YMMV / Tsukihime

• Accidental Innuendo: "It was just bad luck that some insane guy from overseas entered SHIKI."
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Kohaku probably lends herself to this more than any other character. How much control does she have over SHIKI/Roa's actions? Is she drugging everybody, and how often? Does her backstory excuse her actions? It's made worse by the fact that the answer to any of these questions, and more, could be answered quite differently depending on the route. Makihisa Tohno also lends himself to this, though it's mostly along the lines of whether he's truly a monster or something less, due to much of his villainy being in response to factors beyond his control.
• Anti-Climax Boss: Roa/SHIKI. The game made you think that he is a truly Badass enemy that even Arcueid knows isn't an easy opponent or made Akiha increase her powers in order to destroy him. When we have the Shiki vs. Big Bad fight, what happens? Shiki kills him with very little effort.
  • Justified in Hisui's route since SHIKI was undergoing a Villainous Breakdown from killing his blood sister Akiha and had been severely weakened in his earlier fight with her. After the death of his only close relative by his own hands, its possible that at that point SHIKI was hoping to die.
• Awesome Music:
  • Say what you like about it not existing, but the one thing the Shingetsutan Tsukihime anime got absolutely PERFECT was Toshiyuki Omori's opening theme, 'The Sacred Moon'. One of the most outright beautiful anime openings ever made.
  • 'Justice' (the song playing in the background during the Shiki/SHIKI fight in the anime) is not half-bad either.
  • The remake's opening song for Arcueid's route, "Seimeisen" by ReoNa, is very beautiful and motivating. This song was played when the remake was officially announced on New Year's Eve 2020, which got fans very hyped after years of waiting.
  • ReoNa outdoes herself twice over, as she also made "Juvenile", the opening song for Ciel's route, which hypes the player up for all the major differences between the original and remake versions of the plot revolving around our favorite Burial Agent.
  • While Shiki did not have a proper theme in the original VN, in the remake, he finally gets the badass theme he deserves in "Mystic Eyes Awakening", which plays during the showdown against Vlov.
  • The original composer of Tsukihime contributed only one new track to the remake, "Daybreak" for Ciel's True Ending. It's an absolutely triumphant piano duet to congratulate the characters and player for making it this far into the game and the perfect mood setter for Shiki and Ciel finally being able to happily love each other with no obstacles whatsoever preventing them from getting together.
• Complete Monster: Michael Roa Valdamjong in the manga was once a pure priest who fell in love with the True Ancestor Arcueid Brunestud. Growing to despise her for stealing his "purity", Roa became a parasitic vampire who stole the lives of others, possessing them to take new incarnations, going on vicious murder sprees to steal countless lives in hopes of drawing Arcueid to him to possess or torment her. In his 17th incarnation, Roa possessed a girl named Elesia and used her to rape and murder the people of her village. In the present, Roa incarnates in SHIKI Tohno, intending on killing even more people before going after Arcueid again, disdaining her for being "sullied" from the pure vision he once knew.
• Crack Pairing: Some side stories and doujinshi suggest Nero/Kohaku make a good couple. His Melty Blood Victory Quote against her hints that Kohaku is so tragic a figure his beasts instinctively refuse to eat her.
• Ending Fatigue: Ciel's True End in the Remake. As awesome as it is for some readers, once the real action begins, it simply does not seem to end. It is three fight scenes back-to-back that span three or four hours depending on your reading speed. Ciel defeating Arcueid feels appropriately climatic and epic, but that is only less than half the action sequence, and once Arcueid's Luminous Form emerges, the sequence begins to really drag, with basically anything before Arcueid begins moving being essentially filler. When the fight is finally ended and we are treated with a scene of them making up, it's STILL not over, and Shiki is seemingly trapped in a dying dream for about another hour before finally escaping it and getting his happy ending. To make matters worse, the reader has to have seen the Normal End first, and many of these plot beats already happened in that ending and for better reason, making their second iteration even more needless. While the consensus seems to be that her route is much improved in the remake, many readers find the climax to be so drawn out and over the top that it sticks out like a sore thumb and grinds the story's pacing to a screeching halt, to the point where many readers prefer the Normal End over the True End, being an incredibly tragic but well-written, thematically appropriate and concise conclusion to Ciel's story.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Nrvnqsr "Nero" Chaos and Satsuki "Sacchin" Yumizuka seem to be well liked, the former due to his badassness and the latter for her cuteness and unfortunate fate both in-game and metawise.
