Shiki Blu-ray

Shiki

 (TV) (2010)

Shiki Blu-ray delivers stunning video and great audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
Sotobamura is a small village with around 1300 residents; so small the village isn't even connected to a single highway. An isolated village in which old customs, such as the burial of the dead, are still practiced. One day, the bodies of three people are found dead. Although Ozaki Toshio, the village's lone doctor, feels uncertain, he treats the deaths as a normal occurrence. However, in the days following, the villagers start to die one after the other.

For more about Shiki and the Shiki Blu-ray release, see the Shiki Blu-ray Review

Starring: Tia Ballard, Mike McFarland, Jerry Jewell, David Wald

Shiki Blu-ray Review

Twilight's last gleaming.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, May 16, 2012

Desperate cries ring out through the Japanese countryside, and it's obvious someone is missing. Flashlights scan the night sky and attempt to penetrate the dense foliage. As a group of adults repeatedly attempt to get an answer from an unseen person named Megumi, the camera pans slowly to reveal the body of a young girl lying in the dirt. Is she dead? Why is she devoid of any color? Shiki gets off to a really interesting start with that disturbing sequence, but then backtracks both literally and figuratively as it then depicts how young village girl Megumi ended up either dead or unconscious on that forest floor. Shiki is an odd little anime that is part vampire thriller, part shonen, and, as odd as it may sound, part CSI, perhaps appropriately to be called CSI: Sotoba after the sleepy little Japanese hamlet where the series takes place. One thing is for sure: people are dropping like flies in Sotoba, and Megumi only seems to be the latest in what turns out to be a rather terrifyingly long string of similar calamities. Once the series drifts back a few days to set up the story, we find out that several people have been found dead (and partially dismembered) in an even more remote part of the region than even "downtown" Sotoba. That raises the interest of local doctor (and erstwhile forensic pathologist) Toshio, who is instantly suspicious of the manner of death of these individuals, but who can't quite put his finger on the proximate cause. In the meantime, we get to meet Megumi, a spirited a young girl who is extremely unhappy with her life in Sotoba, and is planning her eventual "escape", certain that she will meet the right people in some dreamed of large metropolis who will further her ambition to be a celebrity. The only item of even passing interest for Megumi in Sotoba is new local resident boy Natsuno Yuuki, who, like Megumi, wants nothing else but to get out of Sotoba, but who at the same time can't stand Megumi, leading to the girl's affections being decidedly unrequited.



Shiki deserves some props for throwing caution the wind in terms of introducing characters and then rather cold heartedly killing many of them off. In fact, it's not too much of a spoiler to reveal that Megumi herself is just one of several victims that fall prey to Sotoba's family of vampires, the Kirishikis. But what is so interesting about this gambit is that Shiki actually posits Megumi as the lead character, at least for a little while, until it becomes clear that she's just another victim. It's sort of a anime analog to what fans of Lost came to expect, when supposedly major characters bit the dust in a series of unexpected disasters. (It also shouldn't come as much of a surprise that at least some of these supposed victims return to the series later in their "undead" forms.)

What ends up transpiring is a sort of procedural where Natsuno and Toshio team up to try to unravel why so many people in an already small town are dying, and what it may have to do with the Kirishiki family which has moved into an anachronistic castle that adorns a hillside on the outskirts of the town. Shiki doesn't shy away from introducing a lot of characters—too many, some might argue—who populate the town and tend to contribute small tangential plot pieces that actually fray the edges of the series' central vampire story, not always to the show's benefit. But there are some very well done character moments here, probably none more so than Megumi herself, who in her "revised" form seems to morph into something decidedly more devious and ill willed than she's initially portrayed as in the series' opening couple of episodes.

