Premise 1: Tsukihime, one of my personal favorite visual novels - and one I would highly recommend to anyone who wants some real sad girls in stuff, except with stronger characters and hundreds of times more action scenes - is apparently getting a remake of sorts. To use a colloquialism, much bricks were pushed out my rectum.

Premise 2: There has been more than a fair hint that everyone’s favorite no-luck heroine, Satsuki Yumizuka, might finally have her arc and story ending in said remake, mainly because 1) she’s listed as a “heroine” in the scan, 2) there’s not much else to add, and 3) Sacchin fans are probably standing outside Type-Moon headquarters right now with pitchforks right now demanding it. If this is true, I might push out enough bricks to build a house. Not like a apartment, but like a three-story mansion with twenty rooms, all filled with brick furniture and brick technology and brick refrigerators filled with brick food and drink. And, of course, a meido…made of brick. In fact, twin maids.

Needless to say I am a mild fan of Satsuki Yumizuka and being able to see her true ending, hinted at in the spin-off game Melty Blood (which worked things in the typical Nasu way by going off an ending which at the time didn’t exist), would be quite the experience. But I can’t help but feel a bit pensive about this development, in part due to something I’ve been brooding.

It was something I read on a fellow blog, or perhaps on a forum, about the popularity of side characters. Side characters, or at least characters without a defined story, tend to be quite popular, sometimes more popular than some of the main characters. Think of Kanon’s Akiko Minase, the Itsuki / Mayumi comedy duo in Shuffle!, Yukine of Clannad. Or, going outside of the visual novel genre, any of the Lucky Star minor characters, Wilhelmina / Margery / whatever yuri bait from Shana, hell, I even have soft spots for Hamaji (H2O) and Sakura Sae (sola).

But is there any logical basis behind this greater appreciation of characters left out from the big dance? I think there’s definitely a sort of bias going on here, one that might end up dimming the ranks of the Sacchin supporters if such a route ever comes out.
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The “12 Days of Christmas” series is a joint feature by some members of the Anime Blogging Collective recognizing twelve moments, twelve series, or just twelve things about anime that we’ve enjoyed over the past year, that really make us enjoy loving what we do, and that is being an anime fan. Feel free to join in the list-making fun too if you wish. We hope you enjoy this feature.

With all the hype I’ve piled on to the visual novel anime, it’s only fitting that the third step on the podium belong to a visual novel itself.

Although, it’d be - unsuprisingly - wrong to call visual novels and visual novel anime similar. One being animated and one being in mostly still form, the two have to take entirely different approaches to grabbing a viewer’s heart.

Anime can rely entirely on actions, on visuals, on stunning effects. Visual novels, being of the written form, naturally have to actually use words a lot to paint the picture.

It’s different from normal books, as visual novels do get still images, and perhaps more important, mood-setting music, but it’s still tough to get the reader right where you want them.

Which is strange, because in visual novels, the author pretty much leads the reader by the hand. It’s tough to visualize what the author does not describe, to hear what sounds are not made, to find the details not presented. It’s essentially, up to the author to create their world, down to every last detail and foreshadowing. The pictures, here, serve as supplements rather than the main course.

Naturally, visual novels typically have a slower pace as well; you can read at your own speed, pause and put it down anytime, or even go back and read previous scenes. Yeah, the same theory is true for anime, but somehow it seems wrong in a sense to rewind a moving picture, rather than going backwards in a book. There’s a sense of broken continuity, to me.

But for some reason, one of the things that has affected me most in my year of anime, and now, anime-likes, has been a visual novel.

Tsukihime’s a stellar read all around, and I’d have to put Hisui’s True Ending as one of the most powerful moments of it.
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For a while it was up in the air between the previous news (broken in the preview for the Novemeber issue of Japanese magazine Tougeki Damashii) of a possible sequel to the hit 2D fighter and the consequent removal of the title from the preview page, but now it’s confirmed:

Hot meido-on-unlucky-osananajimi action is back, baby.