• Epileptic Trees: Due to Gouto Saiki and Dr. Arach being entirely new characters within the narrative of Tsukihime for A piece of blue glass moon and never actually truly explaining their deal, they've become the characters that have fans heavily theorizing what their deal is and what role they might play in future stories.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Nrvnqsr "Nero" Chaos is, in the grand scheme of things, not that significant to the main story of Tsukihime. He is however very memorable among fans for his intimidating presence, his terrifying ability and his interesting view. Many are sad to see he is, so far, not in the Remake save for a mention and a cameo.
  • Vlov Arkhangel, appropriately Nrvnqsr's replacement in the Remake, fits the bill just as well. He is the opposite of his predecessor, being a very aesthetically classical vampire unlike Nrvnqsr's unorthodox design and powers. His fights in both routes are incredible action pieces that are arguably two of the more gruelling battles in the game despite his relative youth, allowing both the hero and heroine of their respective routes to showcase their unique strengths. It helps that his hatred for Roa and his implied despair and regret at having killed his predecessor are not yet fully elaborated upon, allowing him some mystique and complexities that readers hope they'll see more of in the future.
• Fan Nickname:
  • TsukiR, for the remake.
  • "The Gland", "The Tohno Gland" ^note fan-explanation for Shiki's ability to attract any female, any species. It's pheremones.
  • Miss Blue (or THE Blue), Magic Gunner ^note Aoko, whose first name means "Blue Child" in Japanese. Naturally, her hair is red.
  • Brainwasher Detective ^note Hisui, from one of the Bad Endings in Kagetsu Tohya, Tsukihime's "sequel." Her line, "Anata wa hannin desu!" ("You are the criminal!") was misprinted in the game as "Anata wo hannin desu!" ("You, become the criminal!") and the developers liked it so much, "Brainwasher Detective Hisui-chan" was born.
  • Satsujinki ^note Nickname for Shiki Tohno, whose Mystic Eyes of Death Perception might become so powerful that he's forced to keep himself blinded once his glasses won't work, in the part joke, possibly-canon "Tsukihime 2: The Dark Six."
  • Capslock-kun ^note  SHIKI. The *REAL* SHIKI, not the fake one who took over his name and identity... AKA Shiki Nanaya.
  • Haruo ^note SHIKI's Fan Nickname in Japan. Because the kanji for SHIKI means "Four Seasons" and Haruo is a variant of "Spring".
  • Curry Butt ^note A nickname for Ciel after two of her more prominent traits, her love of curry and her large backside.
  • Sacchin, Badluck Vampire ^note Yumizuka Satsuki. The latter nickname only applies to her after she becomes a vampire during the Far-Side paths of the game.
  • The Russian fandom also gives you "Vugluskr" for Nrvnsqr. "Vugluskr" is a word from a particular obscene Russian joke about bestiality.
  • Arcade Bumstead/Atari Dumbledore ^note For Arcueid Brunestud.
  • Lord of Bedroom Jackassery ^note Shiki Tohno, for all his being a pretty nice guy in general, is rather rough in sex scenes.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The anime adaptation is given this treatment in spades simply because of how poor of an adaptation it is, to the point of becoming a Memetic Mutation.
• Harsher in Hindsight
  • Once you go through Hisui's route and learn the truth about Kohaku, everything involving her becomes very, very cringe inducing.
  • Also, during the climax of Akiha's route, fearing that she will invert, she asks Shiki to give her a Mercy Kill if she ever inverts. Shiki refuses to do it and the ending of her route depends if he goes through with it or not. It becomes harsher once you read the manga and realize that little SHIKI asked Shiki to do the same thing and the Foregone Conclusion of it makes it harder to watch.
  • Once you read the manga, Drinking Dreaming Moon becomes this too.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The anime's soundtrack is arranged by Toshiyuki Omori, who also arranged Neon Genesis Evangelion's cover of "Fly Me to the Moon", which in the context of that anime, centers around an Eldritch Abomination associated with the moon.
  • Speaking of Evangelion, the remake's confrontation against Arcueid in Ciel's route has Arcueid taking the form of a giant light, similar to the infamous Giant Naked Rei at The End of Evangelion.
  • There was a Fan Remake of Tsukihime for Game Boy Advance. Then in 2021 it was confirmed that the remake was officially heading to Nintendo Switch.
