Anime Review - Shiki - Was There a Victor?

The vampire genre is very diluted nowadays, just like the zombie genre, and it's hard to find something worth your time. I stumbled upon Shiki by searching the Horror genre, rather than the Vampire genre, since I was not really actively searching for a story involving vampires. Rather than gruesome fights like in the Hellsing series, Shiki tells more about vampires' desire to have a place where they are safe, where they do not kill humans, and where the two parties can coexist. Shiki tells us that this idea could have been a possibility if and only if both parties were sane at the time to negotiate. However, this is not meant to be and we eventually see a village succumb to vampires, or do we?

The story initially takes the perspective of two main characters - a young man Natsuno Yuuki and the village doctor Toshio Ozaki, where the whole village eventually finds that there are new residents living at the castle in the village, and that they only see the female residents come out at night to interact with the locals. I somewhat liked the different perspectives of these two characters, because Natsuno was determined to eliminate the root of the evil - the vampires, whilst Toshio just shrugs off the idea of vampires existing, and that's fair from an adult's point of view. Eventually one by one, the village slowly dies of a mysterious sickness, which we know of having too little blood in their system, resulting in cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, Natsuno succumbs to this sickness and is killed in the process or is he? DUN DUN DUN!!!!! It was kinda disappointing he was turned into a vampire, but hey it makes him even cooler, since he can control his actions and try to save the locals, despite being no longer human.

Anyway, the first half of Shiki was more of an introduction of the characters and I also like the different viewpoints of vampires from Toshio and his friend Seishin (the village monk). The second half delves more into the two's differentiating views - Toshio wanting to kill the vampires and Seishin wanting the vampires and humans to coexist (e.g. humans just donate blood to the vampires). What I really like is the parallel and how their roles have been flipped. Toshio, a doctor, should really focus on the idea of saving people, rather than killing, whereas Seishin, a monk should rather have the idea of "exorcising" and killing the vampires. As casualties rises, the audience becomes to sympathesize with the village, since many of them are innocent individuals, and was forcefully turned into vampires.

And that brings me onto the next point of the review. In the second part, we see the village fight and defend themselves against the vampires after Toshio succesfully captures a vampire and cruelly murders her. It was somewhat sad because that vampire was not originally a vampire, but was turned, as were many of these vampires, which we eventually see get massacred. Our feelings of sympathy shifts to the vampires, because they were the ones who have suffered even more. They never chose to be a vampire, and their insatiable thirst of blood drives them insane.  In one scene, where a mass of vampires are slowly burned alive, we finally see compassion from one of the villagers (Hasegawa) to just end their lives quickly. Even though he had a daughter who died by the hands of a vampire, he is reluctant to kill the vampires, and he is also unwilling to see them die in agony. This man understands that these vampires did not choose their paths of damnation, and neither should we become the hungry bloodthirsty killers.

To know that this could have been prevented is something that is saddening. We witness that vampires actually were working with a human, and this shows that there could have been cooperation if there was negotiation in the first place. We also eventually see the "head vampire" Sunako's backstory, and we realise that she was not originally a vampire, and she was turned forcefully, at such a young age too. She is just a young girl who cannot control herself, and there was a scene where she was almost killed, and her crying and begging really hit the kokoro. These vampires were meant to be sympathesized - they never chose the path of drinking blood, or chose to turn others - they were just at the wrong place, at the wrong time. Shiki explained that there is a different side to vampires, rather than our usual depiction of vampires being strong-willed bloodthirsty killers. However, it would have been interesting to understand why Sunako had a human working with her, and the backstory behind it).

The ending is a controversial one since it's left as an open-ended ending, but I liked this ending because it was left on a good note. We see that Sunako and Seishin are moving somewhere else, where they will attempt to coexist with humans, rather than mindlessly converting people. We also see the demise of the village, ironically by the hands of the villagers themselves. They have damned themselves too, because they were so blinded by anger and hatred. Both humans and vampires have lost - there were no victor, rather both are left with despair and destruction, but at least both parties have learnt a valuable lesson. Kinda like the wars in our world, right? There are no real victors.

Overall, the artstyle is very well done and effectively sets the scene and creates that perfect environment for the horror genre. I will have to admit that I was initially dissuaded to watch this anime because I thought it was just some gore and fighting between human and vampires, but I was glad that I was treated to a well-balanced horror anime that efficiently engaged viewers in gruesome gore, as well as having a storyline that was easy to follow. I guess the anime's simple message is that we should be open-minded and not be easily blinded by anger. I watched it a while ago and I wrote this review recently, and this shows how memorable and easy to understand the storyline was. I really recommend this anime to anyone who would love a different variation to the vampire genre. If you are looking for horror, there's something for you here, and even better if you are looking for a balance of gore and plot.

Score Summary (8.5/10):

Story: 9/10

Characters: 8/10

Art: 7/10

Sound: 7/10

Enjoyment: 10/10