500https://i.ur.com/8i3Y3xI.png You know what also had a castle and a village in it? DRACULAhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracula BY BRAM STOKER. Introduction 440https://i.ur.com/axPfgxn.png I genuinely was conflicted on whether or not to start this review this way since I didnt want to spoil anything that isnt mentioned in the description of this anime but I recalled literally one of the tags Shiki has on its page is Vampire so I think this is fine. Shiki is a horror anime https://i.ur.com/oz7AyFq.png ...Shiki is a horror anime. https://i.ur.com/KcPzqdh.png The joke here is that apparently someone actually rightfully added horror to Shikis genres at some point after I started the process of writing this review. Anyhow It was originally a 1998 novelhttps://anilist.co/manga/99679/Shiki by Fuyumi Onohttps://anilist.co/staff/97723/FuyumiOno about vampires then a mangahttps://anilist.co/manga/33486/Shiki with art being done by Ryu Fujisakihttps://anilist.co/staff/97673/RyuFujisaki and then it finally got an anime a whole twelve years following the original novel. Before we start Id like to state that I had at one point given up on this show. I did like three or four episodes stopped and only returned over a year later completely on a whim. Boy did I feel dumb when I found out what the rest of this show had in wait for me. 440https://i.ur.com/blubbBP.png Impatience is bad. Because when I did return I found out that literally the very next episode after the one I had stopped at was when it began to start getting good for me. I suppose I had just became paranoid of buildup in things. Shiki starts pretty slow and just very gradually builds up builds up and builds up. Is it a perfect pay off in the end? No I definitely had some problems but theres a huge amount I just thought was completely glorious... and as it turns out this anime actually ended up giving me a scene that I genuinely think is perhaps one of my favorite scenes in anything Ive ever seen. Its wonderful. But Ill get to that later. First lets dial it back a little bit and start with the concept and... a little bit of Bram Stokers Dracula. That wasnt just a one bit joke it actually has relevancy. Barring perhaps some sequences and the fact that this show is generally about vampires its page literally has the Vampire tag and it becomes very obvious within a few episodes anyhow since this is an anime I love all outright spoilers will be outright tagged although therell be a whole section on that previously mentioned scene that will be nothing but spoilers though theyll all be marked. THOUGH IN GENERAL I THINK SHIKI IS ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE ANIME YOU SHOULD JUST WATCH WITHOUT READING MUCH ABOUT IT BEFOREHAND. JUST SAYIN. 440https://i.ur.com/ppNlzIt.png Vampires. What are they? Bram Stokers Dracula was as far as I went into the realm of vampires I Am Legendhttp://horror.org/2011bramstokerawardwinnersandvampirenovelofthecenturyawardwinner/ by Richard Mathesonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RichardMatheson was pretty good too and whatnot. Theyre not exactly my favorite horror creature is I guess what Im saying here. Although I did genuinely love Dracula when I read it. Really got into the YEAH LETS FUCKING KILL THIS EVIL VAMPIRE spirit. Anyhow in Dracula its pretty clear cut and dry that the vampires are monstrous and evil beings that are in fact monsters. Count Dracula has no humanity whatsoever. He is a monstrous supernatural being who wishes to feed on humans while spreading the vampire curse as far as he can. I saw... Count Dracula... with red light of triumph in his eyes and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of. Dracula by Bram Stoker Shiki... is an attempt to do Dracula while making the vampires still be capable of various human emotions and feelings. Theyre capable of suffering happiness anger sadness etc. My biggest worry with Shiki as I was watching it that sort of began to grow after a certain point was Shiki was going to attempt to get the viewers to feel bad for the vampires. Which wouldnt have worked because in the end theyre still doing all of the horrible vampire shit and they straight up have a Draculaesque leader who while toned down is still spreading the vampire curse. Thankfully they dont go too crazy with it. As in... they dont try to erase the fact that it was the vampires who started it all. At no point do the vampires make any effort or attempt to on a wide scale peacefully coexist with the humans. Actually when one of the humans try to bring this up one of the vampires straight up says no its in our nature to hunt humans. Unfortunately for them humans are capable of being horrifically violent as well. Also need to point out while I was negative towards the idea of it the vampire sympathy idea isnt a complete flat line. There was a point where I went okay yeah theyre monsters but this is fucked up. 440https://i.ur.com/QnjMDtb.png So Much Build Up 440https://i.ur.com/wFMDDxx.png I kind of love and hate this aspect of Shiki and was probably part of the reason why I initially gave up on it. Throughout the entire show its hammered home that people just seem to keep getting really sick and dying a few days later. Everybodys dying or moving away There is just so much of that in the entire show. On one hand I feel like they may have overdone it... but on the other hand with what happens towards the end of the show... if all of that had just happened without all of that build up the impact would definitely not have been as great. 