Shiki
Score: 5/5
Review: Megumi has dreams of getting away from her small, boring village, and becomes obsessed with the only two things she sees as interesting; a boy named Natsuno Yuuki who used to live in the city, and an extravagant European style house that was recently built in the area. Letting her curiosity get the better of her, she decides to visit that house after its owners move in, only to be found later almost unconscious in the woods. On top of this strange occurrence, other people in the area have been mysteriously dying.
Shiki and Occult Academy are essentially two sides of the same coin. While Occult Academy takes a decidedly humorous approach to spirits and the super-natural, Shiki approaches the subject with a much more serious tone. Also like Occult Academy, Shiki doesn't reveal too much of its plot in the first episode. Nothing much really happens as we mostly just follow Megumi around as she laments having to live in such a backwater village. But all throughout the episode we're shown hints that something strange is going on behind the scenes, such as the short scene of three dead bodies being found in a house. It manages to have an air of creepiness about it that this season's Highschool of the Dead is sorely lacking in.
The short dreamlike sequence just before the end of the episode is a great example of what the series is capable of visually, and it does an excellent job of drawing you in, showing what is most likely behind the mysteries of the village, but not explaining what you just saw. It works great to grab your attention and make you want to keep watching to fully understand what's going on. Then the episodes ends and you realize that this is a series that you definitely need to see more of. Shiki is easily one of the best offerings this season, and if this episode is anything to go by it's a must watch.
Shiki is available streaming through Funimation.
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