Several other related media have also been released, including the bonus disc Tsukihime Plus-Disc, a fan disc Kagetsu Tohya, and the fighting game series Melty Blood. Story concepts and characters shared many similarities with other Type Moon's series The Garden of Sinners, and the two were also subtly connected.[2] A remake with updated art and story was announced in 2008. The first part of the remake, Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon, featuring a rewritten and expanded version of two of the original routes, first released in Japan in 2021, and was released worldwide in 2024. The second part, Tsukihime: The Other Side of Red Garden, was teased in a secret unlockable trailer in A Piece of Blue Glass Moon. Melty Blood: Type Lumina, a fighting game, was released worldwide on September 30, 2021 as companion to the remake titles.
Tsukihime is a visual novel where the story is presented via text that intermittently presents choices for the player to make. These choices influence the story, some in large ways while others in small ones. Some choices lead to bad endings where the protagonist dies, after which the player can optionally view a comedic section called Teach Me, Ciel-sensei!, where a fourth-wall-breaking version of the character Ciel offers hints on what led to the bad ending. The game is divided into five routes, distributed amongst two scenarios: The Near Side of the Moon (Arcueid and Ciel routes), and the Far Side of the Moon (Akiha, Hisui and Kohaku routes). Every heroine except Kohaku has two possible endings. When the player has achieved all possible endings, a new epilogue part, entitled Eclipse, is unlocked.
Tsukihime remake entries are visual novels like the original, and though it features modern amenities, (such as better skip functions) it plays mostly the same. The Teach Me, Ciel-sensei! section after a bad ending also returns. Unlike the original, both remakes of Near and Far sides titled Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon and Tsukihime: The Other Side of Red Garden are on separate release dates:
As with many Type-Moon works, Tsukihime takes place in the shared "Nasuverse" universe and is set many years after the events of Witch on the Holy Night. The original 2000 release takes place in the fictional town of Misaki in 1999, with the events of Witch on the Holy Night being a prequel that explores the backstory of Shiki's teacher Aoko Aozaki. The 2024 remake takes place in the fictional city of Soya in 2014 and serves as a direct sequel to the 2022 remastered version of Witch on the Holy Night instead.[3]
The original story of Tsukihime was based on one of Kinoko Nasu's ideas for a novel. It featured Arcueid as a cold stereotypical vampire that is the complete opposite of her finished incarnation. The basis for Shiki was a middle-aged old, worn-down vampire who says to Arcueid upon her first approach "I have no interest in women I've already killed once." The tone of the story was the complete opposite and only the tagline of "a biting relationship between a murderer who can see death lines and a vampire" remained in the final version.[citation needed] Upon developing the story for Tsukihime, they pictured Arcueid as a cool and princess-like "Noble Vampire", but thought that it overlapped with Akiha's "Lady" character. All of the heroines spoke politely to the main character, so they figured that the only character who could fit the role of someone who didn't speak politely would be Arcueid. They eventually came up with the idea of a "pure white" vampire that developed her character very differently from the original version. [citation needed] There was originally a planned Satsuki route for the original version, but it was later cut.[citation needed]
Several trial versions of Tsukihime were released before its full release. The first preview version of Tsukihime was a free promotional version of which 300 copies (on 3 floppy disks) were produced and distributed at Comiket 56 in 1999.[4] At the next Comiket 57 in late 1999, a demo was sold for 100 yen, with only 50 being produced and sold, also distributed on 3 floppy disks.[5] At Comiket 58 in 2000, Tsukihime Half Moon Edition was released. 300 copies were produced and sold for 1,000 yen each. This version contained Arcueid and Ciel's "Near Side of the Moon" storylines. The half moon edition came with bonuses including a coupon that would allow purchasers to claim the complete edition in the future.[6] The complete edition of Tsukihime was first released at Comiket 59 in December 2000.[7]
In December 2001, Inside-Cap released an officially licensed[10] program for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP that allowed customers to convert their PC copy of Tsukihime into a Game Boy Advance rom; the program was distributed via CD-ROM through retail and online shops.[11]
A remake of Tsukihime was announced in 2008, with work commencing in 2012. Work was then suspended in 2013 due to Type Moon's work on Fate/Grand Order, before resuming in 2017.[3] It was later announced that it would be released in two parts, with the first, titled Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon, containing the "Near-side" part of the game. The game was released on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch consoles on August 26, 2021 in Japan.[12] The theme songs Seimeisen and Juvenile, as well as the ending themes Lost and Believer were written, composed and arranged by Kegani from Live Lab and performed by Reona, and released on CD on September 1, 2021.[13][14] The soundtrack was composed by Hideyuki Fukasawa and Keita Haga, and was released as a set of eight CDs on November 24, 2021.[15][16] Tsukihime: The Other Side of Red Garden, containing the remake's equivalent of the "Far-side" part of the original, was teased in an unlockable secret trailer in Tsukihime: A Piece of Blue Glass Moon.