440https://i.ur.com/Nux30TS.png Additionally it definitely felt satisfying when the vampires I should really be calling them shiki because thats the name the vampires are eventually given in the show but Im just gonna stick with vampires for convenience started being shown more and more because at that point so many people have gone missing that you cant help but wonder how the fuck anything is still operating in the town. Theres that great scene where two of the vampires are hunting a human and the human makes it someone elses house and starts pounding on the door begging for help. A lady opens the door and it turns out shes a vampire and just casually greets the two vampires that starts to drag the man away into the darkness. I loved that scene so much. Its just a meal to the vampires and hey its not like theyre doing anything too terrible. After all their victim might rise afterward and theyd have immortality for the low price of just feeding a couple of vampire youths... ...The only cost of said immortality is being forced to feed on other humans and having to avoid the sun for the rest of eternity. 440https://i.ur.com/1D1Hqwi.png 440https://i.ur.com/v7lD3Zm.png A Brief Note on the Characters 440https://i.ur.com/grXTz4d.png A part of me really wants to get into the characters of Shiki but there are several reasons why I will not. To discuss the characters at length for several characters I would have to spoiler tag quite a lot of it to not give away who ends up dying or becomes a vampire. Additionally Shiki has a huge amount of characters to the point where a part of me initially kind of disliked it but it turned out that all of the extra minor characters that were either there to flesh out the town or dont actually detract from... the main cast youre actually meant to focus on. In fact I really do love that there are all those extra or reappearing minor characters because it does actually feel like a village and really adds to the impact when the town starts to become emptier and emptier during the day. With all this being said I cant pass by without at least doing something so Ive arranged both my top five favorite Shiki characters as well as my top five least favorite Shiki characters. Without outright giving away who exactly is what. Theyre in ascending order from right to left. Starting with the negative ones... 440https://i.ur.com/VY8Hz0H.png I cant even go into my reasons for any of these without having a huge amount of spoiler tags thrown about but I should mention that fucker on the farthest left is at least fifty percent of why I initially gave up on Shiki. Do not do this trust me. He is NOT a main character and I think one of the only positives of his character is that almost all of the other characters find him insufferable as well. Additionally the only reason the one on the farthest right is there is solely because his entire character As for the positives... 440https://i.ur.com/pXYYhCY.png These guys probably at least some of them are showing up in other sections or have ALREADY shown up. So Im not even gonna bother here. I just wanted to throw this out here to get the point across that there are some very bad/infuriating/flawed characters in Shiki but there are also some very good ones. There are protagonists as well as antagonists in each list. One very good protagonist one protagonist that feels wasted. One very good antagonist one antagonist that is a complete let down. Etc. 440https://i.ur.com/Imm9tjk.png An Effective Horror 440https://i.ur.com/gzpCLMe.png Jump scares are not... inherently awful. They can be done in an effective or fun way and they can be done in a completely obnoxious way. Just like how gore can be done in a fun and over the top way for the sake of gore but it can also be done in a way that has impact. Especially if you actually care about the characters that its happening to. Horror can be done over the top and silly wheres there a spooky monster chasing you down screaming to the top of its lungs BOO BOO over and over again or a strange man wearing a mask invites you into his murder dungeon where hell ask you to cut your own arm off to try and get a key or something. But horror can also be done with an atmosphere and genuinely make you feel unsettled or anxious for the characters or sometimes just make you feel bad or disgusted. Sure there can also be a monster roaming around thats after you but it could be stalking you while in the darkness watching your every step and just waiting for the right moment to reach out and grab at your throat. Youre simply running down the street during a rainstorm enjoying your days of childhood while following your little paper boat but theres a pair of eyes gleaming in the darkness staring out at you from the darkness through a sewer drain. 440https://i.ur.com/el7HBaG.jpg Shiki... is I think perhaps the most effective attempt at a horror anime Ive seen so far. It creates an atmosphere that is almost suffocating at points. The village is getting emptier and emptier and The sickness just seems to be spreading... and so forth almost the entire goddamned show. But the entire time you the audience are well aware that there is without a doubt another force at play here in the shadows of this village that seems bent on thinning the numbers of the living. But in addition to the gradually increasing disappearances as well as the seemingly completely unchecked sickness rampantly spreading throughout the village there was always that feeling like theres something there watching. There are actually numerous scenes or moments throughout Shiki that I really felt were either genuinely creepy or unsettling. Like one of the first vampire attacks we get to see the victim turns and he just sees the vampire dropping down at him in the darkness. 