, who also worked on Fairy Tail, Naruto Shippuden and Sailor Moon Crystal is pretty decent both as a stand-alone and in context. It more often than not, does an incredible job at building up this creepy, eerie and dare I say subtle atmosphere that the show desperately needs. As a matter of fact, I had a member of my family listen to it and she said that it reminds her a lot of the atmosphere that permeates throughout the main body of acclaimed author Stephen King’s novels.
  Sub and dub were alright I didn't really have any complaints about it.

  Enjoyment: 6/10
  I’m a big fan of more or less anything with vampires, social commentary, gray mortality and massive amounts of gore, so needless to say Shiki was right up my alley, despite the fact that I’ve seen series execute the same ideas it brings up better. Besides its basic element that appeal to me though, the ending 4-6 episodes contain some of the best unintentional comedy moments I’ve seen in quite some time. This for the most part, but not exclusively because it just somehow turns into a massive bloodbath, including a huge forest fire, people going on massive paranoia induced freak outs and acts of brutality and cruelty that rival Phantom Blood in that special hammy goodness that we all know and love. Thanks to these final episodes, I was stuck smiling with glee as the show’s cast would turn on each other like wild animals.

  Overall: 6/10
  Shiki is a very mixed bag for me. As a horror series, it's pretty standard for anime in how much it underplays the strengths of the genre. As a thought piece that delves into the diverse and opposing perspectives of the show’s cast for the purpose of blurring the lines of the common perception of morality, it only does so to a rather shallow degree. This is mostly due to the hamfisted nature of the show’s drama, that mostly just comes across as overplayed and pointless, with only the main characters and a few of the side characters aiding in stopping the whole thing from completely falling apart. If you're the type of person that doesn't like senseless gore and the comically pretentious execution of relevant moral dilemmas then you probably shouldn't watch this show. Nevertheless, as far as series with vampires go, Shiki isn't that bad relative to what other series have done with them and even though I have been quite negative about it, I feel that shiki is a fun ride and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants a good time waster.

  Special thanks to my paid in Yugioh cards and slightly pissed editor, Lonecrit for his help on this project.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  TheRealKyuubey

  70/100
  It's like CLAMP was tasked with designing Yugioh characters.

  Something strange has been going on in the quaint village of Sotoba… Ever since those wealthy outsiders built their lavish mansion at the top of Kanemasa Hill, there has been a succession of mysterious deaths. People of all ages will become lethargic and anti-social, refuse to go to the doctor, and then die after only a few days. Could it be an epidemic? Some new disease? And are the rumors true that the dead are still walking around?

  Those newcomers are certainly strange, and Sotoba does have ancient legends about Okomiyagi, or the dead coming back to life… But those are just stories, right?

  Based on a series of novels from 1998, Shiki tells the story of an entire rural Japanese community as it deals with one mysterious death after another, slowly whittling their population down as their efforts to explain it… And hopefully put a stop to it… yield no results, no answers, and an ever diminishing sense of hope. It isn’t until a few open-minded individuals start to consider the supernatural that they finally begin to make some real progress… Unfortunately for them, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.

  With a cast of hundreds like this show has, it’s essential that you set aside a special handful of characters for the audience to follow, so we can explore the story from several different perspectives. Shiki has this requirement covered, as it gives us three very different pairs of eyes to look through. First, we have Natsuno, a disgruntled teenaged boy who’s been forced to move into this village with his new wave, idealistic parents. He despises the village, and refuses to make any long term connections, believing that doing so will make it difficult when they finally move back out. Of course, despite his best efforts, a close circle of friends do form around him. In fact, Megumi… One of the very first people to be killed by the mysterious epidemic… Had an obsessive one sided crush on him. It seems that even death can’t take her away.

  Our second leading role is Toshio Ozaki, the director of the primary hospital in Sotoba. Having taken over the clinic from his deceased father, he’s a driven and tenacious doctor who’s initially baffled by the amount of people inexplicably dying around him, and having come up against a challenge like this, he will stop at nothing to overcome it… And I mean nothing, as his quest for a solution leads to him experiencing and performing some of the cruelest acts imaginable.

  And our final lead is Ozaki’s childhood friend, Seishin Muroi, a local priest and a moderately successful author. His novels tend to be on the poignant side, dealing with subjects like loss, betrayal, and abandonment by God. This attracts the attention of Sunako, the little daughter of the newcomers, who’s apparently a huge fan of his work. He forms a connection with her over time, as his pacifist religious beliefs gradually lead him to develop a sense of sympathy for the beings that his best friend Toshio has sworn to destroy.

  The rest of the cast is made up of smaller roles, the basic types of people you’d expect to see in a tightly-knit little community… You have business owners, rebellious teenagers, concerned parents, comfortable elders, nurses, teachers, happy go lucky children… All of whom deal with the growing problem in their own unique ways. And for such a large cast, the dub is surprisingly on point. It”s a Funimation effort, but it’s a really odd Funimation effort, where the lead characters are all portrayed by actors that you normally wouldn’t see attached to such high profile roles. Toshio is played by David Wald, a long time actor who’s somehow stayed completely off of my radar until just now. I’m going to have to keep an eye out for him in the future, because he rasps and grumbles his way into the jaded, chain smoking doctor as though he was born to play the part.

  Seishin Muroi is played by John Burgmeier, a man who rarely ever steps out from the technical side of a dub for anything other than a bit part. He directs, he writes, but when he acts, his subdued performances are normally outstanding. He plays down-trod, broken men as though it were a second language, and his role in Shiki is probably one of his best voice performances since Gunslinger Girl. Jerry Jewell also does a commendable job on Natsuno Yuuki, and you’ll find pretty much every Funimation voice under the sun sprinkled here and there… Hell, even Anastasia Munoz gets an appearance… but the star of this dub has to be Cherami Leigh, who plays the ominous Sunako, who looks very much like she was taken directly from a Katy Towell cartoon. I wish I could tell you why her performance in this role is so perfect, but to go into detail would mean giving away some serious spoilers.

