Twelve Moments in Anime 2007 - #3: Tsukihime Hisui True

The "12 Days of Christmas" series is a joint feature by some members of the Anime Blogging Collective recognizing twelve moments, twelve series, or just twelve things about anime that we've enjoyed over the past year, that really make us enjoy loving what we do, and that is being an anime fan. Feel free to join in the list-making fun too if you wish. We hope you enjoy this feature.

With all the hype I've piled on to the visual novel anime, it's only fitting that the third step on the podium belong to a visual novel itself.

Although, it'd be - unsuprisingly - wrong to call visual novels and visual novel anime similar. One being animated and one being in mostly still form, the two have to take entirely different approaches to grabbing a viewer's heart.

Anime can rely entirely on actions, on visuals, on stunning effects. Visual novels, being of the written form, naturally have to actually use words a lot to paint the picture.

It's different from normal books, as visual novels do get still images, and perhaps more important, mood-setting music, but it's still tough to get the reader right where you want them.

Which is strange, because in visual novels, the author pretty much leads the reader by the hand. It's tough to visualize what the author does not describe, to hear what sounds are not made, to find the details not presented. It's essentially, up to the author to create their world, down to every last detail and foreshadowing. The pictures, here, serve as supplements rather than the main course.

Naturally, visual novels typically have a slower pace as well; you can read at your own speed, pause and put it down anytime, or even go back and read previous scenes. Yeah, the same theory is true for anime, but somehow it seems wrong in a sense to rewind a moving picture, rather than going backwards in a book. There's a sense of broken continuity, to me.

But for some reason, one of the things that has affected me most in my year of anime, and now, anime-likes, has been a visual novel.

Tsukihime's a stellar read all around, and I'd have to put Hisui's True Ending as one of the most powerful moments of it.


12 Moments of Anime 2007
#3 Tsukihime (Visual Novel) - Hisui's True Ending
"So moe a lot of people did die..."

The one thing that surprises me the most about Tsukihime is that I powered through the whole thing without music. I've always said that sound is one of the most important things to me to establishing the feel of an anime - a good soundtrack, a good insert song, can really make a mood.

So, conversely, a lack of sound, not just silence but meaningless silence, should do a lot to detract from it. Yet, somehow, I managed to really be touched by Tsukihime relying solely on text and sporadic CGs.

There are a bunch of reasons I could probably cite for this, most of them irrational. Tsukihime was a visual novel I read in my greenhorn days of anime watching, before Kanon, before almost all of the anime I consider important.

Likewise, Hisui's path was the second one I followed, after Arcueid's action-packed but somewhat less shocking adventures.

In a sense, I was pretty much unprepared for what hit me, for both on a micro and a macro level, I wasn't as experienced and hardened in the realm of Manly Tears. It seems to be a strange thing to say, but when you go into an anime expecting it to be sad girls in stuff, no matter how shocking the outcome, you still have a sense of 'seeing it coming.'

That's not to say that preparing for the worst will do you much good at times - take a look at the progressively growing hatred for an unnamed Boat-related series of the Nice variety - but getting completely blindsided by a shocking story (see Self, My/Your) can usually produce emotions far greater than what the former can do.

Funnily enough, unlike every other anime character in existence who picks up the boxcutter upon being stunned into the ground by the world turning upside down, I am of the type that almost masochistically enjoys inane plot twists, surprise developments, and complete 90-degree turns of story, provided that there's some semblance of foreshadowing.

Funnily enough, my version of 'enjoy' typically doesn't have so much to do with 'enjoying' and more to do with 'being completely slack-jawed'.

That said, I spent a lot of time picking my mouth up off the ground over the course of Tsukihime, which was a few parts epic, a few parts dramatic, a few parts meltingly moe, and a few parts Kinoku Nasu. (This text. This text. This text this text this text this text this text this text. This text is confusing~)

Perhaps this blend is something that also works in the favor of Tsukihime. I consider myself notorious for being unable to stomach raw amounts of anything en masse (raw magical girlitude, raw fanservice, raw drama, so on), and so Tsukihime's flips back and forth between character self-development, character relationship-development, and character conflict.

Occasionally we get all of those mashed together, in what can only be considered a combination of riveting proportions.

The final moments of the Hisui scenario is one of those moments.

It'd probably start at the Roa fight. It's actually a scene where Shiki, the protagonist, is not fighting. Rather, it's the two true Tohnos, Akiha and Roa/Shiki facing off. They exchange some charged monologues, about how this whole thing is how Roa/Shiki is the forgotten brother, while the player's Shiki is an imposter who stole his life, stole his sister, stole everything.

It eventually culminates in one strike on Akiha's essential power source, her maid Kohaku. The first twist is when Akiha steps in front to take the blow, which drives Roa/Shiki insane (remember, they're siblings, and she's what he's been fighting 'for'). He flees the scene temporarily while Player Shiki dashes over and shares in Akiha's dying monologue.

It's a dying monologue of the concluding (rather than plot device) type, do I need to say more?

Eventually everyone comes back to what passes for their senses, and Shiki goes and completely wipes Roa/Shiki, who's by now long-gone crazy.

Ending!

Which is, actually, not just 'and they all (minus the dead people) lived happily ever after', but also a bit of exposition on Kohaku, the tragic mastermind behind the series. More plot revelations, revelations, and shock ensues culminating in Kohaku stabbing herself, her vengeful life 'complete'.

Unfortunately there is no loli-bunny-ears-girl hidden inside her (see yesterday) to save the day, and so we are subject to the death of the second main character in two scenes.

