ANIME         MARK

My initial thoughts on Shiki are fairly straightforward and while the characters and plot are still developing in the early episodes, one thing is made abundantly clear. And that is the eyes and hairstyles are creepy to say the least (take a look below). I'll add a few pictures to help you understand, but for some reason this, to me, was really unsettling. Even the Funimation Dub had me shivering at times with the eerie settings and characters.  I'll move into the synopsis now, but beware the eyes that see into your very soul. If it's hard to stomach early on, it doesn't get any easier.

So the plot is as follows... A small segregated country town, Sotoba in Japan, with a population below 2000, has some new people move in. Immediatly after the new people have arrived, people start dying with a strange illness. Megumi Shimizu, a fifteen year old student, has dreams of moving to a big city in order to escape the tiny village. Her dreams were cut short after she falls ill and eventually dies of what the community soon labels, an epidemic.  Toshio Ozaki, the village's doctor, begins to doubt the nature of the 'disease' and soon realises he must to look toward supernatural explanation for all the deaths.

Shiki has a pretty straightforward scenario that continues to snowball into a decent little story. And I must admit I was a little freaked out during the first few episodes due to the eerie setting, strange music and chilling eyes of the characters. The drawing style was unique, but it didn't make my jaw hit the floor and by episode 18 I felt I just had to 'deal with it'. That aside, the music and soundtrack fit perfectly and will really creep you out. During the story there are a few questionable plot points that will have you asking 'why?' I can't delve too deeply into it, but when a couple of the kids in Sotoba discover what is happening, they take an approach that is exactly the opposite of what 99.9% of people would/should do.