Shiki/Characters

The character page for Shiki. There are an awful lot of them, so this list will probably not cover them all.

Protagonists

These characters could be considered the protagonists of the show.

Natsuno Yuuki

Voiced by: Kouki Uchiyama (JP), Jerry Jewell (EN)

One of the main protagonists, a fifteen-year-old boy who was forced to move to Sotoba, and needless to say, he ain't happy about it. He's one of the first ones to become aware of the shiki.

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• Back From the Dead: Manga and anime only.
  • Back for the Dead
• Badass: Bashes a shiki in the head with a shovel when it threatens his friends.
• Badass Abnormal: After he becomes a jinrou.
• Bishonen
• Came Back Strong
• Curtains Match the Window
• Decoy Protagonist: He gets a relatively large chunk of focus during the first half of the story. And then he dies. Even after returning as a jinrou in the manga and anime, he rarely appears again.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: In the anime, after he pushes himself and Tatsumi into a deep pit, he blows both up with sticks of dynamite.
• Mr. Fanservice
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Natsuno is aloof to most of the villagers, but cares deeply about Toru, Akira and Kaori. So much that he lets Toru feed on him without much of a fight when his friend rises.
• Purple Eyes: Natsuno has blueish-violet eyes.
• Red Herring: Near the beginning of the series, Natsuno starts showing signs of lethargy and tiredness, the exact symptoms of a shiki bite. Turns out it was just exhaustion.
• Taking You with Me
• You Gotta Have Purple Hair

Toshio Ozaki

Voiced by: Tohru Ookawa (JP), David Wald (EN)

The director of the clinic in Sotoba. He is baffled by the mysterious deaths and swears to solve the case and protect his village. He is one of the first people to discover the existence of the shiki, and ends up taking pretty extreme measures against them.

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• Agent Mulder: Oddly enough, the village's man of science is one of the first to think the epidemic may be supernatural.
• Anti-Hero: Type III --> Type V.
  • Fallen Hero
• Badass Labcoat
• Batman Gambit: He outs the shiki by pretending to surrender to them and tricking Chizuru into going on a date with him to get her to the Buddhist shrine so she can Freak-Out and get a bunch of people to escort her away, allowing them to feel for themselves her lack of a pulse and body temperature.
  • I Surrender, Suckers
• He Who Fights Monsters: As he slowly loses more and more villagers to the plague, his psyche and determination begin to deteriorate, resulting in his appearance becoming haggard and strained. Eventually he resorts to experimenting on his wife when she rises as a shiki in an attempt to either cure the plague and, failing that, to find the most efficient means of killing them.
• Ignored Expert: No one believes him about the vampires. Until he outs them anyway.
• The Paragon: Toshio becomes a rather dark take on this he he drives the villagers to riot against the shiki.
• Perma Stubble
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Seishin's blue. Lampshaded in the second opening of the anime, where a red specter rises from him whilst a blue rises from Seishin.
• The Smart Guy: He has his suspicions that the thing that's killing the village is weirder than normal as soon as his first appearance, but he doesn't connect the dots until Natsuno talks to him.
• Staking the Loved One: Literally does this to his wife when she rises...among other things.
• Was It Really Worth It?: Ends up asking himself something along these lines after his own actions bring about the destruction of his village when he was trying to save it.

Seishin Muroi

Voiced by: Kazuyuki Okitsu (JP), John Burgmeier (EN)

A monk at the local temple in Sotoba, as well as an author of several novels. Ends up befriending Sunako.

