Shingetsutan Tsukihime

Summary: >

As a young boy Shiki discovered that he had the ability to see the lines of death. He found that if he broke them, things are destroyed or living things die. Shiki was given a pair of glasses which blocked this special vision, and he grew to a young man. While Shiki spent most of his high school daze spaced out, the ties of fate began to weave their tapestry. For some mysterious reason, Shiki attacks a woman named Alucard and kills her. Fortunately she happens to be a vampire and doesn't actually die - despite being cut to pieces. As it turns out Alucard is in need of help, as she has just arisen from her captivity and is too week to fight another vampire who stalks her. And thus the fate of Alucard and Shiki intertwine.

Thoughts: >

Well before release in America, I had anticipated good things from this anime. In Japan, Tsukihime was released as a visual novel which became very popular. The setup, characters, vibrant storyline, and depth in side stories all looked great. Once released as an anime, the lack of buzz was telling. When people did talk about Tsukihime, they were either indifferent, unimpressed or bored. It doesn't take much to excite some anime fans, so that says a lot in itself. I scaled back my expectations, which turned out to be a good thing because Tsukihime doesn't deliver much.

The anime is very flat emotionally. Don't expect any extreme anime hijinx because there isn't any. The characters are formal and rather... bland. Even so, it's easy to see they have potential. Scenes stretch on for an eternity, things move slow, the story moves even slower, and even the main character seems to be in a haze. This becomes one very long and drawn out anime. As for the action, that's where the budget cuts probably happened. The action happens, but you don't see it - it's funny how you realize how much recent anime infers that action happens without showing it. Budget wise that would have been a fair trade... if the story was good.

The best part about Tsukihime is the simple yet absolutely beautiful opening theme. I guess I'd describe it as... the sort of thing that would be playing in the background while having the most epic sex ever in slow motion. Other than that, Tsukihime failed to impress me. So much potential that turned out so-so due to poor execution. I think the story for Tsukihime is ok, but ONLY ok. The pacing of this one makes it a pain to trudge through, so I'd recommend avoiding this one.

Screen Caps: >