Shiki – 14

For a change Shiki resolves its previous episode cliffhanger and sticks with Toshio for the most part this week.  There are some truly chilling scenes in this weeks episode, if last weeks keyword was ‘bleak’, this weeks is ‘disturbing’.

This week really has Shiki showing its ‘horror’ tag is well deserved; Toshio’s clinical torturing of his undead wife in his quest for the truth about the ‘shiki’, really made for disturbing viewing.  Toshio has been losing himself over the past few weeks as his struggles against the vampire threat became increasingly impotent; but this episode really highlights just how far gone he is.  Worn into the ground mentally and physically from keeping a sleepless vigil over Kyoko’s corpse, and torn between hoping she’ll rise and hoping she’ll start to decompose – it’s understandable that he’d snap.  However Toshio’s mental breakdown takes a completely different form than Mr Yuuki’s withdrawal from reality.  Toshio hides behind his medical training, he separates himself from the situation and takes an extremely clinical, scientific approach to experimenting on the newly Risen Kyoko – its frightening how quickly he’s gone from amiable doctor to dispassionate scientist.

I couldn’t help but feel sorry for Kyoko, much as I didn’t really like her character this is truly a harrowing way to die….twice.  Just imagine slowly wasting away from blood loss, and then reawakening strapped to an operating table in utter confusion and terror to find your hollow-eyed husband hovering over you with an assortment of drugs, needles, scalpels and religious objects that terrify you for no apparent reason…..stuff of nightmares right there.  Kyoko has no one on hand to explain what’s happening to her, she’s clearly out of her mind with fear and unable to make any more sound than a terrified whimper (remember Tatsumi had to re-instruct Masao on how to speak when he rose from the dead).  When Kyoko does manage to croak out Toshio’s name, he tapes her mouth shut so that the sound of her voice doesn’t crack the veneer he’s pasted over his heart, and then continues his systematic torture – slicing open veins, destroying brain tissue, injecting a myriad of poisons and drugs before finally driving a stake through her heart. Toshio has got all the value out of Kyoko as an experimental subject as he needs, and now knows  that to kill a Shiki one must either remove the head, destroy the heart or expose them to sunlight.

We then have Seishin show up with either the best or worst timing imaginable.  Toshio has just put a permanent end to Kyoko, and is standing amidst a veritable sea of his wife’s blood blankly asking for his friends help in cleaning up.  Seishin’s horrified expression speaks volumes, the rift between the two men was caused by them disagreeing about using the Risen as experimental subjects and the fact that Toshio has clearly used his own wife for that very purpose is going to cause that rift to perhaps become insurmountable.  It’s quite tragic to think that these two won’t be able to work together, they’ve been friends for years on end, as shown by Seishin’s reminiscing about when as teenagers the two wanted to get away from their respective family obligations and expectations, and its thus rather sad to see a lifelong friendship end.  We’ll have to wait till next week to see just what Seishin’s reaction will be, but the preview doesn’t suggest good things for the suicidal monk.

The other significant death was that of Mr Tanaka, and Megumi’s delight in taunting Kaori about it.  Sucks to be the Tanaka’s right now – not only has the father been killed, but Megumi has it out for Kaori and the mother has just invited the extremely creepy Dr Ebuchi from the Kirishiki controlled clinic into the house!  This family’s days are severely numbered unless the kids get their act together and try to repel the shiki threat.  The mother’s reaction to finding her husband collapsed in the doorway and her children clearly freaking out was strange.  I don’t think Mrs Tanaka has been bitten yet though, perhaps she’s just completely disillusioned with her current life?  Still you’d think the woman would show a shred more concern, and be a bit more disturbed by the fact that as soon as she put the phone down, Dr Ebuchi arrived on their doorstep; did he teleport or something!?   I’m really curious to see just what this shiki controlled clinic & doctors role will be.

We also learned a lot more about the shiki organisation this week.  Seems that there is a strict hierarchy in place, the Kirishiki family are at the top, followed by their servants (we’re introduced to another one – Yoshie Kurohashi), then there are ‘high level’ shiki and below them are the weak shiki who can’t kill for themselves – unsurprisingly Masao falls into this final category.  Yes Masao makes his return this week, if only to serve as Megumi’s punching bag and shed some more light on the shiki community.  There is also mention of a ‘big city unit’ of shiki who are responsible for going to the cities to retrieve victims for those shiki who are unable/unwilling to kill for themselves – Yoshie mentions the possibility that Megumi could be moved into this group since she has successfully carried out her task of killing Mr Tanaka.

The question of just what has happened to Natsuno’s corpse is also raised by Megumi.  Seems that I was mistaken last week and it wasn’t the Kirishiki controlled funeral parlour that took his body from his house.  Yoshie suggests that since Mr Yuuki was originally from the big city, he’s called in an undertaker from there, in which case it would be likely that Natsuno has been cremated as is the custom in the city.  Now I don’t think this is the case at all, it’s a possibility but I don’t think burning Natsuno’s corpse off-screen is a likely way to get rid of what has been the primary protagonist for over half the series!

I do think that it’s an outside undertaker that has his corpse, but I think that Natsuno will become a shiki (the fact that he’s in the next episode preview and central in the ED suggests he still has a role to play).  Now what would happen if a person became a shiki outside of Sotoba?  We’ve seen that the newly converted shiki have to undergo a sort of induction to ensure they fall into line and remain easily controlled by the Kirishiki’s and their servants; but if Natsuno becomes a shiki outside the village this won’t be able to happen.  The Kirishiki’s don’t know where Natsuno is (unless they do and just don’t want to tell Megumi) if he rises, Natsuno will effectively be a shiki outside of their control and since he knows of their existence he won’t completely freak out when he finds himself back from the dead.  Now this could be interesting and paves the way for a rebellion within the shiki ranks, rather than it being just humans vs shiki – this is something I’d really like to see since I’ve gotten quite attached to some of the shiki characters!

Very excited about next week – seems we’ll be following Seishin about for the most part (maybe we’ll finally find out why he’s attempted suicide in the past), attending Kyoko’s funeral and discovering Natsuno’s fate……can not wait!