Forum - View topicREVIEW: Shiki Episodes 12-22 Streaming
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23885 |
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@ Vashfanatic - Which was a lot of things. I actually did like the visual style of the show quite a bit; funky hairstyles, wild outfits and all. In a different thread, you cited the animale database idea that makes a lot of anime feel cookie-cutter. You certainly can't claim that about Shiki. That was a large part of my enjoyment: watching a wide range of characters and how they differed in the response to what was going on. There were just a lot of really interesting moments, I found. Like the ditzy Shiki who the doctor fooled into going near the temple. You could tell she was deriving a certain childish delight in role-playing the scenario he had laid out for her (a wife who had cut herself peeling potatoes) that humanized her a bit. There was a texture and an atmosphere to the show that made it stand apart for me. I can understand why someone wouldn't like the show, but you seem dead set against trying to understand why somebody would like it. Well, enjoy your certainty that show doesn't have anything to offer, I guess.
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vashfanatic
 Posts: 3492 Location: Back stateside |
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 Angel's Egg is 70 minutes long as opposed to 22 episodes (8 hours), and I gave it a "good" as opposed to anything higher because while I liked the imagery and the symbolism, it really ought to have been a 45-minute OVA. Any other off-topic considerations you want to bring up?
@Blood- Everything you just listed as a positive (beyond the art) I would wrap up in "story" (though I'd argue "vampires" are a part of the Database at this point...). Like I said, I'd love to read the books, it's just how it was adapted in terms of the art, which I really didn't like, and the pacing, which felt like it spent too much timeon things that didn't matter. I also haven't rated this one yet. I don't even know if I will since I never finished it. It would be at least "decent," and I'd never tell anyone not to try it, since I know my problems with it were all very much from my personal taste. It's not a bad series, I just didn't like it. |
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wandering-dreamer
 Posts: 1733 |
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I've seen a lot of people hating on the ending so I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who actually liked it (probably because I never got overly attached to anyone but Akira and Kaori). I liked how the show showed the dark side in both the Shiki and the humans and portrayed them both in a not quite good yet not quite bad light (although I was seriously annoyed at all the "rational" villagers, I've seen the stereotype in anime before but I've never seen it pulled off well now that I think about it).
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Takamachi Ryoko
 Posts: 332 Location: 東京, 日本 |
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My thought exactly, Shiki could have been better if it wasn't hampered down by the poor execution and oversiriusness. |
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Saturn
 Posts: 513 |
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I thought Shiki was pretty brilliant, and I definitely recommend it to everyone I know who likes a good show (it kept me hooked even though I'm a huge scaredy cat and couldn't sleep a couple times because of it), but I won't deny that I think they blew the ending. Not because it was a BAD ending, but because it suddenly stopped doing the bait-and-switch that I loved so much about the series and just gave in to all the horror tropes. A good example of the switch: Ozaki does the whole "let me live because I hate this town and want to see it die" gambit, and it looks like the Kirishiki lady is going to leave him be... but then she bites him anyway-- when normally that totally would have worked. I was impressed with that level of storytelling.
But then in the last episode, all those amazingly common tropes got set up: spoiler[village gets set on fire, monster girl has someone come to save her, hero sets himself up as a sacrifice...] I waited for those things to be subverted or averted, and then every one of them was played straight :\ That doesn't ruin the rest of the series, though. It's still brilliant. And I think the pacing was one of the best parts. |
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kaizoku00
 Posts: 53 |
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Hmmm, never really noticed the pacing until I read the comments. As someone who grew up in a small town, I have to say the pacing made it more realistic. I don't think the action at the end would have erupted as gloriously as it had without the slow boil as Carl mentioned. I found the ending very satisfying. Shiki is a series I enjoyed very much.
