First Look: Shiki

Title: Shiki Genre: Horror, Mystery, Supernatural

Summary: During a fiercely hot summer in Sotoba, a peaceful and quiet village with a population of 1300 people, a series of bizarre deaths begin to occur. At the same time, a strange family moves into a long abandoned mansion in the region. Hospital dean Toshio Ozaki cannot figure out the cause of death in the deceased, suspecting an epidemic.

First Look: Those of you who follow me on Twitter probably read my first impression on Shiki and saw nothing good. My first experience dropped my standard for this anime dramatically. I literally only liked one scene probably because it was so ridiculous that at 4am it was a masterpiece. As I agreed I would give the episode four episodes, and I’m somewhat happy with my decision. The anime seems to progressively get better and ending on episode four things are starting to really pick up. Some of the scenes were a little heart pumping so the horror area seems pretty solid. The opening theme song isn’t bad and I enjoyed the opening video. However, the animation during the actual anime is irritating. Specifically the eyes and hair. For some reason everyone needs really spiking hair as if they are made of giant needles. The eyes just seem off to me with a big contrast of dark pupils and bright colored irises. The lighting effects are very well done though. I can’t say much about the characters, but so far I would say they are below average in terms of liking them.

Final statements: Story wise this seems to be pretty good. It hasn’t completely given away the mystery and I can see it being a little scary. Characters will probably be annoying after a while but hopefully not enough to kill the anime. I will keep it on watch since it has a lot of potential to be a good mystery anime (which appears to be quite rare).