Anime: Shingetsutan Tsukihime

Lunar Legend Tsukihime is a visual novel from Type-Moon, famous for many other visual novels such as Fate/Stay Night and Kara no Kyoukai. Today I'm taking a look into the hypothetical: what if this Tsukihime visual novel was turned into an anime? And what if said anime was adapted by J.C. Staff and came out in October 2003?

Now I know that many will wonder how one goes about reviewing that which does not exist, but let me assure you that I have my methods.

The story focuses on Shiki, your typical nerdy anime high schooler, that through an injury he received as a child, gained the ability to see these lines within objects, allowing him to cut through them. These lines disappear only through the glasses he wears. One day he stumbles upon a woman, and in a small fit of insanity, slices her into pieces. He does not successfully kill her; however, because SHOCK she's a vampire named Arcueid. He now has to fight other vampires with Arcueid, and he soon also begins to realize that the people he once knew have their own deep dark secrets behind them.

Now as far as how good it is, the series is pretty slow moving, and it constantly feels like very little is happening in comparison to what should be happening. It's a 12 episode series that has moments way too drawn out. There's a lot of the typical high school shenanigans, and right when you think the show's about to get juicy, they end up subverting your expectations and you are left underwhelmed. You think one of the major characters is dead? Nope, it was all an illusion by the main character. Furthermore, the show feels very clumsy in its attempts to adapt the visual novel, since it has a bit of exposition dump that could have been avoided had the series decided to show more instead of tell. I also feel like in spite of the show's slowness, the last couple of episodes were very rushed, almost as if the writers were attempting to fit more of the actual storyline into the show after they realized they spent too much time on less relevant aspects. What we got was interesting enough, but not satisfying to watch, because there's very little pay off for the setup.

The characters felt equally unexplored. I saw lots of potential within the characters, but because of the show's slow pacing and short runtime, it never was able to properly flesh out the characters the way it could have been. Shiki not remembering everything, and the bending of what he believes to what is reality could've been a lot more interesting if we'd been able to truly see the end result. It had the good setup, but it lacked the payoff. Arcueid and Shiki's relationship was already decent enough, and I could somewhat see their dynamic, but imagine how much more interesting it would have been if we had seen Arcueid's past through her own perspective, rather than someone else explaining it. Getting a better idea of what went down with Shiki's sister and her relationship with the twin maids. You could feel that the characters did have some chemistry, and it was made apparent in a few episodes such as when they all go to the amusement park, and you grow to get a better idea of how Akiha feels about her brother's friends, as well as how protective she is of him. Akihito's character could have been more explored, too, since I liked his role in terms of trying to keep this group of friends together, in spite of how much conflict was going on between them.

The antagonists definitely, once again, set up some interesting conflicts regarding Shiki and his own past, but are extremely tied down by the show's duration. I feel like I am repeating myself at this point, but that pretty much sums up the anime's biggest problem. It has the setup for something interesting, but doesn't go as far as it could with it, leaving the audience underwhelmed with what is there.

In terms of animation, it actually looks fairly good for its time period. For a time when anime was starting to look better on the computer, this show consistently keeps its characters on model. You aren't going to get much in terms of action sequences, since it always manages to cut to a camera angle that allows for the least amount of blood when it comes to limbs falling off. It's nothing great, especially in comparison to say, Fullmetal Alchemist or Texhnolyze, but the audience gets the idea. The shot composition is serviceable, but certainly nothing special, and while it managed to keep enough of my attention, I did tend to end up getting bored at times. As a whole, the animation is good at what it does, but certainly not great at what it does.

The OST is actually quite good. It adds to the occult atmosphere of the show, and while it doesn't convey atmosphere as well as say, Witch Hunter Robin, it still does a good job at giving the series a horror tone to it. The opening theme is a great listen, filled with these absolutely haunting chants that actually make starting each episode a real treat. The ending theme is okay, too, but not as memorable.

I know some will say, "Roger, go read the visual novel. It's got all that stuff you want." And you know what? I'm sure it does, but I'm not reviewing the visual novel, I'm reviewing its non-existent anime adaptation. And as a whole, I think that in spite of its criticisms... the Tsukihime anime isn't THAT bad. Yes, I have a had a huge amount of criticisms with it, and yes, I would never recommend it, but the show wasn't incomprehensible. I'd definitely rather have this exist than that crappy Madhouse adaptation of Chaos;Head. The show had good music, it set up interesting ideas, and it looked decent enough. If anything, I might even consider this a decent advertisement for the visual novel, and considering many adaptations aren't even good as advertisements for the source material, I'd say that it isn't all too bad. I get that the show definitely took many liberties with its source material, and I know it added in aspects that weren't there, but I still stand by what I said. I didn't extremely enjoy the series, but I also didn't feel like I wasted my time or anything along those lines.

