Review of Shiki

Few anime are as unique and interesting as Shiki, a series which has taken the vampire genre and turned it into something very special. Right from the start, Shiki feels very different from the usual anime fare, especially when it comes to its look. The art is great, but what’s striking about the anime is the character’s appearance. There are a lot of characters in this one, but what’s so impressive is that they all have their own unique look—the odd hairstyles will definitely turn some off, but I always found it to be one of the things that make the series so beautiful anddistinct in appearance.

Shiki takes place in the quiet and peaceful village of Sotoba, where a mysterious and wealthy family moves in during one summer. What follows is a series of inexplicable deaths that mark the start of a chain of events that will ultimately change the once harmonious village forever. Shiki follows a story that is well-crafted and tells several intertwined conflicts that come face to face sooner or later. As mentioned before, there are tons of characters to be found in this anime, but few actually feel underdeveloped. All of them have a purpose and rarely do we stumble upon a character that is not interesting—that’s just how well-written Shiki actually is.

There’s an undeniable sense of progress driving this anime. At first, it’s all about a mysterious event in a seemingly harmless village devoid of any unusual activities, but it slowly escalates towards something much bigger and a lot more engaging. By the time Shiki is finished, it will have evolved so much that you’d be surprised if you took a second look at the first few episodes. On a different note, it’s also worth mentioning that this anime can feel quite unconventional and odd at times, which might turn some viewers off. It has a strange way of going about things, that’s for sure, but its distinctive traits are what make Shiki so special.

Characters die, new ones are introduced and some become more or less important over the course of this anime, but not one is overlooked or forgotten. Amongst the most significant ones are Toshio Ozaki, the doctor in charge of the local hospital, Natsuno Yuuki, a teenager who moved to the countryside with his parents but hates living in the village, and Seishin Muroi, a local priest who also writes novels. These are but a few in a line of fascinating and unique characters, many of which play a pretty even role throughout the anime. It’s hard to consider which ones are the main characters in Shiki, but for me the three mentioned above seem to play the most important part.

While Shiki’s story may be one of a kind, it’s also one that tends to feel a little dull in certain parts. The investigation of the mysterious events that happen throughout the anime may be a little overlong and mostly dialogue-oriented, but once the reveal kicks in, things start to move a lot faster and more and more action fills up every episode. What’s so captivating about Shiki is the way it portrays the relationship between vampires and humans, and how these two sides come in different conflicts as they each try to fight for survival. It gets quite brutal at times, but it never feels gratuitous or unbearably violent, instead always keeping a precise aim at what the anime wants to accomplish.

There’s really not much else to say about Shiki, other than the fact that it’s a breath of fresh air in the vampire genre, which is becoming more and more exploited every day. Not many manage to capture such a wonderfully unique image of vampires as this series does and that alone makes it worth the watch. For a better experience, those deciding to give Shiki a try should first be aware that this anime is quite a different beast from the usual fare, but it is also a very rewarding path to take, for Shiki is certainly one of the best anime series of the year.