Fourteenth Death

Summary: Toshio experiments on his wife’s corpse.

Alex: Oh.My.God. This episode was probably the best thing from this series so far.Toshio…I believed that his eyes and his facial expressions were a sign he’d given up and accepted everything, not a sign that he was going mad over it.The way he kept the corpse of his wife hidden so he could experiment how to combat the “Shiki” on it…was…disturbing. The detail to the visuals and the screams from his wife in this moment were just so brilliant. I mean…it seriously left me breathless throughout the episode. Just…wow.

I love this show @_@

Mimi: Yeah.. I’m also blown away by this episode.. o.o There’s no question that it’s the best one so far. I’m actually starting to enjoy watching the doctor more than Natsuno, though I bet he’ll return to the show with awesomeness.

Thirteenth Tragedy

Summary:Natsuno dies.

Alex:This week in your everyday peaceful countryside village, everyone left alive is slowly and painfully dying or being toyed with as everyone else dies.Talk about one sided D: The humans can’t do anything anymore…EVERYONS GONNA DIIIE D:

Because honestly, that’s about it. The shiki are clearly toying with people now, and they’re killing off the rest of the village, and this episode is dedicated to the gloom and doom of the village.

Twelfth Decay

Alex:Oh wooooow. This was almost an ideal episode for Shiki, it was creepy, enchanting, horrifying and gave the story another layer. Not many episodes manage that. It starts with Natsuno trying to get Tohru back, and getting frustrated with how he’s acting human.We then see him telling the two kids to stay away from him…and his character then…talk about creepy. It’s that kind of character change that shows you just how deeply he took being a vampire, and then for him to have willingly become one for Tohru’s sake…just wow.

The new opening and ending are almost top notch, stunning animation and some good songs, really fitting the mood of the whole series now. The one thing that i’ll be really interested to see in future episodes is the Natsuno/Megumi/Tohru combination when the three of them become “Shiki”. Since they don’t like being called vampires. But the big question is….what happens now? Do we follow the Shiki as they try to escape, or the children trying to save Natsuno?

Episode 7 to Episode 11

Alex:I had a HUGE change of heart when it comes to blogging this series. My first concern with blogging it was that it was spending too long building up, and that’s been taken care of. My second worry was that i’d run out of things to write, but that’ll be dealt with as it comes. I’ve decided to the series up again because it’s just become THAT awesome. The visuals as you can see from the screenshots are eye candy, the soundtrack is hauntingly enchanting, and the way those earlier episodes worried about the atmosphere has REALLY paid of big time with the way the whole village is feeling alive. In the episodes I didn’t cover, Masao became a vampire, the vampires launched an attack on the clinic because they were close to figuring it out, and the biggest one of all, Natsuno got bitten and will probably become a vampire himself.

I’m really starting to understand why Japanese horror is so effective. It’s not in-your-face kind of horror, it’s the kind of horror that has you shaking to your bones because its so enchantingly creepy, and thats what Shiki’s done from the very start. With Natsuno being bitten, I have no idea where it’ll go now, either, it’s actually getting pretty unpredictable.  But i’ll say it now and i’ll say it again loads of times before i’m done blogging this, words DO NOT do this series justice. If what i’ve said sounds remotely decent, it’s a million times better in the actual anime.

Sixth Skull

Alex:Things are starting to get interesting now. The episode starts with Megumi finding out that her postcard was ripped up, and proving that vampires can have emotional periods.But that sorrow will soon turn to hatred.

The deaths from last episode are confirmed.The breakthrough this time is what appears to be insect bites.But we all know what they really are.Signs of Toshio and Seishin beginning to crack are also emerging as they’re becoming unable to figure anything out.However…nobody seems to have noticed Masao’s corpse yet. And nobody seems to care so far, either.

Fortunately, Natsuno is making the connection between vampires and a local myth where the dead rise to wander around at night. Another potential breakthrough is the way that Seishin has taken out books related to vampires and dracula. If this means that he’s made the connection, or he’s just researching for his novels is left unclear.