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Visual novel conversions are quite common in the anime world. It makes sense, a lot of the time; the content’s already there, without much need for original work. And the characters typically already pander to the mostly male anime audience; whether it be improbable body shapes, lolicons, or just straight-up moe characters. And there’s already a proven audience; the people who bought the original visual novel and are dying to see it in animated form.

But, for those animation studios who decide to make an anime out of a mostly serious or emotional visual novel, it’s hell on earth. While playing to the lowest common demographic in more ecchi/lighthearted conversions (like, say, the first halves of Shuffle or D.C.) may be easy, making a visual novel with an actual story “work” is very hard.

Why? It’s the simple concept of most visual novels; one guy, many girls. While it’s not always as dirty as it sounds, the framework goes as such and as a result there’s not one canon storyline to work off of.

There may be a main storyline, one heroine who is placed above the others, but still one obviously cannot ignore the other harem members and their stories entirely. And such resides the complexity of visual novel conversions in that a studio has to work to flesh out and unify the story as much as possible without straying too far from the original work, lest the fans be forced to take up their arms (although that seems to happen about anything, eh?).

And that is why Tsukihime is simply one of those visual novels that Does Not Compute into anime form.

Certainly I appreciate the efforts to make an excellent story into an excellent show, but in the end, Lunar Legend Tsukihime falls far short of the mark…even when you give it credit for trying to make a workable story out of things.

(Spoilers for Tsukihime anime and visual novel post-jump.)
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What Tsukihime anime? I thought it didn’t exist.

Such is the legendary reputation of the anime Shingetsutan Tsukihime, the incredibly polarizing adaptation of Type-Moon’s hit (or at least, quite good) visual novel Tsukihime. The general consensus is, if you’re seeing the content for the first time - if the anime is your only experience with Tsukihime - then it’s a very good show. But if you’ve played the visual novel to any degree of completion, you’re going to hate it like it’s name was Makoto Itou.

(Incidentally, the reason why we don’t have a School Days 10 post today is because it would be five pages of ranting about how everybody sucks and that there are no more heroes - except maybe Nanami - and that everybody should die, burn, fire, katto katto katto katto, etc or at the least not have a happy ending. An entertaining post maybe but School Days has it’s direction pretty well defined by now, so I don’t need to talk much about it.)

And so, having read the Tsukihime visual novel “cover-to-cover”, finishing all 5 paths and the epilogue, I embarked on possibly the most masochistic quest yet: watching the Tsukihime anime. It would be a true test to see if I could really, really hate an anime.

Going into it I was vaguely familiar with some of the fan community’s bigger gripes about what Lunar Legend Tsukihime got wrong, so I can’t say I was completely shocked by the incorrectness of some things, but seeing it in person is always better and more complete than listening to one person flame about it (hopefully in this post I will just be smoldering) - not to mention, there were still a few minor surprises in store in terms of direction taken.

So. Love? Hate? Love? (I don’t even watch that anime.) As usual, as much as I’d like to take the arugment to some sort the real answer is somewhere in between in that the anime does a lot of things right - one might say passably - but there are some things that hurt (and not so good, either) to watch.

Spoilers on the Tsukihime visual novel follow. Jump, how high, etc.
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Kagetsu Tohya is a visual novel by Type-Moon. It essentially is the “sequel”, in all intention, to its popular predecessor Tsukihime, one of the most gripping and emotional stories I’ve seen this side of, well, actual books. (Which I admit I do lack in.)

This, as has been addressed and joked about in my two earlier posts about KT, should be all you really need to read in this post, because either you will be:
1) Completely lost and ignore this post
2) Proudly crossing this game off your Completed Type-Moon Works list
3) Dashing to get your hands on the patch.

To be honest Kagetsu Tohya isn’t one of those things where you can simply go “Heh, CCY’s raving about it, let’s go play it,” because while the story is for all purposes separate from that of Tsukihime’s, both some of the minor aspects and many of the in-jokes will fly far, far over your head if you have not played the original. There’s a reason it’s called the Tsukihime Fun Disc, and not Tsukihime II.

