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Decent idea, miserably executed


I was aware of this anime for several years and never bothered to watch it or learn what the story was, until just recently when I decided it would be pleasant to binge through some shorter shows on my list. Choosing this anime as my starter for the binge, I curled up in bed with a bowl of chips, and turned on the first episode, unaware of the utter disappointment and annoyance I was soon to experience.

As a side note, this may just be, with no exaggeration, one of the WORST anime I have ever seen in my experience with the ... genre. Though there are certainly things worth praising, my biggest problems - the story and characters.


Story 4/10

Normally I enjoy this kind of monster-hunting genre, and the sci-fi themes and funky, colorful atmosphere definitely seemed promising as I'm a sucker for these things. However, as I progressed through the episodes, I soon realized that funky colors and good art were pretty much the only decent things the show had to offer. Plotlines come out of nowhere for no reason, then disappear without ever being mentioned again, specifically Garaku's friend's and their "arc". We're told that Kafka is this horrible organization that practices human experiments, which result in the monsters that Circus, the good guys, hunt down and kill. What are Kafka's motivations? Never explained. Nai's backstory (and half the characters' backstories), Circus' origins, and half of the lore (or lack thereof) are all never explained. Also, the main characters, Nai and Garaku, felt like they never did anything at all to help - they were just dragged around by Circus because the monsters are attracted to Nai and he makes it easier to find them. Plus, whenever something remotely bad happened to any of the good guys, it was immediately remedied without any struggle or effort. If the show had been longer, maybe it would have benefitted and had time to flesh out everything mentioned above, but obviously, it didn't. And I'm glad, because 13 episodes felt like an eternity.


Art 9/10

The best thing about the show that pretty much everyone agrees with is the art style - it is absolutely gorgeous. The colors, the way the characters are drawn, the intro animation, the creativity of the sheep robot-things on the airships, and especially the backgrounds - all of it was stunning to look at, and I feel horrible for the poor artists who wasted their hard work on this piece of garbage anime.


Sound 5/10

Decent soundtrack, except for the voice acting (in the English version - I prefer the dubs and have no shame.) I don't know who cast the actors for this show in the dub, but they FAILED big time. Nai, Garaku, Yogi, and half of the characters have voices that don't match them in the slightest, and it was incredibly distracting. I don't think it was a directing issue since I've heard these actors in other anime and they were actually very good in them, the casting was just wrong.


Character 3/10

Ok this was probably my biggest issue with the show. I could've tolerated a half-baked story if the characters were actually worth caring about, or even smart for that matter. Firstly, I HATED Nai. I know he's supposed to be all innocent and naive and kind, but he came off as a useless crybaby that never matured at any point in the show. He never fights, he's almost too naive to the point where he's stupid, and whenever he acts nice to other characters with the intention of being nice, it annoyed me just as much as it did the other characters, and I wanted him to just shut up. I like innocent characters, but Nai was too useless and annoying to be likable. I also hated Garaku - he's supposed to be the bad boy who's secretly a softie, but he just comes off as a jerk. He never does anything to actually care about his friends and just hurts them constantly. (Plus his voice was OBNOXIOUSLY out of place). Both he and Nai are fairly useless throughout the show as they rarely fight (Nai never fighting at all). Tsukumo was probably the most tolerable of all of them, mainly because I felt nothing about her at all. She's the kuudere of the group, so she's very emotionless and quiet but secretly is sweet and caring. 'Cept one thing... they missed the sweet and caring part ._. not to mention that she barely hangs out with the other characters even though she's supposed to be one of the main 4, and yet somehow by the end of the show she's close enough with them all to join in a group hug. Yogi was funny for the first couple of episodes but soon became annoying - specifically his constant crying and overdramatic attitude.
As for the overall opinions of the characters... they were all annoying and stupid. At one point Tsukumo gets kidnapped (after getting punched once in the stomach and just passing out), and she wakes up in a room alone tied to a chair - a room with WINDOWS, mind you, with her kidnappers nowhere in sight. She breaks free and moves around the room for a while, and decides to leave out the DOOR to the room, even though there is a PARTY currently going on in the mansion XDD if she's so good at fighting, why couldn't she just leave through the window? Surely she would have been fine and wouldn't have alerted anyone. And as if that wasn't enough, literally NONE of her friends even care that she's missing! They don't even try to go after her or panic! XD if her own "friends" in the show don't even care about her, why should the viewer? Anyway, that was just one funny thing that I noticed while watching lol


Enjoyment 2/10

I was physically in pain while trying to get through the last few episodes because of how boring and lackluster the watch experience was. I only finished it so that I could mark it as completed on MAL. Plus, I was watching Overlord at the same time as this, and I binged all 3 seasons of that BEFORE finishing this one because I dreaded coming back to it that much.


