Shiki – 06

Everyone slowly draws closer to the truth…

Yesterday I was fine, but today I’m sick… I spent yesterday playing video games all day with some friends after gorging on sushi, so maybe I’m being punished for having too much fun.  All I know is that I woke up with a runny nose and a dire need for painkillers.  As the painkillers slowly start to kick in, you might see the mood of the post go from BLAARGGGRAARR to pleasant. Anyways, I watched episode 6 in a dark room at midnight, but it turned out to be a quieter episode.  Maybe next time. I want to be scared!

Episode 6 opens with our undead Megumi finding the ripped up postcard (I knew she’d find it…) and crying as she picks up the pieces. There’s some kind of trippy, rewinding and fast-forwarding dealio going on, which actually turns ot to be pretty cool.  In the morning, Natsuno goes to check, and sees that some of the pieces are missing.  No, the wind didn’t blow them away, Megumi took them.  Natsuno announces his new resolve not to die, probably a result of having his best friend die…and seeing how he died.  This new assertiveness is refreshing from a character who moped for so long, so I’m really interested in what he will do next now that he’s all fired up.

Megumi gets her betch face on.

This week’s kill count includes Hiromi (whose death is mourned greatly) and Masao (who dies alone in the room above with flies going into his gaping fish mouth).  I feel no pity for you, Masao, seeing you suffer brought me great pleasure kekeke. Oh, and one odd thing, Masao’s bite marks remained on his neck…They didn’t disappear, like Tohru’s.  Then it cuts to Sunako for like 2 seconds…Wh..wha? Some sort of connection?

Good thing I’m an only child.

Back at the Ozaki Clinic, our resident Doctor finally snaps, yelling at some stupid cow of a woman who tried to cure a serious disease with a home remedy.  We start to see him finally becoming strained by being unable to help his patients.  As a Doctor, he’s supposed to save people, but all he can do is watch as his patients keep dying.

That dumb broad kind of deserved it though.

Even when our dainty-looking monk comes over to reveal his findings (6 people with jobs outside of the village quit suddenly before dying, and there have been lots of sudden movings), Ozaki-sensei yells at him too.  Without listening further, he deems these findings as pointless.  Muroi should be on the lookout for sick villagers, not obscure clues!  Ozaki-sensei storms off, but immediately feels horrible for being so rude to his friend.  He feels even worse because it reminds him of how his father acted.  We have a short flashback, and I’m guessing that his father wasn’t very nice to him and now he has some sort of complex about it…

Muroi slinks back to his shrine to think, feeling bad for Ozaki-sensei.  This guy is awesome..his friend yells at him, and he knows not to get mad too because he’s just stressed.  Awww, the power of friendship~! Sunako comes to visit him and Muroi warns her not to go out much because of the epidemic that’s going around.  Because, of course, Sunako has a “rare illness” and definitely isn’t a vampire or anything. I like how you can instantly tell Muroi is depressed, and yet it’s only a subtle change of his expression and tone.  I didn’t even expect Sunako to point it out, but she did.

Muroi is so cute when he’s depressed~

Meanwhile Natsuno tries to be useful by…watching horror movies?  Now, if I was being stalked by a vampire, I guess I wouldn’t know where to start either, but…horror comedies? *sighs*  Natsuno does learn some valuable information – that the village is supposedly filled with Okiagari; villagers who rise from their graves.  Basically, zombies.  Intrigued, Natsuno goes to the library to take out some books.  However, all of them have been taken out by Muroi.  I wouldn’t just shrugged and come back later, but no, Natsuno is determined! I like this assertiveness!  Too bad Muroi wasn’t there.

Ano..Natsuno…is that really useful?

The villagers were gossiping and then this..this…THING appeared.

Back at the hospital, once of the nurses calls in to quit.  She is terrified of getting sick, and can’t handle the pressure anymore.  The way Ritsuko tersely replies is perfect, you can just feel the tension.  Sacrifice your safety and try to do the right thing, or leave for your own safety? I expect more nurses to quit, perhaps in a Death Note like fashion where most of them bow and then leave out of fear for their lives.

To be productive, they decide to try a blood transfusion on a patient.  Amazingly, it works half-decently for a while.  Until then, Ozaki-sensei tries to insist that Etsuko, our patient, comes to check in with him constantly.  He becomes even more insistent when he sees the bite marks on her forearm during a house check-up.  For some reason I cannot fathom, she refuses to come in.  Even her husband thinks it’s nothing when she’d bedridden. Ozaki-sensei forcefully does a second house checkup, only to find her…well…I think you know by now.

TIME FOR ANOTHER TANTRUM!

Natsuno actually talks to Ozaki for the first time, outright asking him if dead patients can come to life.  Ozaki jokingly mentions they’d have to become vampires, self-inducing an epiphany.  While men of science usually don’t turn to the supernatural for explanations, what else can explain the epidemic but a vampire?  I expected a bit more denial, but he’s already at the end of his rope, so I guess he’d accept just about anything.  He asks Natsuno why he asked such an odd question, but this is anime, so you can run away without responding and not get a weird look.

THE ANSWER IS VAMPIRES! WHY DID I EVER THINK IT WAS ANEMIA?

As episode 6 wraps up, Kaori and her brother are on the watch for Yasuyuki, who they swore they saw recently despite the fact that he should be dead.  Akira, baseball bat in hand, insists that they need to find him.  And do what, exactly…? Kill him? Anyways, let’s play a game.

Spot the creeper.

Extra Oddities:

This episode had a lot of fun with juxtaposition

Ohohohoho~~

Thank God this isn’t what Megumi looked like in undead form

I dunno guys, if I saw this at my door I’d definitely slam it and lock it…

WHY AREN’T THE NURSES PRETTY??? DO NOT WANT.

Ending Thoughts: Shiki likes to take its time, and I am perfectly content to wait for this budding flower to unfold.  This episode was mostly set-up, putting the characters all on the same “a vampire did it!” train of thought and showing glimpses of how they’re going to deal with this.

In the case of Natsuno – he wants to stay alive, and potentially answer some questions about the mystery. So he…watches movies and looks for books.  While this isn’t a very exciting way of fighting a crazy vampire, I’m sure this will eventually lead to a great scheme from Natsuno.  Ozaki-sensei just realized what the hell is going on, so I’m not sure how he’s going to start treating his patients given this fact.  But it’s not a far stretch to expect a lot from him. Akira and Kaori seem to revert straight to violence and action, with their baseball bat method.  I don’t think that’s going to end very well…

What’s really sad is that Natsuno is so used to visiting Tohru that he automatically still goes there.  Otherwise, why would he go there still? It’s not explicitly shown, but I think he still misses his friend.  At least he’s getting close to the rest of the family.  I hope he opens up to someone again and doesn’t stay a loner.  Based on the opening, he might team up with Kaori and Akira since they seem to be the ones who will stay alive the longest. I’m not sure how I feel about this, because every time I see Akira, I think he looks like a Digimon…How am I going to take that seriously?!!