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EmbraceMe
 Posts: 2015 Location: Growing old and jaded. |
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I'll agree with what the review wrote:
I actually thought the pacing went well, it created a lot of suspense for the next episode. Yes, I was hoping the humans would retaliate the whole time, and when they did I was extremely happy. The pacing was good, sure it was slow, but in that time it build up the story slowly. It showed the sides of the humans and Shikis with that pacing. Well, for characters, I couldn't really grow attached to any. The doctor was just bad-ass, and I'm surprised at what he did to his wife. My views certainly changed a lot. At first, I hated the Shiki, and as the show moved on, I grew to empathize with some of them (Sunako & companions didn't work out for me.) It was amazing how my views would change, I thought it would have remained the same. I liked how the characters were portrayed for the most part, but Natsuno having brief appearances was annoying. What I really enjoyed was that there were no true protagonists or antagonists. As for the horror, I wasn't scared much, but it gave me a "pleasing terror". The most terrifying part was probably in Episode 4 (?) where Megumi spoiler[is under Toru's bed, and we hear her bones cracking (?) when she moved.] The tractor scene was really memorable too. With that said, I really really enjoyed the show. I gave it an Excellent, and before you check my list, I haven't bothered to rate any of my series there. Oh, the character designs worked out for me. |
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utawoutau
 Posts: 194 |
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I pretty much marathoned the whole thing. Maybe that's why, but I seriously cannot understand anyone who had any sympathy for the shiki.
The long drawn out build up, their smug aggrogance, the fact that they always seemed to be one step ahead of every strategy and gambit, I couldn't wait for the slaughter to begin. spoiler[ And when it did], I just kept watching the screen hoping the next scene would be someone driving a stake through Sunako's head. No sympathy - spoiler[they all needed to die.] In the respect that this series got me worked up, it is a great series, but I'm not sure I'd want to rewatch it. |
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v1cious
 Posts: 6208 Location: Houston, TX |
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I personally thought this was the best series of 2010. The only real complaints I had were some of the awful character designs, and the abrupt ending. Overall, it was great.
That is exactly what I loved about this series. People keep saying "Why didn't they do something sooner?". If people in your town suddenly dropping dead tomorrow, would you immediately think it was vampires? The series had a certain believability to it, so that when the realization finally came, the whole thing just exploded. I also loved how they took into consideration specific details like spoiler[blocking off all the roads so the mail carriers, etc. couldn't come in and see the massacre that was going on in the town.] Easily the best horror anime to come out in decades. |
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EmbraceMe
Posts: 2015 Location: Growing old and jaded. |
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Well, I guess it was the way the humans were portrayed in the second half. I felt that were more monstrous than the Shiki, and the Shiki (excluding Sunako & companions) did not have a choice to what they became. It's debatable about who were more monstrous. I felt 'bad' for some of the Shiki and no had no empathy for Sunako and her main companions. I believe most of the Shiki were blackmailed into what they were doing, and assimilated with it. I sympathized with them for how they were treated, while it was most likely necessary to spoiler[kill them off], I didn't agree with the village's excessive violence. But, people from the Shiki thread had different opinions and gave me insight on how the villager's method were the 'efficient' way to do things. The portrayal of how the villagers reacted was realistic, imo. Maybe an example of the villager's excessive violence could provide a better reason as to why I sympathize with some of the Shiki: We saw Megumi spoiler[get run over by tractors several times. Her arm got caught under one, and instead of ending her life there, the villagers decided to run her head over and then stake her.] That made me sympathize for Megumi, and there are a few more cases where I sympathize with other Shikis, which I do not recall as of now. Anyways, since not a lot of people enjoyed the character designs, I'd like to question those who didn't why they did not like it? Was the hair style too different? That's about the only 'weird' design I saw, but I grew to like it. Other than that, the designs look not that much different from other animes done by other studios. |
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~~EpiC~~
 Posts: 243 |
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I thought Carl's review was spot on, actually. Exactly how I felt about the series.