You'd think this would leave the two remaining important people - the couple in this arc, Shiki and Hisui - in quite a wrecked situation, and again, you'd be wrong. Rather, it's sort of a cutting-of-ties from the messy, gritty Tohno life, and all its varied and mildly insane characters.

It's an ending of the bittersweet type, where although a lot of the characters are permanently gone, Hisui, as essentially the remaining tie to the Tohno family at this point, vows to open up and truly live the life that her sister could not live, for her sake.

All these last moments are incredibly powerful, what's impressive about this ending is that it doesn't just focus on the two 'main characters'. Rather, Shiki and Hisui are essentially spectators to the whole moment. A lot of development is focused on the 'side characters' Kohaku and Akiha, and even the 'villain' Roa/Shiki.

They're fleshed out and given suprising amounts of realism. None of them can really be called truly villain nor truly hero; Roa/Shiki acts a lot in revenge and sure comes across as crazy, but he has an almost tragic side to him. Kohaku's whole new levels of gray.

This kind of story with no blacks and whites, only grays, are the most intriguing and touching types. It's more realistic, more thought-provoking.

Tsukihime is a visual novel with a surprising amount of depth that very few six or twelve-hour anime can come up with. The characters, as fantastical and magical as they are, have very distinct personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and are surprising well-rounded out. Perhaps that's the draw of it - not just the action, not just the drama, not just the moe - but the fact that every character can have an appeal, every character touches the heartstrings in their own way.

Maybe it's something about the maids after all.

-CCY

(For research, I cracked open the Tsukihime game again. I had one save file, at the exact moment I was describing.

It still nearly wrecked me. In the best way possible.)

Melty Blood Act Cadenza Sequel Confirmed!

For a while it was up in the air between the previous news (broken in the preview for the Novemeber issue of Japanese magazine Tougeki Damashii) of a possible sequel to the hit 2D fighter and the consequent removal of the title from the preview page, but now it's confirmed:

Hot meido-on-unlucky-osananajimi action is back, baby.



OK, maybe that is a bit of a stretch for the purpose of random innuendo but the fact of the matter does remain that the Tsukihime universe does contain a lot of seemingly-cliche characters that actually are pretty in-depth and have emotional storylines ... which is why we're having them fight to the death. Or something.

I'm sure there's some sort of reason that could be understood if I could read Japanese but the point still remains that Melty Blood remains one of my favorite 2D fighter series if only because it's one that leans more towards the pick-up-and-play end, with only 3 attack buttons and a shield to worry about.

As such 90% of the attacks can actually be pulled off by someone with little experience to the game; the movesets are relatively simple and as always the combo potential is still very complex, which is evidenced by the fact that I get completely wiped whenever I try to play someone over the age of 10.

Still, 2D fighters have always had sort of an appeal since they are one of the "cooler-looking" genres; if you've ever seen some of the special moves in Melty Blood, you know what I mean. (Sacchin's Blood Heat Arc vs. Shiki, or Ciel's Seventh Holy Scripture)

Or, maybe I like this game because it is with established characters, and it is always win to see and hear Hisui & Kohaku being Hisui & Kohaku.

And now, Hisui can actually moe people to death. Almost.

Rant aside, here's what's new in "Actress Again", from what I've read:
- 2 new characters, Riesbyfe Stridberg (she shows up in one of Sion's Arc Drives, the rest is Japanese to me) and Roa (Far Side version)
- New character select art
- Some new "Guard Crash/Crush" system (this is probably why I keep losing)
- More than one playing style per character
- "5 buttons;" whether this includes shield / heat activation buttons, I don't know.
- More Nasu-tastic storylines

Sounds good so far, although a lot of it is lost on a casual player like me. Look forward to more news on this sequel coming to arcades in 2008 (and hopefully to a home release too.)

-CCY
(Thanks to Beast's Lair for the news.)

Series Review: Lunar Legend Tsukihime

Visual novel conversions are quite common in the anime world. It makes sense, a lot of the time; the content's already there, without much need for original work. And the characters typically already pander to the mostly male anime audience; whether it be improbable body shapes, lolicons, or just straight-up moe characters. And there's already a proven audience; the people who bought the original visual novel and are dying to see it in animated form.

But, for those animation studios who decide to make an anime out of a mostly serious or emotional visual novel, it's hell on earth. While playing to the lowest common demographic in more ecchi/lighthearted conversions (like, say, the first halves of Shuffle or D.C.) may be easy, making a visual novel with an actual story "work" is very hard.

Why? It's the simple concept of most visual novels; one guy, many girls. While it's not always as dirty as it sounds, the framework goes as such and as a result there's not one canon storyline to work off of.

There may be a main storyline, one heroine who is placed above the others, but still one obviously cannot ignore the other harem members and their stories entirely. And such resides the complexity of visual novel conversions in that a studio has to work to flesh out and unify the story as much as possible without straying too far from the original work, lest the fans be forced to take up their arms (although that seems to happen about anything, eh?).

And that is why Tsukihime is simply one of those visual novels that Does Not Compute into anime form.

Certainly I appreciate the efforts to make an excellent story into an excellent show, but in the end, Lunar Legend Tsukihime falls far short of the mark...even when you give it credit for trying to make a workable story out of things.

(Spoilers for Tsukihime anime and visual novel post-jump.)

Tsukihime is even more of a twisted story hellhole than most tear-jerker, plot-driven visual novels, in that the events for each character's storyline often overlap and conjoin. While each character in a show like Kanon has an almost completely different secret and story to tell, in Tsukihime lots of characters are connected and linked in ways that make it nearly impossible to tell in a fluent motion.

