Tsukihime, the visual novel: overview
The original Tsukihime VN is another case where I saw the adaptation before the source material which is something I normally try to avoid. On the plus side it’s the arrangement that leaves you more bemused at first, but less disappointed at the end in that disjointed or poorly-explained plot points and insufficiently-developed characters are set out in their entirety, with a wonderful feeling of seeing things fall into place with supernatural grace. It’s like watching God play Tetris or something.
I recently dug out and rewatched my old copy of the first disc of the Lunar Legend Tsukihime TV show and although I now know all its background and hence its failings, on reflection it’s still not a complete loss. I hope the There Is No Tsukihime Anime joke is old news now but should anyone feel the need to dig up that old fossil I do offer the choice of whether you want me to use the knife or needles on you, at no extra charge. There IS a Tsukihime anime but it’s a very different, and less well-fed, beast. The creature of the night that spawned it however comes highly recommended.
Experiencing it after its spiritual follow-up, Fate/Stay Night, was for me like listening to Loveless then picking up Isn’t Anything afterwards: the signature elements are there but are less polished and cohesive but with the added bonus of seeing the ideas in their embryonic form, in glorious 20/20 hindsight. Indeed, Tsukihime features themes and devices that weren’t carried as far and it doesn’t appear to have nearly as much cash thrown at it either but, like the MBV efforts, that doesn’t get in the way of what really matters.
Aesthetically Tsukihime is rougher around the edges than F/S N and doesn’t have as many pans and zooms across the screen which does lessen the impact a bit, but not by much. VNs are after all less reliant on moving images, which I guess is one of the benefits the anime has; there was no soundtrack to the edition I have either, although there are occasionally sound effects (which kinda annoyed me anyway). There’s greater difficulty in whipping up an atmosphere in this format which I suppose is the main reason why I still quite like the anime: while the storyline is a mess it has atmosphere in spades. In the VN’s case I was actually impressed with how Nasu and Takeuchi can play to the strengths of a more interactive but less kinetic form of presentation.
Even though it has a lo-fi, home-cooked appearance (photographs instead of background art!) I still can’t find fault in Takeuchi’s character designs, which are universally excellent. The drawing is sketchier but the poses and facial expressions are every bit as emotive as those of F/S N so once you take on board the fact that this was a literally amateur project I can’t hold its doujin origins against it. The small but very effective nuances in the sprites, especially when displayed sequentially in a fashion that’s as close to animation as the VN gets, really highlight this.
It’s still thought of as an eroge which I agree with reluctantly when, for each route, there is about as much sexual content as your average movie or TV show that has the token bedroom scene and carries a 18 certificate or equivalent; however you look at it though there are H-scenes and they don’t skimp on the detail either. As opposed to certain moments in F/S N I didn’t think the sexual content on the whole was as neatly integrated into the rest of the narrative; not something that should be a major issue given the primary function of the sauce, but even so I preferred them to have more context in the story as a whole.
For instance, I thought the second H-scene of Saber’s route and its equivalents in Heaven’s Feel felt less gratuitous than many of those in Tsukihime in that they had more relevance: they literally consummated the characters’ relationships and came across as being more integral to the plot progression and less forced-in for fan service reasons. Again, the VN format is an ideal situation for this sort of thing because of the first-person perspective; not an excuse for including it I know, but credit where credit’s due and all that.
Overall it is less focused in its storytelling than F/S N was, which is perhaps because there are more heroines to choose from: two main routes, each with more than one heroine. It has a more sprawling structure than three defined routes and there are one or two characters who felt a bit under-used while one or two others would have served a better purpose to the story in supporting roles too, but I’ll leave for the follow-up posts.
An analogy for the two VNs’ relationship that may mean more to you than late 80s/early 90s post-pop albums is thinking about how Fate/Stay Night is the spiritual successor to Tsukihime as the movie Pan’s Labyrinth is to The Devil’s Backbone. In both cases the sequel is superior in most aspects but it still owes much to its predecessor (not to mention the fact that I again watched the ‘sequel’ first). While the events of the pairs of films/VNs are not directly connected chronologically nor feature the same characters, the setting (the Spanish civil war of the 1930s and the Nasuverse, respectively) and issues addressed are the same. Themes are either approached from a slightly different angle or revisited, or the writer has taken an idea and run with it a bit further in his second project.
Incidentally I think Guillermo del Toro and Kinoko Nasu would actually get along quite well, language barriers aside, if they were to meet: both have a penchant for gothic-tinged supernatural horror and write thematically dark stories concerning morality, the loss of innocence and philosophical musings concerning life and death. Anyway. There is plenty of common ground between Nasu’s VN efforts and, indeed, Kara no Kyoukai too, in a lot of areas but in all honesty I’ve blasted through the thousand word barrier already. There will be more to come. WILL CONTINUE.
Yeah, someone should really make an anime of that.
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It’s interesting how you compare and contrast the integration of H-scenes between this and Fate: Stay/Night. It’s an angle that I don’t think I’ve seen anyone take before in a review.
I look forward to the next installment!
It’s always going to be odd reading pieces on a medium I’m unfamiliar with, but I did enjoy your analogies a great deal. Especially doujins/lo-fi. Bearing them in mind, surely Loveless/Pan’s L. both achieve progress by sprawling more and being less orthodox in approach, rather than finding more cohesive and dramatically focussed routes for expression? I guess I bring that up because Isn’t Anything makes a good introduction to MBV because it’s easier and less alien. It sounds to me a bit like Tsukihime could be kinda difficult to start with.
I played Tsukihime first and loved it at the time, but F/SN basically struck me as a more polished version of it as well. The stories are entirely different, technically speaking, but the style is obviously quite similar and you can see that the final product of F/SN benefited greatly from being commercial rather than amateur. Of course, the story and characters of Tsukihime are still great, but it’s missing many of the little things that make a great game even better.
That said, I heard something about a remake a while back: I doubt it’ll be released any time soon, and a translation won’t come ’til even longer, but still, I’d say it counts as good news. Plus, Sacchin route~!
@coburn: my MBV analogy was pointing towards the polished nature of the follow-up in comparison with its predecessor more than anything – if you play Tsukihime first you might not be as taken aback by how amateurish it looks. Both have fantastic storylines in my opinion though. My del Toro analogy on the other hand was to illustrate how the works are linked thematically and by their setting, but again Pan’s L. is more ambitious, and less orthodox too. I found Tsukihime to be the less cohesive one of the two though, because it splits into five rather than three so there’s more replays and hence repetition involved.
@ETERNAL: I believe a re-release of Tsukihime is on the cards, but they’re planning on getting their latest VN out first. It’s called Mahoutsukai no Yoru and all being well it’s out later this year. Cannot wait!