In Defense of Vampires: The Case For Shiki
I didn't watch the initial streaming of Shiki, as I hadn't yet made a habit of scheduling my free time around simulcasts. However, our editor in chief Chris Beveridge, amongst others, named it his favorite series of 2010, so I knew I had to give it a shot once it came to DVD. My set arrived early, so I was able to marathon it in three nights. Had life not intervened, I probably would have watched it all in one sitting. I can say with confidence that Chris was right. However, some will be skeptical: Horror anime is a rare genre, and good horror anime is even rarer. Then there's the fact that Shiki is a vampire series, and suffice it to say that vampires have gone through some tough times of late. With Japan's rich history of yokai, imaginative creatures spanning from oni and kappa to tengu and tanuki (not to mention my personal favorite, the Kasa-obake, or the paper umbrella monster) borrowing from the Western tradition seems unimaginative. Had I been watching the simulcast and enjoying the first two or three unsettling, Twin Peaks-esque episodes of Shiki, I know I would have been disappointed to find it out was just vampires. But Shiki works, and Shiki works well.
