Just as a warning, I have NOT read the manga. I intend to, but there are distractions abound at this time. This is entirely based off the anime experience, and as such some things may come off as uninformed. Apologies in advance for that.
Browsing through my preferred anime streaming site, I took a cursory glance at the “Latest Episodes” list before resigning myself to the newest episode of Dog Days and starting up Fatal Frame II promptly after. However, there was something odd on that list, between the newest episodes of shit I don’t and never will follow: Shiki Episode 20.5. I heard about these specials and, already being enthralled by the main series, vowed to watch them when they came out on DVD. The one flaw in that plan was that I can watch the last one by the end of the month, so I’ll officially be rewatching everything when I inevitably get the DVD a few years from now.
For those of you who followed Shiki, this is more in the same vein as the last few episodes, where the humans make the shiki look absolutely pitiful. For those of you who haven’t followed Shiki, watch it now. I’ll wait.
Again, it’s par for the course; Humans fight shiki, shiki lose horribly, humans do inhumane things to show WHO THE REAL MONSTERS ARE. However, it follows from the point of view of Nao, somebody who I apparently forgot existed despite her decent role in the main series, hiding with her group in a complex of tunnels beneath an old crypt. Throughout the episode, it flashes briefly to her life from before she was shiki-fied, which apparently involved an engagement of some sort and wanting to have children. The humans somehow get the idea to check here, and notice conspicuous footsteps in the dirt leading to the entrance to the tunnels below.
The entire fight is nothing but extermination, with the shiki making a brief counterattack before being swifty repelled and ultimately annihilated after a futile escap. Nao spares the barkeep of the bar she used to frequent after he pulls out a cross, reminding me that the shiki abide by nearly every vampire trope in the book. As she attempts to climb out following the shiki-fied policeman’s lead, she’s pulled out by the human group leader and brought to the surface to be tied to spikes in the ground until dawn.
While the shiki begin to burn to death, including a cameo appearance by Light Yagami, the barkeep in a moment of sympathy goes around and ends their lives with a sword. By the time he reachesSuzy, her face is all but recognizable, and he plunges the sword into her still beating shiki heart. After a brief moment with his wife, the episode unsurprisingly ends on a somber note.
Somberness perfectly encapsulated
Reaction
There were two very infuriating things with this episode:
1. The shiki were shown to be fighting at night, in tunnels that didn’t allow for much maneuverability for the human enemies. As such, they should’ve easily dispatched the humans that were hunting them with little difficulty. But no, even at night in total darkness, their home turf, they somehow got their brains bashed in and hearts impaled by the humans. I get that this was a plot induced power-down, but it’s still annoying. Then again, I was one of the few who vainly hoped the shiki would prevail in the end.
More fighting back would've made everything just gravy.
2. The shiki were killed by a douchey Kevin Bacon. In no conceivable universe should that happen, no matter how justified he was in his rage. Yes, it’s petty.
Seriously, I hate this guy.
Aside from those two gripes, this episode had the same quality as the episodes of the main series, and was an interesting look into the specifics of one particular vampire den cleansed of the undead presence. It also further illustrated the dropping off point of the mob mentality of the remaining humans as they ceased questioning their deeds. Were these people killing those who were still essentially human? Or were they merely animals, driven by an unstoppable lust for human blood?
This argument is mulled over several times by the group, showing that they haven’t completely lost their humanity in the process of becoming shiki hunters. The second death of Nao was surprisingly heartbreaking as well, seeing as she lost everything because of her affliction. She hated what she had become, how she had killed her entire family in her unquenchable thirst for their lives, yet she still had the will to live. She clawed madly at the man in front of her as she was stabbed through her legs and slowly dragged away to her inevitable death.
Despite her current state, she was still very much human on the inside; full of self loathing and hatred, sympathetic for those that she had killed. Also like a human, she had a very strong drive to live, to survive her turmoil.
What I don't get is why she didn't cut those bangs.
In short, the first of the two Shiki specials was an excellent and much needed look into the townspeople and how they tore themselves apart at the seams for survival, and the mindset of the shiki who weren’t main characters. Shiki continues to provide a brutal look into humanity at its most primal. No matter what kind of hold civilization has on us, we will all inevitably fight for survival, and nothing will stand in our way. Even when confronted with inhumane choices, man is a creature that would sell his own family and even kill them if it ultimately meant his survival.
All this talk of the fallible nature of man is bumming me out. So to balance out the seriousness of the past few paragraphs, here’s a video of kittens riding a Roomba.
The point is, if you enjoyed Shiki, watch the special. You will not regret it.
That guy (Sadofumi) had lost both his son and his father because of the shiki. (His dad was the one shot in the head by seishirou and his son died from shiki bites)
just thought that should be mentioned
I’m not saying he didn’t have a reason, but having him tie those shiki to the stakes just to watch them writhe in agony in the sunlight killed most of my sympathy for him. There’s a difference between killing in self defense and relishing in the killing. Well that, and his looking like the bizarre spawn of Kevin Bacon and Fred Durst kills things a bit.
