Shingetsutan Tsukihime

I admit that my rationale for watching this 12-episode series was... mixed. I wanted mainly to see why some of the people on my forum and other sites like the Twins so much (The one with blue eyes is Hisui, the one with yellow eyes is Kohaku). I also wanted to see the other work by Type-Moon (the one I know of you should all know of if you've visited this blog in the past three weeks).

Seeing as how S. Tsukihime was based on a rather complex story with multiple endings, it would have been difficult to pull off a good, single story tying all the threads together. I did not let that bother me and thus I watched the anime without any reference to any website that would tell the story of the original game.

As a series, I found it half boring and half interesting. Yes, I know that sounds wierd. I'll try to explain. The boring half consists of the main character (who looks suspiciously a lot like Keitarou Urashima of Love Hina infamy) thinking about things and generally spending time with other people. The interesting half is the fact that many of the characters have wierd backgrounds and everything is not as it seems. Shiki may look like a Gamma (or even Omega) Guy, but he has a kickass power that allows him to obliterate anything from existence by slicing at the thing's (or person's) "death lines." the story begins with him moving into his family's huge mansion with his ice-princess of a sister who from the beginning I suspected was totally fucked up. In the first episode, Shiki already hacks some blond-haired woman to pieces. Then you just get sucked in. We learn a lot of crazy shit about Shiki, and the woman he kills (Arcueid), who COMES BACK IN THE NEXT EPISODE and makes him help her out. Then the two become an item (and we return to the boring part). Then we learn about Shiki and his sister's past. Then a boring part. Then Shiki's classmate threatens Arc. Then a boring part. Then Shiki and Arc have some tender moments together. Wait, that IS a boring part. And we find out indeed that Shiki's sister is messed up, but that issue is never explored deeper. More boring parts. Shiki, sister and friends (and Arc) go to an amusement park. That's boring, but the really wierd people have some friction which is kind of fun and interesting to watch. Then more boring parts, until the end where Shiki has some final battle with a powerful enemy and seriously owns him. And then his classmate (who is really such-and-such a person) take the credit.

By its own merits, the anime is mediocre or barely above average. Had I played the game first I would have been sorely disappointed by the anime, since the anime apparently omits a huge amount of story points and ignores some characters. I don't excuse the short series length--Ah! My Goddess accomplished a lot of exposition, character development and generally getting the audience to like the characters in less than half the time. If some of the "boring" parts were streamlined, I bet that S. Tsukihime could have included some more of the "important" parts they left out.

About the twins. I sort of knew from the beginning that Kohaku was supposed to be this totally evil person, but she doesn't really do anything in the anime... well, she lets Ahika suck blood on her left boob, but I don't think that's really evil. Just... really fucked up (and also the full extent of the nudity in the show--it wasn't even frontal). I would say that the one redeeming quality of the show is giving me the impression of Keitarou slicing vampire out of existence. The cognitive dissonance is simply intoxicating.