Shingetsutan Tsukihime

Title: Shingetsutan Tsukihime (Tsukihime, Lunar Legend – English Title)
Rating: 3.5/5
Genre: Drama, Mystery, Animation
Language: Japanese
Duration: 25mins (12 episodes)

And so I finish the story, head still reeling somewhat from the in depth plot and I wonder just where to begin. This mini-series has some very heavy gothic undertones, and is not for those who aren’t looking for dark imagery, yet whilst many aspects could feel either cliché or overbearing the plot has been intricately worked out and calculated. Every scene has a point – even if it’ll take the entire series to figure it out – the twists come frequently, and humour subtly worked in through the school friends. Whilst originally based on a Video Game (apparently), the story unfurls in a manner that doesn’t feel constrained by another format like so many other conversions.

The plot for the most part follows the story of Shiki; a student who lost his memory in a car accident eight years ago, waking up to find he could see mysterious red lines on every object. Now sent to live with his sister following the death of his estranged parents, he struggles to adjust to life with his overprotective sibling in the mansion, and it isn’t long before he quickly becomes involved in the affairs of the sinister and mysterious Arcueid; a vampire hunting another of her kind. But she isn’t the only one withholding secrets…

Many aspects towards the start will seem odd and confusing, only to receive an explanation at a later point (the entire first episode will likely make next to no sense whatsoever). The first example of which is the reveal that Shiki is capable of seeing ‘lines,’ but it is only a couple of episodes in that we are shown what these lines do, and even later than that given an explanation of how they work. New mysteries constantly reveal themselves as the story progresses and by the mid-point most aspects make sense. The level of detail that has gone into each scene, delivering subtle clues that when put into context later transform the meaning of the scene is incredible, and with the amount of character background and information that is presented throughout these 12 short episodes it could have greatly benefited from an increased run time, so as to more adequately explain the scenes shown.

Not least of this background is the unique vampire lore. Whilst a romantic element does emerge, don’t go thinking of this as some half-baked ‘Twilight’ clone, as the vampires here are not like what you would expect. Ultimately there are two ‘breeds’ of vampire, the ‘True Ancestors’ and the ‘Dead Apostles.’ The former are the ancient race born as a vampire, and the more powerful of the two, immortal and not requiring blood in order to survive. If they were to drink blood, however, the result would be that they ultimately create a Dead Apostle; a human turned vampire that only emerges at night, needing human blood to survive. And this only scratches the surface of the sheer detail that is explored.

The characters are all well designed and fascinating to watch, from Arcueid’s innocence to the far more minor role of the maid and the manner she subtly manipulates things around the household. The characters develop slowly – as does the plot – and so whilst this isn’t for those with short attention spans, the end result is well worth the effort. Sadly, the animation feels constrained by the budget, and whilst a lot of time was spent creating the mood through frequent shots of imagery to a good complementary soundtrack, the end result is perhaps not what it could have been.