Shiki 20.5

The fat guy is thinking "do I bother to point out his hypocrisy or should I just shut my mouth?"

My face when I saw the torrent for this subbed was like a child waking up on Christmas morning to see a shiny pony sitting in their living room. SHIKI IS MY SHINY PONY IN LIFE!!!

This episode starts out with Nao, the blue-haired woman who killed her whole family in the hopes that they would rise up, remembering a time when she was so happy that she wondered if one day she would have to pay back all of that happiness. She didn’t realize though how right she was, because now she’s a bloodthirsty monster tormented by her own guilt and loneliness hiding underground with a bunch of vampires who are trying to escape the wrath of the vengeful humans.

A group of humans, however, decide to check the sewer and end up stumbling across three sleeping shiki. At first they hesitate when they notice that these are people they recognize, but they quickly realize that they can’t afford to show compassion, and stake them all to death. For some odd reason, these humans were out hunting vampires at night instead of waiting until morning when they would be sleeping and much easier to kill (I’m curious as to why the first three were sleeping then, but whatever…), and so the vampires start knocking away their flashlights and trying to fight back. The humans are prepared though, and they slaughter them all. However, two of their comrades are bitten, and, unaware that they could still be saved, they kill them both too.

KETCHUP FIGHT!!!!!!!!!!

The few surviving Shiki attempt to flee, but Nao holds them back with her guilt-induced hallucinations of her family. After the people behind her finally get her to move forward, they end up at a dead end and at last realize that they’re cornered without any hopes of escape. The humans run out of stakes, so one by one they begin dragging the shiki out of the tunnel and tying them up outside to fry when morning comes. Nao, who continues to hallucinate, is captured as well, and when the sun rises, she and all of the others begin burning to death. Only one man, Hasegawa, feels sympathy for them as they die slowly and painfully, so he puts them out of their misery by stabbing them with a metal pipe.

YOU'RE THAT BASTARD THAT DIDN'T PAY HIS FINES!!!

Thoughts:

I don’t think anything can top the sheer epicness of the Kyoko dissection, but this was pretty amazing. In the humans vs. shiki war, I’m sort of neutral since I believe neither side is more evil than the other, but I did feel bad for the shiki in this one. Leaving them to burn alive was just horrible, and I couldn’t help but cringe as their faces started melting off. At least Hasegawa still retained his humanity somewhat, but the rest of them didn’t even blink as the sounds of screams filled the air. Watching them talk casually and sing was…disturbing, and I actually found myself gaping in horror when those women started carrying out dead bodies like they were taking out the trash without any kind of reaction whatsoever.

The part that really just struck me though was when the one guy started talking about how much he always hated the person he just staked to death. While most of them had become emotionless killers for the sake of survival, this guy thoroughly enjoyed his kill and even implied that he was happy to have an excuse to kill somebody he hated. Out of everyone, I found him to be the most appalling, although blondie comes in a close second for killing his own friends before even waiting to see if they were still human.

I’m kind of surprised how well this episode worked considering NONE of the major characters were in it. Nao ended up being a much more sympathetic character than I would have ever expected, and watching her desperately struggle for her life was really sad. Shiki has a way of making you pity even the most despicable characters, and Nao’s tragic demise kind of reminded me of Megumi, who I also felt bad for even though she was a horrible person. If only she had never become a shiki, then maybe she would have been happy…every time they flashed back to her talking to Hasegawa about her husband and her family, her fate just seemed that much crueler.

Overall, I really just loved this episode (as is typically the case with anything involving Shiki), and I can’t wait until the next special! Since it’s 22.5, I’m assuming that Toshio will probably make an appearance, and maybe they’ll tell us what became of Muroi and Sunako? I guess we’ll have to wait and find out (thankfully it’s coming out in like a week, so we won’t have to wait long!)

PICSPAM

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HOLY SHI-well, I'm going to have nightmares now.

Groping: there's a limit to how far you can take it.

If you'll excuse me, I'll just be ass-raping this helpless young man. You know, since he's gonna die anyway.

After this does anyone want to come over for some coffee and cheesecake?

Or better yet, barbeque vampire anybody?

/ 6 Commentsleave a comment /

• Bass says:

  June 19, 2011

  Holy shhhhhit that first pic in the picspam is so badass.

  I really need to watch Shiki, seems to be a vampire story I can actually get behind lol Was it a noitamina show?
  My recent post Shiki 205

  Reply
  • Elyon says:

    June 19, 2011

    It's really good! Definitely something I'd recommend :3
    I believe it was Noitamina.
    My recent post Hanasaku Iroha 10-11

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  • feal87 says:

    June 19, 2011

    Yes, it's a noitamina show!
    My recent post Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko – Yashiro Hoshimiya has real powers!

    Reply
    • Elyon says:

      June 19, 2011

      I thought so. Thanks ^^
      My recent post Hanasaku Iroha 10-11

      Reply
• Mad Chemist says:

  June 21, 2011

  I really think that the reason a lot of the episode’s more brutal moments worked so well was because of the lack of malice you mentioned. The hunt we saw this episode would probably have been more manageable and maybe a bit cheesy if the villagers had been openly enjoying their work or acting stereotypically evil about it, but most of the villagers aiding and participating in the hunts just didn’t care about what they were doing one way or the other. There’s something horrifying about normal people spurred on to do horrible things and one of the reasons I like the show so much is because it taps into that kind of horror so well and so often.

  This episode was really great, I agree! I’m not sure what the show is going to cover in the next special, but it’s probably not going to be happy. Just one more special to go before the show is over for good, unfortunately, but the series has been such a good ride that I’m happy to get a bit more closure to everything.

  Reply
  • Elyon says:

    June 22, 2011

    I agree- the lack of emotion definitely makes it more disturbing. I get more chills watching the villagers kill people than, say, Megumi, who is just malicious.

    It's too bad there's only one special left. :< I really don't want Shiki to end, but I guess there's not much more they could do even if there was a second season (not that there's any hope for that with the sales anyway, but…)
    My recent post Sekaiichi Hatsukoi 11

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