Another post, another crazy marathon of some kind. This time, it was Tsukihime, the popular series by Type-Moon. The schedule this time was as follows:
May 6 – Tsukihime – Arcueid
May 7 – Tsukihime – Arcueid
May 10 – Tsukihime – Ciel
May 11 – Tsukihime – Akiha
May 13 – Tsukihime – Hisui/Kohaku/Eclipse/Gag
May 14 – Tsukihime PLUS+DISC
May 15 – Kagetsu Tohya + FoT/ASftE
May 16 – Kagetsu Tohya + CM/NcSOS/Dawn/GlCs
May 17 – Kagetsu Tohya + TTFCG/HcII/RDG/Imo + SF + DDM
May 18 – Melty Blood (one story route + Shiki T Arcade), Melty Blood Re-ACT Final Tuned Story Mode + Arcade (Shiki T)
May 19 – Melty Blood Re-ACT Arcade (Len, Arcueid, Sacchin, Shiki N)
May 24 – Melty Blood Re-ACT Arcade (Hisui/Kohaku, Sion-N, Ciel, Akiha-N, Miyako, M-HISUI, Chaos, Walachia, R.Arcueid, Akiha-V, Sion-V, Kohaku, Hisui), Melty Blood Act Cadenza ver.B Arcade (Shiki T, Aoko, Miyako, Satsuki, Neko Arc, Kouma, Arcueid, Ciel)
May 25 – Melty Blood Act Cadenza Arcade (N.A.Chaos, Sion, Len, Hisui/Kohaku, Akiha, Chaos, Walachia, Shiki N, M-HISUI, R.Arcuied, Akiha-V, W.Len, Sion-V, Kohaku, Hisui, N.A.Chaos (Alt))
May 26 – Tsukihime anime
Three weeks on and off of Tsukihime content. I’d have loved to marathon it straight from beginning to end, but a lot of crap came up, so I didn’t really have the opportunity. Let’s get to my thoughts, shall we?
So I started, as everyone should, with the original VN. Then I moved on to the two “sequel” fan discs, Tsukihime PLUS+DISC and Kagetsu Tohya. After that, I went on to the Melty Blood series. Lastly, I went into taboo territory and watched the anime. Actually, I bought it. It was $12 for the whole series from Right Stuf’s bargain bin, so I casually threw it into an order I was making.
Tsukihime – The original VN and the start of it all. This VN contains content totally not suitable for minors. Lots of sex. Five full sex scenes at the end of each heroine’s route, a dream sex scene with five different outcomes in two routes, a near-rape scene in one of these two that can be extended into a full rape scene with the wrong choice, a short sex scene in one of the other routes with the possibility of extension by choice to a semi-rape scene, and a few other random nude/post-sex CGs that happen to be around. In total, there are 66 inappropriate CGs. But it’s totally not an eroge. Promise. It’s really an amazing story with excellent characters and plenty of action, romance, and comedy. It’s really got everything you could possibly ask for. The sex is more of a side thing (*cough*selling point*cough*). Wholeheartedly recommended for anyone who likes visual novels or even for those looking to break into them. This one’s nearly a decade old, so it’s definitely a good starting point before trying newer ones. That said, it also hasn’t really suffered for its age. Great stuff.
Tsukihime PLUS+DISC – A short story that takes place a few months after the end of Tsukihime following one of the Near-Side routes (as far as I remember). It also contains two joke stories, one of which touches on poor Sacchin’s non-existent route and shows a few concept sketches and backgrounds that were planned to be used. Contains one sex concept sketch, so even this one couldn’t escape eroge territory.
Kagetsu Tohya – A short story that is practically a sequel in and of itself. Consider it Tsukihime 1.5. Takes place long after Tsukihime and incorporates a bit of the PLUS+DISC story to some degree. This one focuses on repeating a day over and over again with different choices to create different outcomes. Doing so progresses the story and also unlocks up to ten different side stories. Some of these side stories act as prequels and others act as sequels to certain routes, though none of them have been confirmed canon. I like to think they are because Akiha’s side story lets me stomach the ending it’s based off of. Contains 18 sex images, 9 from the main story and 9 from one of the side stories. Again, even this couldn’t escape eroge territory. I guess that’s Type-Moon’s forte, though. Wholeheartedly recommended for anyone who’s read Tsukihime. Definitely check this one out.
Melty Blood – The first game in the series. Not very good, if you want my honest opinion. I felt like it was too sluggish. The Story Mode is a VN-style branching path story that takes place… probably around the same time that Kagetsu Tohya does. It’s not really clearly explained. They both happen in the summer after Tsukihime, IIRC. Anyway, I actually recommend not bothering with it because…
Melty Blood Re-ACT – …this game has the same Story Mode ported over and plays a lot better. Go with this one instead, and then after Story Mode, go through Arcade Mode. Arcade Mode takes place after the original Melty Blood and Kagetsu Tohya. This game definitely shows me why Melty Blood has such a good reputation. It’s a lot of fun. I suck at fighting games, though, so I never really got good at it. Highly recommended.
Melty Blood Act Cadenza – This one takes place all over the timeline. There’s only an Arcade Mode this time and some routes take place before Tsukihime even started (like Arcueid’s or Ciel’s) while some take place after the previous game (like W.Len’s) and some are just alternate reality/bad end type deals. Several routes were lifted directly from Re-ACT’s arcade mode (Sion-V, Hisui) but some of them are the same but have new ending CGs at least (Kohaku). Worth playing if only to further the story a bit and get a better understanding of a few events. Arcueid’s ending in particular was pretty interesting, I thought. So far, this is the furthest game in the series to be translated. The most recent one, Actress Again, doesn’t have a PC port, so it hasn’t been translated. Maybe in due time.
Tsukihime (anime) – Yes, yes, I know, it doesn’t exist. Everyone says it. Honestly, though, I didn’t find it to be unwatchable by any means. It’s a terrible adaptation, as all VN-based anime series usually are, primarily because it tries to squeeze too many routes into a single story. They even tried to squish Roa and SHIKI into a single character, both visually and personality-wise. It sorta worked, but not really. I think they tried too hard to work Far-Side routes in. Also, while they kinda botched the ending (turning Arcueid’s True Ending into more of a dream ending), I have to give them credit for throwing the Eclipse chapter in there, too. All in all, I’d rate it at about a 6/10. The music kinda sucked and they messed some stuff up, but some scenes looked absolutely amazing animated. I can see why it would get a “doesn’t exist” status, but I’d say that if you’ve read the entire VN, the anime makes for some decent supplemental material. It’s fun to watch some stuff animated. Kinda the same way I feel about the Higurashi anime, only not executed nearly as well.
Anyway, that’s it for Tsukihime content. I also ordered all six volumes of Dr Master’s official English release of the manga, but they’re all backordered, so I haven’t gotten them yet. I may make an addendum to this post once I get them.
Next on the list is the Kara no Kyoukai series of movies (since the novels are probably never going to get translated at this rate, officially or otherwise) and I plan to marathon those tomorrow. I’m going to start the Fate/stay night VN after that and I’ll probably be putting in an order for the complete TV series tonight, so I’ll watch that afterward. Dunno if I’ll make a post since it’ll be a less impressive marathon than this was and that’s really the only reason I made one for it. After that, I’ll be out of Type-Moon stuff in English. Higurashi’s 7th arc was announced for release on May 31st, so I’m going to try to play through FSN while I wait a week or two on patches. That’ll be after my Type-Moon stuff. After that, no telling what I’m gonna do.
Tags: anime, marathon, tsukihime, type-moon, Visual Novel
The Blue Truth 