Shiki

Shiki is one of the best anime I have watched way back 2011 when I was a child. I have watched it once again and it actually enlightens me on what is the meaning of their respective deaths. It left me a fascinating question on who is right and wrong; are these the villagers or the Shikis?

Everything started with Megumi, a luxurious-minded 15-year-old girl that was forced to live in a provincial life. Based on the story, she was being talked about her outfits and how she lives her own life. Megumi hates the town because she is seen as different from all the citizens and is laughed at for her way of living. When the Kirishiki family transferred to the European-like structure house, which was the dream house of Megumi, everything changed. Megumi was their very first victim to become a Shiki. During this time, the province was thought to be experiencing an epidemic, without anyone knowing it was caused by the Kirishiki family.

The Kirishiki family's origin is unknown, but one reason they transferred to a new place was because they were not accepted in their old town. People viewed them as scary individuals as they drank blood. Tooru, Natsuno's best friend, mentioned that they have tried to negotiate with people's blood, but it was hard since they are not accepted by the society. With this, they opted to create their own kind to populate the village and to live a normal life. Way back during my young age, I watched all of the death scenes of this anime and it was hard for me to see those Shikis being killed despite their background. They never wanted to become Shikis, but they were forced back to life to serve their respective masters who had bitten them.

After watching the entire series, it made me ponder who is actually right and wrong in this story. Killing is not legal, yet both parties did so. Even though the Shikis have already died and rose again from the dead, there are some individuals who were bit once were already sentenced to death. Another thing was hatred. When people automatically judged the person's way of living, Megumi as an example who became a Shiki afterwards, they immediately earn hatred since they are not accepted by the citizens of the village and being considered as uncanny to them. For the citizens, they had earn hatred when their family started to die one by one. Lastly, there was ostracization. Everyone, including the Shikis and regular people, experienced ostracization due to who they were. This conflict was a significant factor for both parties, but in the end, the citizens, with the help of Dr. Toshio, emerged victorious.

Overall, there are still many minor issues within the villagers' society, which reflect on the lives of the Shikis. With that, I still cannot figure out which side to choose because both sides committed crimes that are unacceptable. Each of them has their reasons for wanting to live again, making it difficult to determine who is right or wrong in this series.

Nevertheless, this series effectively portrays the current societal issues.