Shiki – 06

Episode 06 – 「第髏苦話」 (Dai Roku Wa)
“The ‘Pain of Skull’ Episode”

Just as expected from the last episode, Hiromi and Masao are also killed by the mysterious epidemic, while Dr. Ozaki is beginning to lose his patience and even vents his frustration on the families of the victims. Later, the priest Muroi, who happens to be Toshio Ozaki’s close friend, tells him what he learned from his side of the investigation, i.e., the fact that many of the victims have resigned from their jobs before passing away, and that there was an unprecedentedly large number of people leaving the Sotoba village. Unfortunately, Dr. Ozaki doesn’t seem to find the new information interesting, and instead blames Muroi for wasting time on a meaningless research.

After disappointing his friend Toshio, Muroi is in the state of melancholy at his “secret base”. Later, he is visited by a regular guest, Sunako who came to ask for his autograph and ends up giving him a warm consolation, telling him that Toshio must have been angry with himself rather than toward Muroi.

There’s now a new investigation carried out by Natsuno, focusing on the vampire aspect of the mysterious epidemic, as he borrows a number of video tapes of cheap horror movies from a local video tape store. As he watches the movie at Tamotsu’s house, he learns about the old legend in the village, which mentions that dead people come back to life to punish those who are still alive. Later, Natsuno also learns that Muroi has borrowed all the books about vampires from the local library.

Most of the viewers probably have already discovered the source of mysterious epidemic, as they were given plenty of hints about it, but the main characters seem to be a little bit late on catching up with the clues. It pretty much was due to a lack of communications between Natsuno, Muroi, and Dr. Ozaki until this episode. Even though Dr. Ozaki is a man of science and not occult, he finally seems to recognize the possibility of vampires as the source of what has has been calling an “epidemic.” Well, it looks like the introductory part of investigation finally seems to be over. I’m really looking forward to the confrontation between the main characters (Natsuno, Muroi, and Dr. Ozaki) and the vampires in the upcoming episode. 🙂

Overall Enjoyment: 4.5/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Someone is collecting the postcard that was torn by Natsuno.

It looks like Shimizu still has some kind of grudge against Natsuno, who seems to have lost interest in her.

Natsuno discovers that someone had picked up the pieces of postcard last night.

Hirano falls down...

Masao is a goner, too...

"Would you like a glass of wine, Mister?"

Ozaki clinic is getting increasing numbers of patients daily.

Dr. Ozaki loses his patience with the victim's family.

Toshio meets his old friend Muroi

Muroi hands him the result of his own investigation.

Toshio finally snaps and vents off his anger at the stuff around him.

"You're the culprit!" in Detective Conan style...

Well, actually, Ozaki was blaming Muroi for being useless.

Muroi recognizes the voice of the guest at his "secret base".

It's Sunako-chan ♡!~

"Good boy... Good boy..."

The scene almost looks as if Muroi is confessing to Sunako in a church.

The Kanji on the video tape is kyuuketsuki (吸血鬼), which translates to "vampire".

WTF?! That video tape could actually have been some kind of cheap horror-comedy film...

Tamotsu tells Natsuno about the village's old legend about people coming back from the dead.

Natsuno visits the local library.

He finds out that all the vampire-related books have been borrowed by Muroi.

Natsuno makes a visit to Muroi's house, but Muroi is actually elsewhere.

An unexpected phone call...

This old lady has resigned from her job due to fear of the disease.

Oh well, it looks like it's too late to save her.

Natsuno tries the classic weapon against vampires, but he doesn't seem to trust its power.

Dr. Ozaki gets an important clue from Natsuno.

He realizes that everything fits together if the possibility of a vampire is acknowledged.

Akira wants to take down the vampires at the castle by himself; he also swears that he saw Tohru walking into the castle.

Akira's sister, Kaori, is scared and doesn't want to take the risk.

Watch out, kids! Someone is watching you from behind!