VeritasOdiumParit: Shiki

This is another one of those 'one of the greatest' for me. This is perhaps one of the best horror stories ever told. It is presented in such a way that it's not very predictable, and the plot actually has a point to it. Rather than just trying to entertain the viewers, which it still does very well. So what is about Shiki that appeals to me? I believe it's the great animation, soundtrack, dubbed voice acting, and the overall plot.

The animation is pretty and very attractive to the eye. A lot of the characters have silly hair styles, but if you can look past how ridiculous their hair looks you can still take the story very seriously. The backgrounds are very well done and paint a panoramic scene of a mountain town/village.

The soundtrack is a little cheesy and a little repetitive as you will start to hear the same piece of music every time there is a revelation about what's going on. Both of the opening themes used are catchy and get you hyped up and ready for each episode.

The dubbed cast did a great job with this anime. I enjoyed everyone's voices (except for the children, as their voices were rather irritating to listen to). But, overall everyone puts on a believable performance and you feel like you are there and in the moment as you feel their emotions.

Last, but not least the plot. This is another series that is very difficult to explain the plot without spoiling the rest of the anime for everyone else. So it starts out with Megami who is a very moody teenager and is incredibly bored of her village life and detests everyone. Except Natsuno who also hates village life. Then a strange turn of events occur as Megami is found dead after walking up to the castle at the top of the hill where a new family has moved in. From here the plot becomes more difficult to describe without spoiling it. But, there is a mystery surrounding the circumstances of how Megami died. Who or what made her ill? Why did she die? What will happen to the rest of the village?

Because, I cannot spoil the rest of the plot I cannot say how much more interesting the anime becomes. Especially seeing as you are not introduced to other characters in the first episode. You meet them gradually and their personalities develop with each episode.

 

You want to know what's great about Shiki?

The soundtrack. It brought everything to life. I agree with the above. This one is on my greatest list.

A word of advice, one of the episodes was...split. The episode after refers to events that occured at the same time. It's easy to miss the bonus episode. Watch the bonus episode! It's not needed to understand what's going on (as the episode after makes mention of it) It is however a great episode. The last few episodes spiral to an awesome conclusion. Once you get to that certain point you'll watch all the way to the end.

(I forgot exactly what the episode number was but it's somewhere around 20. Everything gets ramped up by then.)

 

And here I thought my reviews died in the annals of time

 

Hewoo Doomguy,
If I'm not to late to reply and if the bonus episode is the pipeline scene... it's episode 21.5...I'm pretty sure. You are right though, the soundtracks are amazing.

 

It's never too late to discuss Shiki, one of my favorite anime of all time.

That pipeline episode hit me the hardest in the entire anime. What's crazy was how none of the characters were even part of the main group of characters and it still managed to deliver the chills. That final stretch of episodes is how you enter the end of an anime, there wasn't a good place to stop watching once you reached a certain point, It was just too good.

 

I'm surprised people are reading this, ha ha! And the part you are talking about @Doomguy and @Kaede Kiriei is it the:

Spoiler

One where they die in the bath together? I think I missed that episode somehow. I don't think the additional episode was there when I watched it. So when I watched the next episode, I was a little puzzled. But, still this series is awesome overall

 

That was the other bonus episode. There were two of them, I remember that one being more disturbing and creepy but the characters involved didn't get a lot of screen time. The tunnel one tied up a few loose ends on what happened to some of the earlier mentioned characters.

Spoiler

Remember Nao? She was one of the earlier victims when the doctor still couldn't figure out what was happening. After her "death", she came back to "feed" on her mother who was under the care by the doctor. It was at this point the doctor finally understood what was happening (but of course couldn't do anything because he had no proof, damn I love this anime!) The entire episode explored her psyche at this point. I thought it was an excellent addition for her character development.

It also showed what happened to the morgue guy and the police officer.)

And now I feel like watching Shiki again

 

Same here. I don't ever cry in movies or anime but that scene in particular almost got to me. I cant remember the persons name who put them out of their misery, but I thanked him for it.
At the beginning of Shiki I was kind of neutral about whose side to be on because they both had their faults (A being that feeds off humans to survive... And the humans fighting back. It's only natural) but after the pipeline scene, I was really angry with how the humans dealt with it. so since that point on, I sided with the Shikis.
I would have to agree, Shiki is just too good that I recommended it to my friends.

 

Meanwhile @Supernatural-Knight has yet to watch it once

 

After re-reading my review, it reminded me of why I love this anime so much. I may have to put the DVD's on and watch it all over again at some point!!

 

Anime night is always the best especially when it's an ANIME HORROR night.

 

I don't know about you guys but I can't help but feel a Frankenstein version of this anime would work.

 

My god no!!!!
Sadly it actually would work.

 

I really did like Shiki. The only real problem I had with it was the fact that the first half of the story dragged on longer than a political discussion with family members at Thanksgiving