DESCRIPTION

CAST

CHAPTERS

MANGA ComedyALL AROUND TYPE-MOON
MANGA ActionMelty Blood
MANGA ComedyType-Moon Gakuen: Chibichuki!
ANIME ActionShingetsutan Tsukihime
MANGA ActionMelty Blood: Rojiura Nightmare
MANGA ComedyKoha-Ace
MANGA AdventureTYPE-MOON Sakuhin-shuu: TAKE MOON
MANGA ComedyTYPE-MOON Sakuhinshuu - Dotsuki Manzai
MANGA ActionHana no Miyako!
MANGA ActionMELTY BLOOD: TYPE LUMINA Piece in Paradise
MANGA ComedyTsukihime: A piece of blue glass moon - Anthology Comic STAR
MANGA ComedyTsukihime: A piece of blue glass moon - Comic à la Carte
MANGA ComedyTsukihime: A piece of blue glass moon - Comic Anthology
MANGA ComedyTsukihime Comic Anthology
MANGA ComedyMahou Tsukai no Hako: Starlit Marmalade
NOVEL ActionFate/strange Fake
MANGA ComedyMangetsu Himeraku: TYPE-MOON Kessakusen

REVIEWS

• 

  biogundam

  66/100
  vamppires are great and cool

  Warning, this review may contains spoilers.

  First impressions:
  So, this manga is based off the hentai game and that adapts one the original routes in its entirety. It seems interesting enough, we’ve got vampires killing people and some romance developing in the background. I wonder how they will handle this.

  Story: 6/10
  Our tale begins with our main character Shiki Tohno who’s moved back into his family home after years of being taken care of by distant relatives, which he went to live with after a major incident that nearly killed him and gave him the ability to see lines of death. While getting used to being back with his sister and their twins maids, a mysterious case of vampire like murders is spreading out through the city like wildfire. One day while returning from school he comes across a mysterious foreign woman and like a good japanese citizen he cuts her up into multiple pieces, in what can be described as a psychotic rage. After a few days pass the same woman who he murdered visits him and reveals herself to be a vampire named Arcueid, who’s come to the city in order to kill a powerful vampire known as Roa, who is behind the recent murder cases and other supernatural shit that's going down in the city. It turns out though that she’s been badly weakened by Shiki’s attempted murder, so she decides to strong arm him into helping her complete her mission and so begins their partnership together.

  Tsukihime is probably one of the more interesting stories that have been done by type-moon, which doesn't revolve around "people die when they are killed" or "the archer class is full of archers". Jokes aside though, the story is pretty much Shiki and Arcueid going around together and killing lesser vampires while looking for Roa, which does get boring and repetitive after a while. Like how many times can you fight the same generic vampires before it gets stale? On the bright side, they do kind of flavor it with external and internal problems. For example, one external problem they face is when they go against Roa and this one vampire that’s made out of wolfs and shit. On the other hand, the internal problems they face are more about the main two characters and their dark sides coming out. One being that Shiki at times devolves into a bloodthirsty killer and Arcueid……... well, she’s a vampire, so it’s self-explanatory what's going to happen.

  There isn't really much to comment on, besides what’s already been mentioned, except for the bond they have together, which turns into a romance, which as far as romances go it isn't that bad, all things considered. Because I have seen quite a few romance stories that use a couple who are a completely different species altogether and use this as an excuse for cheap melodrama and over the top emotional expressions, that make me want to vomit. Luckily though, the story doesn't do this and instead their relationship and how it was developed felt very normal. Because it was very simple and to the point, it wasn’t bogged down by being overly emotional or being so pitch perfect that it felt robotic. It’s basically just them hanging out when they're not killing vampires and their relationship developing from that, so the romance is at least pretty decent.

