Anime: Shiki

Shiki
A pretty good run about horror psychological, the 2 main Natsuno and Ozaki are quite dedicated to their goal and I like that. Especially how they don't consider "ghoul" to be alive anymore, even with all of that emotions and memories. Level-headed, never let love or friendship affects, man of work and sheer fucking will.

But the villain side are too shallow, hell, i even want to call it naive. They do not have a solid reason to do all of this and don't have any solid plan at all, like they just do this do that and hope everyone else to conveniently follow the script. And when Natsuno confronted Tatsumi, Tatsumi can only ask "Why you don't understand?" - What the fuck is there to understand?

I quoted here a Natsuno speech from episode 2: "They selfishly assign roles to others".

And the priest Muroi, if you want to be a bad guy, a no more human, just stop justifying with beneficial, religious reasons. There is no good reason at all when you only considers yourself.

Lastly, a good thing in this show, the girls (Megumi, the nurse) and 2 wives in this series is hella badonkadonk and stylish

From the same author of the "Evil spirit series" made into the series "Ghost Hunt",

Shi-ki offers a violent, detailed and well-woven portray of mass psychosis as it develops in an isolated mountain community which offers a rosary of credibly heterogeneous characters and their varied reactions to the extreme against a ridiculous literary premise but with serious, pessimistic realism and a taste of the supernatural.

It explores how reasonable, acceptable each short, humble step towards the limits of dignity and sanity can be seen as. And then, given enough momentum, how close to outright sadistic brutality can develop. The author deliberatly refrains from much bias leaving the readers free to feel irritated or admired with whoever they want.

“A must see” could be an insolent overstatement by a mere watcher, but Shi-ki is stays forever in my garden of delightful rereads. A piece committed, yes, to deliver the reader the psychological shock that will do well to expect it in full when it comes.

I liked it.

If you take the time to completely read this review, please take those 2 or 3 extra minutes to rate it. I really do appreciate feedback, as long as it is constructive. "Duh, review iz too shawrt" is not considered as such.

This is not intended to be an in-depth review. I rather want to share my impression on Shiki with you, which I think has been understated and often not fully understood either. Concerning the story I will go into detail though, so please keep in mind this will contain minor (and a few major in the sotry section) spoilers. I'll try to keep it to a minimum though.

Concerning the animation, Shiki fares quite well. The scenery is drawn quite nicely, as well as the characters. Especially the eyes are very much to my liking. Take a good look throughout the show, the depth of each characters thoughts is reflected in his or her eyes, as well as their state of the mind. This goes especially for the main cast, with Toshio as a prime example for thought-depth and Kaori concerning the mental health.
I have to say though that some of the characters designs are quite awkward (check out Ritsuko's hairstyle for example) and sometimes depicted completely different from the others, which gives of a funny image at times. The overall visuals are very satisfying though.

Picking Buck-Tick for the first opening and second ending was an amazing choice. I cannot imagine anyone fitting more than them. They where absolutely right on the money with their performance. Taking them aside the sound and music is nothing special though and just helps to deliver the right atmosphere to the show. But that's done absolutely satisfying.

Talking about the characters and story individually is quite impossible for Shiki, since both developments go hand in hand.
In the early episodes, Shiki comes off as a frightening horror show: atmospheric, dark and eerie. You know what's going on and you know what'll happen, but still the show gets thrilling more and more. This is reflected in the characters, which are uncertain about what is actually going on, getting angry and frightened about that uncertainty.
Slowly but steadily, the way the story progresses changes, as well as the center of the story and the way the characters are depicted.
Around midway through the show that eerie atmosphere is gone for the most part. Storytelling goes more into depth, explaining the backgrounds of the vampires more and more as well. Since there is no real protagonist (I do not consider Toshio as such either) the situation of the collective of the groups has all of your attention, which is a fresh idea and done quite well, although I wish there was more consistency. There are some time-gaps as well, but they did not bother me at all and were placed quite good.
Near the later stages of the show, Shiki takes a drastic turn of events: the hunter becomes the hunted (come on, this is no spoiler, this was predictable). But this turn, and the way it is presented to us, is what makes Shiki an absolute masterpiece.
In the beginning of the show, you were sympathizing with the villagers. You didn't want them to die. But as the story progresses, you get to know the vampires motives. This throws up some interesting questions: Is it condemnable to kill to stay alive? Don't feed humans on others, just as the vampires do? Aren't those vampires allowed to live in peace in that village they're trying to create? There is lots and lots of morale going on. In the end, you'll actually be sympathizing with the vampires, since the humans themselves have become inhuman in their way of slaughtering, no, annihilating the vampires. The vampires at least did not show such brutality. There is so much room for discussion, wind your head around all that. This makes Shiki really stand out among others.
A prime example for what I just described is Toshio. In the beginning, he was just trying to save his village. He got lost with his goal though, ultimately loosing the village in its entity.

