ADVISORY NOTE: This review contains and/or may contain strong language graphic depictions and spoilers. Reader discretion is advised and if you havent read it yet Id suggest staying on the first two or three paragraphs at most so you dont get spoiled too early. TLDR its worth reading. After many delays so many in fact that I managed to finish my thesis four books and state exams before I even finished reading this I can finally try and describe the mild rollercoaster of Shiki. I would not dare to call the experience milquetoast on the contrary Shiki was almost always an entertaining thrilling read and managed to stay this way almost until the end which so far for me is a first. First and foremost this is my first published manga review on Anilist. While I may have reviewed some OVAs before this I do not have a properly established hierarchy for manga reviews. Excuse the jank. Secondly Ill be going thru a lot of past memories some of which stretch to winter of 2022. If something from my review does not connect with your experiences reading Shiki then that is most likely the reason. Im simply just a guy and even if I have abnormal memory at times I dont think I can stretch it this far. Boy where to start? I love vampires. Forgive the expletive but I fuckin love vampires. Theyre a fascinating concept to me an idea that Bram Stoker popularized in the early modern era and that is only being constantly developed on. Shiki as such was high on my radar and Im glad to say it did not disappoint outside maybe the ending chapters. Right soooo... Art appearance aesthetics: 8/10 Shiki is a solid finelooking manga to read through. Depictions of violence graphic content gore and such are quite forwards and in your face yet know when to back down unless theyre trying to establish a scene which I believe the manga does quite well outside a couple exceptions where it looks mildly questionable. Distinguishing between characters is a little challenging at times yet that has a valid excuse and I cannot exactly find anything wrong otherwise with the art and the way its drawn. Maybe itll look a little too 2000s for some for me I have seen way worse and I can safely call this good. Story: 7/10 Starting with very little delay Shiki establishes the scene the premise and the eventual gradation of the said story. I think the start may be quite polarizing for some at first you may think youre reading through a comedy until the folk start disappearing. This is where I think the character descriptors dont matter much outside the main cast. Why should you care what someone looks like in a story where they will appear for half a chapter and then maybe later in an offhand mention? For a while you could say the story stays in a sort of linear phase where the stakes arent exactly raised not yet at least in any way shape or form..heh but theyve been established by the first third of the story as already quite high. You might have to prepare yourself for the last couple of chapters that accelerate that set of stakes into actual railgun ammunition and then they suddenly hit a wall. Safe to say that the pacing is good until the final couple of chapters the story is captivating and Id say its worth a read. Ill try..to avoid conveying more spoilers as I feel this is genuinely worth reading and I might have spoiled a bit much asis. Characters: 7/10 Funnily enough despite the main cast having plenty of time to establish itself on the canvas Id say the side characters and all the small stories are the most entertaining bit of characters. Yuuki undergoes interesting developments and I really dig Toshios entire character arc. Some of the others like Muroi Im far less keen on but I understand why theyre there. Anyway where did I leave off? Right the side characters. It is not as evident at the start of the manga but by the halfway point you can pretty safely see the turns the manga takes with your perception of it. A reserved isolated but quite happy village with all its colorful residents gets painted a certain shade of black and red. The backdrop the locations the chronological development is the film and the characters are the developing bath the film is dropped into. And unlike some other stories many of the side characters arent dropped off either I may have said the contrary in a previous section but you have to understand that not every character in the story ends up like that. Quite a solid cast stays on through the story in one way or another. It paints quite an interesting picture that I am fond of. Though maybe Id appreciate less of the were not so bad spiel that is plastered in near the end. It doesnt paint a pretty picture but it does give some of the characters lacking humanity that they desperately needed otherwise. Enjoyment: 8/10 I can safely say outside a couple exceptions I enjoyed reading Shiki a lot. Im a little worried about whats next in store for me looking at my backlog but Shiki will most likely stay in my higherrated series. Overall: 7/10 // 70/100 The things I find lacking in Shiki are few in number and not that great in size either. Id say my hunch was correct on sticking with this manga and actually finishing it as I find it a solid title overall and one you should not be ashamed of having read through or even given a cursory glance. It starts slightly weird ramps up and keeps the tension going and it doesnt even really spare you either with its twists and turns that arent common but are there when they count the most. Shikis good. Go read Shiki.