Review: Shiki and the Horror of Small Towns

It ended, as all good stories and kept secrets do, with a fire.

  The 2010's anime Shiki proves that, no matter where you are in the world, small towns are (mostly) the same; despite being set in rural Japan, the village of Sotoba could be exchanged for any number of rural towns across America. There's a hospital, a local farming industry, gossiping old people, and not much else. 

Except for the vampires. Those are there, too. 

I just finished a rewatch of the series after trawling the internet for it (I originally watched it on Hulu, but it's been taken down from all streaming services), and I wanted to take another look at the morality and horror of Shiki. In a way, I would consider this series a better take on 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King; I think it does the "isolated village infested with vampires" thing in a more interesting way, by playing up the horror of humanity more so than the supernatural. I also think Shiki does a good job of not spoon feeding morality, and gives you reasons to sympathize with every character (human or otherwise).

Sotoba is a small farming village, and its main industry is growing the trees that become grave markers. When a new family moves in to the English-style manor above the town, villagers start dropping like flies from an epidemic nobody can identify (spoiler: it's vampires). But the most terrifying aspect of Shiki is not the fanged creatures that lurk in the darkness; the true horror comes from the maelstrom of tradition, insularity, superstition and guilt that haunts every small community.

In Shiki, the vampires very clearly represent a cultural Other to the citizens of Sotoba. The Kirishiki family wears flashy clothes, live in an ostentatious house, and ignore the traditions of the village. This introduces us to the fragile ideal of normality in Sotoba. Once their way of life is even slightly disrupted by something culturally abnormal, the villagers see a slippery slope and grab a sled. This story is very similar to my other favorite novel-turned-anime, Another by Yukito Ayatsuji. Both series operate on subverting the Japanese cultural ideal of the group being more powerful than the individual, showing how quickly following the will of the group can turn nasty, exclusionary, and even violent. 

Toshio, the village doctor, calls to mind a slightly more purposeful Light Yagami. Given the task of carrying on his family name and becoming a doctor, and constantly watched over by his domineering mother (even as a grown man), Toshio is under so much pressure that the discovery of the nominal shiki (literally "corpse demon") in Sotoba is all it takes to send him fully over the edge. Early in the series we see him in furious denial as his childhood friend, the junior monk/author Seishin who has befriended the vampire Sunako Kirishiki, warns him that death records are being tampered with. However, as soon as Toshio's estranged wife rises as a shiki, he wastes no time experimenting on (and eventually killing) her. Now fully convinced, Toshio fans the flames of hysteria in the village, killing Chizuru Kirishiki in front of the villagers to prove the existence of shiki and encouraging a mass slaughter that (surprise) gets completely out of hand. 

In my mind, if there really is a villain in this series, it's Toshio. A key aspect of the story is choice and intent; Seishin feels trapped in his role as a monk, Toshio feels trapped in his role as a doctor, the shiki are forced to drink blood, everyone is stuck in a small town with no economic hopes of getting out. One point emphasized over and over is that killing is only murder if there is intent behind it, something that Sunako Kirishiki agonizes over when reflecting on the human lives she has taken in order to live. 

This is all to say that, despite these obligations, everyone in the series has the ability to make their own choices. Almost every single choice Toshio makes is needlessly violent, cruel, and destructive, from experimenting on his undead wife, to her eventual murder, to masterminding the slaughter of innocent villagers. His intent was behind every single one is these actions, but he acts morally justified even as he and some survivors drive off into the night at the end of the series. 

On the topic of choice, we see vampires who abstain from drinking blood even as it slowly kills them, humans siding with the vampires, and both being called traitors to their respective causes. It's essentially an exaggerated version of the "us vs. them" politics we see in real-life small towns, where you're expected to keep to your own kind and shamed for breaking the mold. Toshio says the quiet part out loud and incites violence against the shiki, urging the townsfolk to drive them out. This culminates in one of the first shiki to be turned, a girl named Megumi, begging the townspeople to remember who she was and let her go so she can see the big city... as they bludgeon her and eventually crush her skull with a tractor. It's a harrowing moment that, if you were still siding with the townspeople, really makes you question your allegiance to the human race. 

The shiki's ultimate goal is to turn Sotoba into a town full of the undead, but not for nefarious purposes. Over and over, the original vampires of the Kirishiki family state that they just want a place where they can be normal. Chizuru talks about wanting to go out shopping and talk with friends, and the newly-turned shiki enjoy things like mundane office culture or idle chats in the street. Two undead teenagers congratulate an older woman on her husband "rising" to join her, saying how happy they are for the couple as they move to sink their teeth into a human's neck. Sunako Kirishiki recounts her life as a vampire, and cries over her desire to live and be a normal young girl as the townspeople ransack her home. 

Shiki turns monsters into humans, and makes its human characters into monsters. It turns a small town that is figuratively cut off from the world into one that is literally cut off and cannot be escaped. It explores the horror of boundaries, guilt, and isolation by using vampires as kindling to fan the simmering flames of resentment and doubt. It's a truly fantastic anime that has basically been scrubbed from the annals of 2010's anime history, remembered only by those who watched it and those who can dredge it up from the bowels of the internet.

 I'm not advocating for piracy, but I am saying that it's available on YouTube as of now, and you can get through the whole series in about three days. The manga can also be read online, wherever you read your manga scan-lations, and the art is that much creepier when rendered in black and white. Whichever medium you choose, I really hope you enjoy it.