Overall 3/10

With the exception of the art and music, this anime SUCKED. The lackluster story and characters, the unfocused plot with no stakes, the horrific English voice acting, the lack of care for the characters from each other, and the painfully slow yet rushed pacing - this may take the cake as one of the worst anime I've ever seen. Unlike Shiki though (one of my least favorite anime), which I hated because I had built up high hopes (which ended up crushed) and because of the awful message, Karneval was bad because of writing and characters. If it was longer and focused more on the rivalry between organizations and gave more time for the characters to connect with each other, plus came up with more interesting monster interactions and more original character backstories, it could have been a masterpiece. Overall it was a waste of time, potential, money, and effort from the poor artists that had to work on this show. Wouldn't recommend nor rewatch.

Overhated for dumb reasons - I adored it <3 *Spoilers*

(This includes the entire anime, not just the 175 included on here)
I first started watching Fairy Tail around 4 or 5 years ago and only finished it last year because I'm slow lol. It wasn't until fairly recently that I realized how much people don't like or even hate this show, calling it a poor rip-off of One Piece and criticizing almost everything about it. Since I've only seen 2 episodes of One Piece, I won't be comparing them and instead only be going off of my own viewing and opinions of Fairy Tail, and addressing ... some of the problems people have with it, some of which I both agree and disagree with.


Story 7/10

The structure is a pretty simplistic, typical shonen one. There's not really a huge main goal for the characters to accomplish right off the bat - because they all live in a wizard's guild like a family, they all kind of have their own stories and backgrounds that sometimes intersect, some being more significant than others. I'd say the closest things to main plots are Lucy wanting to become a full-fledged wizard in Fairy Tail, and Natsu wanting to defend his friends in the guild and eventually wanting to find Igneel, his father. Admittedly, it did take me a while of watching the beginning episodes before I really got into it to the point when I started binging. Eventually they do introduce Zeref, who is the ultimate villain of the anime and who they face off against at the very end. Until then, it's smaller arcs and filler stories to get you invested in the world and characters (some being more pointless than others). It doesn't really get super interesting until the Grand Magic Games arc, at least I think so. Personally I love the inventiveness of some of the elements in the world - I love all the different and inventive forms of magic they use, like the Dragon Slayer magic, the Zodiac keys, lacrima, magic rings, black magic, and even more.
"BUT THE PLOT ARMOR!", I hear people crying. Yes, there's a lot of plot armor. Very few characters die or suffer immensely, at least not very often. In fact, I think my biggest disappointment with the ending (spoiler alert) was how few people died. In my line of thinking, when a story in a world as big as Fairy Tail's reaches its climax, when they go to basically all-out war against the greatest black wizard of all time and his army the Spriggan 12, the strongest enemy team they've ever faced, PLUS Acnologia, the casualties should have been FAR higher. I loved the ending arc all the way up until they started reviving and revealing that certain characters weren't really dead, and then the emotion started to die in me a bit. Fairy Tail is a very emotional show - it's whole plot is based around the idea of family and friendship perservering through hardship - but when they remove the stakes, it ruins the emotion. During the rest of the show I didn't really care when they did this because 1. it was still enjoyable to watch 2. the characters were likeable 3. they usually lost something in the middle of it, like when their guild got destroyed by Element 4 for example. Sure it's not as big of a loss, but it's at least something. At the very least, in the end, Makarov should have died. They kept hinting at his death throughout the entire show and doing fakeouts, and though it sounds weird, I was disappointed that he didn't die.
"BUT THE OVERPOWERED CTS AND THE DUMB FRIENDSHIP SPEECHES!" (bruh that's every shonen anime ever.) Yeah there's a lot of those too. I don't watch a lot of super long shonen anime, so I don't know how they compare to FT, but I did not mind the overpowered comeback scenes when the character's beaten down and suddenly wins because friendship. In a show like FT when friendship and family is the main plot, I feel like it works. It's not meant to be 100% realistic - it's meant to be inspirational and make you feel strong, and I have no problem with that as long as I know that's what it's trying to be. And don't even try to tell me that the characters don't suffer - these characters go through hell in both their backstories and in the anime. There are hundreds of FT sad moment compilations on YouTube, and by 30 or so episodes you will have already cried at least once or twice - and not just teared up, I mean bawl like a baby (the first time I did was when Gray was about to sacrifice himself, and the second time when Loki almost died), not to mention the soundtrack. Even though they get beaten and broken beyond all reason, they still somehow manage to triumph, and it's epic to watch. My absolute favorite moment like this was in the Tartaros arc when Erza is deprived of all her senses except excrutiating pain and is nearly killed by Kyoka, but then she manages to somehow stand and continue to fight. It was so inspiring and epic to see her like that that I just started tearing up and cheering for her. Is it realistic? Nah. Is it logical? No. But is it epic as f***? Hell yes. And it's certainately no reason to give it a terrible rating, and I'll talk about that later.


