Anime Review - Tsukihime

Thus far, the three shows in the Type-Moon universe with Nasu first that I've covered, Fate Stay Night, Fate Zero, and Unlimited Blade Works have been two core shows, or four being a chunk of 12 to 13 episodes, with each series spending about 24 or 25 episodes to tell their story. In the case of Fate Stay Night and Unlimited Blade Works, they each adapted one route from the Fate game, with the former title dropping in a few elements of Unlimited Blade Works to give the writer a little more screen time. However, Fate was not Type-Moon's first game. Before this came Tsukihime, which set up some elements that came up later in Fate Stay Night and Fate Zero, and it too received an anime adaptation, one that came out prior to the release of Fate Stay Night, and with only a single core, only 12 episodes long. So the question then becomes, how well can a series adapting an entire visual novel of equal or greater scope than Fate Stay Night tell its story half the length? The answer is, not well. The show follows Shiki Tono, a young man who was nearly killed in a The accident damaged his memory, and left him with the ability to see lines on which things will break when they die or are destroyed, and with it the nexuses that can be struck or cut to cause things to break. Anything. Chairs, people, what have you. To avoid being driven mad by these lines, he received special magic glasses from a mage that will repress this ability. Also following this accident, Shiki had moved in with his aunt and uncle instead of living at the main house of his rather wealthy family. Immediately prior to the start of this series, Shiki's father died, and his younger sister and the current head of the family, Akihika, or Akiha, has had him move back to the main house. Settling into the pace of life at the main house and what all that entails, he ends up discovering that families as old as his have some deep, dark secrets. Further, while all of this is going on, a vampire, or someone like a vampire called a Dead Apostle, is attacking people through the town, and Shiki ends up joining forces with an attractive, female, semi-vampire named Arkuid, or Ark for short, to find the vampire committing his attacks. So that sounds super cluttered, because it is. The game that shows adapting has not three routes, like Fate, but five. Three for the Tono household, Akiha, and one for each of the family's two maids, and then there's two more for Ark and Shiki's classmate Ciel. The household and external routes interact some, but not entirely, with Ark not showing up in some routes entirely. The show takes the decision to mash together most of these routes into one narrative thrust. So, the important story and mysteries get covered, Ark's hunt for the vampire, Shiki's investigation of the history of his family, all of that gets covered. But, while this leads to most of the loose ends getting tied up, because the show only has twelve episodes to tell its story, and nothing is tied up satisfactorily, this also hurts characterization, which is curtailed, meaning a lot of characters don't get the development they need to be fleshed out for the audience. And this is even keeping in mind that there are some characters in the game itself whose plot threads are just dropped. This gets more of an issue with the characters whose plot threads get real, full development in the game. Narratively, this turns the story into forty pounds of plot stuffed into a ten-pound bag. Most of it's going to spill out, and the odds are pretty good that no matter what part you wanted in the bag, some of that's going to get lost. Further, while I can't speak for the games, it's never officially received an English translation, the need to focus so strongly on the story also strips any humor out of the show, even the most dark and dour of the Fate series, Fate Zero, had some very, very funny moments. Here, moments of levity are few and far between. To the show's credit, the other Fate series kind of glanced over any sense of sex or sexuality related to the characters and their relationships. Here, while we don't get any sort of actively involved sex scene, the romantic relationship we see in the show doesn't feel like it has to keep being chased, which is something that even fanservice-heavy romantic comedy series like To Love Rue, which are very techy and boobs and butts all over the place, feel they have to do. You can have nudity and people retalking about it and reacting to it, but you can't have people actually contemplating sex, God forbid. There are rumors that the visual novel the show is based on is due for a remake with some updated graphics in the next round. Watching the show, I feel that the anime merits from a remake more. Hype Moon's universe has established itself considerably more as a successful franchise in the years since this show was released, where this show practically predated Fate Stay Night, not just like the anime but like the actual game itself. So hopefully a new series would get the runtime it needs to tell the story well, as well as slipping little bits of nods into later games and works in the process as well. Or at the very least, out of the knowledge of the game and what routes are popular and what characters are beloved, to select a route or family of routes and put the narrative focus there, instead of trying to be all things for all people and failing at all of it. Now, as of this recording, Tsukihime had been licensed by ADB Films, and is still being distributed by Sentai Filmworks, and had received a DVD release, but currently nobody is streaming this series. Which, to be honest, is the way I'd recommend watching it, because plucking down a bunch of money for a show that is, at its strongest, solidly mediocre, and at its worst, kind of a mess, is not something I would recommend. Unless you, like, found a copy of this at a used DVD shop, pawn shop, whatever, or used on Amazon for, like, 10, 12 bucks. That's the most I'd recommend paying for this. Thank you very much for watching. If you enjoyed the show, please like and subscribe, and also consider backing my Patreon. Patreon backers get episodes up to one week early of this show and any future Let's Plays. Also, please consider backing my Ko-fi. Tossing me a few bucks also helps support the show, and it's not a monthly obligation or anything like that.