Shiki

Shiki (lit., Corpse Demon) is a horror manga that is based on Fuyumi Ono's novel by the same name and illustrated by Ryu Fujisaki, it ran in Jump SQ. The story takes place in a small village called Sotoba where, after a mysterious family moves in, a wave of unnatural deaths begins to occur. It soon becomes obvious to a select few, that these deaths are the work of vampires (or Shiki as they're referred to in-series). Can they stop the ranks of The Undead, or will they join them?

The series is rather interesting as it presents the view from both the human and monster sides. On one hand, the Shiki The humans (those who are in the know)  This does leave it ambiguous which side the audience is supposed to root for.

Not to be confused with the Nasuverse characters, Ryougi and Tohno Shiki, nor with Shiki Misaki.

The anime is licensed by FU Nimation and will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray in May 2012.

A character sheet is now available.


 * Adults Are Useless: Yuuki parents especially his father, in one go he managed to let a vampire into the house, agreed to allow her brother in, disposed of all the charms and crosses Yuuki put in his room (because he hated supperstition) and made sure to unlock the door (because the village is safe and doing so show the trust in others) - all of which he managed to do out of his own will without anyone hypnotizing or manipulating him.
 * Alternate Continuity: Both manga and anime borders over this, for the simple fact that . In the novels?, the little he did is completly overshadowed by  who does almost all the planning by himself originally.
 * The same thing can be said for the manga.
 * Ambiguously Gay: Natsuno Yuuki. He shows no interest in Megumi's advances except disdain and is quite close with his best friend Tohru, even calling him Tohru-chan..
 * He shows no interest in Megumi's advances because she is selfish, insane and obsessively stalking him. Most people find that sort of thing to be a turn-off.
 * Anime Hair: Taken to new heights.
 * Anti Villain:
 * Anyone Can Die
 * Badass: Natsuno definitely qualifies for.
 * Also Ookawa qualifies as  and he can stop a moving car with his raw strength.
 * Toshio for.
 * Seishin.
 * Badass Beard: Ookawa, the bottle shop owner. Just look at this beard.
 * Bare Your Midriff: The manga, anime AND novel art all showcase this slightly with Natsuno in some way.
 * Battle Butler: Tatsumi for the Kirishiki family.
 * Batman Gambit:
 * Actually,
 * Bishounen: Yuuki is the best example, Tohru and Tatsumi also qualify.
 * Black Eyes of Evil: A good deal of the Shiki, Sunako being the most prominent for it.
 * Makes you wonder how no one noticed anything odd about them from the get-go...
 * Book Ends: The first episode, and several chapters.
 * The first episode begins with villagers with flashlights searching in the forest. So does the last episode.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: In Chapter 33 Sunako specifically addresses the reader as to why she's sharing the story of Cain and Abel.
 * Break the Cutie: Kaori in Chapter 32 when.
 * Bunny Ears Lawyer: You'd think a man who juggles candy bars and wears a hot pink suit would be the last shiki to be put in charge of running funeral services.
 * Campbell Country:
 * Cast of Snowflakes: No villager looks the same if stood side by side each other. The entire village consists of people of different ages, and a wide variety too.
 * Catapult Nightmare: Natsuno, episode 4.
 * Chekhov's Gun: Remember the guy on the tractor that Megumi sees in the first episode?
 * And many, many more. To name a few, the offhand comments in the first episode, such as the destruction of the Jizou statues and the time discrepancies between deaths in Yamairi.
 * Maeda Motoko. A character who got a chapter dedicated to her story.
 * Cool Shades: Tatsumi's glasses.
 * Creepy Child: Sunako, pulling double duty as an Undead Child.
 * Also Shizuka and her hand-puppet.
 * Crouching Moron Hidden Badass: Tatsumi, with a hint of Obfuscating Stupidity.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death:
 * Later chapters of the manga indicate that
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Tatsumi vs anyone.
 * Curtains Match the Window: Megumi
 * Cycle of Revenge
 * A Day in The Limelight: One chapter is shown through Masao's point of view.
 * Despair Event Horizon: Mr. Yuuki crosses it  going pretty much bonkers.
 * Toshio as well. His repeated failures in saving the villagers from the Shiki eventually lead him to.
