No other series can emotionally pummel me the way Shiki can. The sheer bleakness of it, the intensity of the wrongness that engulfs everything, is truly intense. And it doesn’t seem to have been blunted by the passage of time. As the first extra episode did, 21.5 focuses mostly on […] Read more
The quality of mercy is not strained. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown. His scepter shows the […] Read more
There’s a tendency to let our feelings towards final episodes guide our feelings towards a series in general. But in reality, endings are only one episode of many – in this case one of 22. And while the ending is generally the most important episode, it’s also the hardest to […] Read more
I can honestly say I’m bitterly disappointed that I didn’t like the ending for this series, even if I wasn’t totally surprised. I love this show – I rank it as the second best series of an above-average year, and that’s pretty rarefied air. But as I feared it might, […] Read more
OK, we’re definitely being trolled Another magnificent bloodbath as the penultimate episode of Shiki takes the human side further off the path of rationality and the Shiki closer to extermination. I fully understand what Fuyumi Ono is trying to do here, and it’s certainly effective. This series has sparked some […] Read more
Fuyumi Ono, the author of Shiki, has done a brilliant job of setting up the role reversal in this series. The humans have becomes the hunters, the aggressors, in their own way hungry for blood. They’ve even taken over the roadblock the Shiki set up to keep outsiders out – […] Read more
GAR The counterattack has truly begun. The hunters are the hunted, and it’s kill or be killed. When there is intent to kill, there is always a reason. Chizuru is dead – with the help of the relentlessly badass old Ookawa. The villagers at the festival are convinced, but not […] Read more
He’s a pimp I need just four words to sum up this week’s episode: That was fucking AWESOME! How long have we waited for the battle to finally be joined, at long last? Turns out Toshio had a plan all along, and a damn good one. The whole Kagura festival […] Read more
Well, the bastards did it just like I expected – no resolution to the Akira cliffhanger. I personally still believe he’s alive – there have to be a few humans left or the series seems to be just about over. Which leads to the main question nagging at my mind […] Read more
Things are still looking grim with six episodes of Shiki left to go. After a gripping, thrilling and scary 16th episode things have never been worse numerically for the humans – but they’ve clearly picked up a new ally – or rather regained an old one – who looks to […] Read more