Lunar Legend Tsukihime

Reviewed by Brian Vallejos
October 1, 2006

Author: Sasakishonen Artist: Sasakishonen Publisher: DrMaster Genre: Action/Adventure Website: Click Here Review Rating: 8 out of 10

As Shiki Tohno awakens after the accident, he wakes up with a new perception on life. Actually it's the Death Perception and with this, he can see the "death lines" of all objects, living or not. Eight years later he returns home to his family's house and finds an unfamiliar switch-blade with "Seven Nights" written on the side. He can't help himself from using “seven-nights” to chop an unexpecting passer-by into pieces. By the time he realizes what he's done, the passer-by introduces herself as Arcuid, a vampire, and demands that Shiki help her defeat a very powerful adversary named Nero Chaos. Shiki doesn't really have time to think it over by the time Nero decides to counter this union, and test Shiki's abilities. Neither is it too long before more faces of this war emerge and introduce themselves.

The ever present forces of evil, and of course, the Shiki's love interests keep this story going, but the battles are where it draws strength. The ultra-violence and the super powers keep you turning the pages to see which other girls in Shiki's life is going to release a big ball of action, but you really get to know these girls before you get to see what powers they're hiding, but they have strength in numbers. Now don't let this fool you though, you quickly get a very pleasing and lengthy battle between team Arcuid and Shiki against Nero that will satisfy you through the plot development.

As for the drawing in Tsukihime, the captain has put all power towards the detail on the dead bodies and the insane action scenes, and didn't save very much for the background or any other shape then a rectangle for the boxes on this one. A unique character design and choice of super powers on Shiki and Nero give this manga it's main source of flavor. Though I'd felt like I'd seen Arcuid and a few of the others a couple of times before.

If you're looking for equal parts action and plot development but you don't want to think very hard, then this one is for you. Despite the other heroines watching the battles instead of fighting them for a while, and the fact that they monologue, the by-the-numbers plot line and the super violence with the occasional fight scene, barring the uber-battle between Arcuid, Shiki, and Nero, will satisfy any fan of the horror story genre.