Tsukihime
Tsukihime is a Japanese adult visual novel game created by Type-Moon, who first released it at the Winter Comiket in December 2000. In 2003, it was adapted into both an anime television series, Lunar Legend Tsukihime, animated by J.C.Staff, and a manga series, which was serialized between 2003 and 2010 in MediaWorks manga magazine Dengeki Daioh, with ten volumes released.
Several other related media have also been released, including the bonus disc Tsukihime Plus-Disc, a fan disc Kagetsu Tohya, and the fighting game series Melty Blood. Story concepts and characters shared many similarities with other Type-Moon's series The Garden of Sinners, and the two were also subtly connected. A remake with updated art and story was announced in 2008. The first part of the remake, Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon, featuring a rewritten and expanded version of two of the original routes, first released in Japan in 2021, and was released worldwide in 2024. The second part, Tsukihime: The Other Side of Red Garden, was teased in a secret unlockable trailer in A Piece of Blue Glass Moon. Melty Blood: Type Lumina, a fighting game, was released worldwide on September 30, 2021, as companion to the remake titles.
Gameplay
Tsukihime is a visual novel where the story is presented via text that intermittently presents choices for the player to make. These choices influence the story, some in large ways while others in small ones. Some choices lead to bad endings where the protagonist dies, after which the player can optionally view a comedic section called Teach Me, Ciel-sensei!, where a fourth-wall-breaking version of the character Ciel offers hints on what led to the bad ending. The game is divided into five routes, distributed amongst two scenarios: The Near Side of the Moon, and the Far Side of the Moon. Every heroine except Kohaku has two possible endings. When the player has achieved all possible endings, a new epilogue part, entitled Eclipse, is unlocked.Tsukihime remake entries are visual novels like the original, and though it features modern amenities, it plays mostly the same. The Teach Me, Ciel-sensei! section after a bad ending also returns. Unlike the original, both remakes of Near and Far sides titled Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon and Tsukihime: The Other Side of Red Garden are released separately:
- Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon solely focuses on the Near Side storyline. The Arcueid route titled Tsukihime has one ending, while Ciel route titled Midnight Rainbow has two branching endings.
- Tsukihime: The Other Side of Red Garden solely focuses on the Far Side storyline, featuring Akiha, Hisui, and Kohaku as heroines. This also adds an additional route not included in the original game featuring Satsuki Yumizuka, exploring events previously left unexplored in the series' fighting game follow up Melty Blood.
Story
Setting
The game's plot follows the perspective of protagonist Shiki Tohno, a second-year high school student in the fictional town of Misaki. He suffers a life-threatening injury at a young age. After regaining consciousness, he gains the ability to see "Death lines"—lines by which things, living or not, will eventually break when they die. Due to his injury, Shiki has immense headaches as his mind cannot cope with the sight of death. Soon after he is given special glasses from Aoko Aozaki that block the sight of these lines. Due to his injury, Shiki is exiled by his father to a branch family of the Tohno household. Eight years later, he returns to accompany his sister after his father died. After moving back, Shiki has trouble adjusting to the old-fashioned lifestyle his sister lives by. As the game progresses, Shiki confronts supernatural beings such as mostly two different types of vampires, as well as his family's secret and his actual past.As with many Type-Moon works, Tsukihime takes place in the shared "Nasuverse" universe and is set many years after the events of Witch on the Holy Night. The original 2000 release takes place in the fictional town of Misaki in 1999, with the events of Witch on the Holy Night being a prequel that explores the backstory of Shiki's teacher Aoko Aozaki. The 2024 remake takes place in the fictional city of Soya in 2014 and serves as a direct sequel to the 2022 remastered version of Witch on the Holy Night instead.
Plot
A Piece of Blue Glass Moon
After a horrible accident that hospitalized him, a young Shiki Tohno awakens to his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. He is guided by a now older Aoko Aozaki that his powers were a gift and to be used for good one day, giving him a pair of glasses that would deactivate his Eyes so long he was wearing them. After being discharged, Shiki is exiled by the Tohno Family and sent to live with his relatives.;Arcueid Brunestud Route
Seven years later, Shiki returns to Soya City upon the death of his estranged father, Makihisa. As a child, Shiki was meant to be heir of the family, but was expelled after an accident that left him anemic, and his younger sister Akiha became the heir. At the same time, the city is plagued with a series of serial killings by a vampire known as Vlov Archangel, who kills Shiki's homeroom teacher, creating an opportunity for the vacant spot to be filled by Noel Aizome, a vampire hunting Executor working for the Church.
