Shiki

[Kou]

Solid episode as usual~

Spoiler: episode 20

This episode pretty much continued with the counterattack as it portrayed two sides who are in the middle of a death match in the most literal sense of the expression.

Tomio Ookawa is just awesome. For most of the series he looks like an eccentric old man, but he gets absolutely brutal here, being the one who keeps the morale going of the people who are still alive. He’s got enough balls put his own son back into the grave, and is pretty much the co-leader of the counterattack along with Toshio. And at the same time, this episode also turned him into a murderer here, when he even kills the pople under simple hypnosis. I never really expected him to get such a prominent role in the end, but I love it. The tension between him and Toshio should make for a very nice climax that’s really going to make it a close finish. That’s also the beauty of this battle between the humans and the Shiki: neither side feels overwhelming, and both sides continue to successfully kill each other.

Natsuno is still missing a lot in this episode. I think the producers are saving him for last.

 

[corocoro]

Spoiler: 21

The villagers continue their extermination and by now a sort of normality has set in - they can joke around heaps of bodies and killing comes easy to them. At the same time the nurse they let escape last episode is attacked by wild dogs and Sunako fights once more against her mortality fears. Seishin finishes his story and in it reveals why he tried to kill himself - he hated his life at the temple and how constricting is was. For some reason the older brother in the story bears close resemblance to Yuuki, even though Toshio would be the more appropriate countenance.
The Shikis tactic seems to be to bite villagers and turn them into attack squads. The new werewolf Yoshie is now taking a prominent role in this - seems they got to her after all. For some reason Seishirou shoots her.
The nurse made it after all and reveals to Toshio the last Shiki hideout. The extermination squads head over and start another massacre. Among the killed are the head monk (who wanted to die after all), Ritsuko and Toru. The later two have quite a bit of an impact on Toru's father and Toshio. While the former collapses and doesn't want to do anything anymore the later shrugs it of. At the same time one of the villagers remembers that Kanemasa had a basement dug.
Tatsumi sees them approaching and decides to act as a decoy, so that Seishin and Sunako can escape the mansion via a secret path. Seeing how that one is blocked of as well it's not that secret after all. The priest takes the only path left and drives cross-country. By coincidence he hits the car used by Ookami and Toshio, overturning it. Seishins car can still drive, so he flees to the temple and hides with Sunako in an hidden, empty compartment under an altar.
Toshio stays at the crashsite to take care of the wounded while Ookami gives chase. This turns out to be a fatal decision, because the innocent people at the temple are slaughtered by Ookami's group, which think they are collaborators.
Seishin tries to escape but is found and attacked. Even though he is heavily wounded he can make his escape. Realizing that his pursuers are close on his heels he hides Sunako and acts as a decoy himself.

In the end the Shiki lost the war, now the only question is which of the remaining main characters will survive and which will die, with the preview suggesting that at least Sunako and Seishin won't.

 

[Kou]

Another amazing episode. LOVED it.

Spoiler: episode 21

There are plenty of messed up scenes, such as the girls having a tea party surrounded by a sea of corpses and Masao being murdered by his own sister.
I thought this episode was gonna build up to a final confrontation between Toshio and Seishin, though i guess that could happen next week. That whole scene in the temple was just so depressing, especially Seishin coming across the corpses of his Mother and house members. My god the piece of music used for that whole scene was incredible.I feel sorry for the monk's family though. They got caught up in the madness for no reason at all(though it's his fault for involving them as well).The outcome of the war is pretty much decided. Horrible cliffhanger, meaning a horrible week wait.

Ritsuko and Toru ;_;

Even though he was an arse, i felt sorry for Masao. I guess he did die the perfect way though.

How the hell Yasuyo survive that wolf attack without any bites i do not know.

There are unaired episode 23 and 24 for the bd/dvds so i am not sure next week is the finale or not. From the looks of the preview, it looks to be the final episode.

 

[corocoro]

... You mean I'll have to wait 9 months for the last two episodes? Now that's just cruel. >.<

 

[Kou]

Might be just extra episodes so we just have to wait for next week episode. I heard from ppl saying that the episodes might be about the story of the woman carrying the rotten body in the manga.

 

[Kou]

Nice conclusion with an open ending (perhaps 2nd season as the manga is ongoing).

Spoiler: episode 22

Pretty dramatic effort by Natsuno to settle things with Tatsumi. Of course unable to beat him in strength even with the damage that Tatsumi took during his escape. It just shows the durability of werewolves to pull something like that out. You'd almost wonder if Natsuno had enough explosives for the kill. Probably got Tatsumi, but with his durability and the ability to back up a little in that hole...maybe.

Village ends up going down anyways. Though I suppose a fire is a more acceptable way than getting massacred by vampires.

Megumi's death was pretty dramatic. A little overboard probably with getting smashed around and then her arm crushed. Not a werewolf after all . Well after all she did, deserved her end. Sure she wanted out of the village, but the selfish attacks on Kaori's family was completely in the extreme.

On that note do wonder if Kaori will ever recover mentally from this situation. Her mind has been thrown around and really messed up. Now I think the old guy kind of had his death coming. He killed enough victims of hypnosis and was just on a rampage. Still probably wouldn't have hurt to let him finish Sunako off.

Spoiler: Final impressions

Shiki is a horror series. It’s got a really thick atmosphere and most of the time it’s just building up and dragging the viewer within this atmosphere. It’s got plenty of disturbing scenes though, and that’s really where it’s at its best at. Now, there are times at which this show feels like this series is moving a tad slow and that it’s building up a bit too much. It all pays off in the end with a good conclusion.

The character designs in this series are… unique. I admit that they take their time to get used to, but that’s not really a problem considering the charms of the different characters. It’s perhaps not the series with the best characterizations, but they are written really well: when they’re developed, it’s done very boldly. The characters are also incredibly diverse, ranging from teenagers to adults well in their thirties, forties and fifties and that overall makes it into a great and huge cast to watch.

Most of the best episodes of Shiki are located at the end so it takes some perseverance to really get to great parts of the series, but the weak moments are very few and far in between. It’s got a haunting soundtrack and a stunning atmosphere. Shiki is no doubt one of the few excellent series last year.

Lastly, there are two dvd episodes which are titled 20.5 and 21.5 episodes and help wrap up some of the questions left behind.