>>125822I read Tsukihime in 2020 and found it really funny and exciting when the remake was revealed just a year later. My feelings regarding the original on my first read were very simple ones like gushing over how cool the edginess of the designs, CGs, powers etc were, and feeling verh sad over Kohaku, at the time I didn't care about it so much but there was something so deeply bewitching about that novel that I couldn't understand until years of introspection and multiple reads, nowadays I think I have a good grasp on my feelings to express myself better but before that, let's shortly talk about my horrible remake experience. I'll be plain honest with you guys, I do believe my experience was tainted by the fact I've read it through a youtube video, so whether or not I end up sounding retarded will probably be because of that, anyways, I got up to the part where they defeat Vlov in Arcueid's route after that I got very lazy and left it on hold since what, 3-4 years already? And honestly, I don't think I plan on coming back soon, ESPECIALLY after re-reading the original and comparing it to what I had seen in the remake, here's why:
The original Tsukihime is truly one of those works that embody the spirit of amateurism and also the phrase, "limitation breeds innovation". I'm not trying to gaslight anyone into believing Tsukihime is some super complex required reading for everyone but it is certainly quite special, let me dissect it a bit.
>Sprites and Designsthey're outright hilarious at times with how long their necks and fingers can be but the expressions are incredibly cute, you can't help but wish to use some as a reaction image. The clothes they wear are very plain and don't stand out at all, and it works perfectly for the horror urban fantasy setting where shit goes south very quick. Takeuchi was genuinely amazing at creating these simple but effective designs, each more iconic than the other. A interesting phenomenon that happens is when Melty Blood is seen by the fighting game community, it always causes tons of people to mock it and call it things like "dripless" and boring, which is fine, people will always meme what they can't internalize after all and those characters mean nothing to them, but me and many others find it a very unique and bold approach for a genre where first impressions rule, it forces people to actually check out what those beautiful 2D sprites look in motion and how full of personality they are.
>Music, Backgrounds, Atmosphere10 SONGSTEN FUCKING SONGSIt can't be stressed enough how horrible this is for a
fifty hour visual novel with no voice acting. It's one of the major points I use to remind myself to not glaze the original too much, 2 months ago I got one of my close friends to read it, since he stopped being a massive normalfag somehow, and he liked the story a lot and thought I was being a little too harsh on things, mostly on the soundtrack and story as he actually liked them a lot, I laughed at it because he's right, the OST is actually phenomenal, I bet the Tracks 01, 02 and 09 don't seem as mind breaking to those with trained ears and refined taste, but they become magical when coupled with this story. The backgrounds are literally just low quality photos of real places with some filter attached, so how the hell are they so good!? In my first read, I genuinely couldn't tell why I felt such a way, you see, I didn't particularly care about immersion and atmosphere for the longest time, most likely because of my low attention span, I simply couldn't bring myself to become present, to let the fucking movie play out, and yet, Tsukihime did it
>insert clip of iddubz saying he learnt empathy at 30 years of age Through all of it's cheap and limited glory, they created such an atmosphere that brings an insurmountable level of nostalgia for a place I've never nor will ever live in, it's so romantic and fleeting, perfectly encapsulates the themes of the story and way of life of Tohno Shiki. It's impressive they somehow elevated this atmosphere and music even more in Kagetsu Tohya. Now Fate, while still carrying that essence, unfortunately didn't hit as hard, good thing they compensated with something that worked even better for that work in specifically.