Tsukihime is based on a famous Type Moon visual novel. And like most visual novels, it is basically a porn game. And like most anime adaptations, the series sucks. In fact, it is so bad that most people refuse to even admit it is an adaptation of the game. THERE IS NO TSUKIHIME ANIME they say. Well whatever; I never played the game since I prefer to read books or “press more than one button” videogames. I will stick to what I saw in the anime and just assume the game is far better… as a porn game with static pictures where all you do is CLICKCLICKCLICK!, read dialogue boxes and then fap to them.

As a series, Tsukihime tries to tell a lot of things in a short amount of time and completely fails to make much of any of them. I can start listing all the cool stuff that are going on in this show, from vampires, to death lines, to princesses on the moon, and make it appear to be the most awesome setting ever conceived in anime. And then you look at the actual flow of the show and you easily see it is nothing but a stereotypical porn premise with a pseudo-serious backdrop. So to put it simply, if you try to see it as a hentai story, then yes it is great because it has lots of things going on besides that. If you try to see it as a mystery, or action, then you will be greatly disappointed because there is very little to look forward to.

So there is the typical wimp boy who every chick in the series (including his sister and a MALE friend at school) wants to have sex with, and he has this supernatural ability, and there is this mysterious girl looking for vampires, and everything is supposed to be crammed together in a 12 episode series. Since I haven’t played the game, I can assure you that whatever the heck they were trying to do in the plot made no sense at all to me. So many characters and complicating terminology, and so few episodes to try exposing them all. Heck, if you take out all the duration they invested in getting to know the characters and then hunting big bad vampires, you hardly get 4 episodes of plot and story exposition. Do you think it’s enough? You barely get the basics, and then realize how most characters in it aren’t even offering anything to the story besides dragging it.

I have no doubts about the story being intriguing, and the characters having an important role in the original script (apart from, well, screwing them), as well as the various terminologies looked into in a much more elaborate way. Their transition to a half season anime though was simply a very bad move since there is simply NOT enough time to immerge in any of them properly and in a meaningful way. It all ends up looking like a parade of stereotypes barely scratching the surface of a buried ancient temple.

As for the production values, the animation and artwork are nothing amazing, even for the time it was made. Everything looks rather stiff and simply drawn, and everyone looks generic in appearance. The soundtrack on the other hand ain’t bad in terms of putting you in the proper mood of the show. The dialogues are also fine for the context of the story, although they mostly belong to characters and terminologies you will hardly get to familiarize with and may feel retarded and confusing for the same reason.

There is definitely value in this anime, since it stirred the fandom when it came out, even more by the ones who were disappointed with it, and is still mentioned of today. I don’t know if the game is as great as they say but the anime is definitely bellow average in terms of storytelling and character exposition. I find no reason in rewatching it and at best I see it as a teaser to play the game. As for the fame it acquired, I can only say that many shows receive more hype than they deserve and this is one of those cases. Thankfully the later Garden of Sinners exalogy of movies is a far more appealing adaptation of the same universe and show how much better the same premise may feel (not that I loved that one either; it just feels better).

:thumbup:This series is easily one of the best I've ever seen. I walked into not knowing, came out going WOW!. The music/relationships were fantastic between the characters. It flowed beautifully. Bitter, Bitter Sweet at 12 episodes and an ending to make you cry MORE MORE

Story: This is where the bread and butter is. Being a short series, it doesn't take long for the questions to arise of what exactly is going on here. Each episode it builds and I couldn't guess what was gonna happen next. From super happy, to super sad. It has more then enough twist's in the plot and characters to keep you watching.

Music: For me, music and story are everything to believe the world I"m watching. This series shines with it's dark undertones and melodramtic sounds. Especially in the latter episodes to pull you in hook line and sinker.

Animation: It's not the best, but it's still great. Being a darker anime you don't see a lot of the coloring and motion to judge it more. But in the more colorful or better lit scenes, it really does sparkle.

Value: The short 12-13 episodes series really can the worst. Only think keeping it from a 10 cause you beg for more than just that! Thankfully it wasn't shorter!

Overall Watching Enjoyment: Loved It, everyone should see this series. Haven't been moved from a series like this in a while. Another great Geneon boxset series in my collection :)

Tsukihime is a story about a seemingly pitiful guy and his past and present. Touru suffers a major injury in the past and thus has a forgotten past in a very similar case as that in Elfen Lied.

The story has a very dark tone and contains some fairly bloody scenes. Though there are many unexplained points in the plot, there are equally many nice surprises that keeps the series suspenseful. If the viewer has watched Fate Stay Night, this series is done by the same group. Both series share certain traits and plot elements such as the starting premise of a guy being pulled into a dangerous situation, seemingly out of his control.

If you can live with a few plot and character holes, this series is still a good watch if you're looking for a bit of mystery or suspense.

Animation:
The animation is a bit dated by todays standard but by no means poor. There is gore and blood but not in great detail and many of the details of the fight sequences are not shown. The characters are well proportioned and the overall level of detail is good, though the style in general is not crisp.

