Moe Era: Shiki 18: the fury of the living

This episode was AWESOME.

It starts showing how the shikis are now getting used to their new unlives. They have "normal" jobs like going regurarly to check if new ones are rising and bury those who don't and so on...

Then we finally get some explaination about the werewolves. Tatsumi goes to Natsuno's house and he is greeted by his father who promptly stabs him. Of course, that is nothing for the over powered guy... The man has gone insane and when asked for he kindly lets Tatsumi in. Natsuno is watching the scene and together with Tatsumi they sit to drink (not blood) and have a chat.

Tatsumi reveals that they are jinrou, a subspecies of shiki. They are very rare, infact Tatsumi knows just four, including him. He goes on to say that Sunako chose the name jinrou.
Natsuno shows no interest in anything Tatsumi says, causing his rage. When he asks where Akira Tanaka is and Natsumi tells him he does not know he grabs his neck with one hand starting to suffucate him.
He then proceeds to reveal other aspects of the jinrou:

they breath and have a pulse
they are not harmed by the sun
they can survive on normal food

What? So they are just normal humans aren't they? No, there is more:

they have greater strength
and sharper senses

But, they need to suck blood in order to have these abilities. I don't know about the regenerative ability, it might be that is innate to all shikis independently if they suck blood.

So it seems to me that jinrou are superior to shikis in every sense. They can live just as normal humans, but in addition they can get superior abilities.
So why is Tatsumi taking orders from Sunako? She either must be an awesome monster or he has some other reason...
He finally tells Natsuno that Sunako wants the shiki to grow in number so he will not kill him (again?). But if he will not change his attitude he will come back to finish the job.

By the way, no comment on Tatsumi's dress... He has some particular tastes indeed...

Next we see briefly Atsushi Ookawa and Chizuru running around on a car and then Yoshie together with Tohru. They are talking about how Sunako and Chizuru have a mother-daughter like relationship... where Sunako is the mother. Yoshie is another jinrou and she brings Tohru to check the dead people. They get to Ritsuko right after she rises.

Ritsuko realized immediately she is not breathing and has no pulse. She also remembers how she died. She decides to keep with her dead dresses and she refuses to drink blood! Tohru is clearly shaken and he hates himself for this is what he wanted to do but was not able to.

Next we are shown the old lady who last time was watching Akira when he went to the closed house. She is going to the home care support center, and of the other old persons sitting with her only one remains...
The village is starting to have very few living people...

Now we come to the second part. All we have seen up to here in the first 17 episodes was used to build up for this moment :D

Toshio is shown in his bed taking a blood transfusion and fighting to resist Chizuru's orders. She only bite him to control him, force him to destroy all the documents he had prepared and replace them with fake documents stating that everything is normal.
Chizuro is at his home. She tells him he was the biggest threat to the shikis and now that he is "cohoperating" they have basically won the village. Soon there will be only shikis and she will be able to go around and live a normal life. We also get a glimpse of her past life where she was a wife. Apparently that happened quite some time ago and she is not sure if she really wants that life back. She tells Toshio what the shikis are trying to create is a safe base, a place where they don't need to hide. And that they are almost there...

This is the moment Toshio and Natsuno where speaking of in the last episode. Now the shikis believe they have won and they will lower their guard. Now is the time to strike.

There is a festival ongoing and Toshio convinces Chizuru to go there. She is reluctant at first because she fears religious symbols, but he also makes up a story to justify them being togehter and convinces her to go.
They go around speaking to the people and laughing with them. Chizuru feels at ease and lowers her guard even more. When they reach the shrine she is very scared, but forces herself to go on just a little bit more. Of course Toshio encourages her holding her hand. When the get in the temple ground people start to gather around them. Chizuru is now terrified and wants to go home.

The trap is sprung.

Toshio tells she is not feeling well and wants to take the to the shrine's office to rest a bit. When she refuses and orders him to take her more he just ignores her! He asks Mr Shimizu for help and when he touches her he feels she is cold!
When Chizuru tries to get free from Toshio's hand she notices another bite on his right arm. That's why he is not obeying her orders! This must be Natsuno's doing, cancelling the orders from Chizuru!
Toshio's wicked smile at Chizuru is the epitome. Finally the living are reacting!

Chizuru is totally in panic now. Mr Shimizu recognizes her scent, it was in Megumi's room when she was ill. At this moment he is ready to understand. Toshio reveals him she is an okiagari and that she was the one who killed his daughter. He tells him to check her neck. They have to decide if they need to call for an ambulance or not... The other people start to realize too. Ookawa Tomio checks that she is cold and has no pulse. Hiroko Shimizu, Megumi's mother, checks that she has no heartbeat. Others realize she is not breathing. Soon she is surrounded and Toshio can finally show a smile of satisfaction...

But a shot is fired.

Mr Kirishiki has arrived in a car. Being a living human he has no problems in entering the shrine and he is therefore the biggest threat to them. But the car is stopped by Tomio Ookawa bare-handed! The car is driven by his son Atsushi...
Atsushi was shown to be a totally reckless shiki, so it is not a big deal that he is not afraid of entering the shrine. That is just a psychological barrier after all. When Tomio realizes his dead son is there not even the menace of being shot serves to scare him. His rage is huge and Atsushi is so scared that he puts the rear gear and escapes, taking the sniper with him!

They did not manage to ruin Toshio's moment of triumph.

Chizuru takes advantage of the commotion to try and sneak away but she is soon noticed. The episode ends with the people throwing rocks at her.

So, I wonder if they will just kill her or try to use her as a hostage. I think in every episode there was at least one death. In this episode she might be the one. For the first time a shiki.

Shiki is starting to approach the end, with just 4 episodes remaining we are entering the final part.
I liked this episod so much! After the last one I was really starting to fear there was not much hope and this series would just kill all the humans... It might still do so in the end (although I hope not), but at least they tried to survive!