Wolfe reporting!
Apologies for the delay on this post. Life's been way too crazy busy, more so than I even prefer. It's about to get even crazier, too. I'm also implementing the group-agreed-upon rating procedure, which I tried a variant of on my last post (Mirai Nikki).
So, I'm reviewing Shiki today!
Shiki was apparently crazy popular at one point in Japan. I'm not sure when, but I can see why. The first episode didn't really appeal to me, but the second episode-on... well, you'll hear more about those in a bit. If you've seen pictures of huge coal-black eyes or skeletons or crazy hairstyles, they might be from this anime.
This anime was 22 episodes long (of standard length). Wikipedia labels the genre as Supernatural, Horror, Mystery, Fantasy.
Concept: So, the setting is in a small town out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees which are used in burials (or otherwise a reference to Death). It's said that sometimes, when people die, they don't stay dead-- they rise from their graves as "Shiki".
Not much is known about Shiki, except that they're bound by the classic Vampire rules. That is, they can only come out at night, they have to be invited into a house in order to come in, they can be killed by driving a stake through their heart, they can be repelled by crosses... you know, the classics.
Plot: So, as the title suggests, Shiki come into being. There are arguments on the origins (which I won't get into, due to heavy spoilers), but it must be understood that there is now at least one Shiki. Shiki drink blood to survive, and for reasons unknown (at least, for long enough that I can't tell you without seriously spoiling stuff), the victims don't tell anyone that it's happening to them. Dead victims have a high chance (or is it 100%?) of rising to become a Shiki themselves.
The plot of Shiki is the conflict between Shiki and the villagers. The villagers don't want to believe in the Shiki, leading to some excellent human nature showings that I highly approved of. The viewer watches as villager after villager falls to the Shiki. Will those who believe in the Shiki be able to convince their fellow villagers that the Shiki exist, or will the Shiki eliminate all? Even if the villagers believe in the Shiki, just what can be done to combat them?
I will say that many characters die, some the viewer might not expect. Feeling my hopes flow down the drain was an amazing feeling that I would recommend to anyone that can attach to characters.
Last but not least, later on, you learn of some things from the Shiki's point of view. This is an amazing edge. This isn't good against evil, as much as the viewer wants it to be. The morale grounds seriously make me question things, and even when the anime ended, I'm not entirely sure that the Shiki were in the wrong.
There are a few arc twists, and each of them had me on the edge of my seat. It took time to get into, but once I was into it, it was highly addictive.
Characters: I found the characters to be fascinating. Despite my dislike for the animation style and hairstyles, the characters that they represented were very well thought-out. It felt much like a book, with each character actually playing a role in the overarching story (some more than others). When everyone is human, there isn't as much of a character class.. but as more and more character become Shiki and/or die, the characters become all the more diverse. Becoming a Shiki is a huge character development technique, and it landed perfectly well. I often disagreed with characters' thoughts and ways of going about things, but I loved the characters' complexity and development all the same. It's only natural to disagree with human beings, which brings me to my last point: all of these people were humans (and I don't mean that the Shiki were human, if that makes sense). They all suffered from the same sort of faults that humans do, and had ideals that were definitely human in origin. They were real people.
Music: I LOVED THE MUSIC IN THIS ANIME. There, I feel better now. It's amazing with or without the anime, actually. It stands perfectly well alone. It reminds me somewhat of the Age of Empires music, but way cooler. They always set the mood and tone. My high view of this anime is likely largely due to the music. Link to the full OST.
Introduction Sequence: Both introduction sequences were amazing to me!! The first intro sequence is quite possibly my favourite introduction sequence of all time. The second one was really good too, don't get me wrong. Watch them here: OP 1, (second one not found).
Animation Style: I didn't like the animation style. I grew to tolerate it, but going into the anime, I actually heavily disliked the animation style. That's just my personal opinion, though. Here are some examples:
Believability: Oh, I think this is the believability in this anime is the best I've ever encountered. Honestly. Human nature and rules of nature, etc., all were conserved and well-represented.
Combat: The combat in Shiki wasn't fighting, so to speak. There weren't sword fights or gun battles. There was a battle that was waged, but it's hard to explain. The "combat", so to speak, was really, really good though.
Power Balance: This is a hard topic. You'd think that the Shiki have a huge edge, but they didn't really have that. The Shiki were just more clever... for most of the time. The lack of power balance is part of the plot, so it wasn't balanced well, but it wouldn't be the same if it was.
Darkness and Bloodiness: Oh, uhm. Yeah. This. This anime... this anime was dark, and it was bloody. It was absolutely incredibly in this aspect. If you want something fluffy, run. Run hard, run fast.
Philosophy: The philosophy in this was also really, really good. It wasn't introduced quickly, but when it is introduced, it really makes you think. It's a question of survival and what is right, morally. It's a question of salvation, too.
Resolution:
Plot (+)
Characters (+)
Music (+)
Intro (+)
Believability (+)
Dark (+)
Blood (+)
Combat (=)
Power Balance (=)
Animation Style (-)
Total Score: 9.5
Wallpapers:
AMV's:
Dragula (Rob Zombie) - A really great AMV!!
This Is Halloween (Marilyn Manson) - This is really well done!
Scars (Basement Jaxx) - This one is actually really well done.
Walking Dead (Papa Roach) - This one is also good, and a good oversight of the whole story.
Diary of Jane (Breaking Benjamin) - Guess what? This one's good too!
For your Japanese, 屍鬼 is basically "dead/corpse ghost/demon".
Next Time: On Monday, I hope to post my Hataraku Maou-sama review!
Wolfe out.
