Otakuism

Story:

Tohno Shiki is a normal highschooler with an amazing ability: the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, allowing him to ‘kill’ anything, even inanimate objects. He gained this ability eight years ago in an accident that has left him with chronically poor health, causing him to have lived with his relatives ever since. Now, eight years later, he gets the call that his father is dead and to return to his true home where his sister Akiha lives. But before that can happen, he meets a beautiful woman all in white and kills her for no reason what so ever. Good thing she’s a vampire and doesn’t die when she is killed. As Arcueid says, Shiki is forced to take responsibility for killing her and is drawn into the battle between the Princess of the True Ancestors and the vampire serial killer stalking the night. The manga follows the Arcueid route of the game, with random scenes from others, like talking to Ciel while mending the fence and the Tohno family welcome home party. V.1-3 go from the beginning all the way through killing Nero and Shiki joining Arcueid to hunt the Dead.

Art:

The artwork is pretty good, matching well with Takeuchi’s original designs and certainly better than the anime’s look. Arcueid looks cute and happy-go-lucky but can switch to homocidal at any moment. Ciel and Akiha are both great, with certain panels taken straight out of the game. The fight scenes are dynamic and fast-paced and usually fit the image I have in my head from the game. The art for Nero’s beasts was perfect with all of them, from tigers, lions, bears, sharks, and even mystical beasts, looking incredibly powerful and detailed. The printing quality only suffers in the first volume, with low paper quality and weak binding, but the other volumes are better and fit the usual standard. The translation seems good to me based on the game. There’s even some lines taken directly from the game, which was a treat to pick out.

Impressions:

Tsukihime is an excellent adaption of the game and anybody who’s played it will feel right at home in reading the manga. This may be its problem, though. Unless your familiar with the game some parts and explanations are probably confusing, and the appearance of Ren, Miyako, Nanako, and Hanepin on some title pages probably doesn’t help. Some people would say that the manga goes to slow, but that’s how the game was too. Nothing really starts rolling till Shiki meets Roa and Ciel reveals her identity. The release schedule could be faster, though. I have no problem with the manga following the Arcueid route. In fact, I’m starting to like her more because of it. The manga really brings across how happy and child-like Arcueid really is. Certainly, I would like a Far Side of the Moon adaption, but that’s not going to happen. Though, the manga seems to be setting up Roa to be more SHIKI instead of Roa. It’s also shown Akiha’s powers, so I don’t know how composite it will get. Satsuki is kind of the wild-card, still being alive after Shiki parts with her, so I don’t know if she’ll just disappear into the background or still become a vampire. If only Sacchin could have a happy ending here. Overall, I’m happy with this particular adaption of Tsukihime. It does the game’s story justice, but this is also it’s weakness since people unfamiliar with the game may not understand it as well. Hopefully for them, they’ll come to love Tsukihime just as much as I and others do.

P.S. How awesome is that Hidamari header? Sometimes you can really dredge up some great images on 4chan.