Art 7/10

Tbh I was not a huge fan of the art style at first since I was already kind of averted to shonen art styles at the time. However, the art has grown on me a lot. I love the bright cartoony colors used in the backgrounds and designs of the characters and buildings. To me, it's almost like if Animal Crossing and LOTR had a baby. About halfway through, the style changes to match the changing style of the manga, and the colors are a lot more faded and the lines are thinner and more dramatic. I didn't like this change at first, but it wasn't enough for me to hate it. Also the art and animation for the fight scenes is nuts. It's very dynamic and I think they did great at transferring Hiro Mashima's art style into animation. The overall feel is both cozy and exciting, like an Animal Crossing/LOTR crossover lol.


Sound 10/10

One of my favorite anime soundtracks of all time. The main theme is so iconic and catchy that I can't help but listen to it all the time. I also love that it can be used both in an epic fight scene and also as one of the most depressing and sad pieces of music I've ever heard. If you want something epic to listen to, look up "Fairy tail dragon force". It's by far the most epic song on the soundtrack. As for the overall sound, it's got a very celtic sound to it, plus some heavy metal for the fight scenes, and for the sad scenes, even some choral music with organs, which is fitting because the show has a very hodgepodge medieval feel too it with a bunch of other styles thrown into it, with some modern outfits and character styles and even some sci-fi looking technology. Though, I would say the overall feel is celtic.


Character 8/10

The characters are so loveable (except Lisanna. Lisanna can die). Compared to most anime I've seen, I find them very unique and difficult to put into stereotypes, with some exceptions. Even though Natsu for example is the outgoing hotheaded idiot, he's got some weird quirks to him that don't quite fit the stereotype. He's very family oriented and will go psycho if anyone messes with the guild, he (very) dense sometimes though he means well, and also isn't very good with social ques. Erza, who is my favorite character, is especially unique in my opinion. She's super strong and strict, trying to moderate the chaos in the group, but despite being seen as scary and violent at times (which she is), she's also kind of bad with social ques and is very girly, loving sweet foods and cute clothes.
ALSO, one word - Zeref. By far one of my favorite villains. He is so unvillain-ish that when he does act like a villain, it's almost jarring. Lemme just say, if there was any villain that would be put in Hufflepuff, it'd be Zeref.
Before anyone even thinks about giving me crap about Lucy - "LuCY iS TrASh sHe'S oNLy iN ThE ShOW FoR hEr bOobs sHE's uSeLeSs" - anyone saying this has not watched this anime enough to see how much she grows. As a girl, when it comes to Lucy, I am NOT offended by the designs of the female characters. I think getting offended over a fake animated character's design is pathetic and says more about the offended person than anyone else. I love Lucy as a character and I think her personality and growth in the guild is one of my favorite growths in a character that I've seen. Whenever I scroll past a YT video that says "Top 10 most useless anime characters" and I see Lucy on the thumbnail, it makes me so angry because it's obvious these people have not watched this show. Were it not for her in the Tartaros arc, every member of Fairy Tail would have died. She had to sacrifice her most treasured Zodiac key in order to save everyone, and if not, she would have been the only survivor, though only for a few minutes. Yes, she mainly just tagged along for the first couple episodes. But once she gets more of her Zodiac keys and experiences hardship in her battles, she grows so much as a wizard and as a character that it's emotional to watch. And seeing her talked about as nothing more than an annoying damsel-in-distress and an unrealistic pair of boobs is a waste.
+ As an extra note, I'm sick of the notion that girl characters have to be loud and angsty and masculine to be considered strong, which is one of the reasons I love Fairy Tail. The female characters are strong just as they are, whether they're masculine or feminine. I don't care if a girl is either way as long as she doesn't find her strength in acting that way - it's who you are as a person that contributes to your strength. Acting like a jerk doesn't make you strong. Girls can look pretty and fight like anyone else - just look at Erza in the Grand Magic Games when she slayed 100 monsters all on her own! She didn't do it because she's a jerk or because she has something to prove - she did it because she has friends and family to protect and is motivated by nothing less than that. Ok rant over.


