Shiki Manga

I started reading Shiki last week, after seeing the anime I wanted to know more. I was even more intrigued when I started to read the manga, the style and story-telling really engulfs you. The story is about a small village with a population of about 1300 people, and during one fiercely hot summer, many mysterious incidents happen one after another. There seems to be an epidemic going on, and no one knows what’s happening. Shiki is based on a best-selling horror novel by Ono Fuyumi. Fans may know of her other novels such as Twelve Kingdoms (which has been animated) and Ghost Hunt (adapted as both a shoujo manga and anime). Fujisaki Ryuu is a long-time JUMP mangaka of series such as Houshin Engi (recently released by Viz), and Waqwaq, both of which ran in WJ.

**Do not read on if you don’t want to be spoiled!

Pretty much I found the anime adaption to be parallel to the manga. I felt bad for Megumi, she really hated the village. I can understand her feelings, I’m not fond of my area either. But it’s hard for her, she’s fashionable and vibrant, unlike the bickering old town folks. She admires Yuki Natsuno, he moved away from the city to the small town; Sotoba. Megumi soon finds out, both her and Natsuno want to move out of Sotoba, they both hate the town. Natsuno thinks it’s the only thing him and Megumi have in common. Megumi admires the European castle that’s built on top of the hill. She hopes the people who live there will take her in as their daughter, as she feels they are much different from the rest of the people in Sotoba. A family just moves in there, they move in the castle over night. The town folks agree they must be weird people. Megumi strongly disagrees with it, and she goes to meet the people in the Kanemasa mansion on top of the hill. After meeting them, Megumi goes missing. The whole town searches for her in the woods, after Kaori (her friend) tells that she saw Megumi go to meet Kanemasa. Later they find her lying in the grass in the forest unconscious, but still alive. The doctor, Ozaki Toshio analyses her. His final diagonsis is Anemia, Megumi looks pale and weak. She mentions how sleepy she is, and she hasn’t eaten nor wants to. The next day Megumi dies, and this is the beginning of the incidents.

Skipping along, you’ll see Toshio and Natsuno become the main characters. The doctor Toshio analyzes the victims blood and finds out Anemia was the correct diagnosis, but it was still unexplainable why they die. There have been 10 deaths between 1st to 24^th August. The ten deaths include a number of young and old, the youngest being Megumi. The common cause for deaths are summer cold, organ failure, anemia, while symptoms range from fatigue, looking pale and dazed to sleepy. 20 years ago something similar happened in the village due to illness and accidents on the shore of unexplained nature. The village is not only surrounded by death but an epidemic is on the fore for which the town office would be taking measures in recording everything and warning people to get medical help in case of similar symptoms.

Though Megumi is not dead, she comes back as a demon. Natsuno soon comes in contact with her, him, Kaori and Akira want to verify if she’s been revived by digging up her grave. They are shocked to find her corpse missing, meaning she has indeed rose up from the dead. What’s happening is the people who die are bitten by the revived undead (vampires). They suck their victims blood, only at night (because they can’t make it during the day). Toshio also comes to conclusion they are vampires, with the bite marks on the victims. But why do they only die in a few days? And not that very night? Toshio thinks they can only drink a cup of blood at a time, thus they control their victims, and come back every night to finish the job.

The manga is part of the horror genre, and one of the few that really gives you that eerie feeling. The drawings are superb and well detailed, the black eyes are very scary. As the manga progresses, the doctor Toshio becomes more insane, even letting his wife become a guinea pig (though he doesn’t care much for her to start with). The epidemic is just too much pressure for Toshio who works in a small clinic, in a small town. While the priest tries to knock common sense in him, he too knows what’s really going on. But they can’t tell the villagers, many of them are already leaving the town or dying off. Another thing, is not ALL the people who die can be revived, only a few become “Shiki”.

I’m at chapter 19, and I can’t wait to read more. It’s a great horror vampire kind of manga. I’ m also watching the anime, is interesting to see it animated aswell. Sunako is also an interesting character, I really wonder what her true motive is. For now she’s a fan of Seishin (the priest) who’s a writer of some novels. The novels revolve around death and decay, it’s kind of relative to what’s happening in the town. He also hates the town you find out, he wouldn’t mind if everyone died off.

The manga is full of interesting characters, and a lot of them have a strong bond to others, even after they become a Shiki. My favourite character is Natsuno, female would be Megumi. I hope that this manga has a good ending, it doesn’t have to be happy. That would be unsuiting somehow, as the whole tone of the manga is creepy and depressing. Look forward to reading on and watching more of the anime. Pretty good read for a horror manga!

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