Shiki #02 — Captain Obvious And Wonder Jerk

July 15th, 2010

 

This show needs better superheroes.

Impressions:

Pick up the freaking pace here. The first half of the episode was everybody dealing with Megumi’s death… and then it jumps forward three weeks and the doctor et all come to the decision that… and this is a big stretch… there may be some kind of blood related illness afflicting the town killing people. Considering the time frame of a month and that some of the deaths happened elsewhere, I can buy that they were clueless, but for the audience, they showed all of this crap in a row, played up the supernatural aspect of it to all hell, and then spent ten minutes explaining that there might be something suspicious about it all. Hell, I would have reached that conclusion after a girl randomly dropped dead overnight for absolutely no discernable reason whatsoever.

There has to be a level of connection between the audience and the characters somewhere. Having them lag behind in their deduction skills by more than an episode is not how you do it. Nor is this anti-social jerkoff who hates everybody. Natsuno’s ‘different’ from Megumi in that he hates the village because people pigeonhole each other… and wants to go off to the big city. It’s been a whole episode since we’ve seen that schtick, and unfortunately, if the OP is any indication, he’s not about to die from the weird tribal music and glowing eyes outside his room. At least he’s using the old standby of protecting himself from supernatural monsters with thin paper windows. You know how the supernatural hates closed windows.

Man, I hope today’s Legend2 is good because Thursdays are starting to suck away my soul.

Posted in Shiki | 11 Comments »

11 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • sage says:
    July 15, 2010 at 2:53 pm

    This show needs better superheroes.

    WELL, THANK YOU FOR INFORMING US, CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!

  • Aex says:
    July 15, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    If nothing else, the hair colors in this show are amusing, even by anime standards.

  • Gin says:
    July 15, 2010 at 3:22 pm

    Anime is nomnom-ing on Aroduc’s soul. For some odd reason, I feel that the manga did a much better job in presenting all this. Probably just my view on being a manga reader first.

    • Aroduc says:
      July 15, 2010 at 3:38 pm

      Probably because this only took maybe three or four minutes to read, if that, instead of 22 minutes.

  • ToshiroNoRonin says:
    July 15, 2010 at 4:20 pm

    After the first episode I checked out the manga because I was somewhat intrigued. Big mistake. Captain Jerk-off remains just as big a d-bag as he was in the first episode and it takes like 30 deaths before Dr. Clueless starts to realize that all of the anemia-related deaths had bite marks as a common factor. I mean, I can understand how vampires may not be the first conclusion you jump to, but what happened to basic common sense? As if that weren’t infuriating enough, no one bothers to question the new residents or initially suspect them of anything even though the last time anyone saw Megumi before she was found half-dead in the woods she was marching straight towards their mansion? No wonder Megumi wanted to leave so badly, the entire village is filled with brainless idiots.

    • Aroduc says:
      July 15, 2010 at 4:23 pm

      Forget vampires. How about something as simple as rabies or any other zoonotic disease? Particularly in the middle the wilderness where they already apparently have wolves randomly wandering around.

  • hashi says:
    July 15, 2010 at 4:47 pm

    This is the best show of the season. But you have to watch and feel and not just stay at the shallow level of intellectual mystery. That’s the least of what’s going on here. We’ve all figured it out already, anyway, haven’t we?

    People coming to terms with Megumi’s death is not something to be tossed off, but to be savored. Or at least that’s how I see it. Visually, and in its sounds and rhythms, this is quite a special show, it seems to me. I never got Ghost Hunt (novel by same author), but this one is getting to me.

    • Aroduc says:
      July 15, 2010 at 5:17 pm

      Feel what? The only thing the characters have shown is that they hate the village and are as thick as chowder laced with granite. This show has had next to no characterization whatsoever. The only members of the cast that have had enough focus to even feel any kind emotional impact from have both been jerks.

      • Myssa Rei says:
        July 15, 2010 at 7:59 pm

        Well, I’m not really sure, but stuff that work in a thousand-page novel (which Shiki is based on) or a montly manga might not work too well in an animated medium.

  • Anonymous says:
    July 17, 2010 at 11:38 pm

    This show could have been good. I am le sad.