Enjoyment 8/10

Though most of the show's flaws can hinder the viewing experience for most people, it didn't do it for me. Idk, maybe I have crappy taste or just haven't watched enough shonen, but I thoroughly enjoy every moment of watching this show. I love the inventiveness and the art, plus the passion, and that makes it worth viewing for me.


Overall 7/10

Is it a perfect anime? No, far from it. I have my issues with it - the ending, some of the character designs which I think are kind of lazy (only some though), and some of the filler arcs, which don't bother me a ton but I can see how pointless they are. But everything else? I think it's wonderful. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it so much that I would binge it for days on end, dreading when it would be over, and when I did finish, I cried. Compared to other anime I've watched, this is definitely in my top 3 for now, and yes, I know it's probably not as good as One Piece or other shonen, but I haven't seen them so I'm only going based off my own experience. Again, I adored this anime and think it's sadly overhated due to hype and influence by predominant figures in the anime community, and people just go ahead and hate it without a second thought. Kind of like SAO where it's just trendy to hate on it, except SAO was actually bad. Anyway that's my opinion

Do I even need to say it? ...masterpiece. (spoiler warning for second half)

This was one of the first anime I ever saw. I first watched it when I was about 12, so it's a bit hard to remember what my first impressions were, but I remember being totally blindsided by the genius and complexity of it. I'll try to skip talking about the stuff that everyone talks about and agrees are the best things - the moral ambiguity of Light and L, whether or not the Death Note can be used for good, and the morality of killing bad people in the first place - ... all of those are pretty obvious, but I'll try to give summaries of my opinions on them so my review isn't massive.


Story 10/10

Despite the debates that people have about whether or not Light is the bad guy, one thing everyone agrees on is that the story is amazing. Whether you're team Light or team L, the entire premise for the show is without a doubt one of the best ever perceived in anime history.
If you've somehow never seen Death Note, I recommend going in with as little information as possible. Start it with a clean slate and let the show set its own expectations for you. The summary at the beginning is literally all you need. I knew nothing about it when I first watched it, and that helped a ton with allowing the story to sweep me through it and it allowed me to become really engaged in it. Now there's no way for me to talk about what I like about this show without getting into spoilers, so here is your *SPOILER WARNING* for the rest of this review. If you haven't seen it yet, go watch it first. If you've already seen it then you've obviously got nothing to worry about.

*LAST SPOILER WARNING FOR THE REST OF THIS REVIEW*

As for the things I enjoy about the story, Light's descent into madness and his slow turn into Kira, the cat-and-mouse fights with him and L, the constant plot twists, the constant jolting of expectations, the complex schemes that they use to outsmart each other, the religious symbolism here and there, Light's apparent victory in the second half, and his righteous (at least in my opinion) defeat by Near and Mello at the end, the list goes on. If I were to go into great detail about all of these, I'd be here forever, so I'll try to sum it up - the amount of thought and detail that had to have gone into this show/manga is insane, and even though I've seen this show probably 10 times over, I keep reliving the thrills whenever I rewatch it and learning things that I never paid attention to (I kid you not, it wasn't until maybe the 8th rewatch that I finally understood the ending XDD). Another big thing is the openness that it leaves when it comes to the morality - it doesn't try to force it too much either way and leaves it open for debate, even though Light eventually dies, indicating that he was evil all along and got what was coming to him. Though, the same can be argued for L's death, that he got in the way of "justice" from Kira and also got what was coming to him. As for me, I'm team L, so the ending with Light's death was both gratifying and depressing, though I know some people outright hate it and insist it should've ended after episode 25. Even though I hated Light's morals and justification for his actions, he was still an amazingly written character, and after watching him for what feels like ages even though it's only 37 episodes, and finally seeing him be caught and punished for what he did, is bittersweet. By then, I was so attached to him that I was nervous for him and almost didn't want him to get caught, but more than that, the main thing I thought was "he had it coming." I'm no expert, but I think if a writer can make you feel sympathy for a mass serial killer, that's good writing. Last thing I loved about the story - the ending. It's so poetic and justified (to me) that Light is caught, tries to escape (though I know in the manga he dies differently and more tragically), and meets his end just as Ryuk said he would in the beginning - by Ryuk writing Light's name in the notebook. I've also heard people say that him dying in the middle of the stairs was symbolism for him not being able to go to heaven or hell as stated in the show. BUT, my absolute favorite part of the ending was that image from under the stairs of L, with his face partly obstructed by the stairs, standing in front of Light, both victoriously and humbly. That image is so gorgeous, and as a team L member, it makes me happy to see that L has been avenged and his suspicions confirmed and validated. But, that's just my opinion. As for the rest of the story, I agree with pretty much everyone else's takes on what's good and what's not, except for the idea that it should have ended at episode 25 and that Light's defeat was too easy, and that Near and Mello were boring (Near is one of my favorite characters, along with L, Light, and Matsuda - the last episode made him one of my favorites.) Tsugumi Oba did an amazing job writing this story - major respect.



