Shiki 14 – gruesome violence

Thankfully all marriages don't end like this.

Episode 14 of Shiki was absolutely horrifying. It included some gruesome imagery that I won’t repeat here. While various things happened that are, no doubt important to the advancement of the plot, it was Toshio and Kyoko Ozaki’s story that was truly disturbing.

Letting go is one thing...

Toshio performs some grisly experiments on Kyoko, eventually killing her. This is one of those situations in which it is difficult to imagine there being a morally unambiguous path. What Toshio does is wrong, but to not do these things, to be moved by compassion for the suffering of the thing living as the corpse of his wife, could that possibly be right? In the end Toshio Ozaki has the resolve to experiment as necessary to gather the information necessary if they are to save any part of Sotoba village.

Several other interesting things happened, including Masao finally getting the punch in the face he has deserved almost from the first moment he was introduced. But I am most curious about the elder monk, who is sending a letter to the Kirishiki family. This is either one of the worst mistakes anyone could make, or he has some plan. But why doesn’t Seishin discuss what he knows about the risen and the Kirishiki with his dad? Just one, “By the way, dad, I think the people you are sending this letter to are vampires,” would satisfy me that he had addressed the matter.