Shiki – 21
They’re not gonna get us~
There is one episode until Shiki is over. One. Right now I am torn between being excited and apprehensive. Usually I just want to see the finale to see the ending, and then worrying about having to fill the void comes later (if at all). This time though, I don’t want it to end. I mean, come on, I haven’t had nearly enough of Natsuno and Tohru! Next week it’ll all be over. D=
In case you forgot that Masao’s sister is actually nice, pretty and strong…here’s a reminder. Chizuko, who I had forgotten all about, is working with a bunch of nice ladies to bury bodies. They laugh, joke, smile and hammer stakes into any wriggling corpses. You know, the types of things all ladies do. There is no tea party like a bloody tea party, am I right, ladies?
Sunako is sobbing in Seishin’s lap, mourning her inability to stay awake during the day. She’s worried that this might be the last time she sees them. Tatsumi tries to comfort her, but she rejects his optimism as lies. What she really needs right now is Seishin explaining why he almost killed himself! That will cheer her up! Although she’s asleep by the end of it (out of boredom or the fact it’s daytime, I’ll never know), Seishin reveals a lot of interesting things about himself and his story.
Tell me a bedtime story!
This is a nice treat: the whole story behind Seishin’s horror novel. The truth is that the younger brother wanted to be killed all along. He was only acting nice to be on the good side of God. He viewed the older brother as the one who was more free for acting as he wished, and not having to hide his sinful side. However, once he revealed this to his older brother, he disappeared. His older brother then started to disappear as well, realizing he never had a younger brother to begin with. His younger brother was something he created out of his own despair, something to give his feelings a form. The only way to kill the despair was to kill his brother….which means committing suicide. INTENSE. Of course, this is supposed to explain the reasons for Seishin’s suicide – it was to fight against his despair.
After that doozy of a monologue, we go to Masao. Of all people. But it’s okay, because this is the scene where after tolerating him for 21 episodes…HE DIES. He goes to his sister’s house, the sister he was a total creep to, and is smashed in the head with a baseball bat. Implicitly. We’re never shown it, but I WANT TO BELIEVE HE IS DEAD, DAMMIT.
The amount of damns I give: 0
We’re jumping around in time a bit here. Going back in time a bit, the shiki in Yamairi are on the offensive, lead by Yoshie. She is the one who bit that guy who tried to shoot people, and was hammered by Ookawa at the end of the last episode. Huh, go figure. Just as I thought she was getting some cool parts, she gets shot by Gackt. Um…why?
The villagers are running out of places to bury the bodies, and corpses are everywhere. Not a pretty sight (well, maybe not so much for sadists, right guys?) but they don’t have many options. After being almost eaten by wild dogs, hiding in a tree, and stumbling her way downhill, the fat nurse arrives in town alive. Still in her blinding lingerie, she tells them that the Shiki are all located in Yamairi. At that, everyone leaves her in the middle of the street in her lingerie XD
For the love of God, PUT THE JACKET ON.
It’s time for another killing spree! Houses are overturned, streets are bloodied and shiki are killed in mass amounts. It’s all a routine by now, until Tohru and Ritsuko’s bodies are brought out into the open. His father vomits and whines that they should stop, while Toshio laments Ritsuko’s death for all of 5 seconds. Things take a more useful shift when they realize they haven’t checked the basement in the Kanemasa mansion. Derrrr.
As a mob surrounds the house, Tatsumi plans to escape. He shoves Sunako into a suitcase and tells Seishin to hide her while he acts as a decoy. And what a decoy he is. Tatsumi hops into a car and barrels towards the exit full speed. Getting the villagers to follow him = accomplished. Seishin slowly drives away once the coast is clear, with Sunako as his luggage.
The “secret path” isn’t so secret. Seishin has to go around, but ends up banging right into Ookawa’s car. Oh, fate, you have such a way with things. The monk has been spotted now, and is pursued all the way to the temple, where he decides to hide for now. It’s a pretty tense chase from here on out, with the villager’s right behind him. As Seishin hides in a secret compartment, they ruthlessly kill his parents for “hiding him” and “betraying Sotoba.” Really, you just can’t reason with people whose first impulses have become “kill.”