 * Diabolus Ex Machina:
 * For the anime, the second OAV also reveals the aforementioned.
 * Do Not Call Me Paul: Natsuno Yuuki. He prefers people not to call him by his first name because he thinks it's too girlish.
 * Sunako does not like to be addressed as "Sunako-chan." Anyone who attaches that honourific with her name risks her wrath.
 * The Dragon: Tatsumi is this to the Kirishiki family, he does all the work when they just sit in their mansion looking fabulous.
 * Dying Moment of Awesome:
 * Elegant Gothic Lolita: In the manga Sunako's clothing is sometimes inspired by lolita fashion. Megumi's clothing comes close once in a while, but bears more resemblance to Japanese punk and gothic fashion. Here's an example for both of them.
 * Eureka Moment: Doctor Ozaki has one when talking with Natsuno.
 * Evil Detecting Dogs: Love turns highly aggressive towards.
 * Taro attempts to warn Ritsuko of an approaching group of shiki in episode 17.
 * Expy: The Kirishiki parents' mannerisms noticeably resemble those of Isaac and Miria.
 * Going further on this, J. Michael Tatum even voices Seishiro. No such luck for Chizuru.
 * Family Unfriendly Death: . And this is shonen, not seinen.
 * See Cruel and Unusual Death above.
 * Fan Nickname: Because of Mrs. Kirishiki's fabulous and outrageous sense of fashion, she has earned the title Lady Gaga by the fandom. The resemblance is uncanny
 * Some fans even call Toshio and Seishin, Dr. House and Monk.
 * Flat Earth Atheist: Yuuki's dad, who didn't marry Yuuki's mother because he questioned the principles of marriage and hates religion and holy icons..
 * Gonk:
 * Grey and Gray Morality:
 * Even more so because
 * Heterosexual Life Partners: Ozaki has a much closer relationship with his old friend Muroi than with his wife.
 * He Who Fights Monsters: After the villagers find out about the shiki, it slowly begins to fade between the line of who are the real monsters -- the shiki or the humans? Especially, who.
 * Hot Parents: Natsuno's parents. They are only in their early thirties (they had Natsuno when they were in college).
 * Horned Hairdo: Akira.
 * Humans Are the Real Monsters: As pointed out by this review.
 * Hypocrite: Ookawa
 * It Got Worse: And HOW. Things go completely bonkers around episode 18,
 * Impaled With Extreme Prejudice:.
 * Impossibly Low Neckline: Practically all of Chizuru's outfits feature this, some more than others.
 * I Was Quite a Looker: Ikumi gets one flashback, looking quite stunning compared to her present appearance.
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: Natsuno, who is aloof towards others and resents his parents for moving with him to a small town, doesn't hesitate to protect others and take a stand against the undead.
 * Jerkass: Masao can be a real asshole towards his cousin.
 * Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: The villagers. Especially Ookawa.
 * Karma Houdini:
 * Kick the Dog:.
 * Tatsumi does this on a regular basis, mostly by tormenting the new Shiki and threatening their still living families.
 * Kiss of the Vampire: Sort of. At least the first few bites seem fairly harmless since they don't take much blood per bite (it takes several bites over several days to be fatal), and the bite marks themselves are so minor that the doctor initially mistakes them for insect bites.
 * Likes Older Women: May apply to Tohru, who had a crush on the slightly older Ritsuko.
 * Loads and Loads of Characters: Unfortunately, it's very hard to keep count on every single villager introduced and remember their names, aside from the main characters. It got so bad that even Fujisaki, the mangaka, lost track of the number of villagers, and ended up incorrectly numbering them halfway through.
 * Mercy Kill: To some humans turned shiki this is a blessing.
 * Mind Control Eyes: The shiki have a variation of it they use on humans.
 * Morality Kitchen Sink:
 * Nice Guy: Tohru. Even the resident Jerkass Masao likes him.
 * Non Malicious Monster:.
 * Noodle People: Some of the characters are like this, especially Megumi. What on earth does she eat?
 * Not So Different: The shiki may be considered monsters, but take a look at what the villagers have done in order to protect themselves, it seems they are more closely related in nature than you would think.
 * Ominous Music Box Tune: "Pendulum", the song that made the ending of Episode 4 ten times more frightening than it already was.