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• Agent Scully: Not completely skeptical about the existence of the shiki, but he still takes longer to convince than Toshio.
• Badass Bookworm
• Came Back Strong
• Death Seeker: Tried to commit suicide once in the past, likely due to his hatred of his position, and offers no resistance to Tatsumi when he asks to feed from him.
• Driven to Suicide: Attempted it once in the past for obscure reasons.
  • In the manga, he attempted suicide since he can never truly leave the village as long as people force and expect him to be a monk whether he wants to or not.
  • In the anime, he attempted suicide because he desperately wanted to be free of the traditions and the weight of his family and the temple, but could not bring himself to leave.
• Good Shepherd: Played with.
• Hazy Feel Turn: Abandons Toshio and the other villagers to join the shiki and protect Sunako, but considering the Grey and Gray Morality this story is based on, it's hard to tell whether he's a Face or a Heel
• Heel Realization: Through his conversations with Sunako, he comes to the conclusion that he and the shiki are Not So Different and that he has more in common with them than he does with the other villagers.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Generally enjoys his chats with Sunako. Turned on its head half-way through
• Not So Different: Both he and his father are a lot alike when it comes to what motivates them. They both also joined the shiki.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Muroi is much more violent and assertive when he rises as a jinrou, as Ookawa finds out firsthand.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Toshio's red. Lampshaded in the second opening of the anime (see above).
• Stoic Spectacles

Villagers

The residents of Sotoba. WARNING: Some of the characters below become shiki, so highlight spoilers at your own risk.

Megumi Shimizu

Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu (JP), Tia Ballard (EN)

A village girl who hopes to one day leave Sotoba and create a career for herself in the city. She has an unrequited crush on Natsuno, who finds her annoying and cannot stand her. Megumi is one of the first victims of the shiki and is also the first to rise.

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• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Gets run over by the same tractor that splattered her with mud in the prologue.Getting distracted by seeing an imaginary Natsuno in the novel and manga is what allowed her to get hit by a truck and get five stakes shoved into her chest.
• Curtains Match the Window
• Girlish Pigtails
• Go Out with a Smile: She dies while happily dreaming of being in the big city in the manga and novel.
• Irony: In her human life, she was always complaining about living in the small village and wanting to go out and live in a big city. Then she dies and turns into a shiki, gaining the freedom she long sought for, but wasting it on deciding to terrorize the village. This winds up backfiring big time when the villagers strike back, and by the time things have gotten so bad for the shiki, only then does she decide to flee to the city, only to barely make it to the city limits before she is caught, staked, and put down for good, dying in the small village she always hated.
• It's All About Me: From her very first appearance we clearly see the sheer contempt that she holds for the rest of the village.
• Spoiled Brat: Certainly has the attitude.
• Stalker with a Crush
• Yandere: Becomes one after rising as a shiki, killing Toru because she believes Natsuno likes him more than her.
• You Gotta Have Pink Hair

Masao Murasako

Voiced by: Shinya Takahashi (JP), Todd Haberkorn (EN)

An obnoxious high school second year. Prone to whining and moaning about his lot in life despite others being much worse off. Another shiki victim who rises.

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• Beady-Eyed Loser
• Gonk
• Harmless Villain: Despite all his bad qualities, he apparently couldn't bring himself to kill innocent humans, which Megumi bitches him out for. Subverted in the manga, where he was more than willing to turn his family members into his slaves starting with his niece in order to survive, only to get a knife stabbed into his head and a speech that describes the kind of person he is from his sister-in-law before she kills him.
• It's All About Me: Pretty much what his sister-in-law's speech about him was about.
• Jerkass: A jerk to pretty much everyone except Toru.

Toru Mutou

Voiced by: Nobuhiko Okamoto (JP), Chris Burnett (EN)

A kind 18-year old boy and Natsuno's best friend. Megumi kills him early in the series and he also becomes a shiki. Tatsumi then sends him to kill Natsuno after the latter discovers the shiki's existence.

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• Bishonen: Borderline.
• Likes Older Women: Possibly, if his attraction to Ritsuko is anything to go by.
• The Mole: After Natsuno comes back as a jinrou, Toru gives him valuable information on what the shiki plan to do with the village.
• Nice Guy: Easily the nicest character in the whole series. Even the local Jerkass Masao likes him.
• Punch Clock Villain: Doesn't like being a Shiki, and mostly sucks blood just to stay alive and to keep Tatsumi from coming for his family.
• Tragic Villain: He maintains his gentle personality after he becomes a shiki, but gets also the all consuming bloodlust. He hates what he does, but can't help himself and is torn by guilt.