Art 8/10

The art is beautiful. It still holds up today as some of the best animation in anime history, and even though it's old, the style and quality still shine through. I especially love some of the more detailed "paintings" that are seen in the intro, like the ones of religious art with Light replaced in them. I think Death Note's art style, though fairly realistic, is still pretty unique due to the dark overtone it has. If you just look up Death Note art, you'll see that the series does have it's own unique style that other artists are trying to learn from and replicate. Also, MAJOR respect to Takeshi Obata, the original manga artist, for his mad art skills. As an aspiring manga artist, I can only dream of being as good as he is one day.



Sound 9/10

Beautiful, re-listenable soundtrack. Some of the songs in this anime are so iconic that people who haven't even seen it know that it's from Death Note. I regularly listen to this soundtrack when I'm doing work, drawing, or just pacing around the house, especially Light's theme, L's theme, L's theme B, and Near's theme. The intro songs are also iconic (especially the second one, which I originally hated but have now grown to tolerate lol). Apparently even some of the songs have symbolism in them, but I'm not super aware of much of that, so you'll have to research it yourself.


Character 10/10

Even if you're on one character's side, it's likely impossible to fully hate the opposing side (unless you're really obsessed O_O I'm team L and I can't hate Light no matter how hard I try, though I can definitely see how most people can hate him. With L, you'd have to be heartless to hate him - I'm sorry but it's true XD). The characters in this are all incredibly real. Their personalities aren't quite as spelled out for you, as in most anime where they just tell you their personalities instead. Even if there is a character you hate, odds are you hate them because they were written that way, not because they're underwritten or badly written. If you hate Light, it's probably because he's a murder and is incredibly manipulative, and kills innocent people who get in his way, which are all perfect reasons to hate him. Whereas, if you hate L, it's because he's impeding Light in his quest for justice and power, or it's because he's just too weird or eccentric, or because he's willing to test people's emotions and trust in order to find Light. Those are all perfectly normal reasons to hate either of them, and that's exactly how it's meant to be. Neither of them is badly written or unbelievable, those are just their characters, and the same can go for literally any of the other characters - Misa, Ryuk, Mikami, Near, Mello - it all depends mainly on the viewer's opinion and morals, and may even reveal certain thing's about oneself based on who they root for.



Enjoyment 9/10

I don't think there was a single bad moment in this show. Of course, since I first watched it when I was younger, I was WAY in over my head in terms of being able to follow most of the story, so there were moments when I got bored and lost track of where the story was, but I at least got the main premise of it. Now that I've rewatched it several times, I've been able to catch onto all the parts that I misunderstood or missed entirely. For example, I never realized that Mello kidnapping Takada at the end resulted in Mikami screwing up and revealing the real notebook's location, resulting in Light's failure. That always confused me, but now I finally understand it. If you watch it for the first time, you may end up having to rewind a couple of times to catch something you may have missed. This is not a show to have on in the background (unless you've seen it a million times) - this show requires your full attention in order for it to make any sense. Now that I have watched it over and over again, I can say that the enjoyment has not left me at all. I still love rewatching it once in a while, or even going to YouTube to watch other people react to the series, since watching other's reactions is almost as good as watching it alone.



Overall 12/10

A truly masterful, dark, thrilling, timeless anime that I think people will still be watching years from now. I don't think there's much else that I can say about it - it's just a masterpiece that has to be witnessed by anyone and everyone.