So if you don’t know who Ciel-sensei is (or if you answer Ciel), why Sacchin is sad, or why Hisui is so moe you’re going to die I would highly suggest you play Tsukihime first. The patch can be
found over at Mirror Moon.

That advice applies even if you’ve watched the anime and think you have a grasp on what Tsukihime is, because to be honest…you don’t. There’s four full paths you’re missing out on. And they’re all the good ones.

That said, if you’re bored and curious what exactly Kagetsu Tohya has to offer - perhaps, if you need a reason to get into Tsukihime, or if you still live in the land of the 56K modem, or maybe if you just want to hear me rant about Sacchin - then read on. Spoilers will be kept to a minimum.
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Following on the heels of my praises of Hisui and Sacchin in the other post, Kagetsu Tohya (the visual novel sequel to Tsukihime that I’ve raved about before) is telling me that it’s Satsuki Yumizuka’s birthday today.

As silly as it is to celebrate the fictional birthday of a fictional character (which would explain why my post is the first one for it as far as I can find), I’m an anime blogger who has lost all sense of shame over the summer and as such it’s time to have a day where maybe it won’t be so sad for Sacchin.

(Now if only that wasn’t one of her two-odd appearances in KT…)

Pictures, character ranting, blatant fanboying, etc after the jump. Spoilers on her character from the Tsukihime visual novel, if that worries you.

The Tsukihime fanbase has always been a tough one to get a read on; unlike other series where clear fan favorites have been established, it’s difficult for white me to say just how popular or unpopular a character like Satsuki is.

While it’s true that the catchphrase “Isn’t it sad, Sacchin” was borne out of, I believe, a CCC doujin page discussing how Satsuki came in last place in the popularity poll, it certainly feels like, at least in the English-speaking Type-Moon community, that Satsuki has quite a following, at least more so than the likes of, say, other main heroines, like Ciel or Kohaku.

I’m pretty sure Arc is up there because she’s the Main Character. Akiha’s a tsundere, and an imouto. Hisui’s a shy/quiet girl (and a maid, I suppose) and adorable to the eleventh power. So while I don’t expect Sacchin to be the unloved character of the Tsukihime universe like her reputation is, she’s not going to be a chart-topper at any rate.

But, topic-wise, some of the less Sacchin-devoted may ask, why Satsuki? (and why do you keep changing back and forth between the two names?)

I think the first reason that a lot of people like Satsuki is, well, what has come to be known in the business as the Nayuki Factor. Characters that have high potential in this factor are usually the ones that well, don’t win, to put it that way. These characters get the shaft in one or multiple ways, whether it be simply getting ignored by the main character or all the way up to, in poor Sacchin’s case, turning into a vampire and dying. In a sense, a lot of these characters are Red Shirts in that they are sort of expendable, and not the main focus of the series.

Those of us who like to root for the underdog will find all sorts of things to like in the Nayuki-Class as a result; that urge to see the infamous Nayuki Ending, or Satsuki Path, really drives a fanbase, to the point to where it almost becomes ridiculous (I know the fabled Satsuki Path has been mocked once or twice by Type-Moon in their works).

So, perhaps if Satsuki did have an arc in Tsukihime, she wouldn’t have had as much love as she does now. But, as just mentioned, there are plenty of things to find to like about Sacchin.

She’s pretty much The Normal One of Tsukihime, something that no other main heroine in Tsukihime can attest to; although she does get vampireized, it’s not a condition that exists in the start of the visual novel, as opposed to everyone else, who is just hiding secrets from you. Sacchin is closer to a, I suppose, more typical and pure visual novel girl, the kind that fell in love with the main character X years ago and just now is trying to really capture him.

Except in Tsukihime, everyone is somewhat of a three-dimesional character, and so Satsuki made a few wrong moves and ended in up the perilous situation of being a vampire, leading to the famous confrontation between her and Shiki which brings new meaning to his promise to “always protect her” - which in this case, means killing her to end her suffering.

