Anime Review - Tsukihime: Lunar Legend

 

I'm going into my college club room that specifies in Science Fiction, Games, and Animation and I see someone with their laptop open.  I look and see a fighting game I've never heard of.  It was called Melty Blood.  It was fast-paced, 2-dimensional, and a hard-hitting throwback to Street Fighter Alpha and even Mark of the Wolves.  I was intrigued, and in typical "me fashion", I did my research.  It turns out that the game was a continuation of a visual novel series called Tsukihime: Lunar Legend.  This series soon got translated (or already was) into an anime series.  It was only about 13 episodes long and chock full of potential to be one long-lasting series.  It wasn't, sadly. However, the creators of Melty Blood were very interested in continuing the story through this fighting game.  And this fighting game was one of the first of its kind: a doujin game.  Doujin is roughly translated into "do it yourself".  So, I guess you could call it an indie game from Japan.  Shortly thereafter, I lost interest in the game, as I lost track of the person who had said game. I saw videos online of the game and I even downloaded the game to my laptop.  Again, the interest faded and the game was gone from my computer.  I find it hard sometimes to play a fighting game when I'm the only one there.  Well, except if it's Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat.  Let's just say they can be a little more forgiving with single player.  So, that was it with this series....or was it?

I make my way to Book Off to scope out some DVDs for anime.  Maybe I'll find some gems like I did with Lupin.  I had just got back into the Lunar Legend series through buying the game Melty Blood Actress Again for Steam.  I figured, what the heck?  Maybe I'll find it here.  And, sure enough, I did.  The entire series, all in one pack.  "I'm getting that!", my brain said.  That weekend, I sat home and watched the entire series.  And thus, the review.

 

I appreciate the skill of the group, Type Moon/French Bread, for coming up with a great series to follow up on this very short series.  I'm sure there was a lot of other story proper to use, like the visual novels they started from, but to get so much out of a series is pretty awesome.  That said, the series is a nice and solid collection of episodes.  Definitely worth a watch, in my view.  If you want to keep it, that depends on your general interest in the series at most.

 

A teenager named Shiki is sent to live with his sister through adoption, Akiha, in her palatial mansion.  There, he's befriends Hisui and Kohaku, the maid and chef, respectively.  As he goes to school on the regular, goes about living life, and interacts with friends, specifically Satsuki Yumidaka, strange occurrences happen.  A mysterious woman named Arcueid Brunsted cross paths with him.  And, then, almost without warning, Shiki cuts her to pieces.  The End?  No, actually Aruceid survives.  She's actually a vampire, who has lived thousands of years.  What does this have to do with Shiki?  Well, he can see lines come across someone or something, and he's compelled to slice across those lines, unless he wears glasses preventing that.  I could go into it deeper, but that's up for you to encounter when you see the series.

Lunar Legend may not stand out as much of a series upon first glance, but for my money, it's a great self-contained series to watch.  It may be enough for you to either read/watch the visual novels to continue the story and see what else is to know about the series, or play the video games and get as much out of the story proper that way.  To me, it's like a nice movie that flies under the radar.  It doesn't make gobs of money, nor is it an award winner.  It's just a great film to watch for the sake of watching a movie.  So, if you've a chance, catch this series and enjoy what it brings you.  If it brings you "death lines", well, I'd say change your prescription.