Seishin peeks out during the ruckus to see his murdered parents, and deems it unsafe to stay there. In escaping he gets shanked, but still staggers away with that giant suitcase. You can HEAR people gaining on him, as they follow his trail of blood. Being the nice person he is, he tucks the suitcase away under a bush, and leads them away from Sunako. Seishin, noooo!!!
Bonus Screenshots:
I’M WET
Alright, the plan is that you shoot Toshio in the leg so he can’t resist when I rape him. Got it?
This is what happens when you don’t use spoiler tags for spoilers
Awww family portrait…Chizuru wtf are you wearing? IS THAT A FURRY DRESS?
End Thoughts: Another amazing episode. LOVED it. 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 love seeing people become desensitized to murder, because it makes for delicious moral turmoil later on when they realize what they’ve done. Of course, you have to have the hesitant ones like Tohru’s father just for contrast. As much as he says “let’s stop this!”, wasn’t he just hacking up someone else a second before saying that? So it only matters if it’s your own son? Selfish, selfish~
Seishin’s explanation of his story was DEEP, man. Like woah. It was like a M. Night Shyamalan movie with a twist ending, except actually GOOD. I hope I did an okay job of explaining it, I’m sure it’s up for a few different angles of interpretation though. :3 I thought the story would explain Natsuno killing Tohru (which never happened…I just thought it would) since the guy looked so much like Natsuno, and Tohru resembles the little brother…but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
The humans are really closing in on the shiki here. I have no idea where the hell Natsuno is, as he had zero screentime this episode, but I’m sure he’ll also be giving the shiki a hell of a hard time when he..you know…appears again. Unless he was actually shot, but I seriously doubt the supposed main character would die OFF-SCREEN. I mean, that’s just lame. (Much like Akira, who I’m not sure if I should just give up on or not). I get the feeling at least ONE shiki will survive, probably Sunako, but who knows. As per usual, Shiki keeps you in the dark until the very end.
Preview: I see fire. Apparently in order to not let the shiki escape they SET FIRE TO THE FOREST. (Or maybe the fire just happened. I am wildly speculating at this point XD). Aside from the inferno, Sunako is seen running away and Seishin looks utterly defeated. At one point, Ookawa has Sunako by the throat…So far all previews showing someone being held by the throat ends in them NOT dying, so we shall see what happens to poor Sunako and Seishin. Natsuno is back and so is Megumi (who I think dies, based on all the “remember when I stalked Natsuno?” imagery). Natsuno, what have you been up to all this time?!?! ALL THIS NEXT WEEK!!!!
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
the girls aren’t messed up. i mean, the guys were hammering shikis in the pipeline, acting as if they’re diggin a hole (with whistling and singing and all that). behind every sadistic men, there’s always sadistic women >:D
gackt my man was bitten by natsuno. you know the drill, being hypnotized by the biter and all. natsuno told gackt to shoot the rice girl, and gackt did shoot her. bcz of that, gackt commited suicide by shooting himself in his mouth. yeah, not pretty.
poor tohru and ritsuko, they didn’t get their chance to get it on. they just die like that.
and as for the villagers, i guess their human nature to do whatever they want (kill, etc.) have taken over? meh, i’ll still kill the shikis, but i think the villagers should stop killing the humans. toshio needs to edumecate them better on that.
i have this feeling that sunako and natsuno will live. and seishin will die D: BUT WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU NATSUNO?
and yay masao died! i just realized that the woman in the OP is his sister. all this time, i was like “Who the hell is that woman?” but that whole i’m-wet thingy just made me blind. IT’S SO UGLY D:
i’m actually fine with all the blood and corpses. i’ve seen worse ^^; but i don’t like it when the sun ray touches a shiki. that whole rotting-under-the-sun thing is just ugly.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
….In that case, both of them are messed up. XD
Ah, I didn’t know he was bitten. Wow, I didn’t know about the shooting himself thing…I guess that’s a manga exclusive @_@
I think they’ll live too. Seishin I’m on the fence about, but if he’s the only survivor, he might kill himself.
