Fuyumi Ono's Shiki Novels Get Anime

Many of you are aware that I am a huge huge fan of Ghost Hunt, the anime adaptation of Fuyumi Ono's popular novel series of the same name. More people may be familiar with Ono as the author of the Twelve Kingdoms novel series and its subsequent anime adaptation, although the fantasy drama stands out amongst Ono's primarily horror works in Japan.

The latest anime adaptation of Ono's works is Shiki (or Corpse Demon). It's the first novel she published after a four-year break from writing two Ghost Hunt spinoff novels, in 1998. The horror mystery anime is set in the a village called Gaiba (not sure I have the kanji right on this one), a small town with a population of 1,300 people. The village, isolated from the rest of the nation, has an unusual custom for Japan: burial of dead bodies, rather than cremation.

One day during a hot summer, three corpses are found and the local doctor can't figure out their cause of death. Shortly after their appearance, villagers begin to die, one by one by one. "Is it a strange coincidence? A plague? Or..." and there the official Japanese site leaves off.

It may sound a bit Higurashi-like, but bear in mind that the novel cameout four years prior to Higurashi's first game, and of course neither is the pioneer of the horror mystery in which characters are picked off one at a time. But it sounds pretty interesting-- what do you think?