440https://i.ur.com/ieVqUsj.png 440https://i.ur.com/qAgnmJX.png Normal jump scares try to be very loud because the noise helps startle the viewer. Just like out of nothing but silence theres a loud noise while simultaneously a monster leaps at the screen But with Shiki its mostly silent even when they show the vampire dropping toward his victim. I didnt leap out of my seat because my ears were bombarded by a loud noise but I did feel a tad unsettled because from this demonstration the viewer is shown that the vampires are SILENT hunters and thats how theyve been able to operate with the villagers more or less completely fooled into thinking its just a pandemic. Additionally I also just genuinely think that the idea of something dropping down on me that remains entirely silent until it has me is way more terrifying than like a demon faced monster or a creepy girl standing down in a dark hallway thats gonna lunge at me with that janky horror running while screaming. But I dont know thats just my personal preferences... Additionally there are several sequences or scenes where like a character is fearful that someone is walking around outside and like were visually shown what this character is imagining happening outside. Were not shown who or what is walking around out there and I think that is wonderful. Those scenes are wonderful. Because we are being treated with what the character is experiencing. Who the fuck is out there? 440https://i.ur.com/a4bkMWq.png 440https://i.ur.com/y0P8SJ4.png The vampires in Shiki are a fantastic horror monster because not only do they not immediately show up but like I previously said there is a hell of a lot of build up before you really start seeing them around in full force. But perhaps one of the things I like the most about them is while they can be downright terrifying towards the humans they hunt they just have ordinary conversations with other vampires like they never died and became such in the first place. 440https://i.ur.com/WdebhIj.jpg Also I brought up Dracula because some of the characters in Shiki do the classic scene of them going to dig up the grave of a person whose funeral they ALL had attended to see if the corpse was actually still there. My memories of Dracula are vague as I read it years ago now but I am positive that the human characters in that do something similar to once and for all prove the existence of vampires. Likewise they eventually have to figure out how to kill a vampire... The viewer can of course just yell at the screen STAKE IT IN THE GODDAM HEART OR TRAP IT IN SUNLIGHT THEYRE VAMPIRES but the characters themselves are just now discovering that not only vampires are real but the entire village is full of them. The entire sequence when a character actually starts to try and figure out is probably one of my favorite sequences out of all of Shiki. Because while yes its a bit overboard its fucking amazing. Especially because we also clearly see that what the characters doing is having a huge effect on him when hes elsewhere and around the other characters. Additionally you also have the whole theres a fucking huge threat and Im going to try and warn everyone about it but theyre not going to believe me and thats going to piss the vampires off thing going on. Like you have this one doctor whos fucking trying to deal with this mysterious epidemic that is killing literally ALL of his patients... what do you think hes gonna do if he finds out that its not an epidemic but rather an actual force or group of entities that are causing everyone to die? Hes going to try and solve the problem even if everybody laughs in his face and then the vampires put him in the numero uno spot on the KILLING LIST. OF COURSE THE DOCTOR IS MY FAVORITE CHARACTER. 440https://i.ur.com/vhBJtjI.png The Soundtrack Sweet mother of Christ. In most of my reviews and I guess just generally I more or less really dont pay a huge deal of attention to the soundtrack. Mostly I suppose I only really do it when its one of the two extremes: amazing or awful. There are some exceptions though and Shiki is one of them. I couldnt do this review without at some point bringing up the soundtrack. Theres only so many ways I can word its amazing but like... emotional creepy haunting quiet theres a bit of everything in it and it just all works. Like the most recent horror movie I watchedhttps://anilist.co/activity/9138534 while I genuinely think its probably one of the better horror movies Ive watched in recent time the soundtrack was... While there were several portions of it I liked a great deal there are various moments where it just suddenly starts blasting because that part of the track is where a jump scare happens. If it actually just gradually ramps up its fine. But if its just quiet and creepy and then BAM the horror sounds cut in then its not fine. Shikis soundtrack doesnt have any of that and its perfect. ITS PERFECT. As a matter of fact my favorite scene out of all of Shiki would not work anywhere near as well if the corresponding track didnt work and fit perfectly with the scene. https://www..com/watch?v=z8h30eGlmmI Also Shikis first opening is probably one of my favorite openings of all. To the point where even when I at first FOOLISHLY gave up on the show I searched for and downloaded the full version of the song. Please do not follow my example. Its illegal. Please do not break the law PLEASE. Are Vampires Monsters? 