Shiki cannot simply take his turn with each of the girls, learn their pasts, cry a bit, and then move on before ending up with Arc. There are too many time paradoxes that would have to be worked around if each character was explored in depth.

In some scenarios Nero shows up, in others he doesn't. Sometimes Roa plays an important role, sometimes he's dead before halfway. To learn more about Ciel we'd have to have the fight at the school against her at night; and in her path Arc becomes the end villian, in a sense. If we learn anything important about Kohaku she'll pretty much steal the show. If the character's plot points are combined, essentially the anime loses a strong focus.

And so it's perhaps a bit wrong to criticize the anime so sharply for following Arc's True End and very little of much else. Sure, they could have made it work, but at what price? Sure, Arc's True End is "boring" in comparison to pretty much every other true end, but it's fulfilling and it works very well as a standalone.

But the problem is, the anime tried too hard to not be a standalone. It introduced aspects from other characters' paths: Akiha's red hair. Ciel's immortality. Sacchin moeeeeeeee~ Satsuki's entire story.

And it didn't close these threads. The side storylines are either ended unfulfillingly, or ignored entirely.

We never find out why Ciel didn't die.
We never find out why Akiha's hair is day glow red.
And in the end, Satsuki gets a cop-out of the "oh, I was sick so I didn't get turned into a vampire" regards. This, and all the other aspects, was a plot foreshadowing that never got cast into the light.

The end result is that first-time watchers are confused, and seasoned veterans are annoyed at the lack of elaboration. Even at the ending, it's never explained why Arc appears and dissapears. It looks like she's simply a ghost, appearing to say goodbye one last time, which is true and yet so, so wrong at the same time.

This is one of the major gripes of the Tsukihime fanbase, is that while many aspects of Lunar Legend Tsukihime seem plausible, compared to the actual content it's a drastic alteration.

Arc's running away from Shiki. Her unsmiling face making Shiki take responsibility for killing her. Ciel eating spaghetti. And, infamously, Nero getting wiped in less than three minutes, with not a single on-screen attack landed by Shiki.

Certainly there are explanations that could be made to explain these situations. "It was for dramatic effect." "It was to show Shiki was just that powerful." "It's a minor detail." But, the point is, it's still wrong.

It's not errors you can just wave your hand and make disappear. Part of this may be the fault of the rest of Tsukihime, in that it does, like mentioned, leave almost as much stuff out as it gets wrong. So there's no shining aspect of the story to point to and say "Yeah, but this makes up for it."

The one memorable aspect of the show was the music, and many a good scene make it did. "Justice" (protip: there's a Stepmania file for it) is an epically awesome fight song, and the piano and violin pieces do well to add emotion as well. The choral, instrumental OP is very dramatic (if not a bit abstract) with a feel that matches the anime. But as much as I rant about how good music can make a good series, it can't carry a series as far as a better story could have.

Graphics are a bit of a controversial factor. They look good, yes, but they look like guys. That's the simple argument about the art style. It's very dramatic, and it fits the show's mood very well, but sometimes I think the characters just look strange; for example, Akiha crying in the final episode.

Also, recycled animation is one of my pet peeves, and when I can notice it that's a bad sign. For reference, see Arc and Shiki talking in episode 3, where Arc puts down the same tea cup about 4 times.

Other than that, Tsukihime's biggest enemy is it's visual novel. 50 hours of gameplay sometimes just can't compress into a 12 episode (6 hour) show. There's too many threads to tread to make it a truly great show, and so the anime took a shot at integrating as many as it can, but fell flat a bit by putting a little too much on its plate.

It's tough to review Tsukihime from an objective perspective, but I feel that it could still work as a dramatic, mildly haremesque show that puts a major focus on action and character relationships. In a sense it's like another show with that outlook, sola, in that both are good shows, but there are obvious flaws and errors that will leave first-time viewers confused. The difference is that sola has no other content (yet!) for people like me to distort reviews with.

Tsukihime, from a Tsukihime fan's perspective, is a show that kind of hurts to watch, mainly because you know it's So Much More. It's not as bad as to pretend it doesn't exist (cough), but it's one of those things where I would recommend to skip it and just follow the visual novel instead; or, at least, to watch that anime before the visual novel. The anime takes a nice boat shot at making the visual novel work in a linear fashion, but the sort of alternate-universe telling of the 5 stories of Tsukihime (same events, different story) dooms the show to a sort of mediocrity among visual novel conversions.

-CCY

P.S. Although, perhaps my bias is a lack of knowledge of other sources for visual novel conversions; many of the famous ones (Kanon, D.C., Shuffle, etc) remain unpatched.

P.P.S. Not to contradict the argument of "keep it simple", but I'm really dissapointed that they didn't really manage to fit in any of the Far Side story at all. The maids come off as rather unimportant and side-characterish when they're really the backbone of the story.

Lunar Legend Tsukihime (1-5) through the eyes of a Tsukihime fan

What Tsukihime anime? I thought it didn't exist.

Such is the legendary reputation of the anime Shingetsutan Tsukihime, the incredibly polarizing adaptation of Type-Moon's hit (or at least, quite good) visual novel Tsukihime. The general consensus is, if you're seeing the content for the first time - if the anime is your only experience with Tsukihime - then it's a very good show. But if you've played the visual novel to any degree of completion, you're going to hate it like it's name was Makoto Itou.