A short, underrated masterpiece (no spoilers)


I first saw this anime a couple of years ago and absolutely adored it - here are both my previous and current thoughts about it


Story 9/10

The story is both straightforward and complex - when humans die they are sent to "purgatory" where their lives are judged by arbiters who determine if they will be reincarnated or be sent to the void (they say heaven or hell because it's an easier concept for the dead characters to grasp, but they mention later that its actually reincarnation/the void). While stories about life after death are pretty common, this one took an interesting ... spin on it - arbiters have their own bars in purgatory where the dead are sent to be judged. In simple terms, when you die you go to a bar XD I thought this was pretty unique (plus the art aesthetic of it is gorgeous, but I'll come back to that). Arbiters judge the dead by removing their memories of being dead and having them play games like darts, bowling, billiards, twister, air hockey, etc., and judging their actions based on what happens after their memories come back, doing so from a completely unbiased, logical, and detached standpoint (Idk if I'm explaining it very well, it's all explained in the first 2 episodes anyway so go watch them). At first, I was skeptical about the way the arbiters judged the dead and didn't know if it was very ethical, but it's actually brought up later in the story and furthers a dilemma of whether or not people need to empathize with others to properly judge their actions or if it should be completely logical. Plus, the ending will have you in tears. Trust me. Just know, however, most of the subject matter in the episodes is very sad and may disturb some people if they've dealt with anything similar (i.e., abuse, depression, misunderstandings, guilt, suicide, etc.)

Art 10/10

Death Parade has a unique and gorgeous art style and a remarkable aesthetic to it. Every scene is full of tiny details to look at, whether it's the liquor bottles on the wall of the bar or the massive chandelier in Quindecim, or the unique game setups, the wallpaper in a bedroom, a stained glass window, or the purplish overtone to it all (as an artist I appreciate these things unconsciously as I'm watching it XD). Though the character designs are fairly simple, they're by no means boring or lazy. The show focuses more on the mental issues of the dead characters and internal struggles of the arbiters, so it focuses its artistic talent more on the backgrounds and aesthetics. Both are gorgeous to look at and make you want to visit the Quindecim even if it means death XD

Sound 8/10

The soundtrack for this anime is beautiful and I listen to it myself sometimes. Minus the infamous upbeat intro song, the music is usually very melancholic, intense, or straight-up depressing, and I love it. To me, the music makes you feel like you're far, far away from the real world with no chance of a return, so your only option is to just have a drink and reflect on your decisions and wait for whatever's next. There's one song in particular called memento mori which makes me cry whenever I watch the anime along with it since the scene it plays in is one of the most depressing in the show. For the most part, the music has a bit of a 70s jazz vibe plus some piano music - you know, the kind of stuff that would be played in a bar.

Character 10/10

This show's strong suit is the characters and their developments. From the very first episode, you're immediately interested in these characters and why they are acting the ways that they do. You feel their changes from when they have no memories and are completely innocent to them remembering that they're dead and the pain and fear that they go through when realizing it and lashing out begging to be brought back to life to undo their mistakes. The most incredible thing I think this show accomplishes is that even though you only see most of these characters for 1 or 2 episodes each before they're reincarnated or sent to the void, you still care about them and are interested in their stories. They are all so realistic in their struggles and when they're hurt, you feel them, no matter how likable or unlikeable they may be. Death Parade takes things that we may sometimes take for granted like greed, murder, depression, revenge, suicide, or even just accidents and shows what they do to people on a personal level. They don't just tell you what the characters feel, they let you experience it and see it. Plus, it's not just the dead characters that are amazing, the ones you see throughout the show like Decim and Chiyuki are incredible too. Decim in particular, while not having the most relatable position for most people, is so interesting to watch. His arc, while I won't spoil it, is emotional to watch and will have you in tears by the last episode.

Enjoyment 10/10

I thoroughly enjoy watching this show and have watched it at least 5 times through XD it's one of those shows you can rewatch over and over again only to learn new things every time. Any time I want to rewatch something, it's Death Parade. Even though the character's stories are fairly simple, they are so rich with drama and personality that it feels like a huge present wrapped in a small package. The creators nailed everything about it. Plus, there's a scene when one of the main characters has an extensive flashback scene about her life and the first time I saw it I was bawling.

Overall 11/10

A masterpiece that's in my top 5 anime of all time. The story is unique, the art is very pleasing to the eye and engulfs you in the story, the music is also very enchanting and helps set the mood of the show, the characters are some of the best side characters I've ever seen in any form of media, the show will make you laugh, cry, question human nature, both relax and engage you at the same time, and please any aesthetic needs you have (how many times have I said 'aesthetic' in this lol). As far as I know, it is underrated in the world of anime I think because it's short and doesn't have a massive following, but it has a fandom that loves and appreciates it. I know for sure this will stay in my top 10 if not top 5 forever.

