I really ended up liking the anime, and I have to give this anime extra credit because it was the first anime I watched to truly make me sit back and question morality. Specifically speaking the morality regarding one's fight for survival.
I'll just say it now, I'm still pro-human at the end of the anime, but grudgingly pro-human.
My reasoning is the "Aggressor VS Defender" rationale, the village was living on their own peacefully. It was the Shiki who came in and started killing people with the goal of wiping out or converting the entire village.
Yes I feel sympathy for the vampires and how they have to do this or die, and yes I feel special sympathy for those who were forced into it and started feeding on people grudgingly. But at the end of the day, anyone of them who bothered killing other human beings for survival then made a choice, a hard and rather unfair choice but still a choice. That choice being to allow their own life to continue at the expense of others, and at that moment you have to expect that people are going to want vengeance, or are going to defend themselves against you.
"Ok Gwazi, but this seems pretty certain/clear-cut. Where's this 'Question Morality' but you mentioned?".
That honestly never came into play until near the end of the anime, at three different moments.
1) When Humanity began killing non-Shiki
The Specific start here was when the Mind Controlled villager shot the man who ran the pipes, and then the rest of the humans killed him like a Shiki.
Now we now that Toshio had given everyone a basic run down on the Shiki, so it's safe to assume that off-screen he also covered stuff like mind possession.
The Villager's should have known better, but in a panic they killed one of their own. And this was only amplified at the Temple where they killed the Temple Staff.
2) Episode 20.5
Ok, this Episode was rather Barbaric. In a nutshell the entire episode is human's have tracked a bunch of Shiki down to a pipe line and now the Shiki are essentially stuck there as the Humans begin picking them off. In this episode though there were two main developments. First being after the Shiki fought back at first, once they fled two humans were bitten but still alive. And earlier in the Anime it was confirmed that transformation of a Shiki only happens from multiple bites, where when Toshio was able to protect a patient (for a time) in his clinic she was actually recovering. So one bite was by no means a risk of them turning, yet out of fear they were killed anyways. Even though it can safely assumed that Toshio already told them otherwise (and if he hadn't that'd be a pretty stupid thing to leave out. I mean you're fighting Shiki head on, you should expect some people to get bit). Secondly though, near the end they human's had ran out of stakes. So as an improvised way of killing them (because apparently just carving some more quickly isn't an option) they tie the Shiki up and leave them waiting for the sun so they can slowly burn to death. This right here helped to addressed the level of cruelty human's were willing to do, this wasn't a necessary part of killing Shiki, they were choosing to make them suffer. And since (thankfully) one of the humans actually stepped up and put them out of their misery, we can confirm that the sun trick wasn't even needed.
3) The Aftermath
Ok, so to address this one I'm going to quote a Criticism I spotted on a Anime Forum talking about Shiki's ending.
Terrible terrible end. The drama and build up was incredible and then it was all for naught. The whole cycle repeats itself without any sense of closure while the village dies. This show could have gotten a 10..it really could have. But such an ending left a very bitter taste in my mouth. The cycle should have ended with Sunako getting killed and then "her curse" would be lifted and the endless cycle of turning villages into shiki cities would finally be over.
^ I strongly disagree with this, allow me to explain why. This mentality presumes a black/white scenario, Shiki = evil, humans = good. In although I already expressed above that my stance is Pro-Human, I still recognize this is not a black/white scenario. In the end, both are just people fighting for survival. Hell I even stated my only real reason for going Pro-Human was because the Shiki were the aggressors. And in the point's above I even pointed to how extreme human's went in defending themselves, extreme's we never saw the Shiki resort to. Now, what was the Aftermath though? The human's went so far into killing the Shiki they ended up losing their town, which for me helps deliver a very strong message. They allowed themselves to get so consumed by panic and hatred that they destroyed the very thing (other than their lives) they fought to protect. Their home is now destroyed, driving the final nail in the coffin of what the Humans reduced themselves to in the name of survival.
In a nutshell, this anime was very entertaining.
But it also accomplished something deeper than that in my opinion, it showed insight into the nature of death, the nature of survival and how one can get so consumed in fighting it that when (if) they win they might have nothing left to go back to. It show's that there can be sin and wrong on both sides, and that both sides can have moral values and intentions even if they're doing some rather despicable acts. Now I wouldn't say the anime did a perfect job, admittedly the ending did feel a bit rushed and a number of characters lacked development but overall it was a great anime and was able to deliver a strong message.
"But Gwazi! What do you think about Sunako and Muroi running away?".
From a story writing perspective I'm completely fine with this. In fact her getting away only further drives home how barbaric the whole fight for survival was. Not only did the humans lose their home, but they didn't even truly stopped the Shiki, just the Shiki from harming their own area. From a fan perspective though? I do wish we went with the rest of the Shiki, because no matter how bad I may feel or sympathize for her I know that her leaving is going to result in the deaths of many, many more individuals. It's the same reason I was upset Batman didn't kill the Joker in the Dark Knight, because he allowed his personal sense of right/justice to endanger the lives of many people.
In the end? I give the anime a solid 9/10.
I'd give it a 10, but I take away the 1 point because some characters lack some development and the ending did seem a bit rushed. It would be nice if they had made a few more bonus episodes to flesh out more of the other characters.