(Incidentally, the reason why we don't have a School Days 10 post today is because it would be five pages of ranting about how everybody sucks and that there are no more heroes - except maybe Nanami - and that everybody should die, burn, fire, katto katto katto katto, etc or at the least not have a happy ending. An entertaining post maybe but School Days has it's direction pretty well defined by now, so I don't need to talk much about it.)

And so, having read the Tsukihime visual novel "cover-to-cover", finishing all 5 paths and the epilogue, I embarked on possibly the most masochistic quest yet: watching the Tsukihime anime. It would be a true test to see if I could really, really hate an anime.

Going into it I was vaguely familiar with some of the fan community's bigger gripes about what Lunar Legend Tsukihime got wrong, so I can't say I was completely shocked by the incorrectness of some things, but seeing it in person is always better and more complete than listening to one person flame about it (hopefully in this post I will just be smoldering) - not to mention, there were still a few minor surprises in store in terms of direction taken.

So. Love? Hate? Love? (I don't even watch that anime.) As usual, as much as I'd like to take the arugment to some sort the real answer is somewhere in between in that the anime does a lot of things right - one might say passably - but there are some things that hurt (and not so good, either) to watch.

Spoilers on the Tsukihime visual novel follow. Jump, how high, etc.

Well, my first gripe with the anime is sort of a silly one in that of course, they're following the Arcueid path. I say silly because it makes logistical sense to follow the Arc path, since she's the main heroine and most popular character and all. Not to mention, her story features a lot of action as opposed to paths like Hisui's where Shiki spends somewhere along the lines of 3 chapters in bed paralyzed, spouting cryptic^11 Nasulogues.

But what I'm hoping will happen (which will probably turn into 'hoped') is that Lunar Legend Tsukihime will blend a few of the paths. The issue with this is that it's not like Kanon where all the paths can be combined together smoothly in that they're wholly separate. Tsukihime is a bit more messy as events overlap between paths (Nero, Roa fights prominently) and that characters play largely different roles depending on whose path you take (Ciel and Arcueid: pick one to like you and another to hate you).

But the Far Side and the Near Side paths are somewhat separable and so hopefully we can get a bit of backstory on Akiha and the maids thrown into all this and have it blend well. Because my main gripe with Arc's path is that it's...well..predictable. It's not like Captain Obvious predictable, but it's a fairly straightforward boy-meets-strange-girl and Fighting Together Ensues stuff that can be seen in a lot of anime. Granted, the whole ending and the whole "Nero was actually pretty irrelevant" thing probably threw some people for twists.

Since however Lunar Legend Tsukihime has been so fully lambasted by the community though, somehow I think that won't happen. And speaking of Nero he's become one of my first major gripes of Tsukihime the anime. In the game his conflict was pretty huge and epic and it could have been very well seemed like the Main Conflict for a lot of first timers.

In the anime, he showed up in the end of episode 3 and the mental conversation went sort of like this:
"Huh, Nero fight at episode 3 already? They'll probably begin it and cliffhang it."
"It's still going...? Wait, they hurt Shiki. That's a cliffhanger. OMG Shiki's gonna die and all."
"No!? Why is Nero jumping into the air and...WTF Shiki's doing this evil you're-already-dead smile and...no. Just no. Nero does not go down in 3 minutes in the 3 episode. Especially when we didn't even see Shiki put a scratch on him."

There's really no pretenses that Nero is Someone Important in Lunar Legend Tsukihime. Which would be cool, except, y'know, he liquefied a hotel full of 100 people. And he died in the snap of a finger. My only reasoning would be that this would show just how unbelievably hax Shiki is to kill both Nero and Arc so easily.

So why is he so afraid of Roa then? If they're going to give you this much power Shiki, use it. Don't give me "I wonder if I'm strong enough" rubbish. They don't even hint that it's his Nanaya blood who took over and pwned Nero/Arc - so certainly it would seem that Shiki is aware of his ridiculous power. Hmm.

It would seem that Ciel is being pitched as the antagonist, given her "attack" on Shiki in episode 1 and the tens of times we've seen her standing on a lightpole or at least out-of-the-way watching Arc and Shiki do stuff. But really, they're starting to destroy that when Arc and Ciel confronted in 5, and Ciel said that "their targets are the same."

So essentially Roa is a nameless face at this point. I was expecting them to keep up the Ciel red herring (although it isn't a total lie) a bit longer, but I guess they'll have to get the whole Shiki/SHIKI backstory going soon then.

Ah, what's next on the whine list...Satsuki? I know that she lives and as such her vampire powers probably never existed in this version. Which is strange because there could easily be a reversal - a conversation like "just kidding, I wasn't sick that day, I really did go there and, uh, died or something", since Satsuki's eyes don't change color, I believe, unless she has vampiric impulses anyway.

But in the end Satsuki never plays a strong role in the Far Side. Sad, sad, sad, Sacchin.

And of course the relatively minor issues that have been discussed a million times - Arc running from Shiki (can be argued for dramatic effect), Arc not smiling when she said "I'll make you responsible", Ciel not eating curry 24/7, Ciel throwing a spear, etc; minor complaints, but they do taint one's overall view of the series.

On the good side there have been a few pleasant surprises. Len's dream sequence, which I was expecting to be kind of throwaway, did a good job of showing both sides of Arc; not just the Shiki-liking, friendly side but also the dangerous, blood-lusting side as well.

