Shiki – 20.5

DON’T drop your flashlight

Overcooled: It’s time for a reunion of all the horror fans, sadists, and overall lovers of great anime who were here lurking or commenting when I blogged about Shiki here. Those just hopping in now are welcome too, of course! This was my absolute favourite series to write about and discuss at length, so it feels good to be back. And this time I’ve brought a friend with me~

Kyokai: So, Shiki special, huh? I still regret the fact that I couldn’t complete it on Sekijitsu. My timetable had just started going on the weird side but this title has been close to my heart for quite some time and I’m glad Cools took it up for Metanorn. Arakawa was quite fun tagging with Cools, so this special had to be covered by the two of us. To make it special of course. Who wants to wait for the next one? No one! Let’s get on with the summary~

Overcooled: Remember that stupid girl no one cared about named Nao? Well this episode is all about how she’s brutally slaughtered, taking place during the human’s counterattack against the Shiki. We get a quick reminder of who Nao is and how happy she was before becoming a Shiki and murdering her entire family. But that was then and this is now. As things are now, she’s another blood-sucking monster trying to escape the humans by hiding in the sewers.

It’s a good thing nothing horrible will happen to me like dying in a sewer hahahahahaha….ha..

The humans aren’t dumb, and they don’t risk leaving the creepy sewer unchecked. A select few villagers go to investigate during the day to kill the shiki in hiding. They come across 3 sleeping shiki and after the momentary feelings of sympathy and guilt pass they get right into pounding stakes into their hearts.  The woman don’t so much as bat an eye as they drag the bodies aboveground and transport them to the body dumping grounds.

The humans continue their hunt at night, which means the shiki are at an advantage again. Using the darkness as cover, they try to knock away all the flashlights and headlights while biting as many people as they can. Somehow the humans manage to fight them off, although the encounter is not without a few casualties. Two people are bitten, so our ruthless leader BLONDE DATE MASAMUNE stabs them with a sharp lead pipe. Better safe than sorry?

The shiki who weren’t killed retreat back into the underground tunnels to try to escape. Nao freaks out and starts seeing hallucination of her dead family members floating through the tunnel. She feels like she’s being punished for having such a good life before as well as the whole mass murder thing. The panic is exacerbated once they realize they’re at a dead end and the humans are merrily singing as they slay shiki one by one…

The shiki crawl through a very small pipe in a last ditch effort to escape. Once again, they hit a dead end. They can only wait as they are dragged out one by one by Sadafumi (aka, BLONDE DATE MASAMUNE) and brought to the surface to be killed. As Nao is dragged to her inevitable death, we get a last glimpse at how torturous is must be to never be able to be reunited with her loved ones. She will die as a beast who killed her family and will never be forgiven.

The villagers ran out of stakes, so they proposed the lovely method of tying everyone up and letting the sun do the rest of the work. This is another one of those scenes where I ALMOST cried. Nao’s screams were so pained and seeing everyone squirm as they were slowly burned to death was just…wow. Hasegawa, the guy who used to chat with Nao and never had any of his family killed by shiki went around and put them out of their misery one by one. At the end he collapses in tears, saying that he’ll be alright.

Bonus Screenshots:

SAVE ME, SWEET BABY JESUS

If he had 5 more of those and an eyepatch, we’d be good to go

I’ll just be crying on your butt and clawing at it every now and then, don’t mind me.

Well this is much more humane. Good thinking, guys.

End Thoughts:

Overcooled: Awww yeaahhh it’s the evil humans episode
Kyokai: Srsly. WHAT THE HELL. No main character and still it’s good. I miss Shiki ;3;

Overcooled: lol, did you read the manga?

Kyokai: Nooo, it’s still on the reading list

Overcooled: Oh ok. Well, this episode was an extra manga chapter XD

Kyokai: Aaah. Well I’m not surprised as it’s 20.5. Shit hit the fan in episode 20 so the timeline is pretty relevant with people going on clobbering the vamps. Remember that burly man with a white beard and a large belly? He should be yelling, ‘IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME’ at the top of his lungs

Overcooled: Lulz sadly he was off doing other things with Toshio at the time XD

Kyokai: Baaah

Overcooled: But yeah 20.5 was just a little in-between to show, once again, how crazy the humans can get

Kyokai: I missed all the old characters! But the craziness made up for it

Overcooled: Awww, we’ll see them in…22.5 is it? I think.

Kyokai: Yep. The next and last special.

Overcooled: Except the dead ones. HERP DERP.

Kyokai: Muhawhahahaaaa.The best thing about this show is how it portrays the grey area. I mean, yeah vamps are mean bastards who suck your blood but look at humans being more than beasts. Date just killed that dude just because he was bitten. A little nip in the neck don’t make people vampires. At least we are not dealing with zombies. Where was Toshio when you needed him?

Overcooled: That’s what I love about Shiki too. It actually has a story with all that blood unlike a certain Deadman Wonderland… After all that I still side with the humans though. I’d be in there killing everyone too. I wouldn’t risk anything since shiki can control people!