The remake modernizes the setting of Tsukihime, having it take place in a large city in 2014 (as opposed to the suburban town in 1999 of the original), and also makes changes to the plot. The remake also adds new characters, voice acting, and new character designs.[3] Writer Kinoko Nasu has stated in interviews that he was inspired by Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone to make the changes, and when writing the remake, Arcueid's route was written to be a reproduction of the old Tsukihime, while Ciel's route was written to be new.[17] It also includes the Satsuki route.[18]
At Anime Expo 2023, it was announced that the Tsukihime remake entries would get official localization outside Japan,[19] starting from A Piece of Blue Glass Moon on June 27, 2024.[20] It is also confirmed in Type-Moon Ace Vol. 15 that Windows version of the Tsukihime remake entries will be included as well.[21][unreliable source]
Kagetsu Tohya has teasers for a Tsukihime 2, and writer Kinoko Nasu's short stories "talk."' and "Prelude" from Tsukihime material book's Plus Period published on October 22, 2004 and the Type-Moon's Character material published on August 20, 2006 are set before it.[citation needed] References to it have been mostly been made into jokes during recent interviews,[citation needed] and they have displayed no current plans to actually create the project.[citation needed] According to Character material, the sequel would have been called Tsukihime: The Dark Six and would have revolved, at least in part, around a ritual gathering of Dead Apostle ancestors. Arcueid's sister Altrouge would have had a possible role.[citation needed]
Kagetsu Tohya is a sequel released in August 2001 and set one year after the events in the main Tsukihime storyline.[1] Shiki gets into an accident and has a repeating dream sequence in which he must relive the same day over until he finds Len. As the player repeats each day they are able to make different choices which affect the flow of the narrative and unlock extra content in the game, including ten short stories.
Melty Blood is a PC dojin fighting game series developed by Type-Moon and French-Bread, originally released at Comiket 63 in 2002.[22] The game features characters from the Tsukihime games as well as new characters specific for the games. Multiple updated versions of the game have been created as well as a sequel. It later spawned an arcade version,[23] titled Act Cadenza, that was developed by Ecole Software and was then ported to the PlayStation 2.[24] A decade later, Type-Moon and French-Bread collaborated once again to develop the fifth installment and reboot, Melty Blood: Type Lumina, featuring the characters from the remake titles.
Geneon announced it had licensed the series for distribution in North America in 2004 under the title Tsukihime, Lunar Legend.[26] Upon Geneon's American operations having shut down, the newly instituted licensor Sentai Filmworks acquired the North American rights to the series, with Section23 Films handling its distribution and marketing, along with other titles.[27]
A manga adaptation using the same Lunar Legend Tsukihime title as the anime, illustrated by Sasaki Shōnen, was serialized in ASCII Media Works' shōnen manga magazine Dengeki Daioh between October 2003 and September 2010 issues. The plot largely follows the game's Arcueid route with a mix of the other routes. The chapters were collected in ten volumes published by ASCII Media Works.[28] Tsukihime creator Kinoko Nasu has praised Sasaki's manga, saying that the settings mentioned in Tsukihime and Kagetsu Tohya are integrated without damaging the atmosphere of the original.[29] Nasu also went on to say that Sasaki Shonen's manga was the greatest rival to the remake game project, and that Sasaki's stamp of approval after he playtested it meant there was "nothing to be afraid of".[17] The manga was licensed for an English-language release in North America by ComicsOne in 2004.[30] In 2005, DR Master took over the publication of ComicsOne's manga titles including Tsukihime.[31] Six out of ten volumes were published.
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