• Improved Second Attempt: Ciel's route in the original game is considered to be among the weaker routes, to the point of giving Ciel memetic status, from the heroine herself getting constantly bested in combat, the story feeling like a recycling of Arcueid's route (who has always been much more popular by far) and the Good End being a harem at Ciel's expense. As a result, in the remake, while Arcueid's already popular route remains largely the same, Ciel's route receives major changes and additions despite retaining its overall structure. In Blue Glass Moon, Ciel's route becomes much more focused on over-the-top action, distinguishing itself from Arcueid's, and Ciel herself gets to show off her strength in a way she hadn't been able to before in pretty much every single fight of the route. Almost all the recycling of Arcueid's route is done away with and Ciel has better chemistry with Shiki this time around. The Good End is replaced with a much more tragic but well-written Normal End that is very consistent with the theme and tone of the rest of the route. Overall, though not without its detractors, Ciel's route in the remake is considered to be vastly improved compared to her route in the original game, to the point where many fans of the previously more popular Arcueid's route wish Arcueid could have benefited from similarly ambitious changes and additions.
• Iron Woobie: Shiki has had more than a few traumatic experiences in his backstory too. Getting kicked out of his home by his father for having a near lethal injury that made him see death everywhere is only the beginning, and that's not even getting into the more spoilerrific elements of his backstory. Though to give an example of one of those bits, the opening scene, before the hospital? That's his entire blood related family being slaughtered right before his eyes. He's remarkably well adjusted in spite of it.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: Some readers consider Arcueid's route in the Remake to be this. Unlike Ciel's route, which is generally considered to be vastly improved, Arcueid's remains generally faithful to the original, with some changes such as the addition of new characters and the removal of the Good Ending. As a result, despite her route being generally well loved even in the original game, a number of readers feel that it is too simplistic, especially compared to Ciel's route being much more flashy and surprising. Nasu himself wrestled with this, feeling that the story is perhaps too simplistic even with the new additions, but ultimately decided that he wanted to cater to players who wish the story they had always loved remains the same, and instead use the previously much less popular Ciel's route to escalate things and show what the Remake is capable of.
• It Was His Sled: Most newcomers to the series know all of the spoilers that are supposed to be surprising twists, because of the amount of side-stories and sequels written for the game.
  • That Shiki is really the adopted son of the Tohno family.
  • That SHIKI exists.
  • That Kohaku and Hisui switched roles and Kohaku is actually a Stepford Smiler.
  • With the remake, we can add Noel's transformation into a Dead Apostle in Ciel's route.
• Jerkass Woobie: The more you learn about Noel in Ciel's route, the more it becomes clear that she is a spiteful and sadistic woman out of her comfort zone who is like that because she hasn't gotten proper treatment to her childhood trauma of being a bystander in the same incident that turned Ciel into who she is now. This is even moreso with Dead Apostle Noel, as she fully embraces her role as a "sadistic vampire girl" who uses her own backstory as a form of Mind Rape to her victims, but this doesn't ultimately help her that much, and the reason why she transformed into a little girl is because the last time she was actually happy was when she was 14, right before the Roa incident. Even her transformation into a Dead Apostle is due to her refusing to listen to Ciel's orders, only to learn from Dr. Arach that she wasn't even going to transform into one before she accepted her offer. Noel is ultimately more pathetic than unsympathetic as nothing seems to go her way.
• Magnificent Bastard: Kohaku once offered to allow Makihisa Tohno to rape her in order to spare her sister Hisui from the same fate. Seeking a purpose in revenge on the Tohno family, Kohaku manipulates Makihisa's death and guides Makihisa's daughter Akiha into being her pawn, likewise manipulating Makihisa's adopted son Shiki by revealing incomplete points of information and revealing other pertinent details at the opportune time. Guiding Akiha into embracing her dark side in her own route, Kohaku tricks Shiki multiple times and steadily guides the destruction of the Tohno family, only relenting due to her own love of Shiki while remaining the finest manipulator in all Tsukihime.
• Memetic Mutation: Many. It comes with the territory.
• Moe:
  • When she isn't ripping people apart with maniacal glee, Arcueid is frankly the sweetest and cutest "girl next door" you'd ever have the good fortune of meeting.
  • Akiha also fits this trope like a glove.
  • Satsuki is such a woobie you can't help but want to hug her.
  • Hisui has her moments, such as when she ends up wearing a sweater.
• Moral Event Horizon: See here.
