Sab (sabrichan) wrote in _reviews, @ 2004-08-01 15:22:00 |
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Current mood: | cheerful |
Anime
Shingetsutan Tsukihime
Another vampire anime. I was prepared for something rather cliche and dark, with guns and badass vampires in cool outfits. What I got was something completely different, dark and tragic. This is not a World of Darkness style vampire story-- it is something sadder and softer.
"A long, long time ago, there were beings called moon-people. Among the moon-people, there was a white princess that was full of pride. She awoke white, and fell asleep white, one who did not understand impurity: the princess of the Shinso. Then, there was a tragedy. A snake whispered to her, "Please drink this. Your thirst will then be satisfied." But it was poison. The snake wanted the princess. The snake's name was Roa. And the white princess fell. When that happened, she sealed herself in and lived only for penance."
Shiki is not a normal high school boy. After getting in what he was told was a car accident, he began to see lines everywhere, across everything. A mysterious sorceress gave him a pair of glasses so that he would no longer see the lines, which were visible to none others but him. If cut along these lines, things are destroyed utterly.
One day, Shiki is on his way home from school when he meets a lady with shoulder-length blonde hair and red eyes. She gives him an evil smile and claims to have been killed by him the day before. He runs, and she follows. He loses her eventually, but a day later, she waits for him outside of his school. Her name is Arcueid Brunestud, she says, and she is one of the original vampires. He does not believe her, but then they are chased by monsters from another vampire. Arcueid dispatches these with ease, but appears to be hurt-- she is still injured from where she claims he killed her. After questioning him as to how he killed her, none of which he remembers, she requests his assistance to join her in investigating some strange killings around the city. And so their nightly adventures begin.
The murderer they find, however, is not the person she is looking for. Convinced that Shiki can help her to destroy this person utterly, she tells him that she is looking for a vampire called Roa, in his current body.
But what of Shiki's family? His sister, Akiha, will not allow him outside. She is hiding a dark secret, but what is it? The old mansion he now lives at may hold clues, but Akiha is intent on not letting its secrets become known.
And there's no forgetting about the upper-classman Ciel, who nearly kills him once while he is out at night, and seems to have a major grudge against Arcueid.
Arcueid, too, has secrets: her vampiric instincts aren't as under control as she'd like them to be. She is also slowly falling in love with Shiki, and it causes all sorts of trouble.
Tsukihime as a whole is a tragic, dark tale, full of plot twists and secrets. It is thoroughly enjoyable and makes you cry at some points.
It is engaging, as I wasn't waiting until the end of the episode, though it is a bit slow-paced. Some episodes are crammed with material and some plod along.
I love the plot. It develops just at the right rate, and while the vengeance thing is overdone, the development of Shiki and Arcueid overwhelms the actual hunting down of Roa. This is wonderful for those who aren't intent on having story-based plots, as character-based plots work as well. However, the story was still strong, and the plot twists surprised even me.
The characters were well-developed and strong. I really felt for them.
The music was quite fitting to the feel of it, soft and sad-sounding. In fact, there were many times where there was no music. The silence was as important as the soft violins.
Voice acting isn't anything special, but not bad.
Story: 5
Voice Acting: 3.5
Music: 3
Pacing: 4
Characters: 4.5
Animation: 4.5
Total: 4.25