Taking a quick look at the characters themselves you won't find anything special. They all serve to describe the current situation of the village. Some of them are given some depth, some not. Keeping in mind it really benefits the story as a whole this is nothing bad though.

Value and enjoyment... As you may already guess, Shiki really got the best of me. The depth that is going on here is incredible, which makes it so fascinating. This may be also a turn-down for some, and others may not even think Shiki goes as deep as I described. Either way, at least take a look for yourself and give it a shot. I'm sure you won't regret it.

Well, that's it. Thanks for reading, I'll really appreciate some feedback from you. :smile:

Note: This review is based on umee fansubs.



Originally written as a light novel by Ono Fuyumi (Twelve Kingdoms, Ghost Hunt) and adapted to anime by Amino Tetsurou (Macross 7) Shiki[/b] is tale about vampires, or rather "shiki" as they proclaim themselves to be, and their attempts to build up a society for themselves. The show starts as a somewhat strange Kirishiki family moves into an abandoned mansion on top of a hill in some rural village. They dress in most eccentric way possible, nobody ever sees them walk the village during the day and they talk in riddles. Ever since they do move in however, a strange epidemic begins in the village, people start dropping like flies from causes as light as simple anemia. And so it's up to the village's doctor, Ozaki Toshio, to find the real cause of this peculiar plague.

Shiki is not the best vampire show I have ever seen, but I think it's the first anime which didn't forget the "can't come into your house unless invited" weakness of vampires. Which is very good since it adds a dose of mind games into the vampire-human struggles, as opposed to sheer violence. I also liked how the show took a completely neutral position towards the human-vampire conflict, never de-humanizing the vampires too much and never forgetting to show how savage and brutal humans become when they are finally allowed to kill. The best part of this anime however is that it's very hard to predict, you never know who is going to die next as even characters who appear to be the leading ones get snatched away without mercy. This builds up a really nice feeling of tension which is essential for a good suspense show. What's more it's really interesting to watch because you never know what twist is waiting for you next.

Unfortunately, the pacing is not perfect, and while there are no moments when the show starts to feel like it's dragging onto something, I still had to watch at least 3-4 episodes per session to feel fully satisfied with the amount content I got from them. Shiki has bigger issues however, logical fallacies in the plot in particular. Just the fact that shikis want to build their own society in some isolated place is ridiculous because they can't survive without humans being their food source is one, and there are more. Nonetheless, even with its weaknesses Shiki is an entertaining show and is a worthy watch as long as you don't expect a masterpiece, it might not be the most ambitious show ever created but it has lots of suspense and that's all that really matters. Ignoring the fact that the show is simple fun because it's somewhat weak on the logic side or that its characters don't always chose the most rational decision is missing the concept of the horror genre altogether.

The amount of violence and gore in this show shouldn't go unmentioned either, some of the characters spend their days soaked in so much blood that you can hardly identify the color of their clothes, and the show even offers a relatively well detailed dissection scene which made me very happy. I wish there were more such non-sissy anime which could line up with the likes of Higurashi. A good dose of detailed violence is something a good horror show can never have too much.