Kyokai: Oh God, don’t get me started on Deadman. I am so disappoint. Yeah, I’m with you on that one: kill the vamps however many tears they shed. Yes, I know they got sad stories but I could never empathize with Sunako and the reason to me Seishin would remain to be weak. But this episode was a good reality check of how people can be mean. The blondie was a good example but at least there was the barman, who had some empathy left in him. The ending scenes were quite touching actually

Overcooled: Haha yes, anti-shiki all the way. Survival, it’s about survival! I still think they got pretty crazy though. Especially when they were singing…oh my gosh. The ending was beautifully tragic

Kyokai: Not that I hate all Shikis. I sympathize with the bishie ones xD

Overcooled: lololol Tohru

Kyokai: NATSUNO TOO. The singing was SO SICK. I was like wtf, why are you singing? Women, what’s wrong with you? It was almost like, they were gardening or something. Such tranquil faces and carrying the shikis in sacks and then tying them up like they were tying up some crop

Overcooled: I know. Just humming hare hare yukai or something and getting rid of the dead bodies. NO BIG DEAL.

Kyokai: It was just so eerie and that is the reason we love shiki so much. It shows the crazy so awesomely and plainly xD

Overcooled: Yes, I love shiki for the depiction of how twisted and crazy people can be while still not being outright evil. I really miss that show now

Kyokai: We need more shows like these! And don’t forget the bgm. OH MAN how much I love the BGM. It’s fitting for every scene

Overcooled: UNF I know, the music is so perfect. Whenever i listen to it on my ipod I immediately remember scenes from the show. In a good way.

Kyokai: Especially the sequence when Nao is going crazy trying to save herself and clawing at the butt of that police guy. NNNGGG. SO GOOD.

Overcooled: Admittedly, I did find it kind of funny that she scratched his butt off

Kyokai: Hahahaaaa she’s such a whiner. And then seeing her kids as ghosts. The face melt was quite awesome and creepy. Ah man, how many times will I say, I miss this show T.T Such quality horror shows should be made more

Overcooled: I never really liked Nao, but seeing her so panicked was somehow incredibly striking. Shiki makes you care about characters you don’t even want to care about, it’s great.

Kyokai: Lol yeah

Overcooled: The horror on their faces is just so realistic. It’ll be a long time until we get something else this good

Kyokai: Who cared about Nao? But now you do. The random characters suddenly flesh out. Same happened with the barman. He literally put many shikis out of their misery. You saw him in the background and then he did that. I agree. Not even sure if this can be repeated if ever. The original material was strong too so it was not all studio’s doing. This just makes me want to watch the second special even more now

Overcooled: I actually read the manga after all the comments saying I should do it XD The manga is just as good, although I prefer the anime for the godly soundtrack and atmosphere

Kyokai: The second special won’t be out till 22nd June, huh? It’s not that far off

Overcooled: Wow, that’s…next week.

Kyokai: I need to read the manga now! I was waiting for the animu to finish. I guess, I can wait another week for that

Overcooled: It’s almost exactly the same, just a few minor changes and an extra side story or two. The anime actually did an awesome job, especially for Kyoko’s surgery scene. Very similar in detail and everything

Kyokai: Oh DAT SCENE. It was brilliant!

Overcooled: I know, my mouth was hanging open the whole time. It’s one of my favourite anime scenes haha

Kyokai: Toshio became a madman instantly

Overcooled: Oh god, I read that as maiden

Kyokai: lollll someone has been reading fanfiction or djs xD

Overcooled: But hey, Natsuno and Tohru were so…sparkly..how could I NOT think that about the show?

Kyokai: I MISS THEM. At least they would come in the next one. Well, at least Natsuno MIGHT show up

Overcooled: Didn’t he blow himself up?

Kyokai: You don’t see him get blown up. But of course, that’s pure speculation. He hated the Shikis so much that he instructed to get himself killed. At least you can give him an A for determination. Anyways let’s just give some final thoughts and wrap this up.

Overcooled: Shiki is on the cusp of being one of my top 10 or even top 5 anime. It knows how to lay on the suspense and create that cliffhangers that have you running up the wall in anticipation. It’s obvious that more Shiki = good, especially when these specials are just as deep and captivating as the anime. They take place in the most exciting part too during the tug of war between the humans and the shiki. Seeing the humans as the evil ones was really…I almost had to second guess my position. Would I kill the Shiki in that situation? Would I show mercy? In the end I’d choose my own survival, but those screams are still quite haunting…

Kyokai: This just reminded me how much of a good show Shiki was. I don’t think any current horror show would touch this as it was extremely well executed. The feeling of helplessness was so strife throughout and you felt empathy for most of the characters, which you never much cared about when the series was airing.Such stark differences is what makes this fun and if you haven’t watched it yet, I’ll say it again, go WATCH IT NOW! You are missing out on some very brilliant horror that can actually creep you out. Till next time, Ja ne~

Once you enter Metanorn, ESCAPE IS FUTILE