Category Archives: Shiki

Shiki

Shiki

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  • Characters: .5  /3
  • Story: 1  /3
  • Enjoyment: 1  /2
  • Art: 1  /1
  • Animation: .5  /1

Overall Score: 4/10

Shiki in one word: bloody.

Shiki is the story about a secluded little village where one by one, the residents begin mysteriously dying. After a secretive and strange new family moves in and their secrets are revealed, all hell breaks loose. The family’s secret? They’re vampires (aka shiki).

The characters are a weak point. In fact, the only one that stood out for me was Dr. Ozaki.

And the only other character I liked was Akira.

 But it’s just because he was adorable

Other than that, everyone was bland, weird, or just plain annoying. Like…really, really annoying.

The pacing of the story is atrocious. Almost nothing happens until the very end. Which is the high point of the entire anime. Some episodes I was just bored to death. Nothing happens. Nothing. The majority of the anime is them trying to figure out what the heck is going on. It’s as if every villager that dies needs an episode all to their self. Not to mention the residents are all pretty dumb considering the fact that they don’t even try to figure out why people are dying. They just blindly accept that there’s a disease going around. ‘Kay.

Also, the animation isn’t all that spectacular. Characters don’t do much and a lot of it is just standing around.

So what are the high points? As I said above, the very end. If you’re a fan of horror and gore, you will eat up the last few episodes. It’s so bloody awesome. -insert canned laughter-

I LOVED the portrayal of vampires. Shiki brought them back to their roots and showed them for what they’re suppose to be – monsters. Vampires are monsters and they acted as such in Shiki. The soundtrack was also very fitting and set the moods perfectly.

The art was great, but the character designs were…weird.

 (I can’t take him seriously, I just can’t! I want to pet his fluffy head!)

But the faces are well drawn, ESPECIALLY the creepy ones.

 (e.g. THIS.)

So to sum it up:

Pros: The last few episodes rock. The art is well done and the soundtrack does a good job of mood setting. Shiki also takes vampires back to their original, roots of being feared monsters.

Cons: Almost all the characters are boring, annoying, or both. The story is agonizingly slow and the only eventful things that happen, happen in the very last episodes. The animation isn’t anything to sing about. The dialogue feels overused at times and you’ll hear the same things over and over again.

Worth watching? If you’re a fan of Higurashi-styled deaths, then you will love the ending. If you have a sadistic streak, there are a number of scenes that you’ll be grinning at. Pretty much, if all you want is blood and don’t care for characters or story that much, Shiki will be for you since the end will make up for pretty much everything. If you can’t stand stories that move slowly, STAY AWAY. Or you can always watch the first episode then skip right to the last few. I wouldn’t really recommend this series. While I did enjoy it, it was only because the ending made up for the most of it.