And yeah, there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s really sad, Sacchin.

Somehow it seems that the more tears a visual novel character can induce in their arc, the more love they get; maybe this is part of that whole “moe = want to protect” thing (which is probably completely wrong on my part), but definitely I am a fan of characters like Satsuki, and Hisui, whose whole story - especially the ending - just brings a new meaning to “;_;”.

In conlcusion, yay for Sacchin, the underdog character of Tsukihime who will probably never get a true closure apart from death; but she lives on in non-canon stories (truth: her Blood Arc in Melty Blood, especially versus a Shiki, is one of the best moves in the game to watch) and in the fanbase.

If you’re looking for those pictures of Satsuki, I’m sorry to do this to you but I’ve put it into a zip file and uploaded it to Rapidshare; 25 images is a pain in the butt to upload one-by-one, so download them all at once and pick out the ones you like. There’s a lot of good artwork in here.

Yay, Sacchin! Fight!

-CCY

Again another raving post about the visual novel sequel-like-substance to Tsukihime, named Kagetsu Tohya. In case you completely missing the rabid fanboying yesterday KT is a sort of Groundhog-Day like game in which the protagonist Shiki Tohno repeats the same day…over…and…over. But unlike other visual novels where the only choice reads something like

“1) Have sex with her.
2) Have sex with her up the butt.”

Kagetsu Tohya features a somewhat ridiculous amount of content for just ‘one day’, in that I’ve been through the day 20 times and found something new every time. The game’s in-game help system also tells me that I’m about only a third of the way through.

Of course, this doesn’t count the ten side stories.

I think it’s spelled out quite well that, from the ‘wake-up’ choice of 2 paths, the second path leads to a choice of 8 choices for the morning, and if you pick the right one you get to pick from another 6 options. All this before lunch, where you are treated to another set of 6. It’s freaking huge.

Today’s post deals with some of the lighter side of Kagetsu Tohya. Since it does have so many paths to go down, a good deal of them are allowed to have more amusing content, whether it be funny, fanservicey, or just plain ridiculous. As such after the jump you will be treated to a selection of the “first third of the game’s” most amusing scenes. Hopefully you will be intrigued to find out more afterwards.
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Kagetsu Tohya is the essential sequel-ish thing to popular Type-Moon visual novel Tsukihime, and the English patch was just released for it recently. Here’s a download link.

Well, that’s all I need to write, as you have already stopped reading because 1) you don’t care or 2) you have just dashed off at light speed to download that patch and get your Hisui moe fix on again.

But in all seriousness, if you’re not familiar with the Tsukihime universe, the original visual novel was a doujin work that achieved quite a large fanbase. It dealt with a high school student named Shiki Tohno, who had a mysterious power which allows him to see the ‘death lines/points’ on things (forgive me for inaccuracies, it’s been half a year), and his encounters with many strange personalities, such as the friendly vampire with a strange past, the unkillable contract killer, the twin maids that are twin maids and very moe (but also have very deep stories), and a tsundere sister (with a deep story).

Oh, and Satsuki, aka Isn’t It Sad Sacchin. Wai for Sacchin~

Tsukihime is quite a novel grounded in fantasy, as there are large magical aspects to it, whether dealing with vampires, man/beast combinations, fantasy weapons, or, for those familiar with Fate/Stay Night, ‘mana transfer’.

It’s ero in nature, as most visual novels back then, but there’s not a huge focus on it - the English patch has an included option to disable all ero scenes. Instead, Tsukihime can be related to Kanon-type stories, in that they have quite moe characters, and are, in the end, tearjerkers.

Tsukihime differs from Kanon, largely, though, because it is a bit gory, there are huge conflicts (there is technically a Big Bad), and the main character has quite some issues himself (not of the bad kind, to the audience). Still, if you like gripping stories and have a week to burn, give Tsukihime a shot. I don’t think you’ll regret it.

As for Kagetsu Tohya, more info about that after the jump. The explanation will assume you have a familiarity with Tsukihime.
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