  There’s at least one bad egg in the dub, however, and surprise surprise, it’s Tia Ballard. Tia plays the role of Megumi Shimizu, a sixteen year old girl who dreams of getting out of her quaint, suffocating home town and going to a college in the big city. And she will not shut up about it. I know that in anime, non conformists are often portrayed as loud, disruptive nuisances, and they did a very thorough job of it with this character. But when you combine that archetype with Tia’s shrill, screechy voice, she single-handedly renders the first episode almost completely unbearable. Thankfully, she only really has a strong presence in this episode. Spoiler… She dies in it.

  Now, when I tell you that this story is about a small group of protagonists struggling to put a stop to the mysterious deaths happening all around them, with ticking clock being their worst enemy, you may think that concept sounds suspiciously familiar. Well, that’s because you’ve seen this same plot before, as Another and Hell Girl: Two Mirrors have both tried… And failed miserably… at making you care about it. But where those two regrettable shows failed, Shiki succeeds with flying colors.

  Unlike Another, Shiki doesn’t make over-the-top, ridiculous spectacles of it’s death scenes, choosing instead to focus on word of mouth and the sad faces of relatives, so that it can liberally float between tragedy and statistic depending on the tone that any given death calls for. And unlike the climactic arc from Hell Girl: Two Mirrors, Shiki paces itself, putting just enough time between each death so that it can drain the hope of the viewer, little by little, as it spirals down towards one hell of a catastrophic ending.

  And with that manipulation of hope, Shiki is one of the most well executed horror anime titles that I have seen in a long time. There’s almost no filler in it’s entire 24 episode run, as every single event that occurs has a distinct purpose, and is placed exactly where it needs to be in the narrative. The first ten or so episodes are admittedly slow, building up the tension in the village to an almost OCD-like degree. Very few answers are found here, as tragic death after tragic death drives the residents to either blind paranoia or complacent acceptance of fate. By the second half, the nature of this menace has been all but revealed to the audience, even as our three main characters slowly come to terms with a truth they know they shouldn’t accept, and with a terrifying threat that comes to face them almost immediately after they come to face it.

  It’s a brilliant, gripping story that will have you skipping through the otherwise beautiful openings and closings just so you can catch the next development as quickly as you possibly can. While you may find yourself hard-pressed to experience any emotional reactions through the majority of the show, as death will inevitably become commonplace in this kind of story, there’s enough disturbing, unsettling material in the final act that will not only horrify you, but will also completely subvert your expectations of a horror series.

  As much as I would love to continue to praise this series, and call it one of the most excellent horror titles I’ve ever seen, I can’t. It’s time to talk about the artwork and animation, and I can already feel my hand reaching out to grab hold of my bottle of Haterade. Why? Because this is one butt ugly show.

  Okay,. maybe that’s not fair of me… It’s not the artwork itself that’s bad, as it doesn’t look sloppy or anything. If anything, the backgrounds and environments are easily on the high end of the scale. No, what I really have problems with is the art design. The characters look ridiculous, with angular faces and giant, cartoony eyes, and so many bizarre, gravity defying hairstyles that even a Pokemon animator would say “Hey, dial it back a bit!” No, you know what? Forget Pokemon. Looking at Shiki’s character designs is like watching someone from Clamp come up with their own Yugioh Spin-off. It would be okay if this were some wacky comedy, but it’s not… Shiki is a mature, dead-serious show that asks you several profound questions and dares you to come up with your own satisfactory answers.

  And if you really want to see this show go from ridiculous to horrifying in the blink of an eye, just wait until one of the characters starts to cry. These characters don’t cry the way normal anime characters cry… They cry thick, opaque marbles of liquid that could make a serious claim at being one of the scariest elements of the show. If you were to take a frame of it out of context, you’d think you were looking at an image from some ill advised Eiken sequel… And no, I am not even remotely joking about that. The art design of this show is distracting as hell, and took me out of the story more times than I can count. And the animation quality is no prize either… It’s one of the cheapest looking shows that Bones has ever produced, and if you know Bones, you know how big a claim that is.

  In spite of this, Shiki is a very strong anime title that has a lot to offer you… It’s bold, thought provoking, and very intense. It succeeds at exploring ideas and concepts that cause other shows to flop face down onto the floor, and if you’re looking for a very broad hint at what these ideas are, one of those floppers is my old arch-nemesis Blood C. Unfortunately, with an irritating first episode and a constant assault of distracting and sometimes even inappropriate eyesores, you have to put up with a lot of abuse to appreciate this show, so I really can’t see it reaching the level of quality that it deserves to. It’s still a great show, and I strongly recommend checking it out, but I can’t give it any higher than a 7/10.

  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR ANIMES YOU MAY LIKE

• ANIME

  HorrorHigurashi no Naku Koro ni
• ANIME

  HorrorAnother
• ANIME

  ActionTokyo Ghoul
• ANIME

  DramaShinsekai yori
• ONA

  ActionDEVILMAN crybaby
• ANIME

  HorrorShinreigari: Ghost Hound
• ANIME

  ActionKiseijuu: Sei no Kakuritsu
• ANIME

  ComedyGhost Hunt
• ANIME

  DramaBoogiepop wa Warawanai: Boogiepop Phantom
• ANIME

  DramaBabylon
• ANIME

  DramaJigoku Shoujo
• ANIME

  ActionOokami Kakushi