Disappointing at best, with dumb/insulting/untrue message (no spoilers)

I had heard about Shiki a lot for several years and I always hesitated to watch it because of how ominous and creepy the cover art was - then recently, I wanted a horror fix and thought it would be the perfect option. I was wrong.

Story 3/10

This story has been done to death - a normal village starts experiencing strange occurrences because of monsters and people slowly start dying. To be fair, it did take a bit of a new spin on it by having the Shiki be somewhat unique to Japanese culture, but that’s about as unique ... as they are. The same rules to nearly every vampire story apply here - they’re afraid of crosses, religious symbols, sunlight, wooden stakes, can’t enter homes without being invited, and their wounds regenerate. They either kill their victims or bite them so that they eventually turn into Shiki. This would not have been a problem, however, if a new spin had been taken with it, like maybe the Shiki had completely new weaknesses that hadn’t been used before in media or they were hunting in a big city instead of a small village - I don’t know, just something to make it feel fresh. Plus, everyone that likes this anime uses the excuse that there’s “moral ambiguity” and you don’t really know who the bad guys are. This is ridiculous because it’s incredibly obvious who the bad guys are - THE MONSTERS MURDERING THE VILLAGERS. I remember watching it and thinking “I swear if they try to make me feel bad for those things...” Towards the end, they try to demonize the human villagers by making them seem evil whenever they kill a Shiki because the Shiki are “just trying to survive”. Firstly, how can they survive if they’re dead? Secondly, the Shiki were the ones instigating the villagers by killing them first, so how is it “morally ambiguous” when they fight back? And possibly my biggest problem - IT WASN'T SCARY.
There were probably 4 moments in total where I was actually frightened - 80% of the show is just normal characters talking to each other and 20% actual scary stuff. There is, however, one particular scene (no spoilers) where a Shiki woman is brutally tortured so they can find a weakness for the monsters. It was by far the most disturbing scene in the show because of the imagery and the context, but if I'm honest, it was probably my favorite scene in the show. Why such a nasty scene, you ask? I liked it BECAUSE it was nasty and disturbing - it had a different feel from any other moment in the show and legitimately made me feel sorry for the Shiki at that moment, plus when you watch it with the context of knowing the relationship between her and her torturer, it's even sadder, but again, I won't spoil it. But of course, after that, it goes right back to boring. Even if just a few more scenes had carried that same repulsiveness of that one scene, it may have raised my rating slightly, but of course, as you can see from my rating, it didn't. Not to mention the ending was so flat and unsatisfying that I didn't even bother looking to see if there was another OVA to end it off with.

Art 3/10

I’m sorry but the art style ruined most of the horror for me. The character’s designs are ridiculous even for an anime and don’t fit the horror genre at all - one female character has hair that legitimately looks like a snake. "oH bUT tHaT wAs ThE aRtIST's chOiCe aNd HaIr iNdiCAtEs tHeiR pErsonAliTies" tell me how green snake hair contributes to the personality of a kind supportive nurse who, for the most part, acts completely normal. Designs like that should be saved for either a comedic show or a fantasy/sci-fi genre where the creator can get away with using crazy designs for either a funny or alien/unworldly look. They don't belong in a horror where the entirety of it takes place in a real-world town - it's distracting for the viewer and makes us take them less seriously and reminds us that what's happening isn't real, which is counterproductive for horror. However, the art style when the scary stuff actually happens, like when Megumi crawls out from under a bed, was actually pretty scary. It would have been great if the entire show carried that amount of horror in it, but unfortunately, it didn’t. I think if the art style had been more realistic and the character’s hairstyles were toned down a bit, it would have made it slightly more freaky since we tend to fear things that resemble reality but are distorted enough to make us unsettled or afraid for our lives, such as clowns or dolls. The shiki’s designs are also very basic (they just have black and red eyes and fangs, and that’s pretty much it) and they’re only ever truly scary when the mood changes when they’re about to kill someone. It also doesn't help that they act like their normal selves after they've died and the only difference is that they suck blood, which doesn't make them very threatening, at least to me. Maybe to some people, the fact that they act normal as monsters would be scarier to them, but it didn't for me. Plus, most of them have wacky hairstyles too, which makes them less threatening in appearance and diminishes the fear of them. I'm sure there was effort put into the art (there usually is), but it was just the wrong call for this show if you ask me. Not saying appearance is the only thing that matters, but if you're going to try and make something scary, they should probably LOOK and ACT scary, and Shiki fails at the first part and only achieves half of the second.