440https://i.ur.com/I9ad24a.png Its important to stress that while this is a show about vampires and there are clear similarities between this and Dracula that unlike in Dracula the vampires created by the original vampire/s are not hypnotized to do their bidding. As a result of this the Shiki vampires DO have an enforcer vampire to keep them all in line but they all have their free will intact. Interestingly enough So imagine one of these vampires. They may or may not have been someone you knew or even a family member and they are not inherently monstrous. Sure they can no longer go out into the sunlight ever again and theyll starve to death if they dont drink human blood. BUT theyre more or less the same person as before and can speak and think rationally and freely. Now imagine trying to catch that person hold them down and nail a wooden stake through their heart. Or simply catch them and throw them outside when the sun comes up to burn them to death. All while theyre pleading for you to stop or even begging for their lives. The idea of doing Dracula while having the vampires more or less retain their humanity and theres no ultimate evil vampire lord to slay is far more brilliant than it has any right to be. But it mostly works. Especially when the typical idea of how you would kill a vampire isnt toned down AT ALL. 440https://i.ur.com/ggLtrS5.png But again while its to survive the vampires are feeding off of and murdering humans. Rather they use their vampire hypnosis to force their victims to allow them in not being able to enter a place without being invited in is another vampire thing for additional feedings beyond the first until their victim dies and then their victim rises as a new vampire or stays dead. Theyre forcing their victims to willingly let them in. Obviously... the humans are gonna be a little upset if they find out and any thoughts of these vampires being past friends and relatives are gonna mostly go out of the window. Mind you there ARE some vampires who cant bring themselves to actually go out and hunt but any possible innocence is lost when they drink blood that the other much more active vampires supply for them. Additionally most of the vampires that do hunt usually start out with their own families which... is fucked up a couple of different levels. There was a certain scene that really fucked me up where a vampire basically has her hypnotized relative come outside to her and then not only does she bite her but a bunch of the other vampires emerge from the darkness and just fucking FEAST. That got me pretty good Im not even going to lie. Like the idea of just luring a former loved one WHO HAS BEEN MOURNING OVER YOUR SUPPOSED DEATH out into the darkness so you and your vampire brood can feed is fucked. Its just fucked. Thus when things started going south for the vampires later on... Like what did they expect? Sure humans kill and eat animals all the time but its not like the animals WANT to be eaten. The humans may or may not have went a bit overboard and crossed some lines themselves but the vampires themselves were pushing the thought process that humans and vampires couldnt coexist. Oh and that whole part where were shown a funeral at the newly opened funeral home thats in actuality ran by a vampire was amazing. Because were clearly shown that since they treat the funeral like a literal celebration/party thats how they think of death. Since the vampire running the funeral home is now essentially immortal its not like he has any need or reason to take death seriously. If anything theyre basically celebrating the possibility of the entrance of a new vampire into the world... Gore Can Have a Purpose 440https://i.ur.com/U4pBsBN.png Gore I love gore Saw Final Destination Nightmare on Elm Street Childs Play slasher movies tons and tons of other general horror movies... Im a big fan of the gore Gratuitous senseless random and unneeded gore Decapitations dismemberment heads exploding faces melting self mutilation disemboweling All good stuff Just... if youre gonna do cannibalism just please dont... go in thathttps://anilist.co/anime/19315/Pupa direction. But you know what I love more than random and gratuitous gore? Gore that has a purpose gore when it is used sparingly enough to really have an impact. When a show starts almost immediately with the gore right away... like you already revealed your hand You already revealed your hand But when you start slow and actually introduce your characters introduce your setting and youve got the atmosphere going... 