 * Our Werewolves Are Different: Jinrou, given name by Sunako, are a rare subspecies of shiki. compares jinrou to the werewolves that accompany vampires in movies. Different from regular shiki, jinrou breathe, have a pulse, are able to walk in the sunlight, can survive off of regular food, and they
 * Our Vampires Are Different: They can only drink around a cup of blood a day before they get full, for one. Also in addition to the traditional symbols like crosses, Japanese religious symbols seem to hurt them.
 * This trope is lampshaded when Natsuno advises Kaori and Akira not to assume that every weakness fiction assigns to them will necessarily apply.
 * This, however, matches exactly with patterns of vampire attacks in older myths up through to Dracula, where it took multiple visits for Lucy to die as well. Vampires killing over several days is a classic trope, not an example of a deviation from the classic.
 * Pet the Dog: Sunako does this when
 * Put On a Bus: Subverted. Natsuno tries to do this to Kaori and Akira, but they come back.
 * Pyrrhic Victory
 * Rasputinian Death:
 * Red Eyes Take Warning: As if the Black Eyes of Evil mentioned above weren't enough, the Shiki tend to get this when feeding or about to feed.
 * Sanity Slippage: The penultimate episode features the villagers hard at work, chatting happily to one another and eventually tucking in to rice balls and boxed lunches...
 * Shaggy Dog Story:
 * Shout Out: In episode 6, Natsuno checks out a couple of horror flicks, one of them titled Texas Chainsaw Mackerel.
 * Slasher Smile: Vampires pull this off on a regular basis.
 * Toshio gets a rather frightening one in Chapter 30.
 * Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness: Differs between characters.
 * Spared By the Adaptation:.
 * Spoiler Opening:
 * Stalker With a Crush: Megumi.
 * Stoic Spectacles: Seishin.
 * Taking You With Me:
 * Techno Babble: in this case, Medical Babble.
 * The Vamp: Chizuru.
 * Together in Death:.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Too many instances to count.
 * Trailers Always Spoil: The next episode previews do this on a handful of occasions.
 * The Undead
 * Unexplained Recovery:.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Anime Hair is so crazy in this series that this trope arguably applies. Hell, Tatsumi's hair looks like cat ears.
 * The blood, anyone? You'd think that they were playing paintball or something.
 * Values Dissonance: It's noted several times that Sotoba is odd in that they bury their dead rather than cremate them, which is what is done with a majority of dead bodes in Japan..
 * Vampire Bites Suck: At least in.
 * Vampire Invitation: One of the key limitations of the Shiki is their inability to cross thresholds unless invited in. They get around it by biting people outside, then hypnotising them to let them in whenever they ask.
 * Verbal Tic: Tatsumi and his "Ya".
 * With Us or Against Us: Basically boils down to are you going to help us kill the shiki, or we kill you just in case you might be helping them.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair
 * Stoic Spectacles: Seishin.
 * Taking You With Me:
 * Techno Babble: in this case, Medical Babble.
 * The Vamp: Chizuru.
 * Together in Death:.
 * Too Dumb to Live: Too many instances to count.
 * Trailers Always Spoil: The next episode previews do this on a handful of occasions.
 * The Undead
 * Unexplained Recovery:.
 * Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The Anime Hair is so crazy in this series that this trope arguably applies. Hell, Tatsumi's hair looks like cat ears.
 * The blood, anyone? You'd think that they were playing paintball or something.
 * Values Dissonance: It's noted several times that Sotoba is odd in that they bury their dead rather than cremate them, which is what is done with a majority of dead bodes in Japan..
 * Vampire Bites Suck: At least in.
 * Vampire Invitation: One of the key limitations of the Shiki is their inability to cross thresholds unless invited in. They get around it by biting people outside, then hypnotising them to let them in whenever they ask.
 * Verbal Tic: Tatsumi and his "Ya".
 * With Us or Against Us: Basically boils down to are you going to help us kill the shiki, or we kill you just in case you might be helping them.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair
 * With Us or Against Us: Basically boils down to are you going to help us kill the shiki, or we kill you just in case you might be helping them.
 * You Gotta Have Blue Hair