I had to destroy minds with the Masao thing mwahaha. I love when the sun makes their skin flake off, it looks wonderfully painful :3
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 305 comments
TOHRU-CHAAAAAN T______________T
I saw it coming, but still D’:
It’s kinda too bad that Yoshie didn’t get more screen time. I always liked her. :/
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I know. his death was low-key too T.T Yoshie too…just BLAM! and she’s done for.
POWUH: iLurker with 4 comments
Pppffttt. Sunako in a suitcase reminded me of Ciel on the first episode of Kuroshitsuji II.
Shota/loli in a suitcase/box 8D. /imweirdplz.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I WAS WONDERING WHERE I HAD SEEN THAT BEFORE!!! I was having serious deja vu there.
POWUH: 600-699 and Romance Expert with 652 comments
I heard that in the original novel:
Show ▼
but the novel and manga/anime are diff since in the novel natsuno never became a shiki so it might not happen.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Wow, there are so many different possibilities for this series. That is definitely a possibility~
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
i think the author’s gona have a different ending for manga shiki. she said something about shiki as a project she wants to continue or smthng like that…
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Great episode! I died laughing at the start after that chick stabs the guy who was still moving, then has tea! brushes blood off and eats anyway LOL…
I feel bad for the vamps! T_T poor guys dying like flies!
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
lol yeah, she’s so chill about being covered in blood. XD
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 199 comments
HUMANS ARE A$$HOLES ;_________________; I can’t even tell anything bout this episode in spite “AAAAAAAH F*CK *sniff* “
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Of course we are, it’s what makes us human XD bwahaha
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 131 comments
OH MY GALD D:::: WHY DIDN’T I WATCHED THIS BEFORE?? oh hell yeah, this is without doubt the best show of this season. PERIOD. I can’t belive I didn’t watched it before… AHRGH!! D8… like, there’s only one week left…but.. omg OMGG D:::
So… i’ve been watching non-stop shiki since thursday, 7 episodes by day (yeah, that’s too much time in front of pc when you FINALLY got vacations and hell yeah) BUT I DON’T REGRET A SINGLE SECOND D8888!!!! every episode, people dying, and awakening, and dying again… I just couldn’t STOP 8D !!!!
Now, about THIS episode here… Since I’ve watched K-ON, everything tea-related reminds me of them. This episode just gave me a whole new vision of the situation (BLOODY TEA \O/). Seishin-kun is INTENSE. I always tought that he was an emo writer, so I was kind of expecting something I would laugh at, but he got over my expectatives. So yeah, I didn’t understood his story at the first time, but now that everything make sense (maybe thanks to your review 8D) I kind of feel bad for him… Oh, and all the mutilation, heads rolling, skin burning, it is pure fun *-* I still want to know how sunako became a shiki, since Gackt isn’t one of them… dunno. Did I miss something? =o LOOKING FOWARD THE LAST EPISODE *-*
PS.: try eat chocolate while watching episode 20, where the genocide starts and the shikis got sunburned… it gains a whole new taste :3
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
sunako became a shiki when a random guest of her family bit her. it’s like, 200 years ago i think?
and as for gackt, his parents was bitten by chizuru. chizuru didn’t bite him but invite him to join her. i wasn’t able to read the convo of chizuru and gackt when they first met bcz my chinese suck-ass, but i think that’s how it is. she would bite him from time to time, so he didn’t lose all of his blood. this part is manga-only, and they didn’t show it in the anime
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
YES, WHY DIDN’T YOU?!?! SO GOOD!!! What convinced you to finally jump on the Shiki train? It’s really worth marathoning <3
Seishin always came across as the brooding type who wouldn't do much, but he really broke out of his neutral position to help the shiki. He's not just an emo writer, it's great. (yay, I'm glad if i could clear things up, even just a little!). I feel so bad for him, he's suffering IMMENSELY for his choices. T.T
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
So the junior monk isn’t all he appears to be. As I thought, he had a reason for sitting idly by the sidelines knowing the village is being destroyed one person at a time. What a shocker! I knew he was hiding something. More proof that everyone has dark side to themselves. He was forced to become what he is because of family tradition and has been bearing a huge grudge against the village for taking his free will away. He was forced into becoming a junior monk. Is it just me or does finding out these deep, dark secrets makes this show even sweeter? This anime rules big time!!!