Nao Yasumori

Voiced by: Miki Ito (JP), Cynthia Cranz (EN)

A woman who moved into Sotoba several years ago after marrying one of the villagers. Begins to show the symptoms of a Shiki bite early on and quickly succumbs to it.

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• Heel Realization: In the manga at least, when facing death at the hands of the villagers, she realizes that she is no different from the serial killers and murderers she once denounced.
• Hot Mom
• Inelegant Blubbering: After killing her newly entire family, yes, Nao is very sensitive and when she finally realized her true punishment for what she has done, she was so despaired that she hysterically cries about it in the end.
• Irony: She escapes from her abusive parents and finally finds a loving family in Sotoba, only to have it all taken away from her when none of the others rise when she kills them. And she knows that it's her own fault, too.
• Mercy Kill: Done to her by a villager she knew in life.
• Transhuman Treachery: Whilst most of the shiki are guilty of this, Nao is a particularly good example. She goes after her family before anyone else, hoping that they will rise too so that she won't be alone anymore.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Tomio Ookawa

Voiced by: Koji Ishii (JP), R Bruce Elliott (EN)

The owner of the village liquour and bottle shop. A huge man who is quick to begin hunting the shiki once their existence is uncovered.

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• Abusive Parent: He tends to hit his son when his son is alive, especially when his mom was telling on his son. He also enjoys killing his son in the manga far too much.
• Badass: The first person to join Toshio in exterminating the shiki. He also has enough raw strength to stop a moving car.
• Badass Beard: Seriously crazy hair that curves upwards in three prongs, nicknamed the Thermal Updraft by the fanbase.
• Bald of Awesome
• The Big Guy
• Complete Monster: Especially in the manga.
• Dope Slap: Often administers one to his son Atsushi.
• Drop the Hammer: After the shiki are outed he takes to carrying around a huge mallet with which to drive in stakes.
• Hot-Blooded
• Karmic Death: He kills Seishin's family when the monk joins up with the Shiki. Muroi returns the favor.
• Knight Templar: In the anime, he kills a human who was under shiki hypnosis, believing that he was a shiki collaborator. He is also part of the group that killed Seishin's family after it became clear he was helping Sunako. Subverted in the manga at first, where he doesn't harm the hypnotized humans even after being stabbed by them, but then Double subverted with his slaughter of the people at the temple in the manga
• The Unfettered: Ookawa is utterly devoted to wiping out the Shiki when they get outed in the anime, taking control of the mob from Toshio and showing little remorse for the often innocent people he kills in his goal.

Kaori Tanaka

Voiced by: Haruka Nagashima (JP), Alexis Tipton (EN)

A friend of Megumi and later Natsuno. She and her brother Akira are some of the first characters to make connections between the recent deaths and the mysterious new family.

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• Despair Event Horizon: She goes through one after her parents die and she has to kill her father again. She never really gets better.
  • Freak-Out
• Girlish Pigtails: They end in flowers. Though she loses them when she starts to give into despair.
• Refusal of the Call: Really doesn't want to dig too deeply into what's going on or dredge up memories of her dead friend. Too bad the caller knows where she lives.
• Staking the Loved One: Kills her father when he rises as a shiki.
• Self-Made Orphan

Akira Tanaka

Voiced by: Keiko Kawakami (JP), Luci Christian (EN)

Kaori's brother and a friend of Natsuno. He discovers the existence of the shiki early on and tries to out and fight them throughout the series.

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• Horned Hairdo: Averted.
• Hot-Blooded: He's pretty gung-ho about his shiki fighting duties and refuses to leave the village when things start to go south.
• Jumped At the Call
• Never Found the Body/Stuffed Into the Fridge
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Natsuno is all but stated in the manga and anime to have saved Akira from his death from the novel.
• Too Dumb to Live: Yes Akira, go alone into a creepy abandoned house to stake some vampires. I'm sure this will go well for you.

The Kirishikis

A mysterious family who move into the Kanemasa mansion at the start of the series. They are the original Shiki group.