  All in all, the story was pretty ok and even shockingly grounded for a supernatural series. The last thing I can really comment on is probably the negatives. For starters, this story feels very dated and doesn't have enough punch to it. It has a very dated presentation and I feel that when this story originally came out it was pretty interesting and fresh in people's minds, but stuff like fate/stay night have kind of made it obsolete. Maybe if this series got a readaptation then maybe it would be better, because some of the ideas the series came up were interesting. One example of which is the way it explores the concept of vampires in this world. I also find it interesting how the series plays on the many legends surrounding vampires and explains them in a very straight forward matter, like why vampires need to drink blood and the like. The original source material for this was written in a basement by a group of people who were starting a game company, so i’ll give the writing a bit of slack for that. At the end of the day tsukihime isn't badly written, especially when you consider the fact it's a manga adaptation of hentai game, so for that i give it a slightly good score.

  Characters: 6/10
  The main character Shiki at first seems like another bland protagonist, who’s a quote unquote normal highschool boy, but as the story continues we find at that that’s not the case. Even though he has this generic upbeat, pacifist, loner attitude, he has quite a few interesting traits that aren't really found in a quote unquote normal highschoolers. For example, he doesn't fear death and all too often makes very light jokes or comments about death and shit like that. He also has this kind of evil side to him, where he becomes this near unstoppable sociopathic killing machine when he is the presence of supernatural beings. Unfortunately, he can't control this bloodlust and it leads him to at times go slightly insane, where it’s interesting to see him try and hold on to what humanity he has left when that side of him tries to take over.

  Arcueid is also interesting to a point. She has a very cat like personally, being very free spirited and not really getting bothered by much. The most interesting thing about her though is that she was originally a weapon made to seek out and destroy anything her creators told her to, but because of interactions with Shiki and the bond they formed together she basically broke out of her eternal cycle of wake up, hunt down and kill vampire, sleep, then rinse and repeat. Now because that cycle has been broken, she actually has time to enjoy the things in life that she never got a chance to enjoy, like going to the movies or just chilling in general, which is a concept which she really hasn't had the time to explore or learn more about.

  I found the interactions between Shiki and Arcueid really interesting, especially when they talk about concepts like for example, would you eat something that is equally intelligent as you or when Shiki takes Arcueid to places she hasn't been before, where she learns to have an attachment to the world around her.

  The side characters are pretty basic for the most part. The thing that’s pretty cool about the characters in general though is that we often get to know what they are feeling and thinking. Sadly, because the original source has so many routes that explore the characters in many different ways, so we don't get to see the full potential of each of the characters, as this manga only covers one route, in which it's mostly Arcueid that's gets focused on. What I will say about the other characters’ routes is that the focus on them is interesting to a point and there is definitely more there than you would have first thought. An example of this is when we find out that Shiki’s adopted family actually have a demonic bloodline and are half demons, that drink blood and go into a frenzy every now and then.

  The main bad guy, Roa feels very flat and comes off as some sort of psycho yandere. The reason for why he was like this was also kinda stupid. Basically, what happened is that he fell in love with Arcueid and didn’t understand the emotions he was feeling at the time. Eventually he came to think those emotions where hatred and because of that started this century’s long personal war, which caused many deaths and even turned a few unlucky souls into vampires. So because of his reasoning he just comes off as really flat and not that interesting, even if the idea itself of a person experiencing emotions and not understanding them is kinda interesting. They just didn't really do much with that idea and kind of left it vague and up to interpretation.

  Art: 6/10
  The artwork is not the best they could’ve done, as is it looks pretty choppy at times. Now one positive thing I can say about the artwork is that it kind of fits into the kind of setting that’s presented. It also has somewhat ok fight scenes as well, that don’t really flow and basically boil down to how many body parts can our main characters remove in one strike. I like the characters designs, because I am a big fan of most things type-moon.

  Enjoyment: 6/10
  So what I liked about this manga in particular is the romance, that was quite well done. The vampire fighting scenes were pretty cool was well. I also like how the main character is slowly losing his sanity, as he uses his powers more. I think the concept of being able to see death is interesting for an ability that people can have.

  Overall: 6/10

  Conclusion:
  If you're a fan of type-moon or you want a human vampire romance that isn't like vampire knight or twilight then you will like this manga, but if you're not into romance or stories with plots that have been used before then I guess you won't like this.

  Special credit to my new script editor, Lonecrit.