Sound 4/10

The soundtrack wasn’t bad at first, and there are some pretty haunting and ominous songs in it that really help with the atmosphere. However, I don’t know how many songs are on the soundtrack, but OMFG it felt like they played the same 5 songs for the entire time I was watching. By the time I was a little over halfway through I was sick of listening to the music and just wanted the story to be done. The first intro song was very good, though. It was probably the only one I liked. The second one is not as good, however - it’s just your average orchestral/j-pop anime intro and doesn’t fit the mood of the story at all.

Character 6/10

A lot of people hate the characters in this show - I didn’t mind too many of them, but I didn’t like them either. There were only a couple of characters I legitimately hated. The only character that I actually really liked was Toru (the best friend) because he was really sweet and I actually felt sorry for him. But all the other characters are just stereotypical anime characters - the cool guy, the supportive best friend, the fashionista, the chain-smoker, the kuudere, there’s almost nothing unique about them (Toru's a stereotype too, but it's one that I tolerate because I find it adorable). I get it, it’s anime, there’s going to be doppelgängers in pretty much any show you see, and maybe if the story and other factors had been better I wouldn’t have minded it so much.

Enjoyment 4/10

It’s not unbearable to watch, I was mostly disappointed because I had expectations going into it and expected the monsters to be much more hidden and creepy, and I expected to be scared throughout the entirety of watching it. If you removed the Shiki from the story entirely, it would be a normal slice of life anime about friends and families living in a small village, which I would rather watch than this. I’ve seen other horror anime’s like another and corpse party and both of those were MUCH better and enjoyable that Shiki (even though corpse party is very unpopular it was still somewhat scary) Another managed to carry the suspense through the entire show which made me scared to even watch the next episode. By the time I was halfway through Shiki, I was already pissed by how disappointing it was and only continued so I could say I finished it. If you like slow-burn horror with 10-minute long dialogues between boring characters every episode, along with short bursts of mildly scary anime girls sucking people’s blood, this is the show for you. Maybe my opinion is more negative because I had higher expectations, but who knows.

Overall 3/10

It’s annoying/bad at worst and dissatisfying at best. The story is average, the characters are all just anime tropes and nothing more, the art style is distracting, the horror barely exists, the soundtrack is repetitive, and the only reason I finished it is because I didn’t want to drop it. Are there any GOOD things about it? Well, only a few in my opinion - the torture scene, Toru's character, and the first intro song. Those three things were, to me, the only salvageable things in it. It’s not horrible, but it’s by no means good. I wouldn’t recommend nor would I rewatch.
I know I keep comparing this show to Another, but I think this show failed where Another succeeded - Another had a consistent atmosphere, the characters were interesting but didn’t stand out physically, and it carried the suspense throughout its entirety. Shiki didn’t have any consistent atmosphere and wasn’t scary enough to keep me on the edge of my seat. Too much time is spent on the human characters instead of the lore or the deaths of the villagers, and yet somehow the human characters are STILL uninteresting. I think it tried to focus on the “moral ambiguity” as it’s main source of the horror, but it just didn’t work in this situation - the Shiki are too inhuman to be relatable.
But the main reason that I gave it such a low rating was because of the message of the show - they actually try to tell the viewer that the will to survive makes you bad. That part pissed me off so much that I wanted to stop watching. There's no moral ambiguity like all the 13-year-olds that like this show say there is. It's not like Death Note where the main character does bad things for a good reason and you kinda don't know whether to like him or hate him - these are unlikable monsters that probably shouldn't exist telling their prey and even convincing some of them that trying to fight back makes them the bad guys. I'm not even kidding, that is the message. I'm pretty sure anyone that has seen Attack on Titan and agrees with ITS message of "fight back no matter the odds" would punch someone in the face if they were told that. But no, in this show it's "if a vampire tries to eat your entire village and you fight back, YOU'RE the bad guy". Tell me, is a bear evil if you shoot it and it attacks you? If you hit a dog and it bites you, does that mean the dog is the one that deserves the blame? Humanity inherently has a will to survive and telling someone that that instinct, which has kept us alive for so long is a bad thing, is not only insulting, it's also untrue. I also don't think that there's room for negotiation with a species of living corpses that feed on humans - more likely they're some freak accident of nature that need to be eliminated before they kill other innocent people, like zombies. Yes, I get that some of them didn't choose to be Shiki, but neither did the Titans, and they're still a threat that can't be negotiated with. If they're dead, then they should stay dead. Put them out of their misery. The message is so pathetic, slapped-on, and fairytale-ish that no rational human would ever take to heart - at least I pray so. And with that imma end this review so it's not too long.