Series Review – Shiki

Corpse Demon 屍鬼 (Shiki)

While Shiki started off very slow, this series has turned out surprisingly good, with some great characters, a very suspenseful story, and a great soundtrack to boot. I had actually almost dropped this show early on, and stopped blogging on it around episode 12 due to time constraints, but this is definitely one series I wish I had kept writing about. That being said, Shiki’s main strengths are definitely it’s huge cast of characters, and it’s story.

The basic premise to this show is rather simple; the setting is a small, isolated little village that’s called Sotoba village, and vampires stealthily try to take over. What this show does a great job at is building up the tension between the main characters, such as Ozaki and Natsuno, and the vampiric faction of “mansion on the hill”. This inherent conflict is central to the entire show, all the way until the bitter end. The characters in this show are really developed well, especially Ozaki and Natsuno. Their eventual realization of what’s going on around them, and the fundamental changes to both their behaviors and thought processes, is definitely interesting to watch, moreso as you see the horror-inducing events that unfold.

Characters such as Tatsumi and Ookawa play crucial roles in the show, while others such as Muroi and Sunako just add to the mystery in this show. I don’t know quite how to describe it, but the sheer amount of characters in this show are all integrated extremely well into the main plot, making a very believable and gripping tale that keeps you captivated for the entire second half of the series.

The thing with this show is that you need a bit of patience to finish it, mainly because there are huge chunks of the series that are extremely slow paced. The slow pacing allows for some excellent buildup, but at the same time I do wish that they could have condensed certain parts a bit more. It’s really the second half of the show where everything starts to pick up significantly, and becomes so much more mesmerizing.

The animation and art direction is a little odd, but the music for this series makes up for it mostly. The music has a gripping, haunting sound that fits the atmosphere to this series almost perfectly, and really gives the show the edgy, horrifying feeling that you’re looking for in certain scenes. And oh boy, can some of these scenes be gruesome and nauseating. But that’s exactly the type of events that keeps moving the plot forward, along with all the moral and social implications of all the events that unfold.

There are some rather complex, or perhaps the better word would be deep, themes found in this show that really makes you question exactly who is the villain and who is the victim at times. While I can’t say that this is the most horrifying thing I’ve seen in anime, it’s definitely one of the better horror themed anime I’ve seen in a while. It makes you both think about what’s going on, and truly appreciate the complexity and depth to much of the situation and plot. Overall, Shiki is an excellent series that is well worth your time.

Animation Quality: 7.5/10

Music/Soundtrack: 8.5/10

Characters: 9.0/10

Story: 8.5/10

Setting: 8.0/10

Overall Score: 8.3/10

Shiki – 12

Episode 12 – Twelfth Decay 第悼と腐堕話 (Dai tō to futa (jūni) wa)

Shiki finally resumed airing last Thursday, and the show continues pretty much right off of where the story had been stopped; Natsuno’s apparently imminent death at the hands of his former friend Tohru. Natsuno’s attempt to negotiate with Tohru, while admirable, was also unbelievably stupid; giving Tohru permission to suck his blood was a idiotic move on Natsuno’s part. Obviously, he just wants to die if he’s willing to let Tohru constantly suck his blood.

The main focus of this episode was on Natsuno’s father, where his “scientific logical” self is conflicted with the whole notion that Natsuno might actually be sick (or in this case, being afflicted by “the risen”). I personally feel as if he’s too proud of his own notions of what is going on, to the point where it blinds his actions and threatens the life of Natsuno. I admit that the situation may be unbelievable, or skeptical, but that is NO reason for to let himself be influenced into leaving Natsuno alone, thinking it’s potentially a “psychological problem”. If your kid looks seriously sick, you take him to the doctor; not sit around while everybody left and right tells you that it’s not an issue.

Surprisingly, it also looks like Natsuno’s mother is afflicted by the Shiki, and most likely will die soon. This does put Mr. Natsuno’s father in a interesting situation; if his family all suddenly dies, exactly how will his “rational” mind react?

Either ways, this episode does explore upon the dilemma of our main characters a little, though the characters did act kind of stupidly this time around. Seeing Natsuno’s dad’s point of view does make things more interesting, with his perspective on the whole issue really helping to emphasize just how odd the entire situation may look to everyday people.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.8/5

Screenshots, new OP and ED themes are later in the post.

Shiki – 11

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.

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.

Shiki – 09

Episode 09 – 「 第柩話」 (Dai Kyu Wa)
“The ‘Coffin’ Episode”

If the previous episode of Shiki was about the confrontation with the vampires from the group of teenager’s perspective (namely, Natsuno, Kaori, and Akira), this episode shifts the focus on how the two grown-up characters deal with the “enemy”. Unfortunately, even though Ozaki and Muroi are probably the smartest characters from the protagonist’s side, they don’t seem to be physically strong enough to take down the vampires; I mean you can’t expect much from a doctor and a priest, right?