I really don't understand people's gripe with the pacing of the first half of the series. That was realistic. That's how things work in a small village. And finally, after holding it in for so long, the villagers finally are able to explode on the Shiki. And that's exactly what they do. child of Lilith actually says exactly what I felt about the series, the last few, while the most interesting, were also the weakest of the series. The last episode wrapped everything up pretty well, and I thought the ending was very realistic. Thankfully they didn't spoon feed us the standard American happy ending. But I really don't understand anyone who says the humans are justified in the way they treated the Shiki at the end. I bolded way, in case someone feels the need to misread the statement. I agree that the villagers needed to do what was done, but I don't understand how people like dtm condemn the Shiki for killing sentient beings, but are totally cool with the way the humans brutally tortured other sentient beings and even killed other humans in the process. It honestly baffles me. |
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Blood-
Bargain Hunter Posts: 23885 |
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It's rare for me to side with dtm42 on anything, but I'm with him on this one. I feel nothing for the Shiki - screw them. To condemn a sentient being to become a Shiki is far worse than murdering or torturing them. To turn somebody into something that will then prey on its own surviving family - using the familial bonds to lead those victims to slaughter is more reprehensible than murder or torture. Even within the show's own internal logic is was obvious that Shikis didn't NEED to turn humans into Shikis to survive. They did so (and yes, I realize the turning wasn't automatic, but that doesn't lessen their culpability) as part of their insane and unattainable desire to have a village of their own. I can completely understand why the villagers would have been driven to do what they did. There is no moral equivalency here and anybody who claims there is, is simply being dense.
Having said that, yes, parts of the Shiki slaughter were very tough to watchspoiler[ (especially my beloved Megumi's death by tractor)] but, yeah, they totally had it coming. |
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utawoutau
Posts: 194 |
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I'm watching the closing episodes again, and outside of a couple instances where they attacked non-shiki villagers, I'm not seeing the reprehensible violence posters are talking about. I'm seeing people trying to destroy the plague that was trying to destroy them. The shiki weren't human, they were a much more insidious and dangerous enemy regardless of whether they cried, wined, or felt sorry for themselves. Extreme violence was the only way to kill them. spoiler[Pinning them down with tractors, lying in wait to smash them in the head, dragging them into the sunlight] - I call that evening the odds.
Don't forget, these people were very much pushed into a corner. Them may have seemed happy on the surface, but I think that they were just putting on a face and continuing to play their role in their small village. Inside however, they were all suffering from the four months of psychological warfare that had been waged against them. Even the unwarrented attacks against non-shiki were understandable if not justified. On a separate note. Does anyone know what was in the box in the car at the end of the final episode? |
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EmbraceMe
Posts: 2015 Location: Growing old and jaded. |
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Just to make it clear, in case someone might misinterpret, I'm not justifying any groups actions.
I understand that the Shikis needed to be killed, but I just can't agree with the amount of violence the humans did. I can see why the humans would want to kill the Shikis, but was that amount of violence necessary? Shikis are weak to sunlight, so it would have been hard for them to escape then, but did the humans need to keep hitting them with gardening tools? At nighttime it would be different, but most of the Shiki spoiler[were trying to escape or had already been killed off].That's just how I felt about the humans during those episodes. I don't believe there was any psychological warfare, it seemed to me that the humans were just baffle with the deaths and lived on as normal. I don't think they were really pushed into a corner, just surprised when they found out the truth, and then... All hell broke loose. Here's what I would deem acceptable for killing Shikis: Pinning them down with 2-4 humans, then staking them. But this really only works if they're weaken... Most of the hunting was during the day, right? Regarding the non-Shiki, it is understandable. And in the box was spoiler[Sunako happily sleeping as Muroi] drove away. We got to see a spoiler[loli vampire in a box.] This show deserves a rewatch for me, but I'll wait a few extra months, and then see if my thoughts of the humans and Shiki have changed. Honestly, I was with the humans for most of the series till I saw their actions, that's when my thoughts of them changed. The Shiki that I sympathize with most was Megumi, mainly because of her spoiler[gruesome death] but I do believe that she deserved spoiler[death], just not that level of it.
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utawoutau
Posts: 194 |
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Did I miss something, how did the siblings end up in the hospital? I assume that Natsuno had some involvement. Did I miss a bunch of scenes, or were the viewers just supposed to fill in the blanks themselves.
spoiler[How did Muroi and Sunako escape the inferno?] Now that I know that's what happened, I changed my mind, this show is officially terrible, imo. |
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