  Continue on AniList
• 

  saulgoodman

  80/100
  The points and lines of Death

  A bit burned out from manga recently, I sought a different escapism through visual novels and consequentially hopped down the intimidating rabbit-hole that is Nasuverse. With Fate/Stay Night, Fate/Hollow Ataraxia and, of course, Tsukihime (Fuck Kagestu Tokhya) presently under my belt, I can say that TYPE-MOON's most gravitating trait is strong characterization. And by far, Tsukhime stands my favorite in that regard. Tsukhime is certainly Fate/Stay Night's archaic, janky prototype in stylistic and narrative senses but these limitations strangely give the underlying character writing a brighter sheen. Though watering down the original story down to 20~30%, this manga is extremely faithful to the visual novel, albeit some notable changes. Nevertheless, much of what entranced me in the visual novel remains unchanged in this manga.

  Visual novel and manga spoilers ahead. Skip to the end for a short, spoiler-free review.

  ---

  ___ #__I like what if's__

  In the original visual novel, Arcueid's route felt a bit janky in cohesion with the other routes for an overarching story, with how it mostly scrutinizes Shiki and Arcueid's relationship and the supernatural horror. However, the manga adaptation turns this hugely in its favor, turning their relationship and the supernatural horror into the overarching story. As a stand-alone route here, it's very easy to enjoy the two's budding, quirky relationship and allows the best heroine to steal the spotlight (stealing Ciel's route wasn't enough). Opposites attract, rather, the ordinary Shiki's anomalous eyes attract the anomalous Arcueid. Slicing a girl into a myriad of meat slabs upon first encounter isn't the most romantic, but it does act to kick off the horrific worldbuilding and quirky, humanizing relationship between the two.

  Though, when I say worldbuilding, it's nothing expansive. Tsukihime isn't so fanatic about deep lore or mechanics like Fate/Stay Night is, using a black-tempered plot of vampires, immortals and other spooky goobers as a foothold for characterization and Shiki's and Arcueid's relationship. However, this isn't to say it's lacking nor dull, with the Roa/SHIKI subplot coming into play, thanks to the infusion of Ciel's route in this adaptation. Where Arcueid's route touched on worldbuilding and Ciel's route on psychological and philosophical themes, the manga combines both cohesively to bolster both the SHIKI/Roa and Shiki/Arcueid narratives. To touch upon the latter first, it's like warm chaos. Where one night involves helping Arcueid rip apart Dead Apostles, another involves Shiki taking Arcueid sightseeing in town to eat at burger joints or watch B-list flicks. Shiki's dive into the supernatural world's underbelly turns from begrudged obligation to determination and Arcueid's dip in the humdrum activities of the human world from hesitant to enjoyable. Where Arcueid lacks a reason to live beyond her instilled duty to kill True Ancestors, Shiki instills a new one in her and simultaneously, that becomes his raison d'etre to grit past anything that may come their way. Initially being forced into helping her, Arcueid gradually refuses Shiki's support in fear of his death and Shiki who refuses to let Arcueid remain alone as she has for the past centuries. One short week is enough for Arcueid's humanity to flourish and give new meaning to Shiki's life beyond salvaging the past. Despite all the blood and Ciel's curry, bittersweet doesn't taste any stronger than the end to their story.

  ---

  ___ #__Eyes that see Death__

  In spite of the rather straight-forward vampiric plot, the SHIKI/Roa subplot is certainly more chaotic and harder-to-follow. However, it does add a fantastic psychological taste to the story, adding flavor and depth to Shiki's character. Otherwise ordinary and altruistic, Shiki's mental shell is oft broken by his estranged foster brother/pseudo-immortal vampire's mind connection, gaslighting him into believing their murders are his. Not to mention, his Nanaya instincts possess him, in the cases of murdering and nearly violating Arcueid, furthering his horror at himself. The gore and monsters paint a vivid supernatural horror that you'd expect from a vampire story, yet the psychological mindfuck is what overwhelmingly comprises Tsukihime's horror. Witnessing the already frail Shiki fall into deeper pits of despair and struggling to fight against his own murderous instincts may come at the cost as pleading edgy, but nonetheless makes for an enthralling ride.

