Lunar Legend Tsukihime 5
Posted: March 9, 2008 Filed under: Lunar Legend Tsukihime 7 Comments »I was really bummed that, after waiting a year for this volume, the entire thing read like a dating sim. It’s probably just showing its roots as a visual novel (or whatever the original game is), but I was definitely sad to see that there was none of the action of the past volumes.
There is some mystery in the beginning of the volume, and after several interactions with his sister, Shiki figures out that parts of his memory are blocked out. This hasn’t connected itself back to the story yet, but it does lead to him missing an appointment with Arcueid, and because of this, the entire rest of the volume is a goddamn date.
They go to Shiki’s school. They go to the movies. They go to the amusement park. They go to the regular park. NOTHING HAPPENS. We find out the tiniest little bit about True Ancestors, and in the very last chapter, there is a few pages where a battle we don’t see happens. There is also a tense, somewhat violent moment between Shiki and Arcueid, but it wasn’t nearly enough to balance out the totally out-of-place date that occurred.
It’s sad to think that people following the series would have been a lot worse off than me when, month after month, there was a stupid date where there had been vampire slaying. What the hell. Maybe most people were expecting this, though. I’d like to think that since it leaves off in the middle of an action scene, we’ll get to see more in the next volume. But that won’t be until next year. Um, yeah. This just slid way down my list of good series, sorry.
[...] 19 of Fruits Basket. Connie has another manga-thon at Slightly Biased Manga, posting reviews of vol. 5 of Lunar Legend Tsukihime, Mr. Arashi’s Amazing Freak Show, vol. 2 of Let Dai, Comics Underground Japan, vol. 6 of [...]
I haven’t read the manga yet, but I played the game and I think the date with Arcueid was pretty important. They may have treated it differently in the manga, or you may have been expecting a pure action series, but the date was supposed to show Arcueid’s human side and how she acted just like a naive girl frequently even though Shiki often feared her as a vampire, as someone he could not accept as human.
The game was not a dating sim. It’s not supposed to play like one where you take girls out and do random stuff to woo them. The scenes in Tsukihime have a purpose to it. Too many people have these negative stereotypes about visual novels/h-games/whatever. Just because a lot of them are brainless sex games doesn’t make all of them so. Some of them have excellent stories that rival other forms of media.
I did do a little research after I read this to try and figure out if the game was a dating sim (suggested to me when I read that the manga was based on the Arcueid path/branch of the game), and it didn’t seem like it. I sort of changed my wording before I posted the article, because I do realize that not all visual novels are the ero stuff. I just meant that this part of the manga read like a dating sim. Perhaps I should have made that more clear in the article, but thanks for the post to clarify, I really don’t know all that much about visual novels.
The date does succeed in showing Arcueid’s human side, I just felt like it went on for way too long in the manga. Prior to this, the relationship between Shiki and Arcueid wasn’t very romantic (save for the erotic dream Shiki had), plus there was pretty heavy fighting in all the past volumes, so a volume-long pause for character development that could have been accomplished in much less time was unexpected and disappointing… especially since I have to wait another year to see any more plot development.
I also just realized I’ve been spelling Arcueid’s name wrong all this time. Dammit.
Dating sims are usually defined as games where the primary purpose of the game is to woo the girl, and the game is often stat-based and not story-based. In those games you usually go through a set time period and choose your actions for the day to try to woo the girl. In visual novels or ADV games (don’t worry about the difference, it’s not too important for this discussion), it’s more of a choose your adventure type of game. There is often a romantic element involved, but you progress through a story rather than constantly choosing new actions to try to boost your stats with a girl. The paths for Tsukihime all involve wooing a different girl, but the stories for all the paths are vastly different. They all tell a different side/alternate version of the story, allowing you to piece together everything. There is very little dating involved in the game. The game also does not emphasize fighting very much, which you make sound like the central part of the manga. The game focuses more on Shiki’s mental state and the relationships among the characters.
As for the manga, spending one volume on the date probably is a bit excessive. I don’t remember how long the date was in the game, but it wasn’t a significant portion of the game. I’m not sure how much they emphsized it in the manga, but in the game, Shiki constantly doubts Arcueid intentions since she’s a vampire. He constantly fears her instincts will take over and he would be in danger. The dates were crucial to him finally seeing Arcueid as more of a human. Extending the date to one volume in the manga seems like a fault of the manga though. The author probably could have used the space to put one of the many other scenes of plot development.
If you have time, you should probably try a visual novel to what they’re like. It’ll give you some perspective if you review another series based on one. There are some free doujin ones, and a lot of them are non-ero. Narcissu (http://narcissu.insani.org/) is a really good choice. If I remember correctly, it’s only a few hours long. It’s actually stylistically a lot different from other games since it doesn’t show the characters during the normal scenes, but it’s a good start.
Thanks for that explanation and the link. It’s interesting to hear about some of the plot specifics for the game, which sounds pretty different from the manga. It’s been awhile since I’ve read the other volumes, but the manga’s definitely very action-oriented. As far as I can remember, the thing which seem to be the most unsettling to Shiki so far seem to be the possibility he is the vampire he and Arcrueid are hunting since he dreams about the victims. He also seems somewhat confused about the details of his early life and how his family acts and reacts around him, which I recall only because he does unlock some of his memories in this volume.
I also can’t remember Shiki ever feeling very threatened by or afraid of Arcueid in the manga. I’m pretty sure about that, only because Ciel raises the question about whether or not Shiki should trust Arcrueid at the beginning of this volume, and it seemed like he hadn’t really considered doubting her up until that point. But again, maybe I’ve forgotten some of the earlier stuff.
The manga is definitely very action-oriented. The fight scenes last a long time and seem to be major plot points. The slowest, least violent fight so far has been between Ciel and Akiha, but mostly it’s just been a lot of stuff with Shiki, Arcrueid, and other vampires and ghouls, along with the enemy’s victims and casualties.
I’ll check out that game you linked me to. I play a lot of video games, but I don’t play much on PC, and I don’t think I’ve ever really played anything that’s come close to a Visual Novel. You’ve definitely piqued my interest.
I just talked with my friend about the manga and the game, and he confirms that the manga is much more action-oriented than the game. I suppose the reason they did this was to attract a wider audience since if it were like the game, it wouldn’t be structured or paced correctly for a manga. The game takes its time to develop the story, and I believe I heard the script for Tsukihime is longer than the whole Lord of the Rings series.
You have to realize that many visual novels are as the name describes — just like a book but with visuals, music, and maybe voice added — but unlike most books in that it is usually told in first person. They try to put you into the main character’s shoes by telling what they think and see and how they interpret it. This is probably why what you recalled from the manga is significantly different from what I remember from the game.
I’m glad I piqued your interest in visual novels. It’s really an underappreciated genre here since it often has the negative connotations of being mindless sex-games. If you like the genre, I can recommend some more games, though my favorite one isn’t free. I’ll add you on LibraryThing so you can contact me later if want to know more.
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