Apologies for the delay on this post. Life's been way too crazy busy, more so than I even prefer. It's about to get even crazier, too. I'm also implementing the group-agreed-upon rating procedure, which I tried a variant of on my last post (Mirai Nikki).
 |
| Her eyes are amazing! Source. |
Shiki was apparently crazy popular at one point in Japan. I'm not sure when, but I can see why. The first episode didn't really appeal to me, but the second episode-on... well, you'll hear more about those in a bit. If you've seen pictures of huge coal-black eyes or skeletons or crazy hairstyles, they might be from this anime.
This anime was 22 episodes long (of standard length). Wikipedia labels the genre as Supernatural, Horror, Mystery, Fantasy.
Concept: So, the setting is in a small town out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees which are used in burials (or otherwise a reference to Death). It's said that sometimes, when people die, they don't stay dead-- they rise from their graves as "Shiki".
Not much is known about Shiki, except that they're bound by the classic Vampire rules. That is, they can only come out at night, they have to be invited into a house in order to come in, they can be killed by driving a stake through their heart, they can be repelled by crosses... you know, the classics.
Plot: So, as the title suggests, Shiki come into being. There are arguments on the origins (which I won't get into, due to heavy spoilers), but it must be understood that there is now at least one Shiki. Shiki drink blood to survive, and for reasons unknown (at least, for long enough that I can't tell you without seriously spoiling stuff), the victims don't tell anyone that it's happening to them. Dead victims have a high chance (or is it 100%?) of rising to become a Shiki themselves.
The plot of Shiki is the conflict between Shiki and the villagers. The villagers don't want to believe in the Shiki, leading to some excellent human nature showings that I highly approved of. The viewer watches as villager after villager falls to the Shiki. Will those who believe in the Shiki be able to convince their fellow villagers that the Shiki exist, or will the Shiki eliminate all? Even if the villagers believe in the Shiki, just what can be done to combat them?
I will say that many characters die, some the viewer might not expect. Feeling my hopes flow down the drain was an amazing feeling that I would recommend to anyone that can attach to characters.
Last but not least, later on, you learn of some things from the Shiki's point of view. This is an amazing edge. This isn't good against evil, as much as the viewer wants it to be. The morale grounds seriously make me question things, and even when the anime ended, I'm not entirely sure that the Shiki were in the wrong.
There are a few arc twists, and each of them had me on the edge of my seat. It took time to get into, but once I was into it, it was highly addictive.
Characters: I found the characters to be fascinating. Despite my dislike for the animation style and hairstyles, the characters that they represented were very well thought-out. It felt much like a book, with each character actually playing a role in the overarching story (some more than others). When everyone is human, there isn't as much of a character class.. but as more and more character become Shiki and/or die, the characters become all the more diverse. Becoming a Shiki is a huge character development technique, and it landed perfectly well. I often disagreed with characters' thoughts and ways of going about things, but I loved the characters' complexity and development all the same. It's only natural to disagree with human beings, which brings me to my last point: all of these people were humans (and I don't mean that the Shiki were human, if that makes sense). They all suffered from the same sort of faults that humans do, and had ideals that were definitely human in origin. They were real people.
Music: I LOVED THE MUSIC IN THIS ANIME. There, I feel better now. It's amazing with or without the anime, actually. It stands perfectly well alone. It reminds me somewhat of the Age of Empires music, but way cooler. They always set the mood and tone. My high view of this anime is likely largely due to the music. Link to the full OST.
Introduction Sequence: Both introduction sequences were amazing to me!! The first intro sequence is quite possibly my favourite introduction sequence of all time. The second one was really good too, don't get me wrong. Watch them here: OP 1, (second one not found).
Animation Style: I didn't like the animation style. I grew to tolerate it, but going into the anime, I actually heavily disliked the animation style. That's just my personal opinion, though. Here are some examples:
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| Source. |
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| Source. |
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| Source. |
Believability: Oh, I think this is the believability in this anime is the best I've ever encountered. Honestly. Human nature and rules of nature, etc., all were conserved and well-represented.
Combat: The combat in Shiki wasn't fighting, so to speak. There weren't sword fights or gun battles. There was a battle that was waged, but it's hard to explain. The "combat", so to speak, was really, really good though.
Power Balance: This is a hard topic. You'd think that the Shiki have a huge edge, but they didn't really have that. The Shiki were just more clever... for most of the time. The lack of power balance is part of the plot, so it wasn't balanced well, but it wouldn't be the same if it was.
Darkness and Bloodiness: Oh, uhm. Yeah. This. This anime... this anime was dark, and it was bloody. It was absolutely incredibly in this aspect. If you want something fluffy, run. Run hard, run fast.
Philosophy: The philosophy in this was also really, really good. It wasn't introduced quickly, but when it is introduced, it really makes you think. It's a question of survival and what is right, morally. It's a question of salvation, too.
Resolution:
Plot (+)
Characters (+)
Music (+)
Intro (+)
Believability (+)
Dark (+)
Blood (+)
Combat (=)
Power Balance (=)
Animation Style (-)
Total Score: 9.5
Wallpapers:
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| Source. |
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| Source. |
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| Source. |
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| Source. |
AMV's:
Dragula (Rob Zombie) - A really great AMV!!
This Is Halloween (Marilyn Manson) - This is really well done!
Scars (Basement Jaxx) - This one is actually really well done.
Walking Dead (Papa Roach) - This one is also good, and a good oversight of the whole story.
Diary of Jane (Breaking Benjamin) - Guess what? This one's good too!
For your Japanese, 屍鬼 is basically "dead/corpse ghost/demon".
Next Time: On Monday, I hope to post my Hataraku Maou-sama review!
Wolfe out.
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