(On a side note, never ever ever pick Akiha in the corresponding scene in the visual novel, even - or especially - if it's your first time and you don't know it's a dream scene and try to pick the logical choice. The more you know-)

Satsuki has had a decent amount of attention and that's not too bad - it gives me a glimmer of hope that they might expound just even the tiniest bit on her story given that they had the setup for her with the walking home scene and Shiki's emo trip on when she "died." And if not, Sacchin screentime; she can at least play the role of "shy schoolgirl who loses" in the harem for now.

Outside of Tsukihime knowledge, the anime has done a fairly good job at being an anime - there's plenty of loose ends and hints for first-time viewers to pick up on (just like in the visual novel), the graphics are good-looking (even if the character design is ugly, it's ugly done well), and the soundtrack is superb. It's a different type of soundtrack than the purely emotional, tear-inducing ones like AIR's, but the high-tension and dramatic music of Lunar Legend Tsukihime has a place of it's own (even in my Stepmania folder).

I'm not sure on the pacing, considering it's been months since I played the VN, but outside of the Nero fight (might have been forced early) the anime seems to have a good pace, or as good as it'll get for a 12 episode anime.

I'd probably have almost nothing but praise for something like this if I didn't play the visual novel, and even having done so I don't entirely hate it yet, as most of the wrongdoings can be somewhat overlooked. I have a feeling though that the contempt towards Shingetsutan Tsukihime is based off of not what it does wrong, but what it doesn't do at all...

-CCY
(Tangentially related: I'm first in line for "tsukihime hanepin" in Google. Man, there is no English Hanepin love. Will have to search in Japanese.)

Visual Novel Review: Kagetsu Tohya

Kagetsu Tohya is a visual novel by Type-Moon. It essentially is the "sequel", in all intention, to its popular predecessor Tsukihime, one of the most gripping and emotional stories I've seen this side of, well, actual books. (Which I admit I do lack in.)

This, as has been addressed and joked about in my two earlier posts about KT, should be all you really need to read in this post, because either you will be:
1) Completely lost and ignore this post
2) Proudly crossing this game off your Completed Type-Moon Works list
3) Dashing to get your hands on the patch.

To be honest Kagetsu Tohya isn't one of those things where you can simply go "Heh, CCY's raving about it, let's go play it," because while the story is for all purposes separate from that of Tsukihime's, both some of the minor aspects and many of the in-jokes will fly far, far over your head if you have not played the original. There's a reason it's called the Tsukihime Fun Disc, and not Tsukihime II.

So if you don't know who Ciel-sensei is (or if you answer Ciel), why Sacchin is sad, or why Hisui is so moe you're going to die I would highly suggest you play Tsukihime first. The patch can be
found over at Mirror Moon.

That advice applies even if you've watched the anime and think you have a grasp on what Tsukihime is, because to be honest...you don't. There's four full paths you're missing out on. And they're all the good ones.

That said, if you're bored and curious what exactly Kagetsu Tohya has to offer - perhaps, if you need a reason to get into Tsukihime, or if you still live in the land of the 56K modem, or maybe if you just want to hear me rant about Sacchin - then read on. Spoilers will be kept to a minimum.

The protagonist of Kagetsu Tohya, Shiki Tohno, is an almost ordinary high school student with an eerie power to see points/lines of death (which if cut, are basically instakills, dot period) and uncannily good reflexes that surprise even himself. He gets to know a bunch of equally mysterious people, including a man/demon/animal hybrid, an awfully friendly, naive, and powerful vampire, and a unkillable killer; not to mention the many mysteries that surround the seemingly typical tsundere sister and twin maids that inhabit his household.

But all that's what takes place in Tsukihime; in Kagetsu Tohya, Shiki finds himself in the awkward position of being run over by a truck from scene one, which places him in a Groundhog Day-type loop of repeating a single day over and over, beginning each day as a clean slate and searching for a way out.

This is not to say Kagetsu Tohya is a short game by any sense of the word, as the main core of the game took me about 80 repetitions of the same day to complete. And it's not like the repetitions were...well...repetitive much either. With each phase of the day - morning, midday, afternoon, and night, loosely - offering a wealth of different choices, there's plenty of content to be found, not even taking into account options that appear, dissapear, and change later in the story.

For example, the first choice Shiki encounters (after a lengthy monologue, I might add) is whether to go to school or stay at the mansion on that particular day. If the latter is chosen, we get another lengthy scene before we are presented with no less than eight choices on what to do in the morning. Pick one of them and you'll have another six selections to choose from.

And then it'll be lunchtime. The day's not half over, as anyone who knows Tsukihime knows that all the fun stuff goes on at night.


And by fun stuff I mean plot stuff, in any case. Kagetsu Tohya takes on much of a lighter feel than Tsukihime, as being a game with less of an urge to complete things, since the day repeats over and over, there are lots of entertaining things to do on the side. This goes for pretty much anyone's definition of entertaining things; whether it be physical comedy, awkward groping scenes (please, no), self-reference, character interaction (take your pick), or maybe just a bit of relaxing and contemplating the infinite, Kagetsu Tohya is highly quotable and will probably have a little something to make you smile.


Not that it's not a serious game. While it's not Tsukihime, and it doesn't have the power to make you shed tears, it will touch you, perhaps send you off on a little brainstorm monologue of your own. It's more of a deep-thinking game than a crying game; Shiki's (and others') strangely serious and realistic monologues will make you think and compare it to your own situation, and it's really a good contemplating piece. You're not going to be deriving a lot of hidden meaning from this work (most of it's pretty straight forward), but it does allow for a sort of emotional connection.

