Review by CoaxMetal

Shiki Tohno was in an accident 8 years ago. The details of this are unclear, but it has left him with some lifelong conditions and weakness that regularly take over him and prevent him leading a normal life.

Because of his condition (which again, is never really specified in the first volume), his sister has had to take over the family estate. As the show begins, we learn that his father has recently passed away, and Shiki, who has been living with relatives until now, is to return to the estate and see his sister again for the first time in years.

However, the accident also had another side effect. He was left seeing blood red lines criss-crossing every surface he looked at. Lines that when broken, destroy whatever is beneath them. This becomes very evident in the first episode when, without any apparent reason or hesitation, he attacks and violently dismembers a girl he see's walking down the street using this power. Why does he see these things? Why did he attack this girl? And how is it possible that the same girl he so violently slaughters comes back to him and pledges to repay him for killing her?

First picking up Tsukihime you would think that this being a vampire anime, it would conatain a fair amount of blood and violence, and probably some stylishly done action sequences. This show takes things in a rather different direction. The tone and the setting are dark and surreal, and watching the beginning episodes are almost like watching someone elses waking dream (or nightmare) unfold before them.

What makes this show isn't the individual plot elements. You could almost play a game of spot the cliche. Vampires, mysterious boy with mysterious past and powers, and of course, selective amnesia. Where would we be amnesia? What really brings this show together though, is how execution of it. Most of the characters seem odd and slightly out of place with the world. Think "American Gothic". Story progression, likewise, is slow, but the build up is carried out well. Any real revelations are thin, but this is done to give ample time to build the surreal setting and atmosphere that are what this show is based on. The only problem I can see at the moment though, is that there really isn't much plot progression at all in the first volume, so it's impossible to tell how it's going to progress later on. Things look interesting now, but it's easy to see everything falling apart in the later episodes if things aren't planned out very carefully. If a good show like this ends like Evangelion, I'm going to hit someone. Hard.

Ultimately, you don't watch a show like this expecting slick action and cool set pieces (although some of those are present). But if you like your slow burners, and are looking for a good atmospheric horror, then you should definitely give Tsukihime a try.

Tsukihime Volume 1. 8/10

Reviewed by CoaxMetal