Shiki is stylish to be sure, but it's also tonally a bit odd, descending into not very funny slapstick elements on occasion and also presenting a much different take on vampires than everything from Dracula to the more recent phenomenon of Twilight. That's all well and good, of course, and it's to the series credit that it tries not to rehash hoary tropes while at the same time attempting not to reinvent the vampiric wheel, but the fine line Shiki traverses blurs more than a few times, and viewers may wish that the series did indeed either stick closer to more familiar "I vant to suck your blood" themes or go more completely over the top with new and more innovative approaches. What remains is a somewhat compelling story that probably derives most of its interest from the investigative side of things than for any treatment of the well worn vampire mythos. It's a bit ironic that Dr. Ozaki initially thinks that all of the victims in Sotoba have fallen prey to a rare form of anemia, for some cynics may aver that Shiki is strangely anemic (at least at times) itself.

Shiki Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

Shiki is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Shiki is a very well animated series, one with a lot of nice looking graphical elements that help set it apart from even other vampire related animes. Character designs are sharp and well done, and such unique touches as Megumi's bright pink hair pop very nicely throughout the series. Line detail is extremely strong and backgrounds often have exceptional detail as well. The series does tend to travel in dark, moody sequences a lot of the time (as might be expected), though even that animation has nice detail. There are some rather graphic (as opposed to graphical) scenes scattered throughout the series, including dead bodies, pieces of bodies (with rotting flesh) and the like, some of which are animated in a sort of pseudo-photographic style, so this is not a series for younger, more impressionable or easily frightened viewers.

Shiki Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

Shiki features an English language dub presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1, as well as the original Japanese language track presented in Dolby TrueHD 2.0. The Japanese track features some very expressive voice work and offers excellent fidelity as well. But the English track is by far the more enjoyable, with a host of FUNimation "usual suspects" providing character voices, and a really nice, open sound field that offers some great immersion with regard to well placed sound effects and especially with regard to the series' nice score (which is rather strangely unmoody at times). Fidelity on this track is also top notch, and dynamic range is very strong and varied throughout.

Shiki Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

• Episode 1 Commentary features Mike McFarland, ADR Director, Line Producer and Voice Artist (Mr. Yuuki), along with Jerry Jewell (Natsuno), John Burgmeier (Seishin), and David Wald (Toshio). As far as the typical FUNimation commentaries go, this is nicely laid back and not too annoyingly boisterous, and the guys provide some of their thoughts about the characters they voice, as well as the overall feel of the show and how it differs from traditional vampire stories.


• Episode 12 Commntary features Mike McFarland again, this time along with Chris Burnett (Toru), Tia Ballard (Megumi), and Alexis Tipton (Kaori). McFarland keeps things more or less on track here, and the cast once again goes into a lot of different subjects, from the characters they're voicing to their long commutes for the recording sessions.


• Preview Featurette Vol. 01 (HD; 2:16)


• Preview Featurette Vol. 02 (HD; 1:46)


• Preview Featurette Vol. 03 (HD; 1:46)


• Preview Featurette Vol. 04 (HD; 1:46)


• Textless Opening Song – Kuchizuke (HD; 1:32)


• Textless Closing Song – Walk No Yakusoku (HD; 1:32)


• Trailers for other FUNimation Entertainment Releases

Shiki Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

Shiki has a lot to recommend it, including a kind of ruthless approach to its characters, many of whom meet their fate throughout the first half of the series which is released on this new two disc set (the second half of the show will be reviewed soon). The best part of Shiki is actually its portrayal of a small town in the grip of a growing panic as more and more people die off, and with the unlikely pairing of Natsuno and Toshio as they attempt to ferret out what's going on. The actual vampire motif is a decidedly more mixed affair, never really capitalizing on either well worn clichés (which is probably a good thing), nor ever totally exploring unusual new aspects (which is probably a bad thing). What's left is a fitfully compelling series that may be just a tad on the bloodless side. Still, this set offers some extremely nice animation which pops incredibly well on this Blu-ray release. For you vampire fans, or Twilight aficionados who are jonesin' for a blood sucking fix in between feature film releases, Shiki, despite some problems, has enough going for it to earn a rating of Recommended.

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