If you are a lolipedofin you will be at home with this game as the character that Kagetsu Tohya revolves around the most (other than you as Shiki) is the loli and/or furry Len, a human with strangely cat-like characteristics. There isn't a lot of moments that will make you feel dirty as Shiki is a nice pure guy and often regards Len as a family member more than an object to lust after, but it does get a bit messy at points; and as such the game comes includes with an option to skip sexual content completely and automatically.


This option may not be as safe as Mirror Moon's option to completely obliterate H-scenes in Tsukihime on install, but what this means is that you can jump in and out of H-content if, say, the maids are more your flavor than the loli.


In which case you are a sick, sick person for thinking of violating Hisui. (Hint: The picture depicts how she can be 110% awesome while still clothed.)

In any case, Kagetsu Tohya delivers content in spades even outside of the huge main storyline, with ten unlockable sidestories titled the "Ten Nights of Dream". These stories are stand-alone and range from the serious, back-story-filling-in ones to the side-splitting, self-referential stories that will leave you on the floor rolling. Or maybe shedding a tear for sad Sacchin. Again.


And these side-stories are quite long. I was intending to tear through them in a day, but at what is gauged to be about a half-hour read for each of them alone, that's five hours of content, not pausing for food or sanity breaks.

As such I cannot give a 100% review of KT as there is undoubtedly some extra content lying in the crevices somewhere, including an easter egg left apparently by the translation team which looks to be interesting (once I finish the side stories, again). In case you have not found it, what they say is that "It's where the FUN lies."


There are also cute little messages you recieve on game startup, and on every return to the main menu (i.e. finishing a day, Ten Nights story, etc) you can probably get a different one. There are even special ones for special days (for special sad characters~) so a completionist will go mad trying to see each little humorous variation.


Oh yeah, and there's a sizeable fanart gallery as well in addition to the usual CG viewing area.

Kagetsu Tohya in short is a very content-filled visual novel and quite replayable after "completion" compared to other ones, despite the lack of separate "paths." The story is decently in-depth and it will take you a bit to complete it (just in case, Ciel-sensei is there to help as well!), not to mention power through all the random and/or silly choices (please, ignore the fact that raiding the closet of a contract killer is a Very Stupid Thing, because it's one of those things where Hilarity Ensues. No, really.) to get all the flavor text.


It's a must-play (read) for any Tsukihime fan. For those who have not been introduced to the Tsukihime universe previously it's highly reccommended that that be done first, both on the merits of the original and to ensure 100% understanding of all the funnies that the visual novel makes in reference to the plot of Tsukihime.

All in all, a good balance of humor and plot, especially since you can have your pick in a sense which is your flavor.

-CCY

(Final note: Hanepin should have happened to Tsukihime a lot earlier.)

A happy day out of the year for Sacchin

Following on the heels of my praises of Hisui and Sacchin in the other post, Kagetsu Tohya (the visual novel sequel to Tsukihime that I've raved about before) is telling me that it's Satsuki Yumizuka's birthday today.

As silly as it is to celebrate the fictional birthday of a fictional character (which would explain why my post is the first one for it as far as I can find), I'm an anime blogger who has lost all sense of shame over the summer and as such it's time to have a day where maybe it won't be so sad for Sacchin.

(Now if only that wasn't one of her two-odd appearances in KT...)

Pictures, character ranting, blatant fanboying, etc after the jump. Spoilers on her character from the Tsukihime visual novel, if that worries you.

The Tsukihime fanbase has always been a tough one to get a read on; unlike other series where clear fan favorites have been established, it's difficult for white me to say just how popular or unpopular a character like Satsuki is.

While it's true that the catchphrase "Isn't it sad, Sacchin" was borne out of, I believe, a CCC doujin page discussing how Satsuki came in last place in the popularity poll, it certainly feels like, at least in the English-speaking Type-Moon community, that Satsuki has quite a following, at least more so than the likes of, say, other main heroines, like Ciel or Kohaku.

I'm pretty sure Arc is up there because she's the Main Character. Akiha's a tsundere, and an imouto. Hisui's a shy/quiet girl (and a maid, I suppose) and adorable to the eleventh power. So while I don't expect Sacchin to be the unloved character of the Tsukihime universe like her reputation is, she's not going to be a chart-topper at any rate.

But, topic-wise, some of the less Sacchin-devoted may ask, why Satsuki? (and why do you keep changing back and forth between the two names?)

I think the first reason that a lot of people like Satsuki is, well, what has come to be known in the business as the Nayuki Factor. Characters that have high potential in this factor are usually the ones that well, don't win, to put it that way. These characters get the shaft in one or multiple ways, whether it be simply getting ignored by the main character or all the way up to, in poor Sacchin's case, turning into a vampire and dying. In a sense, a lot of these characters are Red Shirts in that they are sort of expendable, and not the main focus of the series.

Those of us who like to root for the underdog will find all sorts of things to like in the Nayuki-Class as a result; that urge to see the infamous Nayuki Ending, or Satsuki Path, really drives a fanbase, to the point to where it almost becomes ridiculous (I know the fabled Satsuki Path has been mocked once or twice by Type-Moon in their works).

So, perhaps if Satsuki did have an arc in Tsukihime, she wouldn't have had as much love as she does now. But, as just mentioned, there are plenty of things to find to like about Sacchin.

She's pretty much The Normal One of Tsukihime, something that no other main heroine in Tsukihime can attest to; although she does get vampireized, it's not a condition that exists in the start of the visual novel, as opposed to everyone else, who is just hiding secrets from you. Sacchin is closer to a, I suppose, more typical and pure visual novel girl, the kind that fell in love with the main character X years ago and just now is trying to really capture him.

