Shiki – 10

Episode 10 – 「第悼話」 (Dai Tou Wa)
“The ‘Lament’ Episode”

The first half of this week’s episode of Shiki consists of the same events from the previous episode, also known as the “Raid of Ozaki Clinic”, from the Tatsumi’s perspective; it isn’t much different from what we already know (it was pretty obvious that the raid was planned by Tatsumi in advance ), but we do get to learn that Megumi initially did not want to participate Tatsumi’s plan, as she did not want Natsuno to become Shizuka Matsuo’s victim.

Also, as Megumi was willing to defy Tatsumi’s order in order to “save” Natsuno. It becomes apparent that the vampires are still very much like a normal human. In other words, they are not under total control by their leader and each vampire has its own emotions and is capable of making decisions of its own will.

However, the fact that they are not invincible (in fact, Ozaki and Natsuno even thought about capturing one of the vampires) and that they have to rely on human blood to survive forces them to work together as a group under Tatsumi’s leadership. In addition, we get learn little bit about Natsuno’s background, and how he inherited his mother’s last name. However, it doesn’t seem to be that significant right now, and I think it’s probably related to something that will come up later after this episode.

The second part of the episode ends with a surprise as Tohru becomes the one taking a bite at Natsuno, instead of Megumi. For some strange reason, it felt like a love triangle between Natsuno, Tohru, and Megumi. Even though I do not think the relationship between Natsuno and Tohru was anything homesexual, there seemed to be something deeper than just a “friendship” between the two boys.

Anyways, the horror on Megumi’s face and the sadistic smile on Tatsumi’s face was probably the one of the most classic cliffhanger moments so far, and it seems inevitable that Natsuno will become just another victim in the village. According to the story, only some of the people who died from the “infection” manages to revive from the death, while the rest just “rots” in their grave. Since Natsuno is one of the most important protagonist in the story (along with Dr. Ozaki), I am pretty confident that he will face the same fate as Megumi does… How interesting would that be? 🙂

Overall Enjoyment: 4.3/5

Screenshots are later in the post.