Shiki

[Perkinsun Dzees]

Just finished watching the final episode of "Shiki" on Hulu and gotta say that I really enjoyed this entire series. The show concerns a small, isolated village that is quickly being overtaken by some vampiric newcomers until the village doctor discovers what's going on and becomes obsessed with stopping the bloodsucking "shiki".

It's kind of interesting twist on the whole vampire genre that adopts a more realistic approach as to how people would react if confronted with the existence of vampires (no "Twilight" teen romance here). The series starts out very slowly but gains a lot of momentum by the midpoint before it soon boils over with intensity and violence.

The artwork is nothing special (lots of static shots) and the character designs are over the place (check out those crazy hairdos), but the content more than makes up for it. I also liked the musical score a lot (though I'm not a big fan of either of the two opening songs).

Overall "Shiki" is a very dark and serious show and one of the better horror animes that I've ever seen.

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[WTK]

I was pretty intrigued by the premise of this series from the clips I have seen. With that I really should find to start watching this among other things...

[Perkinsun Dzees]

Looks like Chris Beveridge over at Mania.com loved the series even more than I did:

Shiki Episode #22 Anime Review (spoilers in full review) (http://www.mania.com/shiki-episode-22_article_127392.html)

"In Summary:
While the show runs a couple of episodes short of what most series of this length do, and it had some downtime in the middle of it, there's a reason that this is hands down the best series I've seen in 2010. It captivated me from the start and dealt with the kind of material that is mostly in the realm of pretty girls, school boys and other light and airy things these days. Shiki goes back to what these kinds of stories used to be about with a whole lot of atmosphere, and oppressive nature and cold, brutal acts that must have consequences. As it all draws to a close and we see nods towards various supporting cast members and get a feel for what has happened, it all weighs heavily and impressively, yet with the expected final scene as well. Shiki has been an absolute pleasure to watch and one of those few shows that makes such a huge impression because of its execution and style while still having the right kind of substance. Simply fantastic."