Shiki – 20



Holy crap. The finale here turned out as good as I hoped here. It’s not the way in which this episode came with some amazing twists that made it so great; it pretty much continued with the counterattack as it portrayed two sides who are in the middle of a death match in the most literal sense of the expression. But damn, the way in which it did this was just utterly gripping.

Tomio Ookawa… just about everything about this guy is awesome. For most of the series we’ve seen him as this eccentric old man, but he gets absolutely brutal here, being the one who keeps the morale going of the people who are still alive. He’s got enough balls put his own son back into the grave, and is pretty much the co-leader of the counterattack along with Toshio. And at the same time, this episode also turned him into a murderer here, when he even kills the pople under simple hypnosis. I never really expected him to get such a prominent role in the end, but I love it. The tension between him and Toshio should make for a very nice climax that’s really going to make it a close finish. That’s also the beauty of this battle between the humans and the Shiki: neither side feels overwhelming, and both sides continue to successfully kill each other.

On the flip-side, this episode had surprisingly little of Natsuno. I really expected him to play this big role, but it seems that the creators are saving him for last or something. All this episode showed of him was this very weird cliff-hanger in the middle of the episode in which Seishiro was about to get killed. In the rest of the episode, people talk about how something happened, but we never get to see what that exactly was.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

14 thoughts on “Shiki – 20

  1. The episode was really devestating in an awesome manner. In the beginning you do not really expect to feel sympathy for both sides, but they developed so naturally I often wanted to jump into the story and stop the madness because it’s so heartbreaking.
    Especially Ritsuko was painful to watch, because she realized very early that something was wrong and tried to do something, yet she ended up being able to do nothing but giving up…I almost cried when I read those parts for the first time.

    @psgels: Concerning Natsuno, I think it shows that he was re-inserted into the story of the manga and considering that the anime should have passed that with this episode they actually seem a little lost and without a clue what to do with him.
    I hope he at least get’s some last scenes and is not just dropped from the plot altogether.

  2. I’m really confused about Seishirou. They said he was a human… okay. But when Sunako was recalling her past (when she was human) she saw Kirishiki at a party. And that was many, many years ago (she said long enough for her family to pass away). So unless Kirishiki drank an immortality potion or had a great-grandfather that looked identical, I think that’s a glaring plothole.

  3. Tomato, if you rewatch that episode carefully you will notice that the vampire who made Sunako only looks like Seishirou but he’s a different person.

  4. I think, ‘heartbreaking’ is a good word to describe this. Everyone is just doing his best to survive, but still, it leads to so much tragedy.

  5. The main reason I loved this episode was the fact that the villagers’ side crossed two major lines (both instigated by Ookawa, naturally). The first was the willingness to kill Shiki that are related to them. The second was the willingness to kill humans who were being controlled by them (the latter being more controversial).

  6. Amazing gore fest! I guess the second part of the episode was the last calm moments of the series. Last 2 episode would be awesome. Talk about the pacing of a show…

  7. Ugh, my heart is saying “Kill the Shiki!” but my brain is being logical and telling me “Well the Shiki aren’t really bad people since all they want to do is survive just like every other living thing on the planet”
    It’s very conflicting.

  8. I wonder what happened to Akira? Haven’t see him since 3 episodes. And Kaori?

    This anime always leave these kind of cliffhanger unresolved for many episodes.

  9. I was tearing up when Sunako starting crying and questioning if it was a sin for her to live.

    Shiki is definitely one of the best anime of 2010.

  10. I was never expecting this show to become as brutal as it did.

    It may very well be the best vampire story I’ve ever experienced.

  11. Wow. What an episode. Seeing some humans display so much bloodlust was amazing and horrifying at the same time. Yet I can’t help to see myself as someone who would lose myself and do the same thing.

    With the contrast of Sunako crying for wanting to live and Ritsuko cursing herself and wishing she died and never rose… it’s the best episode of Shiki.

    So brutal and yet so good. The climax coming after all that build-up was definitely worth it.

  12. hmm,at this point they derivate from the manga ; actually I loved the manga better ; it completely masters it own pacing and make the line between good and bad even more blurry (well, see the devastating extra chapter for yourself.)

  13. @mds: I’ve had a difficult time figuring out if they’ve started creating their own ending or if this is actually how the manga generally leans. Having read what’s out so far I can tell you they’ve omitted certain scenes, such as the infamous pic axe massacre in ch. 32 of the manga and changed some of the details of how other events took place, including the chronology of events, but overall it’s mostly followed the manga. Keep in mind also, that the blurays will have two unaired episodes later on. It looks like some of the material omitted in the television broadcast will be added to these extras. But the changes compared with the manga aren’t new with the anime adaptation, they’ve just become more visible with the climax of the series coming into play

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