If I had my free will taken away like that, I would be seriously pissed as well. I KNOW there are others who would agree with this.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Not only that, they wait until the LAST MINUTE to tell us this. It has a much greater effect that like, and you said, makes things so much sweeter. I would hold a grudge if I was forced into that too. I want my free will, thank you very much…
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Now Seishin’s out there fighting for his life and protecting Sunako at the same time and he’s badly wounded no less. He needs to find a way out or that’s it, he’s finished because the villagers are hot on his trail and will show no mercy now that he has been labeled a traitor. Just look at what they did to his family who didn’t have a clue about what was going on. Things are getting pretty ugly for the Shiki. They need to think of something and do it quickly because they’re dropping like flies and it’s not looking good.
POWUH: iLurker with 4 comments
Seishin, poor thing. He is like bleeding non-stop. I hope he don’t die. Btw, isn’t that his mum and the temple volunteer? I saw “parents” and went huh?
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 199 comments
Hmm it was in the ending preview, so it’s not a spoiler. He dies and becomes Shiki. He has those red-eyes.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Oh yeah, it shouldn’t be plural. Derp. Ookawa killed his dad, and only the mom is present.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Now Shiki gets really depressing… т.т I just can’t wait for the despair and remorse of the realization moment *,_,* Such a deliciously sadistic sight! And they would deserve it SO MUCH!!! Now I’m totally on the Shiki side. T__T The moral side is indeed admirable. I mean, the fact that people turned out to be so much more bloodthirsty, vicious and brutal than the Shiki, whom they called beasts and monsters. Also, I completely fell in love with Tatsumi. Well, I don’t think I have to explain, why)))
Where the hell is Natsuno all this time?.. Well, he was in, since Gackt appeared to be bitten. Who else would have done it besides Natsuno?.. He’d better make a BIG comeback to make up for his absence. You hear me, Natsuno??? Or else, I will make you wear Tatsumi’s clothes! ><
Tohru…. T____T Now I'm sad because he's dead. Reminds me of something…… xD But still T________T
1 EPISODE TO GO!!!!!! OMG, I can't take it! I don't want Shiki to end so soon :'(
POWUH: and Yaoi Fangirl~ with 2320 comments
did you cry? :p
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
No, I didn’t LOL
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Killing is killing, it’s bad regardless of the method. I see the humans and the shiki as on the same level when it comes to being good or bad.
lol I hope Natsuno comes back too. He was in the preview, so I expect some action too.
Mmm, what does Tohru’s death remind you of?
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
I don’t quite agree with you on that. Yes, killing is bad, regardless of the method, but drinking tea besides a bloody pile of dead bodies is pretty twisted. Also, talking about the number of victims casually is also twisted. Desperate times need desperate measures, but I was hoping for more hesitation from people’s side to organize a bloodbath in the village. Villagers adapted surprisingly well and fast. You can guess, where I’m going, right??)))) That’s why I dislike most of the humanity T_T (sorry if I’m being depressing or irritating, please ^^” )
Yeah, as I said, he’d better show up for GOOD. Not a couple of seconds T_T
Ummm……I don’t know….maybe….. Tohru’s death?? ^^
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Let’s not forget the shiki side, where Megumi is pure evil and Chizuru TOYS WITH HER PREY before killing them. I think it’s pretty sick to tell someone you’re going to kill them beforehand and seducing them before killing them. Without fail, they kill every night. I’d say only a handful feel anything akin to guilt, which mirrors the human side exactly. The humans adapted fast? Well so did the shiki, killing someone on their first night just to survive. They are both used to killing, and treat it as a simply necessity in their life. It’s like a job, and they both execute that job at whatever cost.
Oh, I thought you were hinting at something dark about your life with Tohru’s death, nevermind then XD
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Well….. then that leaves us with the final decision, that there is NO conclusion to the current situation. None of them are right. You take one side or another, but none of your choices is entirely right and reasonable. =____= darn it
Oh god, no way! xD There are no skeletons in my closet)))
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
That’s why I think both sides are equally in the wrong.
XD Glad there’s nothing hiding in there ahaha