carleton.welch - 2016-08-15 06:35:36

Okay, as my first review, let's break this down into parts.  Also, don't expect objectivity, this is mostly personal opinion.

Story:  The lore and setup of the story are above average, with an interesting mystery element and a pile of history just waiting to be discovered.  With only twelve episodes, though, backstories are only scratched at, and the plot was meandering and vague at best.   On the other hand, the romance was very well done and offered lots of places for the feels to attack.

Animation:  The animation is best described as "nyeehhh?" with a slight rise in pitch.  There aren't many derpy faces or errors, but a lot of the animations feel stiff, and there are a lot of reused frames and backgrounds.  The quality does improve slightly as the show progresses, but overall leaves something to be desired, although the 100% hand-drawn frames are a breath of fresh air for anyone currently suffering through Berserk (2016)

Sound:  Awesome.  I very much enjoyed the soundtrack, and it does a very good job of setting the eerie mood.

Character:  The characters are definitely the focus of the show.  There are no throwaway exposition machines, and everyone has their own distinct personality without resorting to quirkiness.  Every character is believable, interesting in some way, and are easily understood.

Overall:  A good thing to see.  I won't be obsessing, but it was good enough to binge the second half.  If you're looking for something to watch, check out Shingetsutan Tsukihime, you've got nothing to lose.

jack.kozey - 2013-09-10 15:20:40

First of all, for all of us type-moon fans, there's no Tsukihime anime. As a big fan of original VN, this anime made me somehow mad. There's a couple of reasons about it.

Story:

The studio tried to include much information from the Far Side routes, which do not feature Arcueid, who is a main heroine, into this anime. Actually, they succeeded more than Studio DEEN with Fate/Stay Night, but still, this is an eternal flaw which is present in almost every multiple roots VN adaptation. But still, the story is quite good, cause mostly it follows the original VN.

Art:

Here it is. MANFACES. In 2003 they managed to completely ruin the graphics. Even original VN, with Takeshi Takeuchi's early drawings, had better style. I couldnt recognize Arcueid, when I watched this anime, and Tohno Shiki and Akiha's fat faces made me completely mad. On the other hand, sound is quite good, music from OP and ED especially.

Characters:

Major flaw with characters is the thing, that they did not receive their full development, that is why they suck. Also, Roa was somehow underdeveloped in the first route of original VN too, so not much to say here.

Overall:

The biggest problem of this show is - its fucking boring. It doesnt have the original's tension, and that is why there's no Tsukihime anime. But, for those who did not read the VN, it's a quite decent love story with some mystery in it, so worth watching.

boyle.virgil - 2013-06-01 21:50:06

There are no spoilers in this review.
Tsukihime is one of those anime based off a visual novel. Like with most of them, the fans of the Tsukihime visual novel didn't like the adaptation. But for myself, someone completely new to Tsukihime, I enjoyed it greatly.
Which means I think I could finally answer the question which was put to me by people who ask about whether or not I would have liked the Fate/Stay Night anime if I had not read the visual novel and that is I think now that I would. With that out the way let's start with the review.

Story
This was, in my opinion, brilliant. I really enjoyed the Mystery themes to it, as Tsukihime struggled to learn about his past as he is fighting. The information was present in a way that it was easily understood which we needed to know for the story to make sense and briefly so they could focus on other parts of the story besides the background.

I have to say I was a bit suspicious watching this considering it is basically a story about a teenage boy falling in love with a vampire. I can confirm indeed, that it is a better love story than twilight. I really say the story was well executed for it to be enjoyable for those who are new to the Tsukihime visual novel.

Of course now I wish to play the visual novel for myself so I can make a proper comparison between the two. I have a feeling that my opinion on the anime might change after reading it. But I have not been able to find a working copy yet. So I may not be able to find out.

Tech
This is probably the weakest point of the anime. Which is primarily due to its age. Being released in 2003 it makes it 10 years old now. The animation quality was fair and the art style was pretty good. The sound was average and the music was very good. Basically nothing really amazing here. Just average.

But I have to say something despite this, the tech of the show actually helped my enjoyment of the show. It managed to set up an environment of the show which increased my enjoyment greatly, as in I suppose the atmosphere.
The music and visuals used for both the scenes and intro/outro helped build for me an excitement to watch the show. It felt mysterious and dark which amplified my enjoyment of the story in particular. It kind of reminded me of an old mystery movie.

Characters
The characters were all likeable and suited well for their roles. In particular I liked Arcueid Brunestud, the most. Despite herself being a bit too clingy. It was interesting seeing all these characters interact with Tsukihime, even though it's probably a bit typical nowadays how they did in modern day Harems. The voice acting in the dub wasn't bad, wasn't bad at all which means the characters images weren't really damaged unlike Fate/Stay Night with Giligamesh's English voice actor.

Conclusion
Overall this show left a positive effect on me. With no really seriously big flaws. Of course, my opinion would be different if I had read the visual novel, but I have not. I honestly think that it deserves the score which I will award and I'd recommend it in a heartbeat to anyone.

Score: 8/10