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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Sunday, 24 August 2008 16:00 |
 If you've ever wanted a show where the beautiful vampire goes all to pieces over a mere mortal, this is for you, as Tsukihime's main neck-biter Arcueid does just that - literally and figuratively. Don't be expecting an all-out action series, but do expect to be engrossed yet frustrated by a show that just oozes atmosphere but doesn't manage to pull itself entirely together...
Shiki Tohno has a strange gift - ever since he was a kid, he's been able to see the lifelines that hold all living things together. No-one would believe him, except a woman claiming to be a mage who gave him a pair of glasses that hid the lifelines from his sight, allowing him to lead an almost normal life. Back to the present, and after years living with his uncle, Shiki's moving back to his family home to stay with his sister. The move coincides with a string of murders that is the talk of the town - with each victim having a pair of puncture wounds on their neck, rumour has it a vampire is involved. While walking home from school, Shiki meets a woman - a vampire, although he doesn't realise it - and by pure instinct uses his unique vision to cut her to pieces in a second. His next memory is of waking at the family home - it seems his encounter was a dream, until his 'victim' pays him a visit. Shiki's life just gets stranger from there.
Shiki's 'victim' introduces herself by listing off the 17 pieces Shiki had cut her into the day before - it's something of a shock for Shiki to realise that it wasn't a dream, and he doesn't hang around for her to explain any further, but when he gets home after school he finds her waiting for him. Again she has to chase Shiki down, and somehow manages to persuade Shiki to go back to her hotel room with her, where she finally gets the chance to explain who, and what, she is. She's Arcueid Brunestud, a vampire who's searching for the ones that are committing the murders around town. She's as curious about Shiki as he is about her - and with his ability to kill having been amply demonstrated to her, she's decided to use Shiki as her personal shield. In return, she'll let him live - after all, vampires don't forgive their killers too easily, and Shiki's attack has left her weakened and unable to fully defend herself. It's not long before he's put to his first test...
The first thing you'll notice about Tsukihime is that it just oozes atmosphere, which makes it very easy to just get lost in it. Unfortunately, that's slightly balanced out by the slightly staged nature of some of the scenes and the way that a lot of the scenes don't immediately appear to be of importance - you still have to pay attention to what's going on, but it's not initially clear just what's important and what's filler - if any. I guess a prior knowledge of the game would help, but if you're coming to the series cold that's something to bear in mind. There's more going on than just Arcueid's fight, too, with secrets revealed about Shiki's family history and the appearance of Ciel, a vampire hunter with a long history of conflict with Arc, arriving on the scene to further complicate things. The whole setup has a huge amount of promise to it, with the atmosphere just being the hook to get your attention.
Unfortunately that hook isn't followed up properly. The pacing of the series is just horrible in places - you never really feel that the story's going anywhere, there's little or no sense of urgency to anything (even during the show's final confrontation), and all the revelations just wash over you as though they had little or no relevance to what's going on. By the end of the series I just had a completely detached feeling - all the more frustrating as I did enjoy the first half or so and at that point was positively keen to see how the series ended. There are a number of plot issues that remain unresolved (why Akiha is dependent on the twins, their past history with the family and so on), all of which were apparently well-handled in the original game. That may be okay for viewers in Japan, who have a chance to pick up the game and see what they missed, but Western fans are out-of-luck unless they resort to shadier methods. Both the pacing and missing aspects are fairly major issues that combine to spoil this volume is a fairly big way.
On the upside, the dark & foreboding atmosphere that is Tsukihime's signature is strongly present throughout, and there are some very good moments between Shiki and Arc as they come to terms with what they feel for each other. The ending, while lacking in a number of areas, at least avoids the temptation to be "happily ever after" - there is no happy ending here, and the fates in general aren't kind in terms of how things turn out. Given the nature of some of the characters involved, that's right and proper - but there's still no getting past that lack of attachment to events that plagues these episodes.
I really enjoyed Tsukihime at the start - it had a good mix of style, substance and atmosphere, along with some characters who had a heap of potential in terms of where their stories could go. Unfortunately, most of that potential has been sadly wasted, and the end result is a series that has it's moments but is hard to give a whole-hearted recommendation for.
For full episode summaries and screenshots, check out our reviews of the original releases:
» Volume One
» Volume Two
» Volume Three
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