Review of Shiki

A boy who cried wolf horror thriller anime with the paranoia, death and bloodshed to great effect... Shiki for LA lives up to it's name of a rather uniquely abnormally well done horror thriller vampire story with interesting characters, plot of a village rapidly dying off and a good use of common vampire lore taken to interesting extremes. First and foremost before LA starts going in depth with Shiki, is that well...welcome to LA's Halloween anime review for 2017, yes it's early but by the time LA is wrote this, the coincidental timing of the date of this review was a perfect time write about Shiki evenif it's not exactly Halloween yet...so with that out of the way...

Shiki as an anime is experimental in it's animation, from trying new techniques in conveying visual storytelling to symbolism of how the characters feel or a thinking and even then LA thought that the experimental part seeped into the characters designs, such is the case of the MANY main characters weird hairdos, weird yes but practical as it becomes easy identifiers nonetheless. The experimental animation techniques used from the grimy sepia texturing to split screening transitioning was a good touch, add in the "shiki" aspects of it in contrast to the human characters from even their character designs and how they are framed and it's easy to tell that the visual symbolism of some shiki vs. humans was put in great detail as experimental as the animation was. If LA would praise Studio Daume then it's it's wacky yet intentionally well crafted animation even for a genre such as horror.

Voice acting was by in part a decent affair, from great voice acting ranging from Aoi Yuuki, Tooru Ookawa, Kouki Uchiyama, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Haruka Nagashima, Keiko Kawakami and Haruka Tomatsu all doing great performances. LA would like to bring up Tooru Ookawa as probably having the most badass yet solemn vocals of this voice cast and along with Aoi Yuuki and Haruka Nagashima probably got LA's favourite voice actors of Shiki and they seriously did a damn fine job in each of their respective roles. LA normally doesn't talk about soundtrack but the OST of Shiki ranges from haunting choir vocals to thrilling traditional Japanese folklore percussion score which is highly atmospheric and sure the same 2 OST's are used ALOT however are used appropriately when used but yeah still effective for a horror thriller anime.

Shiki's plot by all accounts involves death and one of the "main characters" right from episode 1 so there is not point in hiding this in Shiki and it just keeps getting worse and worse not even by the halfway mark. Shiki manages to keep itself hidden about what it's main villains (the Kirishiki family) goals are but at the same time we having an inkling of what is going on or what we suspect as well as allowing the main characters to naturally figure it out and try to stop the "epidemic" that is plaguing the small village of Sotoba and convince the rest of the village before it's too late but with the Kirishiki's putting up a HEAVY resistance in an extremely clever way. This resistance later on, especially with the Kirishiki's "resources" doesn't make itself to be a typical "vampire monster, kill it" kind of ordeal instead what LA saw from this as LA gotten more information was that the Kirishiki's with the resources they have with the few weaknesses they try to hid are like an ironically living, breathing system they made for themselves as HEAVY resistance which puts the main characters on their last legs at worst due to how carefully the Kirishiki planned everything two heck FIVE steps ahead of the main characters trying to stop the deaths in Sotoba.

For characters, there is a HUGE cast of characters and again due to the fact that MANY of it's huge roster of characters dies, LA would like to talk about some notable characters first. Toshio Ozaki who's voiced by the awesome Tooru Ookawa is by in large one of the biggest threats to the Kirishiki's and also the one that has nothing to lose in order to stop the "epidemic" considering he's a doctor, he has the majority of focus in this anime due to him being the one that finds the clues and some of the first one's in being suspicious of the Kirishiki's. Toshio also brings in the entire lore of the shiki's due to some...*ahem* gruesome experimentation so he also adds to the world building of the shiki's and yes if you haven't guessed with all that, he's one of LA's favourite characters in Shiki. Natsuno Yuuki voiced by Kouki Uchiyama is a lone wolf kind of teenager wanting to go to the city however he like Toshio are one of the first ones to investigate the shiki, he is another pivotal character in the anime who helps Toshio in one damn fine plot twist LA didn't expect as well. LA did understand him being in this anime from helping Toshio in a crucial point of the anime as well as mainly trying to be a contrast to one of the more powerful shiki's by the name of Tatsumi voiced by Wataru Takagi about the morality of monsters and feeding off humans being a good or evil dilemma. Next is Megumi Shimizu voiced by Haruka Tomatsu who actually has a crush on Natsuno and also wants to get out of the boonies to be in the city like Natsuno does, she does accelerate the demise of certain characters in the anime but LA did like Megumi as a character as odd as this is gonna sound, mainly for her just wanting to fulfill her ambitions and as bitchy as she was in the anime, LA would say that in some form or another, she was right about Sotoba in many ways. Hmmm what else...ohhh Masao Murasako voiced by Shinya Takahashi is the WORST character in the entire anime (yes, he's worse than the literal bloodsucking vampires) as LA hated him quite early on and he never changed in which on the other hand, Ritsuko Kunihiro voiced by Nozomi Sasaki is the PUREST character in the entire anime bar none, Tomio Ookawa voiced by Kouji Ishii was although badass and probably the strongest character in the anime, he went FAR too off his sanity by the finale making him "nearly" as despicable as Masao however he at least was fueled by anger and paranoia, Masao however was horrible through and through. The Tanaka siblings Akira and Kaori voiced by Keiko Kawakami and Haruka Nagashima respectively were prominent early on as well due to the influence of Natsuno however Akira got his badass moment and although he's hotblooded, he was actually the levelheaded one of the two, Kaori on the other hand being "friends" with Megumi was the shy meek kinda girl however LA just thought that she was the one that nearly lost it in a psychological level due to all that happened in Shiki as a whole and just felt sorry for Kaori heck Akira as well.