After an anemic attack causing him to lose control of himself, Shiki inadvertently kills a True Ancestor vampire, Arcueid Brunesud, who later self-revives out of anger and convinces Shiki to find Vlov. Despite their success in defeating Vlov, Arcueid reveals that the true serial killer was not only Vlov, but another vampire named Michael Roa Valdamjong, who can reincarnate after death and has seemingly selected Shiki to be his next host.
As Ciel, an upperclassman of Shiki, makes herself known as a member of the Executors, she reluctantly works with Shiki and Arcueid to drive Roa out of his hiding spot underneath their school, who has taken the reincarnation of Shiki's childhood friend of the same name and possessed similar Mystic Eyes. However, Shiki's variant of the eyes prove superior, allowing him to secure victory over Roa and negate his reincarnation ability permanently. One month after Roa's defeat, Shiki returns to a normal life and Arcueid returns to her homeland.
;Ciel Normal Route
After Shiki forms his first alliance with Arcueid, he allegedly ignores her advice of attacking Vlov at night and instead pursues him during the day, which results in him being thrown into Vlov's underground catacomb. He finds both Noel and Ciel there on an official Church operation, but he and Noel are temporarily buried under rubble after an attack. While Ciel fights with Vlov, Arcueid does not help the Executors, but her last minute technique to contain Vlov within his area after Ciel's Bounded Field shatters helps Shiki and Ciel obtain victory, and defeat Vlov.
The next day, Arcueid secretly kills Roa, while Shiki believes that Vlov's death marked the end of the murders. Arcueid tells Shiki about how she killed Roa and requests he help her nightly to clean up his leftover zombies. Their excursions raise concerns for Ciel, who after following Shiki to one of his meetings with Arcueid, results in her fighting the True Ancestor.
Noel begins frantically trying to prove herself by killing more vampires as a result of having been threatened with reassignment, due to her poor recent performance. However, Ciel humiliates her in battle, leaving Noel to undergo vampire transformation herself.
After Arcueid leaves, Ciel is horrified to learn from Shiki that Roa has been killed, leading her to explain that Shiki is Roa's next host. Upon learning this, Shiki begins sleepwalking to the point he has killed humans, later realizing that Roa was beginning to surface. Shiki desperately calls Ciel for help, but she responds with full combat, having ascertained that Shiki was too deep into his infection. However, Shiki manages to prove his humanity and love for Ciel, convincing her to want and help him fight the infection. This angers Noel, who in her new Dead Apostle form, targets the two with personal vendetta, as Ciel is revealed to have been a former Roa host herself who killed Noel's family many years ago.
After Noel's defeat, Shiki's attempt to recover from the fight and trying to suppress Roa, is taken advantage of by Arcueid, who offers to turn him into a vampire, but he refuses and instead takes advantage of the situation and cuts Arcueid's line. This causes Arcueid to lose control and Shiki is saved by Ciel, who is then overwhelmed by Arcueid. Shiki, accessing Roa's memories, reaches out to Arcueid and convinces her to return home.
As Shiki lies dying, he cuts his own line to kill himself and Roa, but Shiki is unexpectedly revived by Ciel at the cost of her own life force. In a dream, Ciel explains to Shiki what she did and why. A year and a half later, Shiki decides to join the Church in search of a way to reunite with Ciel once again.
;Ciel Extra Route
The route diverges after Ciel and Shiki escape into the school. Arcueid takes longer to resurrect, allowing Ciel time to prepare her role and meet her in the city. However, within three minutes of their fight, Arcueid's power proves to be overwhelming for Ciel as she ultimately takes on a giant luminous form powered by the planet, which distorts reality.
Ciel is trapped and tortured multiple times in Arcueid's giant luminous hand. With the amount of lumina energy being extorted by Arcueid, it allows Shiki to directly converse with Roa, who advises him on how to fight Arcueid while helping him stay focused. As Arcueid dies the longer she maintains her luminous form, Shiki decides to prevent that from happening. Roa ultimately decides to give up his reincarnating essence to allow Shiki to do just that, as Shiki uses the remaining of Ciel's celestial arrow energy to finish the job. After the battle, Shiki and Arcueid banter, before Arcueid returns to her homeland.
After Shiki awakens in a dream where Ciel does not exist, an incarnation of his young seven-year-old self attempts to convince to stay in that dream, as he would either be stuck in a lifelong coma or die. Shiki chooses to return to his mortal body and awaken in the real world. He reconciles with Ciel and they embark on a new life together.