He was justified in his actions to an extent, I felt, but to the point that he’s relishing in the annihilation of what were essentially his friends… that’s going too far. But I think that’s the point of this series, and the shiki are only marginally better because they actually have to kill to survive. It’s in their nature.
i see (I dont agree with the shiki are btter opinion but the story is set up to let people choose for themselves)
anyway I’m glad sadafumi made it to the anime in the end and I heared that the next/last special will center on one of my favorite characters: motoko
Hey, almost nobody I know agrees with that perspective. I’m the odd one out when it comes to sympathizing wholly with the shiki once all is said and done. The way I see it, you can’t completely fault them for wanting to avoid starvation.
I mean in their position, I’d certainly fight to survive, if it’d mean not burning to a crisp in the sunlight and having my stomach eat itself from the inside out.
I’m sure I’d feel a bit more sympathetic to Sadofumi if I read the manga, but he’s lost his sanity too much for me to care much about him.
Hmm… it seems that you have forgotten many things from the tv series.
First of all, “Suzy” aka Nao isn’t a new character, she is one of the first risen who tried to convert her whole family, but unfortunately they didn’t rise. You may remember her at the shiki ride on Ozaki clinic when the doctor was guarding an old woman (Nao’s mother-in-law).
Second, it was already stated that religious symbols scare the shiki. For instance, when Mrs Kirishiki went to the festival with Toshio, she was scared and tried to avoid the shrine but Toshio tricked her.
In my defense, I had a fever of 103 and a horrible cough when I watched it, so a few details must’ve slipped me by. Not much reason why I couldn’t have gone back and watched it, but still.
Thanks for the clarification. Believe me, I remember most of the events (Except Nao trying to get her mother in law) that happened in the anime, but none of them clicked with what happened here.
With that said, I shall make necessary edits to clear up any misinformation.
alo religous symbols always hurt the shiki and the womens name is Nao (she’s my favorite shiki)
It probably isn’t much of an excuse, especially considering the fact that I’ve been decent with names in the past, but for some reason the ones in Shiki just don’t stick. I’ll make some much needed edits posthaste, since my name recognition apparently isn’t as stellar as I thought it was.
Reply buttons not workign ony our last link: oh no There are lots of people who agree with your prespective, we’re in the everyone loves vampires age after all, I’m just in the other camp when it comes to shiki (lots of forums argue about the semantics of it back and forth)
I wasnt trying to gang up on you i was just stating my opinion due to anime nerdness.
(in response to the last point ) if this happened to me and i rose as shiki i HOPE i would have the inner character to do the only thing i feel is the right choice: what ritsuko did (though who knows what i would really do in that situation) however if this happened to my family i know i would turn into something monstrous (which is why characters like sadofumi and motoko are my favorites)
Oh don’t worry about it. I was inattentive to details and I feel silly as a result. xD
I appreciate anything to help fix any inaccuracies, despite how flustered I might act.
To me, both sides are equally justified. The humans just could’ve had more restraint. Really, it’s a matter of “Who is the least sadistic of the two?”
If I ended up shiki-fied, I’d ask somebody to lop off my head to avoid starving, being staked through the heart, or burned alive. But I don’t like pain.
There were a lot of great moments this episode, but I think my favorite parts dealt with the ways that the mobs dealt with the stress of killing their friends and neighbors, from their first hesitant killings to their complete lack of concern or any real emotion when they left the remaining Shiki to die from exposure to the sunlight. I can sympathize with the villagers to a degree, since they didn’t want any of this and for them the conflict is kill or be killed, but they’ve fallen into a lot of the rationalization traps that the village Risen had. It’s doesn’t help that the episode didn’t make them out to be particularly sadistic when committing the horrible actions they did, either. If more of the villagers had visibly enjoyed the hunts more it probably would have made the episode preachy, but the way that most of the mob just put the slaughter out of their minds after they buckled down to it seemed more realistic and probably made it even worse.
Nao is an interesting case in that I can’t say I sympathize with her, but I did pity her and got very emotional about her death. Her killing of her family in the hopes that they would rise and join her isn’t glossed over, but those hallucinations she had really pushed home that she’s in the situation of having done something horrible that is impossible to undo, and the flashbacks of her during better days did not help either. Watching average people do horrible things to survive and make do was one of the things that made the show so disturbing and memorable, and both viewpoints of this episode really reminded me of why I enjoyed this show so much.
Nao’s death was absolutely heartrending for me. No matter how much she made her friends and family suffer, she felt remorse for her actions. Toward the end, I think all she wanted was for it to end quickly, if it had to end at all. The fact that the villagers deprived her of that last implied wish really made me sympathize with her.