It is a rare occurrence when a piece of media comes around and changes the face of the medium it belongs to. Sometimes it changes the way we look at things, other times, it brings spotlight to a scene that would have otherwise remained unknown. Sometimes, it just so happens that it takes all that untapped potential and does something with it.
And sometimes, but only sometimes, it just so happens that it does all three, but its even more rare when it comes from beginnings as humble as these...
In the year 2000, almost two decades ago, a nearly unknown doujin circle, Type Moon, with only four people under its wing released its first ever PC visual novel on the market. Uncertain of how things would turn out, each with their own expectations about the project, they awaited the public response to this passion project of theirs. But before they had a time to react, this small independent project had become a complete phenomenon, and the circle that they created only for this one project became a sensation.
This is an ode to the game that they created: Tsukihime; a visual novel that may not matter too much nowadays and one that isn’t too well recognized anymore, but still holds a dear place in many people’s hearts. A visual novel with such humble beginnings, yet such a lasting impact on creators and players alike. Though we may not realize it, the DNA of this one experience has been passed onto other narratives and projects, each with their own significance and identity. That’s why I want to celebrate this game, to share to everyone else why it matters to me and so many others.
Tsukihime, at its essence, is born from the collaboration of two interesting creators who have shared a long-lasting, powerful friendship; both personally and creatively. They are Kinoko Nasu, and Takeuchi Takashi, the main protagonists of today’s story.
It's not a very interesting story, but we went to middle school together. I was a very forgetful kid, and I forgot to bring an eraser to the new classroom I was going to be in. So I looked at the kid next to me and said "Sorry, but can you lend me an eraser?" He was the one I asked. (Laughs) And that tied our bonds for life...
-Kinoko Nasu
From an early age, these two bonded over their similar tastes and this friendship grew over the years as they became more involved in each other’s interests and creative pursuits. As life would go on and childish games became professional pursuits, they would find a passion in collaborating with each other on personal projects, like Nasu’s Kara no Kyoukai series.
Ultimately, it was Takeuchi’s initiative that led to Tsukihime’s creation. He was willing to start development on his own game, and no one was more fitting to fill in the role of scenario writer than Kinoko Nasu, whose narrative style Takeuchi always admired.
With Nasu’s unique writing style combined with Takeuchi’s experience working in game development, this new project was sure to be a success. Takeuchi was so passionate about helping to bring this project to life that he offered to take care of Nasu’s financial burdens so he could focus exclusively on writing the script.
Soon after, Takeuchi managed to convince some of his old coworkers to join in on the project as well. These two were composer KATE and programmer Kiyobee. With all four ready to work on the project, they founded the doujin circle known as ‘TYPE-MOON’ and began working on this new idea.
The development of Tsukihime was a complicated time for everyone, as they had to balance their busy personal lives with the workload of developing such a lengthy novel.
Uncertainty was in the air; no one was quite sure of how the entire thing was going to turn out. Some days, Tsukihime was just something to be a simple game project to be done within 6 months, one which would be forgotten as everyone went their separate ways.
Yet, on some other days, the tight-knit circle fantasized about the possibility of earning fame through the game. It is because of this that, while developing Tsukihime, the team tapped into a certain creative spirit that propelled their efforts forward.
As they crunched time to work on the project, they also poured their heart and soul into making it something that other people could understand and appreciate. Everyone was eager to prove themselves with this project, and it’s only natural that their efforts would lead to a game that became a huge and unprecedented success for the genre.
Even skeptical readers who did not see much potential in the genre would be soon enraptured in the world and characters of Tsukihime. It was easy to appreciate the amount of work put into this massively lengthy novel, which took readers down a series of different paths that each showed a new and unique perspective of this highly unique urban fantasy. Thanks to Nasu’s unique writing style, readers could easily jump into the perspective of the main character and experience a gateway into outlandish concepts and philosophical themes.
But enough about how this game came to be, let's talk about its story:
The story of Tsukihime begins with a boy going through a horrible experience. This boy, Shiki Tohno, wakes up in a hospital bed, not realizing that he had just miraculously survived a horrible, life-threatening injury. However, being trapped in the hospital was the least of Shiki’s concerns, as he was surrounded by strange and unsettling cracks around every object and every living being that he saw; strange lines that he was not able to see before. Disturbingly enough, every time he traced these lines with his own fingers, every object would suddenly fall apart in disrepair.
Though he desperately tried to convince everyone that there was something wrong with his eyes, no one believed him. He lived his days in that hospital feeling a miserable loneliness; that is until the day he found someone that truly understood him. She was an older girl with long red hair, Aoko Aozaki, and she spent several days with Shiki, learning and comforting him about his experiences with these disturbing lines.
She explained to Shiki that these were the ‘lines of death’ that surrounded all beings, and that tracing them would bring immediate death to that thing.
Aware of how severe Shiki’s new ability was, Aoko parted with two gifts for him that would shape the rest of his life. One was a pair of magical glasses that allowed him to erase these horrible lines from his view for as long as he wore them, allowing him to live a sane and normal life. The other was a heartfelt teaching to value all human life equally, regardless of his ability to end it at any moment’s notice.
