Shiki

Do you remember the time before you became a full blown weeb and your knowledge of anime was kept exclusive to whatever was being shown on TV, but you were already kind of becoming chronically online? Because anime and online culture are so intertwined, you were bound to cross paths with those quirky Japanese cartoons, and you'd think to yourself how weird and wacky those cartoons are. The ridiculous humor, weird tonal shifts, crazy voice acting, out of place fanservice, and the general wackiness brought to us by none other than some far eastern country that used to side with the Nazis or something. And then you finally start watching anime and you kinda get used to the quirkiness, desensitized even... Shiki for me is the anime that reawakens this feeling of "lets see what's going on with these wacky japanese cartoons". It has it all, the weird tonal shifts, the STUPID hairstyles, yup that's pretty much all of it.

Despite this, I had Shiki on hold since 2013. Yes, 13 whole years this anime waited for me on MAL, stuck on episode 7. When I first watched it, I couldn't get past the hair, it was too much. It wasn't just the hairstyles though, I clearly remember feeling overwhelmed by a gazillion characters being introduced at a lightning pace and that was also too much. I'm not immune to propaganda however, and after seeing a few positive reviews about it in quick succession I finally picked it back up again. And I really loved it!

This was probably one of the most entertaining watches in a while. This time around, I was enamored with the pacing and the tension the show managed to keep up all throughout with a rare lull here and there. Things keep going downhill for so long, it starts to feel like it's too much, like really too much. But right at the moment where you start being fed up with how everyone is struggling, the story goes through a full blown catharsis, with an unexpectedly brutal climax. It felt so good to experience it. Sure, a lot of the characters act oblivious and dumb at certain points, but somehow the stupidity of it all keeps you drawn in. It helps that Shiki manages to strike the balance of not taking itself way too seriously, or maybe the humor really sat well with me. I also found myself loving almost all of the characters, no matter which side they were on. It was just pure fun, this anime.

I'm also happy I forgot about all of the spoilers, because when I went through my old anime folder recently I had so many extremely spoiler-y Shiki memes saved lmao. Luckily my brain decided this wasn't important and I practically went in blind.