After nearly losing one of his friends to a mysterious monster that has been claiming lives without warning, Shiki decides to help the beautiful female vampire Arcueid in tracking him down. Their efforts result in their crossing paths with the undead servants of a being named Roa, who has so far evaded capture through reincarnation. Added to Shiki’s problems is the possibility that his sister Akihais hiding a dark and terrible family secret.

After the first volume I had rather mixed feelings about Tsukihime. The soundtrack was great, the animation also very good and it conveyed a suitably dark and tense atmosphere; however the characters came across as a bit lifeless (even the human ones!) and the episodes had a frustratingly large number of flashbacks and cryptic conversations with little in the way of explanation. Fortunately the second disc allayed some of my fears. While there are still a lot of unsolved mysteries and hidden agendas associated with various characters, we learn a little more about them and the story moves a little more smoothly.

Shiki starts to show a wider range of emotions than mere confusion, his sister Akiha (who, up to this point, had been behaving strangely in general) is shown to have genuine concern for him behind her cold exterior and there are some interesting exchanges between some of the other characters. It was pretty clear early that not only Akiha but also Ciel were not quite the people they first appeared to be, and there are hints of unresolved disputes and something more interesting and important lurking under the surface of the whole affair.

What is refreshing is that while there are a number of typical horror scenes involving Shiki fighting shadowy creatures using his supernatural perceptive abilities, a lot of the entertainment value comes from the way in which the characters interact. One minute it’s an action/adventure with a hero who has reservations about fighting at all; on the other it’s a supernatural thriller with conspiracies and character drama.

Whether these very different elements will compliment or hinder each other in the end remains to be seen, but so far they appear to work quite well: it is quite amusing to see how Shiki’s night time vampire-slaying sorties with Arcueid get him into trouble with his sister, and also add interesting complications and misunderstandings among his friends. In addition there are the beginnings of a budding romance between Shiki and Arcueid, which does not go unnoticed by his would-be sweetheart Satsuki and will no doubt complicate things later on.

In Summary

The second instalment is a definite improvement on the first, explaining some things more clearly and making for more enjoyable viewing. Although it is a little predictable at times it is also interesting to see a Japanese show portraying a very European take on vampire myth. So far it is turning out to be quite a good series, leaving most of the explanations for the final episodes but revealing enough to keep the viewer intrigued as to what will happen next.