Except in Tsukihime, everyone is somewhat of a three-dimesional character, and so Satsuki made a few wrong moves and ended in up the perilous situation of being a vampire, leading to the famous confrontation between her and Shiki which brings new meaning to his promise to "always protect her" - which in this case, means killing her to end her suffering.

And yeah, there's nothing you can do about it. It's really sad, Sacchin.

Somehow it seems that the more tears a visual novel character can induce in their arc, the more love they get; maybe this is part of that whole "moe = want to protect" thing (which is probably completely wrong on my part), but definitely I am a fan of characters like Satsuki, and Hisui, whose whole story - especially the ending - just brings a new meaning to ";_;".

In conlcusion, yay for Sacchin, the underdog character of Tsukihime who will probably never get a true closure apart from death; but she lives on in non-canon stories (truth: her Blood Arc in Melty Blood, especially versus a Shiki, is one of the best moves in the game to watch) and in the fanbase.

If you're looking for those pictures of Satsuki, I'm sorry to do this to you but I've put it into a zip file and uploaded it to Rapidshare; 25 images is a pain in the butt to upload one-by-one, so download them all at once and pick out the ones you like. There's a lot of good artwork in here.

Yay, Sacchin! Fight!

-CCY

The Kagetsu Tohya Initiative: Day 2

Again another raving post about the visual novel sequel-like-substance to Tsukihime, named Kagetsu Tohya. In case you completely missing the rabid fanboying yesterday KT is a sort of Groundhog-Day like game in which the protagonist Shiki Tohno repeats the same day...over...and...over. But unlike other visual novels where the only choice reads something like

"1) Have sex with her.
2) Have sex with her up the butt."

Kagetsu Tohya features a somewhat ridiculous amount of content for just 'one day', in that I've been through the day 20 times and found something new every time. The game's in-game help system also tells me that I'm about only a third of the way through.

Of course, this doesn't count the ten side stories.

I think it's spelled out quite well that, from the 'wake-up' choice of 2 paths, the second path leads to a choice of 8 choices for the morning, and if you pick the right one you get to pick from another 6 options. All this before lunch, where you are treated to another set of 6. It's freaking huge.

Today's post deals with some of the lighter side of Kagetsu Tohya. Since it does have so many paths to go down, a good deal of them are allowed to have more amusing content, whether it be funny, fanservicey, or just plain ridiculous. As such after the jump you will be treated to a selection of the "first third of the game's" most amusing scenes. Hopefully you will be intrigued to find out more afterwards.


"Ciel-senpai equates to curry, and curry equates to Ciel-senpai. No...no curry means no Senpai!"
Ciel plus curry has always been one of the most amusing and trademarkable things about Tsukihime, and as such Shiki is in for more curry-related shocks every time his poor master the user decides to force him down another Ciel-related option.

"Before that, Tohno-kun, I have a request."
"Ah? What is it?"
"Lend me some money. I didn't bring much today."
My bad feelings realized in an instant. But, well, if it can satisfy her, then it might be worth it.
"Mmm, okay, how much would you like?"
"Everything you have."
"Pfft!"
Ah, nose came out of my wat...no, water came out of my nose.
The above picture and quote is from a lunch date with Ciel at an Indian restaurant, which has to be up there on the list of stupidest (logically) things to do in Kagetsu Tohya, yet also one of the funnier options.

Making up much of the other suicidal options are random barges into the houses of other girls. Three times Shiki has barged into Akiha's room foolishly, and three times he has met a bad (yet strangely funny) end at the hands of Magical Amber, the strangely familiar-looking maid magical girl, as detailed...
"You look happy, Kohaku-san (look-alive)."
I sigh as I say it.

"Yes! This is my only role this time! I'm already sick of it!"
Kohaku-san puffs up her chest.
Really...her face isn't smiling radiantly, but radioactively.

"But please, don't be sad. I'm only a girl of the shadow. I'm happy I got treated like a heroine in the main storyline. So now I'm back to my roots to annoy you to your heart's content! I didn't even get in the top three at the popularity poll."

"---"
Uuuu...this is a tearful story.

Although, perhaps a scarier role than that is here:

I do think that is the first and last time in the history of mankind you will see a blushing and shocked Kohaku; or at least the first and last time you will see it and escape alive.

"Were you perhaps...watching?
"Yes! From the beginning to the end!"
She might as well have added a heart to the end of the sentence to fully reflect her energetic happiness.

A more normal (i.e. insane) Kohaku is on hand in many other sequences to provide great color commentary, usually on random moe^11 scenes with Hisui, but also in many other cases.

"I finally have a person in the mansion who condones my gaming! Shiki-kun GET!"

Even her 'counterpart' Magical Amber, who enlists Shiki in one of the most dangerous (and difficult) in-game quizzes this side of...that side, has a share in the fun:
The third question is a math question.

Shiki-san and Akira-chan went to Ahnenerbe. Shiki-san has 1000 yen and eats 3 cookies for 200 yen each, and Akira-chan has 10000 yen and buys 3 books for 700 yen each and 2 books for 1100 yen each and a 3000 yen book inside a display case.

Then, how many pieces of the pie did Shiki eat?

And one wonders why it took me about 20 tries before giving up and cheating through the quiz.