At the time which Natsuno is hunting down vampire books,Toshio is struggling with all his efforts to find new ways to beat this plague. He tries a blood transufion this time, and after seeing results for the first day, the patient dies pretty quickly and suddenly. Natsuno is also starting to doubt his sanity, when he asks Toshio if Megumi would ever have come back to life. This leads to a breakthrough of Toshio gaining a theory of vampires, and the potential for a medical breakthrough emerges.

Whilst this was a typical episode, it was done in the style Shiki’s doing every episode, and doing it well. It’s all one big chunk of atmosphere and building up so far, yet by episode 6, it’s already reached the point where vampires are obviously the cause. Looks like the fact that this is a 22 episode series is going to lead to something very interesting.

Fifth Deceit

Alex:Yeah, so out of all the shows this season, Shiki is really hard to write about weekly, when the episode itself is just a bunch of amazing atmosphere.

I wonder when the body count from this show will reach a steady point. It’s just upped even more here. Anyway, Toru is dead. What’s interesting is that whilst he died shortly after Natsuno’s dream, there weren’t any bite marks on his neck. Whilst this probably means Megumi is tormenting him in his dream, it proves that there is a link, or a huge coincidence. Another vital clue which emerges seems pretty insignificant at first though, the fact that everyone who died quit education/work before they actually quit. It probably means something we can’t figure out right now.

On a different note, the soundtrack is amazing. It doesn’t sound like anything i’ve heard before, and I like it. Its creepy at times, tense at times, and when the focus is on the words being spoken, it goes into the background perfectly.

Yeah. This is a really short entry, because words don’t do justice to what happened on the screen, and thats been the case throughout all of Shiki…and that’ll probably remain the case for a long time.

Fourth Death

Alex:Okay. Okay. So this was more building up, but with a very different finale, and some VERY effective horror.This episode made it very clear that its vampires we’re dealing with here. Megumi and blue-haired guy are two confirmed vampires, and for some reason, only Natsuno has seen Megmui so far. They’re very classic vampires, unlike the modern ones we see in books and films such as Twilight. They can’t be out in the sunlight…leading to that little girl again. She can’t be out in the sunlight, so does that mean that she’s also a vampire? If so, why is she spending time getting friendly with the priest?

Natsuno’s delusions are also getting stronger and stronger as he starts to see dead people all over town…makes you wonder if they’re killing all these people for a reason, or if they’re just thirsty for blood.

Anyway, this episode brings the death count to 18, and if the finale wasn’t just a dream, 19.

Third Tragedy

Alex:The plot thickens…slightly. We finally get introduced to the residents of the castle on the hilltop, and boy, are they creepy. The man and women appear out of nowhere and get excited about people being around, and the girl turns up out of nowhere and taunts Muroi(The priest with glasses) about how she loves his books and tales…and then when he calls her little, she gets bitter and tells him that cutting his wrists isn’t enough to kill him. Its creepy enough how she knows that he’s done that, but then they had to put her dancing down the temple steps as she left with an eerie jingle.

Meanwhile, Toshio, the doctor, is completely baffled by what’s happening as the third victim is claimed. He starts to refer to this as a plague, out to kill the whole village. Slightly medieval, but okay.The shots that use CG or strange filters are really well composed in this series so far.

Second Decay

Alex:Shiki hit a high with it’s first episode, and stays on that high for this one. Solid direction, solid acting, and a very believable tale. The tale seems to be jumping down the idea that there’s some “disease” killing people off with no idea of how or why, with all of them sharing symptoms.Whilst this may not be the vampire hunting tale I first thought, it’s still an amazingly solid one. It’s more of a “wow this is a very deep story and wants to take its time” than a “OMG THIS IS HORRIBLY SCARY” kind of story.

Shiki is an amazingly hard series to write about weekly, however, due to the fact that well…it’s to be seen instead of read about, writing doesn’t do it justice and it doesn’t begin to come close to why the atmosphere is brilliant, and its only at episode 2. I’m wandering how this will be possible to keep it up without talking about what i’m expecting to happen.