It was the element of mystery that got me interested in this series, since I wouldn’t usually watch this kind of anime…why? Because I’m a bit of a chicken and I’m not too fond of horror series; however I like series in which the element of mystery plays an important part and the fact that Gackt is voicing one of the characters was enough to convince me to watch this series.
The opening of Shiki is perfect for the series. The music, the animation, the way the characters are portrayed; everything fits and goes extremely well with the horror theme of this anime. Now about the first episode …it wasn’t really scary but it did a good job introducing the mystery theme into the story.
Episode 2
This episode was very informative since we, the viewers, learned a couple of details that I have the feeling will be very important in figuring out how and why some many villagers have died in such a short time.
- The scene of Megumi’s parents at the very beginning of the episode was very sad; I felt really bad for Megumi’s parents.
Toru Okawa (Ozaki's seiyuu) did an amazing job conveying Ozaki’s feelings of shock and frustration at realizing he had made two crucial mistakes: 1) misdiagnosing Megumi’s illness as a simple anemia and 2) thinking they could afford to wait until the blood test results came back. Even if he didn’t say it, I do think he felt responsible for Megumi’s death.
-I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I think it’s pretty cool how all the important characters in this series have unique and original hairstyles. You can easily distinguish who is a main character and who isn’t just by looking at their hair.
-Yuuki must be really sensitive to paranormal activity, since he seems to be able to perceive the presence of ghosts/zombies/vampires (or whatever it is that is wandering outside of his room). I don’t blame him for wanting to close the shoji screen; I would have done the same. However, it seems that he is not fully aware of his powers yet, I’m saying this because of the question he asked himself at the end of the ep.
I’m looking forward to episode 3; I’m just as interested as Ozaki in resolving the mystery behind the villagers’ deaths.