The majority of the show takes place either in school or at night, with the latter being the focus of the plot. Thus a large portion of the show is in dark, ominous environments.

Sound:
The overall sound of the series is dark, which compliments the story and setting very well. The OP is a very nice tune that is both calming yet somewhat gloomy/errie at the same time. I didn't find the ED isn't anything special. The BGM is minimal and consists of a small choir, a violin, and a piano. It successfully adds to the suspense at times but doesn't provide as much of a uniform theme as in FSN. The VAs are very good throughout.

Story:
The title of this series is quite misleading as the moon isn't even mentioned until the second to last episode, though panoramic views of the moon are plentiful throughout the series.

After watching a bunch of series, there are certain common plot twists that are noticeable. This series seems to lead the viewer into predicting certain events only to surprise the viewer with some other outcome. These were pleasant surprises for me. Expect a fair amount of these twists though no large cliff-hangers.

The overall presentation is in the style of a mystery, with many details missing at the beginning of the story. The viewer essentially picks up the bits and pieces along with the main character.

There is an anticipated climax near the end of the series but it was a bit of a letdown in what I was expecting. Furthermore, the falling action only ended up creating more questions than it answered. Either it is a marketing goal to get people to play the game or it was just poor execution. As primarily a viewer and non-gamer, this was a bit disappointing. However, if you can overlook the unanswered questions, this series still presents a unique and interesting storyline, one of the better ones I've seen recently.

Character:
The character development was fairly good for the most part but there were some fairly glaring holes in some of the main characters that definitely lowered the experience.

The main character, Tohru, is your average indecisive, shy guy that happens to meet a female vampire. After mysteriously, almost instinctively, cutting her to shreds, Tohru is later greeted by his victim, apparently alive and well. Tohru can apparently see lines that make it really easy to destroy anything. However, he has a weak physical build and often is anemic. This makes the fights in the later half of the series somewhat unbelievable as Tohru apparently is able to fend off vampires, supposedly much stronger than ordinary humans. His behavior is also often clouded in mystery as the viewer doesn't always get a clear picture of what is going through his head.

Many of the supporting characters are barely if even given any exposition, allowing the viewer to focus on the important characters but also distancing the viewer from the series as a whole. Many mysteries and questions regarding supporting characters go unexplained throughout the entirety of the series.

Value:
To be honest, this series was very enjoyable for me, enough so to induce a chaining spree. However, there were just a few too many holes and inconsistencies for this to fall in the 8+ category. The overall presentation keeps the viewer on edge but the final few episodes leaves a feeling of incompleteness, as if the production was suddenly rushed. However, the presentation up to the final few episodes was delightful.

Okey, the anime is short, therefore I will also be short.
I must quote one person and that is Shiki(Rio version):
"What a disappointing ending..."
I totally agree with him, the anime was very good.
Oh, now I get it the anime main point is to make you play the game,oh how stupid from me, ( I will go DL the game now, lol ^^)
Well then I guess the anime is big success xD
Okey I will give some ratings now:
Animation:
Very good, me like ^^ ch design, eyes everything I like them.
10/10
Sound:
Well i like the OST, but the OP was kinda disappointing
9/10
Story:
lol, the plot rly moved me!!!!
I hope someday I can meet someone like Arcueid.
Ah baka baka what is this imaginary stuff I'm talking ^^
10/10
Character:
Perfect, love story, and other shits!
I rly like the development of the Shiki/Shiki part, and
Arcueid and Shiki I was hoping they can meet up in the end...ah ah:
"What a disappointing ending..."
10/10
Value:
Well I must say I enjoy the anime, but it's too normal so:
9/10
Enjoyment:
very big!
10/01/ :P

So, I just watched this anime cause I happened to download Melty Blood and loved the game, after that I donwloaded Tsukihime's game and loved the story.

Animation: Arcueid looks way too mature when she is supposed to look young and lovely (neko arc anyone?), she looks like 30 or so.. srsly :/. Shiki looked stupid and akiha not young enough. At some scenes the action seemed a bit "censured" (think of: Arcueid "claws" and "slashing"), the action scenes barely had any action, it seemed censured.. dunno if it was intentional.

Sound: Loved the OP and the Ending, the background sound is kind of repetitive and bad placed though but still not bad.

Story: Would've been great, but they didnt adapted the story that well and decided not to mention something very important at the end so everyone goes "zomg! ***** dies!". The story is still great.

Character: Shiki is a complete moron, he is so baddas at the manga and even more at the game for obvious reasons (H game, duh), at the anime he just stands there with his damn poker face and you can barely notice when he is nanaya or what he is thinking. Kohaku, Hisui, Arihiko and Satsuki seemed kind of useless, they were.. just.. there.

Value: If you like romantic stories (sad ones) and zomg vampires! you'll love this anime. Worth watching IMO.

Enjoyment: I really liked it the first time, although I was kind of disapointed. Still, made me QQ a bit.