Shiki Did it Better

Everywhere I turn, I find some sort of fascinating American television show that boasts comedy, drama and story arcs that promise to be something unlike anything I have ever seen before. Their promises are high, and I always get sold on some aspect or another of its up-sell. I always stick around and watch the first episode or so, trying to situate myself in the throws of the show, and to give myself the benefit of the doubt.

Occasionally I get sucked into the show, (Supernatural, I am looking at you), and then I get spit out when the show sours in their delivery of formerly proposed arcs and continuity (you know what you did, Heroes). Then comes the disappointment.

There will come a time when I try to rewatch the series, but by then, the damage is done. I come to the realization that an anime has done those same plot lines, character driven stories and comedic moments. Only better. And sometimes on far less extensive budgets.

Imagine this as me when I realize this. Every. Single. Time.

This is where being an anime fan turns into a double edged sword. It allows me to see American television shows and plot lines with a more critical eye, but it leaves me at a bias when I begin to compare it to shows that only a portion of their audiences have or have not seen. It opens the door to not only a slew of insults towards me, but to the show I am trying to place on a pedestal.

That, however, is a road I have been down before, and is a story for another time.

So, how does all of this fit together when the current subject involves vampires?

Because I know my anime. And I can tell that the sort of story that True Blood is trying to tell has been done better, and far more constructively, by an anime called Shiki.

Isn't this a cute and wonderfully darkened image for the cover of an anime series? Can't you just FEEL the excitement and love about to take place? 

Shiki is a delightfully dark and dank interpretation of vampirism while also managing to be a wonderfully detailed critique of society. It accomplishes in 22 episodes what True Blood is trying to do over the course of several seasons that barely match up to a series of loosely written novels.

Although, as a warning, the anime itself is also dark in nature and content, so those of you reading this with weaker constitutions may want to exit the article quickly. The images you are about to see are nightmare inducing. Even for me. And I am a hard-core horror movie fan.

. . . and if you do stick around, don't say I didn't warn you.

Shiki is entirely comprised in a small rural Japanese village called Sotoba, which right off the bat is fairly similar to Bon Temps. Everyone knows everyone, gossip spreads like wildfire, etc. This is the perfect environment for the story to be set in, mostly for plot and character reasons. It allows word to spread quickly, the story to progress to wild new territory and for certain characters to interact with each other without the use of heavyset modern tech.

Character-wise, the show separates itself from True Blood in that the characters presented are far more interesting and dark. The opening "protagonist", Megumi, is introduced in the first episode, only to later be turned into a Shiki by the fourth. Consider her the Japanese counterpart of Sookie, minus the mind-reading capabilities, and believe me when I say the chances of her being a fairy are near zero. 

Insert non-descriptive Yandere archetype joke here. Seriously, I got nothing.

She is every bit as otherworldly as the Shiki are to Sotoba, but not in the sense of her also being undead. In the first place she was a country girl who loathed the life of her hometown, and wanted to live in some big city far away from a "village where the elderly are going to drop like flies". She is immediately characterized as a daydreamer, an unrealistic idealist, a loli-goth dresser and a complete hypocrite on her principles about other people. 

She is also seen as a stalker, and in something that we have seen in True Blood, and in Say Anything, she spies on the male "protagonist", Natsuko, outside of his window. And just smiles creepily. And he is aware of this. And she actually has the gall to ask him in a later episode why he hates her.

The introduction of the Kimishiki "family" is necessary for Megumi to undergo her own transformation, and become a literal foreign entity to the village. Beforehand, she was just protesting the "injustice" of her being somewhere she did not feel she belonged, and becoming a Shiki allows her the chance to change and erase the one thing that denied her real existence: the village itself.

And the best way to do so? Be a vampire bitch, kill Natsuko's best friend, continue to assault villagers and later have her father and farmers run her head over with a tractor tire. 

. . . seriously, she really did kill his best friend and turn him into a Shiki. And while she did not deserve to die like that, she did deserve SOME sort of karmic action. Give and take, bitch.

Aside from Megumi, the other characters are well written and are presented as humanly as possible, even the "younger" Shiki, Sunako. It takes a line similar to True Blood by demonstrating the personalities of the vampires, yet goes a step farther and shows them reacting to their situations in a humanly and orderly manner. Megumi's expression when she rises from the grave is one of both confusion and literal astonishment, Sunako is displayed with empathy and genuine adorable tones when addressing her "childhood", and so on and so forth.

Even later in the series, the vampires never stop truly being human, which is ironic, given the later nature of the remaining residents of Sotoba. 

Some Shiki resort to hiding in the sewer tunnels under Sotoba to escape persecution. The success rate of this idea was zero.

The villagers near the conclusion of the series start to fight back against the Shiki, completely unaware of how the people they are killing DO still have their previous personalities, memories and senses of being. 

They just now crave the blood of humans to live, no longer need sunlight or sleep and have these very bad-ass slash terrifying as fuck red irises. 

Seriously . . . look at their eyes on a black on black background. 

Try to sleep now . . . again, I totally warned you.

The fact the entire village goes on a killing spree can be interpreted as either a manner of ridding a monster or releasing a foreign invader from their grasp. Or, in terms of True Blood, erasing a newly established "race" from the face of their village. They are afraid of what a shiki can do, and of the unwanted prospect of potentially being turned into a shiki, and thus they take the law and natural selection into their own hands.

And they do so by becoming a lynch mob. 

While True Blood does this in one scene of one episode, Shiki makes it a major part of the final arc of the series, and allows it to further the characters and release their tension over their loved ones being turned. Emotions are spilled, blood is splattered and tears did fall from my face as I saw more than one character die in some tragic way. 

Shiki takes several turns, and does conclude on a tragic tone, but it does tell the story it was intended to tell. It sells the social aspect of the shiki and creates a strong dose of empathy and sympathy for the hunters and the hunted. The characters demonstrate a wide variety of development compared to True Blood, and never one have I had the urge to say I despised a character for a ten minute pie eating scene.

So, in conclusion, American television is bunk sometimes, a Japanese cartoon did a far better job than said American television, and I am not apologizing for thinking so.

And now if you will excuse me, I am going to go watch MariMite to erase these nightmares.