Episode 11 – 「第悼と悲屠話」 (Dai Tou to Hito Wa)
“The ‘Lament and Slaughter’ Episode”
The direction of Shiki turns toward a more comical side as it introduces us a new character Ikumi, who is an old red-haired lady. Just like the other protagonists (i.e., Dr. Ozaki, Priest Muroi, and Natsuno), she also believes in the danger of Kirishiki family in the mansion, and actually comes pretty close to the truth. I’m not sure whether she really has some kind of spiritual power, but at least it seems like she has been some kind of miko (shrine maiden) for a long time.
After doing her own investigation in the village and going through some trouble, she finally manages to gather villagers to revolt(?) against the Kirishiki family on the hill. However, as she was unable to achieve anything significant, I have a strong feeling that she was designed as a disposable side character (kind of like Masao who has a similar-looking horse-face, though she isn’t as annoying as him) who will become one of those Shiki’s numerous victims.
She does play one important role of bringing Dr. Ozaki to the Kirishiki couple by persuading him to come with him, and even made him check the Kirishiki’s vital signs to see whether he is one of those “revived” ones from the village legend. However, after realizing that he has the same pulse and the body temperature as a normal person, Dr. Ozaki decides to play it safe and pretend as if Kirishiki has nothing to do with the series of deaths in the village.
Another important lesson we learn from this episode is the origin of the word “Shiki” from Muroi’s ficition, which is based on Abel and Cain from the Bible. It is an abbrevation of the word “Shikabane no Oni” or “corpse monster” in English. It was pretty interesting how Sunako accepts “Shiki” as the word describing herself and it looks like it will be used as a word describing the Kirishiki family, and probably also Tatsumi, as they didn’t seem to have an adequate word to describe themselves until this episode.
In the next episode, it looks like Ikumi will face an unfortunate fate and the show will probably start focusing on Natsumi and his friends as we did not see them for a single instance in this episode. It’s too bad I’ll have to wait almost another three weeks for the next episode, because I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next. 😦
Overall Enjoyment: 4.3/5
Screenshots are later in the post.
Distant Paradise 