In the beginning of the episode, we finally get to see the content of novel that Muroi has been writing; it features a male character with the name “Shiki”, but I’m not sure how this guy is related to the vampires in the village. Perhaps, it has to do with some kind of curse put on them.

I’d like to note that the vampires in Shiki are quite different from typical western vampires in a sense that they seem to act in a group. Also, they seem capable of levitating significant a distance from the ground; I don’t think they can fly around everywhere though, because it would make incredibly difficult for the protagonists to catch those annoying vampires! Oh, Tatsumi seems to be pretty strong as he is able to knock out Dr. Ozaki without much problems, but I think he got those arm muscles from all the works he had to do moving heavy furniture between houses. (Remember that he works for a moving company) Or maybe it’s because he has to dig up so many graves in order to salvage his fellow vampires. xD

Because of the fact that they are revived from grave and that they follow the orders from the “leader”, these infected people actually resemble zombies in many ways, especially during the scene when they gather around a poor old grandma to suck up her blood together. I could just imagine them chanting “brains” together! Or you can think of them as Communist vampires as the blood is distributed equally for each person.

Anyway, it looks like the green-haired nurse Ritsuko (probably the most attractive nurse in Ozaki Clinic :D) and Megumi are going to play pretty important roles in the next episodes. I just hope Ritsuko won’t turn into another vampire, which would be really, really sad, as she is one of the my favorite characters so far in Shiki along with Kaori and Sunako-chan!

Overall Enjoyment: 4.2/5

Shiki – 08

Episode 08 – 「第夜話」 (Dai Ya Wa)
“The ‘Night’ Episode”

In the last episode’s post, I predicted that there would be a real battle between the protagonists and the vampires in this week’s episode, and I think I was pretty much on the mark. After digging up Megumi’s grave and a brief moment with an attempted kidnapping of Kaori, Natsuno smacks the hell out of a random vampire dude who is KO’ed instantly, which was a truly satisfying moment for me. 🙂

Anyway, this is the first time Natsuno and his friends, Kaori and Akira, sees a real vampire in person; they actually even touch the vampire and are surprised to find out how cold he is. It was pretty interesting to hear that Natsuno isn’t sure whether the infected people are vampires or zombies, because they don’t seem to have all the typical traits of vampires that appear in movies or novels. I was actually surprised that Natsuno knew Tatsumi had been watching Kaori and Akira from behind, and the fact that he is immune to sunlight. He seemed also seemed pretty smart; he pointed out that there could be more than ten vampires in the village, which is actually true.

At the end of the episode, the appearance of a little ventriloquist vampire girl, Shizuka Matsuo, at Natsuno’s house was a quite surprise to me, as I thought most of the main characters have already been introduced in Shiki so far. I’m not sure what role she is going to play later in the show, but it seems pretty obvious that she has a some kind of unfinished business with Natsuno to settle. Her presence probably marks the beginnings of a major conflict between the main cast and the vampires.

Overall Enjoyment: 4.2/5

Screenshots later in the post.

Shiki – 07

Episode 07 – 「第弑魑話」 (Dai Shichi Wa)
“The ‘Murder of Mountain Spirits’ Episode”

After confirming the Natsuno’s theory of the revival of dead people, and Dr. Ozaki’s theory of vampires by using Masao as an example, Shiki finally enters the second phrase of the story. As Natsuno, Kaori and her brother form some kind of anti-undead party, they decide to test Natsuno’s theory by digging up Shimizu’s grave in order to see if Shimizu’s corpse is still there. There’s a slight chance that Shimizu might have returned to the coffin for some unexpected trickery, but I think that is quite an unlikely scenario.

Meanwhile, Tatsumi gives a brief lesson on the life of vampires to Masao, which is pretty much the same as any typical western vampire; for example, like how vampires are not really immortal and they need to drink human blood regularly to survive. One the other hand, there is an interesting trait about the vampires in Shiki, in which that they are not required to breathe to survive, so they need to force themselves to breathe in order to speak with a voice. Also, there are special vampires out there like Tatsumi who don’t have a weakness to sunlight.

Back at the Ozaki Clinic, Muroi informs Dr. Ozaki that Mr. Ishida, the village patrolman, has gone missing and that documents detailing the dead people have gone missing as if someone is trying to hide the existence of the epidemic in Sotoba village. In order to confirm his own theory on the existence of vampires, Dr. Ozaki decides to set up a trap at his clinic with one of his patient, Setsuko Yasumori, to capture one of the vampires wandering around the village.

It looks like the real battle with the vampires will start from the next episodes onward! 😀

Overall Enjoyment: 4.0/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

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.

Shiki – 05

The last thing Masao sees is...

