Shiki - Anime Review

Shiki - Anime Review

Duration: 22+2
Supplied: Purchased Blurays via Rightstuf
Published: Funimation
Release: October 27th, 2010(originally by Aniplex)

Our story this time is set in a mountain-valley town called Sotoba. It is surrounded on 3 sides by wooded mountains and it is quite secluded. It is a small town atmosphere where everyone knows everyone and secrets and gossip are the main sources of entertainment. However, once a sickness starts to spread around the town people begin to worry. Even worse, the mortality rate for the illness is quite high. Things only seem to be accelerating too.

Shiki is yet another horror series that I picked up. I have been on a horror binge lately and just could not refuse. I thought this one might put me off but I decided on trying it anyways. I am glad that I did! I will not talk too much about the main theme but viewers will pick up on it right away. It is not complicated in the least but I hate giving too much away.

The story starts off with a mystery as an illness sweeps through the small town. People die in staggering numbers. However, there is more at work here. The infected are refusing medical treatment after becoming sick, inexplicably. People are seen at night who could not possibly be there. Rumors of demons spread around town but no one wants to take them seriously.

The first thing I really noticed about Shiki was its overall style. There is a lot of flair in this series and it really stands out. The transitions from one place to another are almost all unique. Some appear as cutaways, others fast-forward/rewind time. The music overall is there to create a lot of tension and it succeeds at this pretty well. It always kept my energy up and interest piqued. Even all the episode names were thematic in that they all pertained to death in some fashion.

Shiki really seems to have the styles from many different artists. Character designs overall are quite diverse. Styles of hair vary greatly between people as well. I have never seen such a wacky looking lot in all of my time watching anime. Some of the characters seemed to be straight out of older classics. Although, I cannot say for sure, it really seems like the design team was really allowed a lot of flexibility on the design of its characters. Which is a good thing, because....

The case is HUGE! The cast of this series is quite ridiculous in scale. You will see character nameplates(introductions) appear above new people constantly throughout the entire series. While the series is full-length, we only really get to know a couple of the characters very well. Most of them are just fodder for the overall plot. Although, it does do a good job of keeping a lot of them involved.

The overall plot is quite ambitious. It is a very plot-driven series and we are basically seeing it happen through a multitude of character perspectives. The series even goes forward and backward through time to show all the angles and keep everything congruent. Make sure to pay attention to the dates on the top! The downside to this approach is we do not get to have a conventional protagonist. Instead, we get several. It is a bizarre approach but I think overall it worked quite well.

Conclusion
I liked the ambition and execution of this series the entire way through. I was never once bored and I always wanted to know what was going to happen next. The tension was real. The whole story arced in a brilliant fashion and came to a satisfactory resolution.

Recommendation
Yup! It is a bit on the long side but it managed to keep me engaged. If the series was half as long it would not be nearly as fleshed out. There is an ambitious story here if you want to dive into it.

P.S. Just a heads up that some of the later episodes can be pretty bloody and disturbing.