The characters in Shiki are a mixed bag, there are cool ones, there are boring ones, and there are those guys you don't even pay much attention to. And while I can't deny that a lot of them possess the charm factor, majority of people lack a good backdrop or even a reasonable explanation for their motivations. Even some of the more interesting characters get no more than single line to explain what the hell are they thinking in the whole course of the show. It doesn't mean that everybody is completely one-dimensional though, characters like doctor Ozaki, Seishin the monk, Sunako, Shimizu and to some extent Tohru are both complex and interesting. Well, maybe not as complex as to write a book about their personalities, but complex enough to come off as sentient beings easy to relate to or hate, whichever you prefer.

Personally I liked Shimizu the most, she hated the village when she was human and after becoming a shiki she became even more honest to these feelings... Sunako and Seishin are also quite interesting, being polar opposites on the surface (a vampire and a monk) both of them feel like they are outcasts to society and god. Ozaki, on the other hand, is nowhere near as introspective as the previous two and acts solely on what he thinks is right with hardly any emotion. That would make him boring in most situations, but he fit very well while characters like Seishin and Sunako were around here, the scene where he dissected a living vampire without as much as a change in facial expression is a tribute to his ice cold pragmatism. It's really unfortunate though, that a character like Yuuki Natsuno who seems to be quite cool at the beginning, ends up doing irrational things which can't be explained by anything but being uber emo in the end. Anyway, cast could have been fleshed out better, but it's obvious the show sacrifices character complexity for sheer suspense in the plot. Nonetheless, the cast works, it might not linger in your memories for long after you finish Shiki, but they at least do their job to keep you entertained.

Some people might get turned off by the crude artwork by Daume (Minami-ke). Static hair of some people looks flat-out weird and unnatural. Some people are also so tall and thin you'd think their bones were made of straws or something. Nonetheless, while not always pleasant to the eyes, I found this artwork quite authentic and fitting the already "unnatural" premise of the show. The fact that characters change their clothes a lot is also a nice touch, especially Shimizu and Chizuru exhibit some really memorable eccentric attires. Backgrounds are quite simple, you'll hardly notice any landscapes worthy of a painting, but they work. Finally there's nothing bad I can say about the fluidity of movement, it might not look like a movie, but I haven't noticed a single frame I could pinpoint as choppy.

Music composed by Takanashi Yasuharu (Terra e..., Mononoke) isn't half bad either. It's mostly atmospheric, but some melancholic tracks work very well to drag out the emotion from the viewer, particularly when Sunako or Seishin's novels get into the scene. Both OPs and both EDs are pretty nice songs and fit the show very well, personally I found the second OP Calendula Requiem by Kanon x Kanon the most memorable. And it would be a shame to forget to comment on the beautiful voice of Yuuki Aoi. Sunako's creepy yet melancholic presence wouldn't have been there if she didn't have that mysterious but cute voice.

Shiki might not be a masterpiece, but it's a nice show. It might not change your perception of life, or make you smarter, or anything, but it will likely entertain you for the whole of its running length, especially if you are into things like horror and suspense. A really good watch if you want to relax with something darker than your average anime. Incidentally, if you've liked this you might enjoy shows like Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, Mononoke and Ghost Hunt.

*This review contains spoilers*

'Shiki (Corpse Demons)' tells the story of vampire invasion (who call themselves Shiki) in a remote rural village, and the struggles of select residents in their resistance in the advent of the mysterious new threat.

Story/Character: 4/10
The story is told through perspectives of quite a few main characters in this show. We follow the unfolding of events mostly through Yuuki Natsuno, Ozaki Toshio, and Muroi Seishin, but none of them particularly stood out as the protagonist, and all probably had screen times of less than 10%. It's a shame, really, since the story involves abundance of mystery, and leaves so much to our imagination without having an individual to empathize with, we're not put in any character's shoes and think with the given information. The number of supporting cast is massive. It's understandable that numerous victims are needed to tell this story, but do we really need to know about their lives in so much detail in 22-episode series? It gets extremely confusing when you try to remember all their names, occupations, character relations etc as they are introduced via built-in subtitles one after another. Similarly, there was no need to show the actual dates, especially the rokuyou (six-day week for superstitious fortune) when there seemed to be no correlation between day of week and the murders (or anything else). The information overload makes it impossible to keep track of the dates anyway.