440https://i.ur.com/jq8nRQi.png When the carnage really starts it feels appropriate and doesnt feel like complete schlock. Not to mention theres an actual effective trigger moment and while I felt like I was waiting the entire show for that moment to happen it wasnt an unpleasant wait. Then afterward theres no going back. It is more or less COMPLETE carnage from that moment on. And one of the reappearing minor characters that you think is just another part of the village becomes a hulking walking AVATAR OF VIOLENCE and is eventually covered in blood from his feet to his head. I thought nothing of this character early on but GEEZ. He sure... gets his hands bloody Also the two OVA episodes Shiki has both take place in this later part of the show and contribute even more to the carnage What are your favorite type of OVAs? Fan service extra character interactions anime original episodes??? Uh no my favorite type of OVA is the sort that primarily features DEEEEEEEEEEEEEATH. My favorite scene actually from one of these OVA episodes. Thus its not even a part of whats considered the main carnage... like its actually mentioned in the main episodes but TECHNICALLY you can watch the final episodes without watching the OVAs. Absolutely do NOT do that though. Not Entirely Flawless 440https://i.ur.com/8lRDeKI.png There are SOME flies in the ointment. For instance the vampire responsible for spreading the vampire curse is... well a huge disappointment. They dont really do much to be honest. Additionally I dont know if there was more to their backstory in the novel or the manga but it was pretty... lackluster what we got in the anime. They didnt seem like they should have been the Dracula so to speak. But at least we had the enforcer character... would have totally been fine if he had been more of the... main antagonist I suppose. Additionally I consider them not as a dropping of the ball. That whole portion of the end was the largest thing that soured me on the ending. Granted I suppose I can see some reasons for it... However the ending kind of worsens one of the already pretty bad characters of Shiki because its clear that 440https://i.ur.com/qF9SLU9.png Furthermore one of the two protagonist characters is I think another one of the weakest parts of Shiki. Specifically the purple haired one Natsuno. But I dont think its that huge of a problem because of how comparatively strong the doctor protagonist is. Still its worth discussing... In the first half or chunk of Shiki I kind of really liked Natsuno. Hes kind of flipping out to the extent that hes one of the first ones who seriously considers the possibility that the Risen are actually a thing and actually does have the grit to grab a shovel and tell his friends Lets go see if this corpse is still in its coffin. Hes even the one who floats the idea of humans and vampires coexisting out there only for it to immediately shot down. Then in the second half of the show To be honest those are really the only negatives I had with Shiki. I mean its not like theyre small things but in the grand scheme of things... one of the protagonists and the main antagonist being disappointments or wastes is overshadowed by everything else. Favorite Scene Unlike a bunch of my other reviews in which I usually describe entire characters and scenes I really liked or disliked in detail with Shiki I tried to restrain myself from doing this as much as possible. Not only is it because I truly do love this show but also because I genuinely do think the less you know about the show the more youll get out of it. But there is one scene that I must go into because its perfect and I love it to the point I have rewatched the scene itself after actually finishing Shiki probably an unhealthy amount of times. It is probably one of my overall favorite scenes out of all of the anime Ive watched and etc. Its basically a crystallization of everything I love about this show as well as the sort of horror I really like. However its a part of the very end of the show so I cant really go into it without spoilers. Do not read/look at the spoiler if youre going to watch Shiki and have remained more or less unspoiled on it. Because this scene is best experienced without having seen or read about it but I cannot complete this review without going into this scene so... 440https://i.ur.com/qgkj9kX.png Conclusion 10 out of 10. Not joking here at all. My opinions sometime shift and change but I dont think Shiki will ever fully leave my top ten shows no matter how it may change overall in the future. Mind you Im perfectly willing to admit and have even somewhat gone into some flaws I do think are present within Shiki but there is just... there are just so many scenes and sequences that I just outright love. Even the worst/most wasted characters are just completely overshadowed in my opinion by the really REALLY cool/good ones. Additionally I also fucking have to respect the series as a whole because it actually does vampires perfectly. Covers the actual conflicts and the reactions to transforming into a being that can only ever go out during night and have to actually feed on human blood to survive the actual horror of humans being stalked or hunted by vampires and the actually grisly thought of undergoing the procedure of KILLING a vampire. Out of all of the horror monsters of yore vampires got a raw fucking dealhttps://i.ur.com/QwvCjZg.png so its cool that this thing that does vampires PERFECTLY exists. Until I stumble upon some obscure never heard of horror anime thats amazing Shiki is hands down my favorite horror anime. I wish I hadnt initially given up on it and then... went off and watched another show. Perhaps watching that show deepened my capability of appreciating everything Shiki is when I came back to it like a year later. Shiki is the best horror anime so far. 500https://images4.alphacoders.com/155/155894.jpg