Review of Shiki

If someone asked me what is this show about, I'm pretty sure there's only one word I would use to describe it. That word wouldn't be action, or romance, or horror. It would be one word, often underused, feelings. This show, at least in my opinion, is all about feelings. By the end of the show (took me 2 days to finish it) I didn't know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. I just know what I felt about them. I felt sad for the losses of the "good guys", but in the same time, I felt sad over the sh?tthat happened to the "bad guys".
But, one topic at a time.

Story [9]:
-> Brilliant. That would be short version of it. Story didn't follow one or two characters (although anime description said there are 2 main characters) but it followed them all. It's not really original story to have mysterious murders in a far, secluded village, but what is original is how they presented it, how well explained the background of things is and how well the characters are presented. All that made quite a unique story which didn't really falter at any moment, it kept going. My only issue overall with this anime is that it starts with a boom (so to say), it starts extremely fast (but not missing anything) and than it somewhat slows down towards the end.

Art [8]:
-> Well, it's not bad, but again, it's not anything special either. Characters are really well drawn and "background" are always lively, so there's no complain there. However, problem here is that, while great, it sometimes wanted to be artistic where artistic wasn't needed. Don't get me wrong, there are some wonderful scenes where only black and white techniques were used, but sometimes they were just out of context and not really needed or appropriate.

Sound [10]:
-> This is one area where I have zero complains. Everything, starting from opening and ending songs to voice acting is great. Character voices are numerous, never hard to recognize or bland. There are "feelings" in those voices, their pain and suffering is heard. Music in the background never interferes with what's happening in foreground and yet it's almost impossible to ignore it since it presents things happening with great passion. Great soundtrack, great voice acting.

Character [9]:
-> I wanted to rate this with 10, but some minor complains popped up on my mind. The show starts off strong, presenting character traits, their strong and weak points, but somehow, by the end, those traits are forgotten and they become the usual cliché types of characters. Again, don't get me wrong, there're no real "good" or "bad" guys in this show, it's just that some characters which started off strong get VERY little screen time later on, never really explaining their role in all the things happening. Pitty.

Enjoyment [10]:
-> As per usual, not going to comment on this one too much. Each person has its own tastes. For me, this show was great, I loved every second of it, even though I felt disappointed by the ending.

Overall [8]:
-> Yes, even I can't find too strong a reason why I gave this show such strong marks in all the fields and rated it with 8. I guess biggest problem with this show is that it ended abruptly and without really finishing many "arcs". So many things remain open and so many characters remain unfinished it's a huge shame.

This show is a must-see as it is, and it could have been so much more if only 1 more episode came out. That still doesn't change the fact it's a great show.