Confusing and flawed as it was, the first half of the story was extremely gripping with excellent pacing and suspenseful, haunting images of innocent villagers being ravaged by evil Shiki. There was an abrupt change in direction when enough villagers were converted into Shiki. They were shown with a sympathetic tone because they retain the human memory and need to drink human blood to survive... what? Yeah, that makes no sense. So here we are, after about five hours of cold-blooded, merciless murders and planning for a countermeasure against them, we're suddenly supposed to feel sorry for them? Presentation aside, the logic is flawed since that would mean human beings also have the right to survive by stopping other species that pose as threats. 'Shiki' was filled with plot holes throughout the series from odd character motivations and behaviors:

- Shiki's plan of taking over the village makes no sense to begin with. What would they eat if the entire population turned into Shiki? The logical approach to handling okiagari should be immediate elimination rather than assistance to maintain sustainable food supply and reduce the risk of discovery.
- Why does none of the underling Shiki just hop on a bus and skip town rather than being a slave to their pointless cause against their will? They talk about how Shiki need a safe place to stay during daytime so they can't leave village, but all they need to do is find a random house and bite everyone inside for mind control.
- Yuuki Natsuno's father took down all the crosses and charms because he didn't believe in superstition, Natsuno just gives up? His life was very much at stake, he wouldn't even plead for reason or at least try putting them up again and hope his father wouldn't find out?
- Ozaki Toshio, the village doctor who was willing to violate all the medical codes of ethics to record the video of experiments on his wife, who turned into Shiki. That was the end game, a conclusive evidence that can prove Shiki, not a pandemic that caused the deaths. He could've sent the copies to the SDF, the police, TV stations, weekly magazine publishers, medical research centers, and pharmaceutical companies, and at least one of them would've taken the bait and investigate. To keep the plot going, he did absolutely nothing with it, he even had the chance to show it to the guys at the bar, but just gives up after he finds out they're unwilling to believe... I'm sure a video footage of a woman instantly healing from incision, and being injected with pesticide would've changed their minds. Isn't that why he recorded the whole thing in the first place?
- Then we have Seishin Muroi. This guy is such a joke. He refuses to help the doctor hunt down Shiki because tired of seeing people getting hurt, yet goes to assist the mutant specie born for murder? He preaches how no one death is more tragic than another... how does that justify the death of his family and the thousands Sunako will directly or indirectly kill in the future when he prevents villagers from killing her? What a hypocrite, he even kills the liquor store guy with his own hands. ??? Please get out of the way or kill yourself if you're tired of seeing deaths, don't become a menace to mankind. He must have been mentally ill.

People do make momentary poor judgements, and that's shown well in the series where a guy says hi to Megumi, and then realizes she should've been dead already and gets bitten, or when Natsuno's father lets a school girl (what was her deal anyway? She pretty much disappeared after that) in, and instantly felt like he's made a grave mistake. It shows how dangerous Shiki were, and a moment of carelessness can lead to deadly consequences. Unfortunately, there are all these people acting against their motivation for a prolonged period of time. These people are usually either retarded or suffering from mental illnesses in real life. When a story contains many sane characters behaving this way, it's poor storywriting.

The last quarter of the series is where the producers give up and spit in our faces. From the direction of the story, it was apparent that the Shiki would eventually become the hunted, and sure enough, as soon as their existence became known, all hell breaks loose, and the slaughter of Shiki begins. It gets so violent, it's comical... bloody rice ball break after smashing vampire hearts, anyone? Now all the Shiki need to die in the most horrible ways possible, by people who were closest to them before. Never mind the fact that Megumi was on foot, she needs to cross the highway in the most heavily guarded section into an ambush. Masao couldn't find a safe place to hide, about to pass out in the river bank, and talks about how Megumi would've survived if she was with him (??? she would've been dying with him?). Apparently turning into Shiki retains their memory, but reduces their IQ to a single digit. How do we kill the werewolves? Natsuno pulls out a dynamite (lol?) and takes down another with him. We can't let Sunako die. Let's expect the audience to feel sorry for a vampire who already lived over 200 years without aging and killed thousands... This alone ruined the Shiki's enigma and monstrosity built up in the first half.