  In addition, the manga gives more fruitful character to SHIKI, under the scope of the Near Side routes. Whereas Roa acts as the crux of Near Side's conflict, SHIKI acts moreso as a device, that is to say, Roa's physical medium. However, because of the tad inclusion of Akiha's route in this adaptation, the two are more-or-less given sufficient characterization considering the limited amount of material adapted. As opposed to feeling like an anomaly without reason in Near Side, the manga illustrates SHIKI moderately more empathetic and with presence. The manga canon flashbacks of his past with Shiki and Akiha immensely lend a hand in this, depicting his humanity and reason as a child, gradually escalating to fighting his strengthening Tohno blood, much like the present Shiki. I always felt that SHIKI was the most tragic character in Tsukihime. His uncontrollable instincts and possession by Roa lead to his eternal banishment and his existence stolen by Shiki, his own sister refusing to call him her brother, and a lacking exploration of this all beyond cold explanations and his crazed monologues. Thus, I have nothing but gratefulness for how his descent to bitter chaos and the remaining humanity foisted in that abyss are shown thoroughly.

  ---

  ___ #__Chairs__

  Not just narratively and thematically, the manga also faithfully adapts stylistically. While there's blatant archaism to the original character designs, Takeuchi's designs still have immense charm and the manga delivers them untouched. Designs apart, the art works fantastic narratively. True to the gritty and despairing tone, Shounen Sasaki opts for gradience in both background and panel frames to illustrate a blackening abyss in plot direction and Shiki's mental state. However, the fight scenes felt rather contrived and janky. Since Tsukihime isn't so gung-ho about action and fights as it is with horror and characterization, this is understandable. Although, the janky flow of the fights also work to illustrate the chaotic tone to Shiki's imbalanced state of mind and his otherworldly opponents, so take them as you will.

  While not in the same realm as Chainsaw Man or Koroshiya 1, the gore is satisfyingly present in the aftermath of Nero's hotel attack and Shiki/Arcueid's battles with Dead Apostles. Where the gradience could've been easily applied as masking censorship, the slew of headless, limbless corpses are laid bare, albeit lacking gory detail. Regardless, it adds to the overarching horror tone.

  ---

  ___ #__Conclusion__ Horror foisted more in the entrancing psychological trip than the actual vampiric plotline, *Tsukihime* spells out a humanizing descent and sub sequential climb from a bloody abyss. With a strange relationship between an ordinary, yet unordinary Shiki Tohno and unordinary, yet ordinary Arcueid Brunestud at the heart of the bizarre chaos of vampires and monsters, this story maintains a balance between otherworldly supernatural and warm romance. Despite the gory and otherworldly action often present, *Tsukihime* possesses tunnel vision on heartfelt characterization casting warm light on the darkening tone. With fantastic art supplementing, the story is easy-to-follow, albeit confusingly appetizing in conjunction with the psychological subplot. Clever use of gradience, charming character designs, chaotic fight scenes; age isn't an issue with this *manga*. Addendum: As a suggestion, this *manga* best acts as a supplement after reading some of the original visual novel. As the orignal *Tsukihime* visual novel is abandonware, accessing it shouldn't warrant any issues. The orthodox [route order](https://www.xerblade.com/p/tsukihime-walkthrough.html?m=0) follows as Arcueid, Ciel, Akiha, Hisui and Kohaku. The former two fall under the scope of *Near Side* routes and the latter three as *Far Side* routes. I recommend at least completing Arcueid's, Ciel's and Akiha's routes before diving into this *manga.*
  Continue on AniList
• 

  PasleyPark

  75/100
  Give this manga a chance if you have any interest in Tsukuhime.

  Short story, they told me "play this visual novel, it's very clunky it has fucked up stuff and it's where Neco-Arc comes from". I spent weeks reading non-stop all the routes, and ended up loving Tsukuhime (2000) despite a lot of novice flaws the game had.

  Some time later, I heard that the manga offers an interesting take on the first route of the game. I read it, and that's what I want to talk about, commenting almost no spoilers because I would like to believe that if anyone reading this would be interested in trying, what is in my opinion, the friendliest and easiest way to know the first part of Tsukuhime's story.