After that, Shiki led a difficult life because of his injury. He suffered from chronic fatigue symptoms and anemia which left him in a constant limbo between life and death.
He did not expect to live very long, but for that reason, he values the time he has, always staying true to the words of that peculiar teacher he met so long ago. However, a strange series of killings have started in his town of Misaki-cho and sooner than later, those same events would involve him as well.
Tsukihime’s world is full of fantastical concepts which can be difficult grasp at face value, yet when you’re reading through the novel, it feels like you’re slowly discovering everything you need to know in a way that’s natural and digestible.
The main character lives in our own reality, but slowly finds himself in fantastical situations that reveal a secret and dangerous world that lived and breathed right under our noses.
The world of Tsukihime doesn’t overwhelm you especially because all of it is rooted with interesting and likable characters with a real human side to them. Though you meet vampires, dangerous nuns and mages, they still embody the spirit of people who are living through life; each with their own conflicts, dilemmas and sadness that envelops them. As the conflict unfolds and each mystery about the world is revealed, we also learn more the hidden sides of our characters and see them grow and develop until the end.
Shiki Tohno, our protagonist, is probably the best out of them all. He truly feels like a complex human being, with many different facets to his personality. Just as he can be determined, he can also get annoyed; get angry; show his sarcastic side; show his helpful side; or show his more contemplative side, all while staying true to his characterization. The novel’s writing style helps flesh out Shiki’s character by showing the full extent of his inner thoughts, presenting a character that’s likable and relatable, but not shying away from exploring his inner darkness as well.
A certain ambivalent and contemplative tone pervades the atmosphere of Tsukihime. The events surrounding the town of Misaki-cho are dense and mysterious, but they don’t overshadow the moments of happiness that our characters experience in their everyday lives.Tragedy befalls many of the people who become involved in this twisted narrative, yet we can juxtapose this with the simple and pleasant memories we shared with them that define their character. This combination of tones allows our characters to share deep and intimate moments of reflection that highlight the game’s core themes.
Shiki, the protagonist, is at the center of this feeling. He is constantly stuck in a limbo between life and death. He lives his life without aspirations, as his lifespan is not expected to last very long, and his condition makes him act in a distant and apathetic manner. Yet, Shiki doesn’t mind his life the way it is; he values it for what it has and for however long it will last. Behind his anemic exterior, he hides a determined and philosophical worldview that sees value in life and all things.
And all this is ultimately the core theme of this story; coming to terms with life and death, however they come, and whenever they may come. The world of Tsukihime, the characters of Tsukihime, the narrative of Tsukihime; each point to a struggle between living life to its fullest while embracing death. It shows the fragility of human life through an ability that keeps it as close as possible, showing it in all its ugly and fractured splendor. Yet, even though its fragile, it must be preserved and maintained so that there can be meaning in it.
Tsukihime shows antagonists that want to live forever, yet they find out that their life has become meaningless as a result of it, degrading into an existence that lives purely to harm others. It also shows antagonists which are frustrated with the horrible circumstances in their life, characters that have gone insane or become spiteful because they lacked all hope in living their own lives.
Life and death are important themes of the story, but its just as important as the theme of finding meaning in them. Just as our characters can find meaning in death, they can also live life with some meaning as well. Tsukihime is a story that uses fantastical concepts and meanings, flashy fight scenes and enjoyable characters to hide a journey of self-discovery. It is a very personal tale of a group of individuals who struggle with their lives, but ultimately find meaning thanks to each other’s efforts, talents and points of view.
Tsukihime is also a very human and personal story about people struggling with their own sanity and guilt when they’re overcome by death. It shows characters bearing the heavy burden of fighting that terrible side of themselves, either accepting the burden of their crimes or developing a strong conviction that gives them a stronger sense of self and a desire to choose to do good, even if it means self-sacrifice.
It’s worth noting that all of Tsukihime’s strengths come in spite of its weaknesses; weaknesses that are unique to the time and conditions in which the game was made. It’s clear at first glance that Tsukihime was a project that couldn’t have many resources or time poured into it and wasn’t strictly made by experienced professionals. All the ambition of Tsukihime’s script and storytelling, seems to awkwardly clash with its ability to create a good presentation.
People talk a lot about how many pages of text there was, but the number of images should actually be more surprising, I think, and I want people to understand this. Takeuchi, by himself, did all the work on every graphic, from sketching to coloring. People often say "the coloring is a bit amateurish" but I wish they'd give us a little more slack here…
-Kinoko Nasu
Tsukihime’s art, sound design and music all have a certain amateur quality to them that’s easy to note. The backgrounds are comprised of still and empty reference pictures, only camouflaged by thick filters that distort and color the image in a cold, blue hue.
The character art is rough, showing plenty of cases of wonky anatomy, simplistic coloring, and rough lineart. Running at such a low, pixelated resolution definitely doesn’t make this game age any better.