'Shiki' does question us with many philosophical and ethical dilemmas, such the value of one life over another, survival by sacrificing other lives, various morality issues, denial of the inconceivable, leaving problems for others to solve, and human being being more inhumane than monsters in times of panic. Unfortunately, all these arguments are very common in anime and other forms of storytelling, and the lazy storywriting made it impossible to take it seriously.

Animation: 4/10
The art in this series is horrible beyond comprehension. The easiest yet the most crucial aspect of the visuals is to conform with the story. This is clearly a mystery/horror/gore series, yet the guys seem like they're princes taken out of a shoujo romance, and girls taken out of ecchi slapstick harem. They don't even match the premise of a small rural town. Sure, Yuuki Natsuno, Shimizu Megumi, and the vampires should seem out of place due to their backgrounds and personality, but you're doing it wrong when nobody seems to belong to the village. Then you have ridiculous hair designs like girl's hair bending in impossible directions and guy's looking like Medusa, Tatsumi's nekomimi, Masao looking like a transvestite, and Atsushi looking like Kinnikuman. Just what were they trying to do? I admit the level of background detail, direction, and camera movement/angle, surreality of Shiki in early episodes were done extremely well, but you can't just pack the visuals with fancy technicals, then completely botch the fundamentals. The art in this series is by far the worst I've seen this season. It's weird, but not outrageous enough to seem like an original style, the character proportions are off, in addition being poor fit with the story, premise, and even the background art. Everything just seemed off.

Sound: 9/10
The sounds were the only positive thing about this series. Yuuki Aoi was incredible as Kirishiki Sunako with the soft-spoken creepiness, but at the same time emotional when needed. Tomatsu Haruka performed very well as Shimizu Megumi as well. The unique voice of Gackt was wasted on a character who barely appeared. Everyone else mostly sounded like they should.
BGM really builds up the suspense, and flows pretty well with the story.
OP1 had extremely high audio-visual synchronization with the animation flowing perfectly with the sound. OP2 was a really catchy song that had extremely high lyric-visual/story relevance, with animation or an aspect of the story matching every single verse sang. ED1 did not really fit the series, and ED2 was an average rock song.

Value/Enjoyment: 5/10
'Shiki' is the first series I've seen since 'Higurashi no Naku Koro ni' that really sends chills down my spine with the creepy, surreal images and violence that didn't hold anything back. Shiki as orthodox vampires with all the classical characteristics were also a nice change. I really wanted to enjoy this series, but the second half was so poorly written and rushed, that I could no longer keep my minds off the obvious plot holes. The story development leaves a lot to our imagination, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it gets annoying when they start using it to justify lazy storywriting.

I was going to post this in the comments section, but it amounts to little more then a comment. As always my reviews sometimes contain spoilers so you've been warned. My overall emphasis as always revolves around the story and overall feel of the anime. I will make this short and sweet.

I'm not really sure what to make of this anime. I wouldn't say it's that terrible, but it definitely wasn't good. This really isn't even a horror, it's just a really depressing story. There really should be a tag for depressing. You get to spend 18 episodes watching one side get victimized and then four episodes watching the other side get victimized. You never feel that justice is being done for either side. This story has neither a hero nor a heroine. It's just a depressing story of people dieing and sometimes dieing twice.

I can't really recommend a anime to anyone when there is never any catharsis and it just tries to make it's watchers feel bad. Even if the authors want to make the viewers feel for both sides and make them sympathize (like a lot of the Gundam series or Macross), they don't need to go as far as destroying any sort of feelings they make the viewers feel for them.

This is, of course, putting aside all the plot and character incontinuity, putting aside characters acting outside their roles, and putting aside that what the characters do a lot of the time never makes sense.

I will say this though, it did keep me watching as I hoped things would come together and solidify, that maybe a hero would arise or possibly a end would show up and I could feel good about what is happening. It never manifested itself and I was left feeling lost and as if my emotions were taken on a rollercoaster ride. Once again, this is not horror, it's merely just a really depressing anime. About the only parts that I got out of it that were remotely scary were the semi-realistic scenes they used once in awhile to depict death, but a lot of action animes are using those as well.

The animation and sound were decently well done, as seems to be the trend with most newer animes, extending beyond that this anime falls flat.