The "villains" of Shiki, being the Kirishiki family although they are mysterious and haunting to say the least from their character designs, as little screentime as they have as a whole, you can feel their presences in ways through the "epidemic" they caused as well as the system they put in place that they won't go out without a fight. The aforementioned Tatsumi is a big threat at the start of the anime however he's not the major villain, it's not even the suspected Chizuru and Seishirou voiced by Ai Orikasa and Gackt respectiv- wait GACKT VOICED HIM!?!?!?...*ahem* it's Sunako voiced by Aoi Yuuki is the "ringleader" of the entire anime. Sure she might not look it and however her dilemma that she struggles with what she is and becomes fond of the Junior Priest Seishin Muroi voiced by Kazuyuki Okitsu and his novels of two brothers being rather similar to the shiki's. Sunako by the end of the anime is the major focus of the anime but LA will talk about that one later...

Other characters LA didn't mention that turned shiki themselves do bring snippets of their personality and backstory in the anime and that at the very least brings in some clarity to what they wanted even though they are already dead. Kinda shows that in an anime like Shiki, that even in death your backstory and personality actually enriches you with more screentime than alive. Even with that LA found that even small attention to detail to even the minor of characters right down to their attire to their facial expressions (dead or alive) sorta gave an outlook to the myriad of characters in this anime. Nonetheless as a huge of cast of characters as Shiki are and the what is left of a main cast that has the limelight, the character development are balanced to say the least and with those in the limelight given interesting developments as the anime went on and how it affected them.

Shiki's vampire lore to say the least is uniquely interesting sorta like mixing in vampire lore with zombies with certain traits being prominent than the other, from shiki's not able to touch direct sunlight and can only move at night to shiki's having vampire fangs and the ability to regenerate themselves and the most traditional of the vampire lore of killing shiki's only through the stake at the heart. Toshio finds these out later on as LA aforementioned but LA just loves how Shiki uses common traditional vampire lore and mixes it to make what is an hybrid vampire zombie...a corpse demon in a ways and Shiki abiding by it's own shiki logic and NEVER breaking it's own rules it put in place.

Shiki also brings up the morality of monsters which is a huge focal point of Sunako but it's the entire "monsters feeding off humans like livestock" yet humans do that to animals so what's the difference situation and it does it to great effect, sure what the shiki's are doing essentially killing off it's own population out of hunger is a terrible thing and the Kirishiki's themselves know this but they do it anyways, tearing families apart for food, but like Natsuno and Tatsumi's ideologies clashing with one another as well as Sunako's own existence comes off as a poignant point when by the finale LA even realized that even humans can be crueler than the "monsters"...kinda proven by actions of Tomio Ookawa.

So the finale heck the last 4 episodes of Shiki takes itself of it's depressing, near end of it's rope story it built up for itself and ratchets itself up to a freakin' massacre and goes out in a literal blaze of glory by the end of the anime. LA just wasn't expecting Shiki to go from 0 to 1,000 just like that and the final 4 episodes is where ALL the bloodshed and REAL deaths REALLY happens and JESUS does it go all the way with it. What was a witch hunt ultimately turns into a gory extremely brutalized detailed massacre to save the village of Sotoba and brings in the focal point of Sunako and her questioning her own existence and morality. Sunako was early on a mysterious character with some vague backstory given (which was enough all things considered) but by the end of the anime, the existence of shiki's and herself to her views on humanity and how humans would view her and trying to find salvation where God turns her away was a great deal of character development to essentially a centralized sympathetic villain character and all the better for it as it helped with Muroi's decision by the end of it. Now there is just one thing LA will say was a bit of downer to this finale however as much of a blaze of glory and how batshit gory massacre it lead itself to but the finale felt like it "didn't end"...LA hopes that the Shiki Specials would end it but LA did feel unsatisfied that the anime "didn't finish" Sunako's story or the fates of many of the cast, but the finale did have it's better moments for LA to not outright hate this ending...it was great but it could have at least "finished" it.

Shiki is probably one of LA's favorite horror animes of all time now for LA along with Higurashi's first season, LA might not like the horror genre in general but Shiki is a solid horror thriller anime with a great take on the classic vampire story taken to it's extremes in many great ways and was done with precise well thought out execution of how it's plot and characters were handled and is a great Halloween anime if your into vampires with a great twist to them.

"Death is terrible for anyone. Young or old, good or evil, it’s all the same."