  Initial Plot (Skip this paragraph if you want to have full surprises, but is just the first chapters): Shiki is a teenager who, since he had a strange accident as a child, can cut and kill living beings and inanimate objects. He lives a normal life, more or less, until he meets Arcueid, Shiki sees her, kills her, enjoys it, and regrets it. From there, the story descends into a spiral of vampires, vampire hunting, clan fighting, romance between vampire and human, and various taboo topics. (I recommend watching the spoiler tags and decide if you have the stomach to endure what's coming).

  The manga stirs up or summarizes the monologues of the protagonist, something that in a visual novel is primordial, this is something of the format. Tsukuhime's manga did a decent job with respect to that, it provides only what is important for the plot and by removing not-so-important monologues the manga has a pacing more suitable for long readings. Not to mention that it's nice to see the main character's face, poses and reactions. Here he looks more sympathetic.

  The heroine and romantic interest of the route, Arcueid, also shines. Here she has a marked personality whose dynamic consists of alternating from her attitude of a jovial and fun girl to an unhinged vampire ready to kill. Fortunately for Shiki, Arcueid shows him more of the first side. A key point about Arcueid is her past and background, and I think this was handled better here, making her more emotional and easier to sympathize with. All that plus the fact that Arcueid is already a cool character to read (she's Tsukuhime's main girl, after all), you'll like her for sure.

  There's an excellent balance of info-dumping, romance, action and horror. The world of Tsukuhime has a lot of rules and background, and through Arcueid's monologues and moments between other characters unique to the manga, the introduction to the lore elements is lighter and more digestible. The loss of extensive monologues means that the horror moments are not the same as in the VN, but with the art this is compensated a lot, more detailed massacre scenarios are shown and enemy monsters are shown in a more varied and terrifying way. And thanks to the dynamic art, you feel a lot of action in all the fights in the story. Seriously, I love seeing Shiki being practically a ninja, both in Melty blood and in this manga.

  What is most criticized about the manga, even from those who love it, is that it reveals a couple of things here and there from the following routes, specifically from the second and third, nothing from the fourth and fifth (thank goodness, because those are my favorites). I think this doesn't seem all bad to me, since it's information that generates interest and makes you feel that Tsukuhime's story goes beyond killing vampires, because that's the case. Seriously, one of the greatest virtues of Tsukuhime is that it gives a radical change of focus (for the better) as the story progresses, it starts "Let's kill vampires!" and ends in "I won't see giant trees and sunflowers in the same way". Despite what is revealed in this manga, I don't think it's something that will ruin the experience if you decide to check out the other Tsukuhime routes. The first route is more of a typical teenage boy fights bad guys and gets the girl story, which isn't badly executed, but compared to what comes after that it's a bit different. (Sorry Arcueid route fans, the story is not bad but this is my opinion).

  The last thing I could comment on is that the manga includes an extended prologue that is not shown in the original material, it's such a simple and brief thing, and yet, it makes me love the story more. If you have an interest in Tsukuhime, or liked the visual novel, I assure you that you will enjoy this manga, which despite everything, is not bad at all and offers an start approach to what is in my opinion, a classic Type Moon story that is able to touch your heart in a way that only a Type Moon work can do.

  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR MANGAS YOU MAY LIKE

• MANGA

  ActionKara no Kyoukai: The Garden of Sinners
• MANGA

  ActionFate/stay night
• MANGA

  ActionFate/Zero
• MANGA

  ActionTeito Seihai Kitan: Fate/type Redline
• MANGA

  DramaTsuki no Sango
• MANGA

  ActionFate/stay night [Heaven's Feel]
• MANGA

  ActionFate/strange Fake
• MANGA

  ActionHana no Miyako!
• MANGA

  ActionShin Honkaku Mahou Shoujo Risuka
• MANGA

  ActionRe:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu: Dai-2 Shou - Yashiki no Isshuukan-hen
• MANGA

  DramaHigurashi no Naku Koro ni Gou
• MANGA

  ComedyYofukashi no Uta