Shiki Images

Shiki (lit. translation “Corpse Demon”) first came out as a novel series created by Japan novelist Fuyumi Ono, a woman more known for his stellar work in The Twelve Kingdoms, Ghost Hunt and the Evil Spirit series.
Shiki falls under the categories of supernatural, horror, mystery and fantasy.
It was originally published by Shinchosha back in 1998 and was later reprinted in 2002 into five parts.
It wasn’t until in 2007 where she worked on the manga adaptation of Shiki.
Shiki was published in Shueisha’s Jump SQ magazine on December2007 until June 2011.
Shiki has published 11 tankobon volumes since then. Daume Studio produced the anime adaptation of Shiki together with Tetsuro Amino, the man behind exceptional works like Bubu ChaCha and the Macross 7 series.
Shiki started broadcasting on Fuji TV since July 2010. Shiki ended with 22 bone-gritting episodes.

PLOT:

Shiki is set in the fictional Sotobamaru, a small, quiet Japanese village with a population of 1300 residents; so small that the village isn’t even connected to a single highway.
Isolated from the rest of the world, its people still practice its old traditions and customs like burial of the dead.
When its citizens begin dying off in alarming numbers, the sole hospital’s head director desperately tries to save his patients…but his efforts are in vain.
Entire families are wiped out whil others desrt their homes in hopes of escaping death.
All hell breaks loose as the villagers discover their loved one’s corpses coming back to life with an insatiable thirst for blood.
Dr. Toshio Ozaki, the village’s hospital director initially suspected epidemic however he is led to believe that these deaths are indeed the work of “shiki”, vampire-like creatures, plaguing the village.
All of this chaos started when a peculiarly strange family moves into the long abandoned mansion on the outskirts of town.
The big question still remains: “who is safe when the urge to kill in order to survive blurs between man and monster?”



CHARACTERS:

Natsuno Yuuki is the 15-year old protagonist of Shiki. Growing up in the countryside, he prefers living in the city than in the village. He was reluctant about moving to the countryside when his parents decided to move to Sotobamaru hoping for a change in the environment they are accustomed to. Although he exudes a rather cold demeanor, he is generally kind and friendly towards those he considers as friends. He later becomes a “jinrou”, a unique kind of vampire that retains their human traits (like going out during the day or eating normal food).


Sunako Kirishiki is the 13-year old girl who moves into the Kamesama mansion with her rather peculiar family. She embodies wisdom being the oldest of the Shiki. Not much is known about her past except for the fact that she suffers from a rare genetic disorder known as SLE. She is a big fan of essays and novels especially ones written by Seishin Muroi, the local priest of Sotoba.


Toshio Ozaki is the medical director of the hospital in Sotoba. He grew to despise his parents as they often put their family
reputation first before anything else. Despite his vast knowledge in medicine, he continues to be baffled by the mysterious deaths sorrounding his village and decides to make it his personal mission to solve its mystery wherever it takes him. He later sparked the war between humans and Shikis when he blatantly exposed their existence and how to kill them to the rest of the villagers.


Seishin Muroi is the local priest of Sotobamaru who also happens to be an author of several famous novels. His most recent work is called “Shiki”, a story between Cain and Abel and as to why Cain had to kill his beloved brother. He has a keen sense of the supernatural and even detects the presence of shiki. He later dies after being severely wounded by a villager only to revive as a jinrou. He saves Sunako and convinces her to escape with him and start anew.


UPDATE:

22 episodes of Shiki were aired in 2010 and two bonus episodes were released by the same people who worked on the original series.
The two added episodes were later released as an original video animation (OVA) bringing the total episode count of the series to 24.
These OVAs were additions to episodes 20 and 21 and are labeled as 20.5 and 21.5 sharing the same titles except with “And Malice” added to the end.


Anime shows I’d definitely recommend when it comes to the vampire genre would include but not limit to Black Blood Brothers, Trinity Blood, Rosario Vampire, Hellsing, Blood+ and Strike the Blood all of which are parodies of all things undead, specifically vampires.


source: Zerochan; written by carllustre87