Review of Shiki

“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.” - Friedrich Nietzsche It can be difficult to find a true horror anime at times. Often, the term “horror” just means that there is a whole lot of blood and gore but this isn’t necessarily horrifying. There are certain factors the author should also consider incorporating to maximize the fear effect, such as the unknown, being followed, being watched, the hopeless feeling of your unavoidable demise creeping slowly towards you. While the vampire-themed Shiki might not deliver all of thesepremises completely intact but Shiki, aided but its gritty art style, gets a lot closer than many others.

It’s not uncommon for characters in horror fiction to shed every ounce of common sense and logic(for the sake of plot, obviously) and Shiki is no exception. A good deal of situations could have been avoided all together if the characters involved had been replaced by actual, thinking people but it’s a good thing they weren’t. If you can look past the “Really? That didn’t
FEEL like a bad idea?!” moments you will find yourself enjoying a story with a deeper meaning. A story of not black and white but an abyss of grey. A no-mans land in between right and wrong. A story blurring the roles of protagonist and antagonist, much to a similar effect of the first half of Death Note.