Series · 2010
Shiki
屍鬼
Sotoba is an isolated village connected to the outside by a single main road. After three bodies are found, doctor Toshio Ozaki doubts that the deaths are ordinary. More villagers begin to die, leaving the community facing a possible epidemic and an increasingly disturbing mystery.
The village still practises burial, and its small population makes each death part of a tightly connected community. Ozaki's initial concern is not accepted as evidence of a crime. The early problem is recognising a pattern while the explanation remains uncertain, rather than starting with an identified enemy.
Toshio's inquiry draws in the Junior Monk as further deaths are reported. A medical question becomes a collaboration between people with different places in the village. The mourners gathered together make the scale tangible: each new case belongs to families and neighbours, rather than remaining a number on a doctor's list.
Complete anime + two unaired episodes · Approx. 9.2 hours · 24 episodes
The 2010 television anime,22 broadcast episodes plus the two unaired stories issued with volumes 8/9 in 2011:24 episodes. Excludes source novel/manga. Time is an estimate based on a licensed 23-minute episode sample; special durations have not been measured.