• Narm: In the original's version of Ciel's route, Shiki ends up stubbing his toe on a chair Hisui left on a lobby, causing him to eventually snap and beat up the chair before being stopped by Hisui. This should have been a sign of Shiki's deteriorating mental health, but the lack of any special effects besides a Heartbeat Soundtrack and the writing of the scene ("This chair is an eyesore. Disappear! This chair. This chair. This chair. This chair...") makes the scene more absurd than anything else and really meme-worthy. The remake keeps the scene but adjusts the overall tone of the scene so that it is actually as creepy as it should have been.
• Older Than They Think: The remake only has the Near Side routes in its initial release with the Far Side routes scheduled for a later release. This caused disappointment in some fans, although this is similar to how the original Tsukihime was released, with the Half Moon edition having only the Near Side routes.
• Once Original, Now Common: Nrvnqsr Chaos' removal from the remake is partly because Nasu feels like he is suffering from this. Originally he developed him as a way to go against the Classical Movie Vampire stereotype that was common back in the day. Twenty years later, and "un-vampire vampires" like him have become much more prominent where the classical vampires have become the minority. Vlov was designed to have more of a gothic horror appearance with simple powers to counteract Nrvnqsr Chaos' weirdness.
• One True Threesome: Shiki/Arcueid/Ciel and Shiki/Hisui/Kohaku are the most common. Also Shiki/Akiha/Melty Blood's Sion.
• Player Punch:
  • Arcueid's route. Roa cuts Arcueid in half. The player's response, if they're remotely human, is "BURN!!! MAIM!!! KILL!!! ROA MUST DIE!!!" Shiki is oh so fucking happy to provide. Shiki snaps like a twig in a hurricane. The rest? Is history.
  • Happens in Hisui's route twice within about a 20-minute span. Shiki calls out to Akiha, who was winning the fight against SHIKI with Kohaku's help, distracting her long enough for SHIKI to go for a fatal blow on Kohaku, only for Akiha to step in, take the blow, and die instead. And if that weren't bad enough, Kohaku kills herself not too long afterward, her mission of revenge on the Tohno completed with the death of Akiha.
• Sequel Displacement:
  • In the wider sense of the Nasuverse. Tsukihime was really successful for a doujin product when it came out, even getting manga and anime adaptations, but the Fate series, especially in the 2010s with the advent of things like Fate/EXTRA and especially Fate/Grand Order, has so thoroughly dominated the fan zeitgeist and the time of Type-Moon's staff that Tsukihime has fallen by the wayside, and newer Type-Moon fans, even otherwise devoted ones, are not very familiar with it. The manga adaptation being the only Tsukihime product to get any kind of updating or promotion past 2003 has not helped. Needless to say, this is something of a sore spot for "old-school" T-M fans who first fell in love with Nasu and company due to Tsukihime.
  • Curiously enough, Nasu himself acknowledged this trend in an interview in early 2017, and committed to getting the remake out during the span of F/GO's second story arc, partially so that the juggernaut popularity of F/GO could be used to introduce the newer fans to Tsukihime. True to his word, A piece of blue glass moon was released in summer 2021, during the second arc's run.
• Squick:
  • In order to hone and maintain the Psychic Abilities within the family, the Nanayas practiced a heavy system of inbreeding which resulted in severely deformed individuals.
  • Some of Shiki's views from the gore scenes. Getting to watch the results of the carnage committed by monsters like Nero Chaos, Sacchin or SHIKI is not pretty.
• The Woobie:
  • Becoming the monster the real Tohno SHIKI is now can be blamed on at least three things beyond his control, a combination of his particularly strong awakening of the Tohno's demon blood, being the 18th reincarnation of Roa, AND being locked in a basement for years while Kohaku drugged him and generally screwed with his mind. He didn't really have much of a chance. The side-story game Kagetsu Tohya gives a small amount of closure to this with the final, hidden Tear Jerker bonus story "Drinking, Dreaming Moon" where Shiki and SHIKI finally meet on friendly terms in a dream.
• Woolseyism: The term of Mystic Eyes of Death Perception was actually coined to convey the original pun behind the term in Japanese. Its original literal meaning was "direct death" as a pun on the Japanese phrase for "looking straight at someone". The Fan Translation coined "Death Perception" as a pun on "Depth Perception" to convey the pun about eyes and death, which eventually made its way into official media by way of The Garden of Sinners and Melty Blood.

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