Review of Shiki

”I died long ago.” With the seasonal overload of typical Shounen, Ecchi, and Isekai Anime, specifically the rise of the latter, the community has been neglecting the slow death of what was one of the most popular and genre-defining stories that made most of the 90's memorable in the Anime scene. Vampire stories are, in fact, a dying genre when it comes to the modern Anime game, and most of them can't help but stick to the predictable cliché fest known as the Twighlight bind curse. “Shiki” is probably one of the most popular shows that embrace the Vampire trope in this soon-to-end decade (as of writingthis review), perhaps it was attempting to revive a fading genre that has been lost between the blood thrilling overly hyped battle Shounen that it went unnoticed under the mainstream scene, and we love to hate everything that's mainstream, or at least, a large portion of the fandom does, and for obvious reasons. Maybe Shiki was meant to be one of the last landmarks to be remembered from the 2010's Vampires scene, that or it was a clever marketing ploy that jumped on the Vampires hype with the popularity of the Twilight movies at the time; luckily, the two franchises share less in between than the mention of Vampires.

Story (8/10):
Mainly, one would see the shaky progression of the story as a trigonometrical graph, hitting the bedrock floor at times and piercing past Everest at other times. But that's not necessarily a flaw in the blueprint of the story per se, but the borderless writing and bad character direction had a big hand in the matter to blame.
Not too long after the Kirishiki family moved into a castle at Sobota village, people started mysteriously dying due to some sort of epidemic as labeled by the village's doctor, Ozaki.
Of course, being an irrational man, and a person of science, he approaches the matter within logical boundaries and slowly as logic thinking was of no help, the involvement of Vampires like creatures called Shiki was called off as a plausible cause; the occult upbringing slapped him like nothing else.
Soon after, the calm and cozy village was no more, and an angry, partly immoral crusade flamed between the two sides, both killed by the name of survival and hanging to dear life.
But that was only one perspective into the greater narrative pipeline, as Dr. Ozaki's journal isn't the only one to swear by.
Fifteen years old boy named Natsuno and his family also happened to move in around the same time as the Kirishiki. His first reaction wasn't too fond of this boring rural hell he was dragged into by his parents (as he interpreted it), but later, he befriends a guy around his same age who shortly later falls victim to the mysterious epidemic, which fueled his curiosity to expose the real truth behind their silent sudden death.

The psychological horror side of things benefits heavily on the nicely paced flow of events. Never too slow or too fast given the situation. The frequent cuts and time jumps that forward or sometimes backward time in hours; sometimes days intervals, exposing the dates and the matching mood according to the character in the spotlights, labeled as lucky or unlucky which helps the urgency and adds in a fair touch of anticipation and risk.

A huge selling point of the show is the fluent transition between happy scenes and tense ones, the addition of classic film trickery such as film grain, shaky camera, and color distortion, bundled with a creepy collection of humming and childish singing spike the scene on display to new heights, crafting some of the best moments in my experience of Anime.

Shiki is a story about struggling for survival, it paints the Shiki side as black, while the struggling human appeared pure white, only to shift the stakes between them back and forth, empathizing with both sides, without enclosing who's right and who's wrong. Perhaps the dead should have never returned or perhaps the living should have had more of an open-minded understanding, and both strived for co-existent in harmony. But this is no utopia. This is a brutal conflict that crossed the moral boundaries, built upon the idea of moral challenging thoughts that prices killing a demon as becoming one yourself.

Art (8.5/10):
Storytelling comes in all types and forms, visual, audible, well, that's all about what I know, you get the idea, but even in those specific types lies a huge variety of improvisation and going about inclining a sense of individuality for conveying a story. On a visual note, Shiki does not roll the eyes very well on the first glances. Characters are clunky, with pointy edges and fragile-looking bodies that resemble dolls more than they do proper humans. Hairstyles are all over the place, very messy and random with no attachment to movements or physics whatsoever. It did throw me off a couple of times at first, but the other aspects of the show make up greatly for it to the point it's not that noticeably straining on the eye.

I gotta give credits to the use of colors. A lucky day might benefit heavily from the bright, saturated color palettes, while the unlucky counterparts get so washed up sometimes it's almost a withered black and white film; matted with grain and deliberate roll corruption that help sell the disturbing shots. Speaking of disturbing, have I stressed enough on how disgustingly horrifying some of those shots looked? Manacing, the sight of rotten flesh, scrubby skin, and poppy eyes make for an incredible addition to the horror side of the story, coupled with close-ups and corner shots camera trickery, Oh my God, some of the most intense moments were captured like that.

Sound (9/10):
Another big aspect to praise for the show, it's the vocal capability to steer the mood of the scene upside down just by letting loose to a creepy girly humming, the master-class build-up of tense tracks that accompany each big scene and of course, a great voice acting staff that knew what they were doing.

The opening and ending theme songs are also one to keep and add to a playlist, although, speaking of the first opening theme song, it was an odd one, one that made you question it inclusion in the first place until you start humming along with it once you get used to it. Good stuff.
A setting that involves Vampires is sure to have a lot of scream and panic moments, moments that require the characters to show stutter in their speech pattern and cry-worthy mental breakdowns, and to that, the staff made a spectacular performance when it came to conveying those kinds of emotions.

Characters (7.5/10):
This one is controversial. A lot of people shit on the key characters of this show, and for obvious reasons, I can actually get behind that, but what would a 15 years old teenager or a science-bound doctor do against an occult attack anyways? Those were in some way realistic approaches that frankly could have had a better turnout, but instead, all of the build-up they were leading to went into vain at the end.
Don't put a lot of bet on characters, especially the teenage ones that happen to make a decent amount of characters. They are young, immature, inexperience. Of course, they would make dumb mistakes, it only reflects on their age. As of Dr. Ozaki, he is dealing with a supernatural phenomenon that defies the very core of his science-related profession, it was a battle of acceptance at first until he put on the serious hat and dealt with it his own unexpectedly twisted way.

Enjoyment (9/10):
Like any other freshly started Anime series. I had my skepticism in place, I did not expect anything grand or too ambitious, I just picked up a random series on my plan-to-watch list after it collected dust for nearly 3 years, and ended up sweating on the edge of my seat on more than rare occasions. What have I been sleeping on all of this time!

Overall (8.6/10):
Shiki tells a story about conflicting morals, a battle to decide what's wrong and what's right, who's evil and who's not, I did not expect that to rhyme. Not minding the odd visual choices and the often questionable character direction, Shiki, more than not improvised against its very own script, and delivers some unpredictable turnouts that keep you hanging to the tip of the portrayed moments.