Shiki/YMMV

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Megumi is a sadistic, whiny Stalker with a Crush who kills Tohru and ruins her former best friend's life for absolutely no reason. However, it's hard not to feel any emotion when the villagers run her head over with a tractor, and then stake her heart after she survives that.
  • Also to a less extent Masao, established as a petty, hateful character from day one whose only redeeming quality, his reluctance to feed on living humans, is rather spoiled by the fact that it's more due to cowardice than any noble conviction. However, this troper for one felt at least a bit of pity for him when he ended up dying at the hands of his own half-sister after thinking he'd made it to safety.
    • Although, given his rather unwarranted spite towards her when alive, one could also argue that this qualifies as a Karmic Death.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Chizuru was a total bitch and ruthless killer, but it's hard not to feel sorry for her when she is getting lynched while begging for her life when she was discovered as a shiki by the villagers.
• Base Breaker: Megumi is either one of the best characters in the series or one of the worst. Her sadistic tormenting of Kaori and Akira and her horrible, horrible death don't help with this.
• Complete Monster: In the manga Ookawa is this. He states to Sunako that he likes killing people and because the Shiki aren't considered human he can get away with killing them. It also explains the slaughter of the innocent people at the temple and that creepy smile he gets when he kills his son that freaks out one of the villagers.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: Toshio's Batman Gambit to prove shiki's existence
• Ear Worm: The opening theme, "Kuchizuke" ("Kiss").
• Evil Is Cool: Resident Magnificent Bastard Tatsumi. Complete with obligatory sunglasses and motorcycle.
• Evil Is Sexy: Shiki Megumi. She may a demon, but she has great taste in clothing. Also, Chizuru counts as this trope despite being a Fashion Victim Villain later on in the series.
• Fan Disservice: In her first scene as a Shiki, Megumi is wearing a low cut top, short skirt and Zettai Ryouiki. The sexiness, however, is mitigated by her unnatural body movements, as well as the fact that she's, you know, a corpse.
• Fashion Victim Villain: It seems that the more serious Shiki gets, the odder the costumes are. Near the end of the series, Chizuru wears an outfit that looks like it's made out of strips of red tape, Tatsumi wears a very unfortunate one-piece hoodie with unbearably short shorts, and Sunako appears to be cosplaying as the Queen of Hearts. Even Natsuno gets fashionably challenged after becoming a Shiki (his pink sneakers are just the start of it).
• High Octane Nightmare Fuel: Shizuka's demon puppet. When that doesn't get her an invitation into Yuuki's house, she tries a different tactic that is equally frightening. It WORKS.
  • Let's not forget Dr. Ozaki's research on his recently risen wife to find out what makes the Shiki tick. He cuts her open and torments her with religious icons before finally staking her... and he does it all without showing any real emotion.
• Ho Yay: Tohru and Yuuki have plenty of this at the start. It becomes even more obvious after Tohru becomes a vampire, Yuuki is willing to risk his life in order to convince Tohru to escape the town with him.
• Idiot Plot: When going over all the symptoms, exhausting themselves trying to work out what is killing everyone, they somehow never draw the connection that the only thing every single victim has in common are bug bites.
  • To be fair, bug bites in the summer ain't all that uncommon.
• Memetic Mutation: Shiki kid watering the homolust
• Moral Event Horizon: Toshio performing vivisection on his newly-turned shiki wife to figure out what the Shiki react to.
  • Later in the manga Toshio leading Chizuru on, betraying her, and killing her in the most brutal way possible. The villagers didn't help either. One of them threw a giant rock at her head and caused blood to pour out of her eyes. OUCH.
  • In episode 20 the villagers go as far as to kill humans simply under hypnosis. It Got Worse in episode 21 where Ookawa's group murders Seishin's family thinking they're involved with the Shiki.
    • It gets even worse in 20.5 where they kill people who have just been bitten and were not hypnotized out of fear of them turning into Shiki.
  • The Shiki are hardly innocent either. Sunako masterminded the plan to turn the village into a haven for Shiki, fully endorsing the mass murder of the population in the hopes that some would rise from their graves.
    • Agreed. The Shiki were the ones who murdered people and encouraged any newly 'born' Shiki to go and feed on their own families. Especially since as Dr Ozaki proved, it took three feeds to actually kill a human. Why couldn't the Shiki keep rotating around the village and waiting for blood supplies to replenish?
    • Because the Kirishikis are the ones in control of them and they want the village to become a haven for Shiki. Which requires that they feed on everyone to they die. Regardless of whether the other Shiki want to. Shiki who defy them can have things end up bad for them such as being tied to a tree to burn during the day and Tatsumi mentions in the manga he wants humanity and Shiki to wipe each other out.
  • The Werewolf who turned Sunako despite the fact that he doesn't need to feed on people to survive and Sunako's family who kept sending her maids to feed on also crossed it.
  • Megumi crosses this when she kills Tohru out of jealousy or killing her best friend's father out of pure spite.
• Needs More Love
• The Scrappy: Masao for being a whiny and self-centered teenager, and Megumi for being the same, as well as psychotic and sadistic as a Shiki, although she tends to be more of a Base Breaker.
• Uncanny Valley: The way the artist draws eyes, anyone?
  • The artist has a habit of using grayscaled images of real people for background characters.
    • In the manga the people at the shrine are killed mostly by people who look like this.
• Wangst: Masao tends to do this.
• What Do You Mean It's for Kids?: Shiki runs in Jump Square, which is a Shounen manga magazine, despite having obvious seinen overtones.
  • The ever heated internet argument about what is truly Shonen or Seinen will never die, but is almost totally accepted that monthly shonen manga will be more lax about showcases of detailed violence and sexually suggestive themes to the point of nudity.
• The Woobie: Tohru, whose situation after he becomes a vampire and is ordered to kill Yuuki is heart breaking.
  • Sunako, after her backstory is revealed.
  • Kaori who loses both parents, is taunted about it by Megumi, thinks Akira has been killed too, and finally has to send her father back to his grave.