Sunako Kirishiki

Voiced by: Aoi Yuki (JP), Cherami Leigh (EN)

The young daughter of the Kirishikis. The leader of the shiki and the reason behind the events of the series. Masterminds the plan to turn Sotoba into Shiki Heaven.

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• Affably Evil
• Anti-Villain: A mix of Type II and Type III. She is of the few shiki who sees humans as more than mere cattle.
• Big Bad
• Black Eyes of Evil
• Creepy Child
• Driven to Suicide: Decides to stay and die in the fire when her plan and the village burn around her. Seishin has different ideas.
• Elegant Gothic Lolita
• Intergenerational Friendship: Admires and gets along well with Seishin.
• Karma Houdini: Despite all the people who die because of her, she gets away scot-free. Except she loses everyone she ever cared about save Seishin by the end, so she likely wouldn't be particularly happy with the outcome of her escape.
• Morality Pet: Seishin. Has a lot to do with her belief that the two of them are Not So Different.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Despite her appearance of a 13-year-old girl, she's at least two centuries old, and the oldest of the shiki in Sotoba, being a mother figure to Chizuru rather than the other way around.
• Undead Child
• Villainous Breakdown: Goes through one as the shiki hunts get closer to her location, trying to justify her actions to herself as she attempts to avoid death.

Chizuru Kirishiki

Voiced by: Ai Orikasa (JP), Lydia Mackay (EN)

The mother of Sunako and wife of Seishirou. Actually untrue, she's another shiki and actually younger than Sunako.

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• Adult Child: Not quite as mature as her daughter. Yoshie flat out says that Sunako is the mother in their relationship.
• Blondes Are Evil
• Hot Mom: Oh so very hot.
  • Megumi and Kaori certainly agree with the above.
• Oh Crap: After realizing that Toshio tricked and outed her.
• Shout-Out: Appears in one episode dressed like Lady Gaga.
• The Vamp: Uses sex appeal to tempt the villagers out of their homes. Lampshaded by Seishirou when he helps her once, remarking that he can't believe he's helping his wife to have an affair.
• Villainous Breakdown

Seishirou Kirishiki

Voiced by: Gackt (JP), J. Michael Tatum (EN)

Sunako's father. Except not really. He is completely human and apparently the one who funds Sunako.

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• Actually Not a Vampire
• Badass Cape
• Brainwashing: Is bitten by Natsuno and ordered to hunt down and kill the rest of the Kirishikis. In the manga, he manages to commit suicide before doing too much damage.
• Hot Dad
• I Just Want to Be Special: Really wants to become a shiki, but due to the fact that neither of his parents turned, the possibility of that happening is zero.
• The Renfield
• The Team Normal: The only human Kirishiki.

Tatsumi

Voiced by: Wataru Takagi (JP), Ian Sinclair (EN)

Sunako's right hand man and the most dangerous of the shiki due to his immunity to sunlight.

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• Battle Butler
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Bumbling fool one moment, High Octane Nightmare Fuel on legs the second.
• The Dragon
• Horned Hairdo: Resembles a pair of cat or wolf ears.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How he dies in the manga
• Jerkass: Big time. Sends newborn shiki after their loved ones, punishes anyone who doesn't. The only thing that stops him from being a Complete Monster is his loyalty, affection and admiration to Sunako.
• Nietzsche Wannabe: Reveals in his final moments that he is a nihilist in the manga. Knowing that Sunako's actions were futile, he just wanted to see the shiki and mankind wipe each other out.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: It's hard to tell how much of his goofy persona is an act.
• Obi-Wan Moment
• Our Werewolves Are Different
• Puss in Boots: Is very competent and in charge of doing everything the shiki need during the day, but is fiercely loyal to Sunako to the point of dying so she can get away in the end.
• Rasputinian Death: The guy gets shot and driven over multiple times before falling into a fissure. What finally kills him differs between the manga (staked on a stalagmite) and anime (blown up by dynamite).
• Villainous Valour: Acts as a decoy to the villagers and gives Sunako a chance to escape.