The sound design is completely barren as well. As you read, you won’t hear anything other than the occasional heartbeat or ticking clock; that is until the music starts playing. And the music is…. Unique. I can’t find any better way to describe it than “Elevator music”. The melodies are simple and repetitive, the instrumentation doesn’t stand out in any way, and the music generally evokes this very simplistic quality that goes all too well with the rest of the game’s presentation.
And that’s without getting into Tsukihime’s…. Questionable content. And yes, it’s time to address the elephant in the room; Tsukihime was made first and foremost to be an “eroge”.
If you don’t know what an eroge is, then all you need to know is that the most literal definition of the term means “erotic game”. For as much as I’d like to recommend Tsukihime as a story for “everyone”, I still hesitate to do it because of its intent to be, from the very beginning, a product for the adult market. And these erotic scenes they…. They do not hold up at all.
I had absolutely no confidence in the erotic bits back then. I didn't even feel the need to put erotic parts in my own stories, so I never even thought about them. When I realized that the game's genre would be in that area, though, I realized it needed sex-related scenes. The thing I feared more than anything else was whether or not I'd be able to write something that would actually turn people on.
-Kinoko Nasu
Ever wonder why Tsukihime’s sex scenes are so blatant and uncomfortable? Well, here’s the reason why. Its so clear that adding ero content to the game was nothing more than a ploy to get it to sell well for a specific market in a very specific time when these products were all the rage.
This is Tsukihime’s most dated quality by far. Reading interviews, it’s clear that Nasu was not comfortable or knowledgeable with making adult content of this nature and it… really shows in the way that content is portrayed in the novel’s terribly matter-of-fact descriptions and lousy metaphors. It’s just awkward. Their inclusion doesn’t come naturally and some of them go on for so very long that you just want to skip the cringe and get it over with.
It’s ironic that after making an article to praise this game, I’ve been complaining on and on about Tsukihime’s content, presentation and age. But that’s why this is “An Ode to Tsukihime” and not “Why Tsukihime is a perfect masterpiece”. Tsukihime isn’t perfect, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean something special to me and many others.
In reality, a lot of these faults don’t really bother me as much as they should, because they’ve become part of the experience.
When I look at Tsukihime’s visuals, they remind me of the time the game was made in and the circumstances of its production. They don’t look simple because the developers didn’t care, but because that’s the best they could do with the very limited time and resources they had at the time. This game wasn’t made by seasoned professionals with a big team and tons of money; it was made by a group of very passionate young people who wanted to tell a story and didn’t care how much effort it would take to get it completed at all costs.
Same thing could be said about the music. I know the term “elevator music” wasn’t a flattering description, but I’d also be lying if I said I didn’t end up liking it. At times, its simplicity really is the genius behind it. When you listen to this music, its melodies bring you back to a time when things were pure and simple. It’s nostalgic, for lack of a better word. The music resonates very well with the experience of the game because it gives it such a evocatively romantic feeling. You don’t need a complicated melody to entrance an audience in a scene; just a few notes will be able to get them to remember powerful memories such as these.
And ultimately, nostalgia is the best word that can describe Tsukihime. It’s an experience that could only have been made with very specific circumstances and could only sell well under the specific time period it was released in. It, alongside other visual novels, taught people how much potential this medium had for telling complete and groundbreaking stories despite its rudimentary presentation. After all, you didn’t need amazing visuals and graphics to tell a good story; all you needed was passion and dedication.
Some parts have aged worse than others of course, but when I look Tsukihime, I see a project that is humble, yet eager to prove itself to the world. Its unassuming presentation combined with its more profound storytelling bring me back to a very special and unique time. When I read this story, I can easily imagine what Type Moon was envisioning when they came up with all these characters, themes and stories.
For better or for worse, we’ll never get a game like Tsukihime ever again. It’s a game perpetually stuck in the period it was made in and one that feels nostalgic and dated because of it. It’s a story that could only have been made by a very specific group of people in that very specific point in time when Visual Novels were just coming into their own as an artistic and commercial medium.
Even if Type Moon tries to re-capture the feeling of this game when they inevitable release that remake, I will continue to sing the praises of the experience that started it all and would continue to remain unique even to the next ten or twenty years…
We know there are many users out there with tons of love for 「Tsukihime」, but we don't intend on letting them outshine US. Everything TYPE-MOON has to offer is stuffed into this. From our stupidly honest early impulses, to our oppressive fervor, to our amateurness that led us to even hate time itself. This is everything that represents TYPE-MOON.
It's already been 4 years since 「Tsukihime」 was released. Looking back now, 「Tsukihime」 was a starting point, but I also realized it's a special kind of work that we will never be able to create again. I'm not talking about sequels here, I'm just saying -- we will never be able to make something again with those same initial impulses.
TYPE-MOON was supposed to disband after releasing 「Tsukihime」, but it didn't. Only God knows what'll happen to us from here, but I hope we can just keep trudging on with our own style...and I hope we can always return here. ...no one knows what's going to happen in life, though. The world is full of agony, so I hope you'll stay with us as long as you can.