Review of Shiki

If I were to sum up Shiki in one sentence it would go something like this: I’m frustrated but why does it hurt so good? Now listen, I don’t go around just handing over 10s. This is a huge deal for me too. And especially when I dived into it all vulnerable and butt-ass naked with zero expectations. I’ll start with the aspects that I enjoyed. 1- The Vibe™️: it’s hard to explain but it just felt right. The young, angsty teenagers complaining about the grown ups, about how they wanna ditch the stupid ass town and move out to the big cities. It’s just *chef’skiss*. The anime is mostly set in summer, and there’s nothing better than those loud ass cicadas to get me in the mood. The vibes were just early 2000s grungy angst and good ol’ skateboarding teenagers. It just feels like time is slipping through your grip, it’s quite nice.

2- The Unique Take: the plot wasn’t perfect, alright? but something just tied it together. Very often, we see vampire related animes baiting ppl with harems and that *sexy* blood-sucking. I’m so glad Shiki was safe from it. The threads of the story were spun all over the place, in a good way. The main character is not always gonna live, and I liked that. The defending of vampires wasn’t necessarily enjoyable, but it’s nice to hear the other side of the story. Also, I felt as if the character design was quite three dimensional. Natsuno was seen as a cold guy, but periodically showed love to his bestie (shoutout to Tooru).

3- The Gore: i dont need to explain this too much. The anime was pretty clean for the most part except the end where everyone goes on a mass killing spree. Yeah, good times. The satisfaction you feel when the villagers butcher the enemy. God-tier.

4- The Curves: get your mind out of the gutter. I’m talking about a mathematical curve here. The anime built up in perfect exponentiality, which is quite rare. It didn’t jump-escalate nor did it fall down after reaching the peak. But, yeah, the boobies were great too. Don’t let them distract you from the fact that Megumi was 15. Yeah. 15.

Now for all the bad stuff:
1- The Monk: I just hate the dude. Seishirou was a monk who enjoyed his time writing books and didn’t know he was face to face with Satan himself asking for his autograph. Fire this guy!

2- High-Tension: I felt as if Shiki was too on the nose sometimes. Was there really a need to make everyone so violent when they were just villagers? Why was the doctor that excited (?) to torture a corpse? I don’t mind it, it’s just out of character so that the anime can seem more gruesome. It’s a necessary evil, tho.

3- The Vampires: the frustration I felt when I heard the little bitch talk about how she’s afraid to die after living for thousand of years and butchering an equal amount of humans was enough for me to pause the show and take a break. Gosh. I wanted to rip her apart. I guess they wanted us to feel sympathetic but it just didn’t translate to me.

Conclusion: Tooru x Natsuno. Please make it happen.