Shiki himself is also very quotable, if only for his wit and rehashes of the famous "This Chair" line:

"? Shiki, you look a little weird."
"That's your fault. Bare legs..."
"Bear legs? What's that? It's the first time I've heard of it."
Bare legs, you dolt!
Bare legs...
Bare legs...
BARELEGSBARELEGSBARELEGSBARELEGS!!!!

or...

One by one salmon-studden ham surround the black cat.
The black cat turns its back on the ham.
But, still, more ham!
Then I'll change my trajectory...and...HAM!
Ham, ham, ham, ham... HAMHAMHAMHAM!!!

"Ah...it...fainted..."

Or maybe his commentary on yet another epic battle between Ciel and Akiha...

Akiha grinds her teeth. Kugugugugu... The tremors reach a new level of intensity.

It would be a grand sight if there were a really big noise in the back ground and a picture of a tiger and a dragon would pop up.


And in a pinch, Hisui's always the go-to character for melting people into little gooey puddles of adorability:

"Shiki-sama, when that time comes, please take me with you. I can't do much, but I'll try my best to support you.

I'm sorry, I know you want to live by yourself, but whatever you say, I need you."

"..."

The knife in my hand slips.
How did this happen...
The comment before and this... Today, Hisui's so...
"...Hisui..."
I grab her hands, and we wordlessly look at each other.
So...what's going on...
She blushes...it's almost a crime to be that cute.
"Shiki...sama..."
Our breaths overlap.
We hold each other's hands and slowly...

-CCY
What, did you want me to keep going?

Kagetsu Tohya: Tsukihime Part Deux

Kagetsu Tohya is the essential sequel-ish thing to popular Type-Moon visual novel Tsukihime, and the English patch was just released for it recently. Here's a download link.

Well, that's all I need to write, as you have already stopped reading because 1) you don't care or 2) you have just dashed off at light speed to download that patch and get your Hisui moe fix on again.

But in all seriousness, if you're not familiar with the Tsukihime universe, the original visual novel was a doujin work that achieved quite a large fanbase. It dealt with a high school student named Shiki Tohno, who had a mysterious power which allows him to see the 'death lines/points' on things (forgive me for inaccuracies, it's been half a year), and his encounters with many strange personalities, such as the friendly vampire with a strange past, the unkillable contract killer, the twin maids that are twin maids and very moe (but also have very deep stories), and a tsundere sister (with a deep story).

Oh, and Satsuki, aka Isn't It Sad Sacchin. Wai for Sacchin~


Tsukihime is quite a novel grounded in fantasy, as there are large magical aspects to it, whether dealing with vampires, man/beast combinations, fantasy weapons, or, for those familiar with Fate/Stay Night, 'mana transfer'.

It's ero in nature, as most visual novels back then, but there's not a huge focus on it - the English patch has an included option to disable all ero scenes. Instead, Tsukihime can be related to Kanon-type stories, in that they have quite moe characters, and are, in the end, tearjerkers.

Tsukihime differs from Kanon, largely, though, because it is a bit gory, there are huge conflicts (there is technically a Big Bad), and the main character has quite some issues himself (not of the bad kind, to the audience). Still, if you like gripping stories and have a week to burn, give Tsukihime a shot. I don't think you'll regret it.

As for Kagetsu Tohya, more info about that after the jump. The explanation will assume you have a familiarity with Tsukihime.

I'm only very little in KT, but I believe I have enough of a grasp to talk about it, especially since I've read summaries of the plot before.

KT, which comes a year after Tsukihime, appears to follow something most similar to Arcueid's Good Ending, where all characters remain intact, but in visual novel fashion, there is no one girl that Shiki is ultimately committed too. Shiki is placed in a very Groundhog Day situation after - presumably - getting pwned by a truck. He repeats one day over and over, always trying to remember something he forgot - yesterday. To say any more would be spoilerish.

Even though the whole game does essentially consist of doing the same game over and over, this doesn't mean it's low on content. The day has seemingly endless possibility. One path for a day results in 8 choices for the 'morning' period and 6 in the 'afternoon' period. That's a lot. And even if presumably the end of the story is reached a few days of gameplay down the line, there are still 10 entertaining side stories to read, of which I know very little to be honest.

KT seems to be a bit more light-hearted than Tsukihime, at least in the early stages, although some of the comedy stems from the odd seriousness of the characters in some situations. Among other things in my 11 Game Days of gameplay, Shiki has:
- Witnessed an Epic Faceoff between Ciel and Akiha
- Witnessed an Epic Faceoff (II: Electric Boogaloo) between Ciel and Arcueid
- Gotten juiced injected to death by Magical Amber (yes, THAT Magical Amber). Twice.
- Run foolhardishly into fanservicey situations with Akiha and the maids at least twice.
- Experienced the epic moe-ness of Cooking With Hisui.
- Gamed with Kohaku!
- Invented the "this chair" meme, part deux.
- Gone on a panty raid in Ciel's apartment. (Hint: bad idea. BAD idea. But very quotable.)
- Gotten a CG event with Arihiko. Yeah, CG, with a guy. It's awesome like that.
- And in plot matters, fell into the hell-like End of the World, stabbed and/or got stabbed by "Shiki Nanaya", and saw Len a bunch of times.

The focus of KT appears to be on Ren, the loli-like quiet...thing...that played a bit role in Tsukihime by giving Shiki wet dreams. I think her focus may be a bit different this time around, but who am I to tell? KT looks to deliver in both amusement and plot, so if you liked Tsukihime, you'll probably love Kagetsu Tohya as well.

Only problem...doesn't appear to be any Satsuki?! (Which makes sense with the canon storyline, I suppose, but, c'mon...)

-CCY