Episode 05 – 「第偽話」 (Dai Itsu Wa)
“The ‘Lie’ Episode”

Do you still recall the cliffhanger from the last episode? There was a brief moment when Natsuno witnesses the supposedly dead Megumi Shimizu trying to bite Tooru as a vampire. It was uncertain as to whether that event was a dream sequence or not, but it turned out that the event in question is just Natsuno’s nightmare.

The young monk, Marui, continues his investigation of the town incidences, just like during the last episode, by interviewing the families of the victims. He finally does manage to find important clues about the epidemic; many of the victims, including Ryuji Shimizu, Takatoshi Hirosawa, Kenji Oota, Akira Saeki,and Takashima Yasuo, had resigned from their jobs several days before they died, even though they did not have any signs of illness.

Natsuno’s blonde friend, Tooru, meanwhile has been kind of slacking off and skipping school lately, which fits into the pattern that Marui just discovered from the past victims. Not surprisingly, Tooru becomes another victim of the mysterious epidemic, and another funeral is held in the village. (Unfortunately, Dr. Ozaki has not been informed of this important pattern from Marui yet.)

After Natsuno receives a late summer postcard with Megumi Shimizu’s handwriting on it,  which could confuse the viewers to whether Megumi that Natsuno saw in Tooro’s bedroom is real, the mystery in this show will probably continue to thicken with more ambiguities and anomalies.

The second part of the episode focuses on Masao, who turns out to be one of the most annoying characters in the entire summer season. For example, when his little sister Hiromi gets sick from a disease, Masao’s jealousy goes too far as he is rather bothered by the fact that she’s getting all the attention from the family. No wonder his brothers gets so mad and his father gives him a nice slap on his face. 😀

Moreover, at Tooro’s funeral, he feels extremely irritated by Natsuno’s calm and serious attitude as he accuses him of being “unemotional.” Duh, it turns out it was Masao who was actually being disrespectful to Tooro’s family as he was acting like a little baby whiner, desperately looking for attention.

Fortunately, putting all the complaints aside, it looks like we won’t be seeing Masao for a while as he sees his end after getting ambushed by another vampire-like monster, who seems to resemble Yuzuki, a person who used to work for the local library. Even though we are pretty certain that Masao will be a goner in the next episode, we should remind ourselves that he could come back to life later like Megumi, causing even more headaches in the future. Anyways, the plot seems to be brewing up very nicely, and I’m desperately waiting for a some kind of big moment in this show.

Overall Enjoyment: 4.4/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Shiki – 04

Episode 04 – 「第死話」 (Dai Shi Wa)
“The ‘Death’ Episode”

The investigation on the mysterious epidemic continues from the previous episode, as the priest Muroi tries to get some more clues by calling up the neighbors around the village. Also, Ritsuko, who is Dr. Ozaki’s nurse, points out there’s something very strange about the moving trucks with the pine tree logo, as they seemed to moving loads only during the midnight. Later, a little boy, whose mother has already been killed by the disease not long ago, also passes out with the same symptom. Dr. Ozaki, who has a keen sense for things going on around him, realizes that the boy’s father, Mikiyasu, is also infected and subsequently notices the bite on his arm. Unfortunately, he realizes that it is too late to save him and decides to take some blood samples for further analysis. Realizing that the problem is getting more and more serious, Dr. Ozaki holds an emergency meeting at his clinic in hope of obtaining more clues from the medical knowledge of his staff members.

The priest, Muroi, finds Sunako in a forest and leads her to an abandoned building that looks like a church, which he calls his “secret base.” Here, we learn an important fact; that Sunako only wanders around the forest at night and that she is not supposed to go outside during day. By relating to the moving trucks that appear at midnight and the bite on the victims’ bodies, we learn that Kirishiki family could possibly be related to vampires and the epidemic in the village. We’re also given a hint that the epidemic could be related to the repression of Christianity in Japan before World War II.

Anyway, we’re starting to see an interesting relationship, that resembles a friendship, being developed between Muroi and his literary fan, Sunako. The “detectives”, Muroi and Ozaki, are cooperating together on the epidemic as Muroi is investigating the mystery from a historical and spiritual perspective, while Dr. Ozaki is doing his part from a medical perspective. From this, we can conclude that Sunako, who is directly related to the Kirishiki family, will be an important piece of puzzle as she seems to be willing to stay in touch with Muroi.

As our focus is brought back to Natsuno, it seems like he is having nightmare regarding Megumi, the pink-haired gothic girl, quite often, which really starts driving him crazy and fatigued. Eventually, the episode ends with Natsuno, in his fear, watching Megumi trying to have a bite of Tooru in vampire style. I suppose whether this was just Natusno’s illusion or the dreaded truth will be revealed in the next episode of Shiki!

Overall Enjoyment: 4.5/5.0

Screenshots are later in the post.