Have you ever seen a show or series that while you’re watching, you’re fingers are itching to press the forward button in the hopes that the story will move faster? This anime is one of those shows. I do say that I’m a big fan of any anime involving vampires, fantasy and fights but this is just...

Shingetsutan Tsukihime, called just Tsukihime for short, starts at a hospital where we see a young boy claiming to be able to ‘see lines over everything’. The boy’s name is Shiki Tohno and this ability of his is going to land him in one hell of a roller coaster ride. In his 17th year, on the way home one day he passes by a seemingly ordinary lady, however something inside of him awakens and overwhelms him. He gives chase and with a single cut, he kills her. Upon gaining awareness, he faints due to shock and wakes up in his new home, the Tohno mansion. Chalking up these events as a dream, he leaves the next for school only to find the woman he had killed greeting him quite coolly. And here starts the crazy ride.

Let’s go over the back story here. A long, long time ago, the planet had no real defense against humanity, no way to keep a check on them. And so, The Crimson Moon offered to make an ultimate race that would keep humanity in check and they were called ‘The True Ancestors’. However, that race was flawed – they had an inherent desire in them to drink human blood. And so, they created Arcueid Brunestud, the white princess of the Shinso and an executioner for the fallen Shinso. She would awake, kill and then go back to sleep, her previous memories erased. Being an executioner, she had no vampiric urges until one day, a priest seeking immortality offered her a blood filled rose. In response she went berserk and killed off most of the True Ancestors and unwittingly helped that priest (Roa) on his quest. Managing to gain some semblance of sanity, she chained herself to the throne and went to sleep. She would awaken at times and kill Roa however, he would merely re-incarnate himself as another human and so the cycle continues and this is where the story starts.

It’s quite a serious show this one with not many funny points in between, except a handful. And if you haven’t played the game or done a spot of background reading on this anime, mark my words you’ll be swimming in a veritable sea of confusion while watching it. There is a shocking lack of background and the slight history that is told, is not only brief but will just eliminate but a mere smidge of your confusion. The whole story is dreadfully slow moving and will have your hands itching to move the slider forward. If I had a nickel for every time that I had wanted to just fast forward into the episode, I’d have a hefty amount of money. All the scenes in which the characters are just standing and looking at each other…I ask the writers and animators, why? Makes me wonder if they did that just to make sure that they hit the minimum time limit. Or if they did it in a bid to create suspense, then I’m sorry to say that it just falls flat on its face. It only gets properly interesting more than half the episodes are done.

The character design and the animation get a tad hairy in some shots, especially the faraway shots of some characters. And the backgrounds are also quite fair, not as detailed as some anime’s. In fact, some of the backgrounds are just not detailed at all which one would find disagreeable but for the morning scenes, it looked quite nice. The lack of details to the trees and park actually seem to work along with the rest of the scene. A lot of the anime is played out at night, so you’d expect the colors to be dark as well yet it is not so. Rather it seems as though the brightness of your screen is too high (but when you ‘fix’ it, you realize no, it’s the anime and not your monitor.) And is it just me or does the animation of Arcueid’s feet just look plain out and out weird? In any case, the fight sequences are quite awesome – especially the one in which a wolf beast literally comes out of Nero’s chest. As well as the end fight between Roa and Shiki was quite well done, for the first time in the series it actually had me more than vaguely interested.

Coming over to the characters, the designs are quite fair as long as shot is a close-up. Some of the characters are instantly likeable such as Kohaku, then there are some that you warm up too like Shiki or Arcueid and then there are some that you know you won’t get used too like Ciel. Though are still certain aspects of all the characters that do have a tendency to get on your nerves such as Arcueid’s excessively childish behavior at some points, Shiki’s stubbornness and constant fainting (there was a reason behind it as I found out after doing a lot of reading up), Akiha’s over powering attitude towards Shiki (there was also a reason behind this which we go find out over the course of episodes) or Ciel’s haughty attitude. Ciel is one character that, from the get go, I did not like. I suppose it was the way she was hanging around Shiki, okay so you like the guy but there are better ways to spend time with him rather than forcing yourself on him. And the villain….well, it was a slight surprise to find out his real identity. After that, nothing all too special about this particular reincarnation of Roa. Atleast Nero was a tad kooler given that he could make demon beasts come out of his body.

Now I don’t mind violins, as a matter of fact, I’m rather fond of them. But there is just a whole lot of violin music going on in the background of this anime, along with piano’s. The piano music is very tender while the violin at times it grates on the nerves given its pitch. Overall the anime’s music is very dark, poignant and at points, rather ‘Phantom of the Opera’ like (which isn’t a bad thing). Some of the violin pieces are very pleasant and they are good if you want to have some ‘easy listening’ without being lulled to sleep. The ‘suspense’ music leaves something to be desired though *winces* Quite honestly speaking, I am quite fond of the opening song that is used for the show. It reminds me of Latin choir music as well as of trance music, odd combination I know. While the ending song…

All and all, its merely ‘alright’ but its not something that you’ll want to over and over again. You’ll watch it once and then it’ll only stay in your mind as a vague reference. Its nothing that special and just barely keeps you interested in the story and characters. From the music to the characters to the animation, the whole series is merely mediocre. Which is a real shame as the story itself isn’t all that bad. If you have fallen asleep while watching this series, you can’t be blamed. All in all, this anime gets a B rating.

~Review By Sumeiia