Tsukihime/Characters

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


This page describes the characters from Tsukihime, including characters appearing in Kagetsu Tohya and Melty Blood. Please help out with the blurbs.

Spoilers abound!! Read at your own risk.

Tsukihime

Shiki Tohno/Nanaya

Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (JP - Anime), Steve Staley (EN - Anime), Kenji Nojima (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm), Keiko Nemoto (JP - Child), Wendee Lee (EN - Child)

"So you want to kill me, monster? Then we have something in common. Very well. Let's kill each other... Nero Chaos."

An Ordinary High School Student and the protagonist of Tsukihime. When he was just a kid, Shiki was involved in a particularly nasty car accident that left him anemic and with a condition that allowed him to see mysterious lines everywhere. In a fit, he tries to claw his eyes out and eventually runs out into an open field where he meets Aoko Aozaki. The two of them spend a long time talking and she teaches him to respect life and his ability to cut anything apart by tracing the lines, which she calls the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. Her parting gift is his trademark pair of glasses.

Shiki goes to live with a branch family of the Tohnos for eight years before eventually returning to live with his sister Akiha. Then, shortly thereafter, he runs into a young woman on the streets and feels a sudden urge to kill her. He then proceeds to cut her into 17 pieces and is subsequently caught up in a battle between vampires that has been going on for centuries. (This is the Near Side route.)

Alternatively, Shiki returns to the Tohno mansion eager to renew his relationship with his sister and the other childhood friends he had who are now maids. However, he soon finds his family isn't all what it seems, and will have to face secrets about his family that connect them to the random murders occurring around the city. (This is the Far Side route.)

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Anti-Hero: Type V in Nanaya-mode.
  • Badass: Nanaya. Period.
  • Berserk Button: In Melty Blood, Yumizuka Satsuki's name is taboo for him. Also, Roa's very presence will invoke his killing intent instantly.
  • Blessed with Suck: The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are extremely powerful, but have huge drawbacks. See below.
    • The Tohno-gland, with the power to make insanely powerful, beautiful, troubled, and crazy women fall madly in love with him. Often times with heavy emphasis on the troubled and crazy. Many guys would probably kill for his position though.
      • Many guys would Be Killed in his position.
  • Blood-Splattered Innocents: In Tsukihime intro Doubles as Tear Jerker since its his mother blood
  • Came Back Strong: It was being brought to the brink of death (and therefore closer to Akasha, the Ultimate Source), that allowed Shiki to perceive the Death of things with his eyes.
  • Chick Magnet: Women flock to Shiki. The cause of this is speculated to be some sort of "Tohno gland", in case you were wondering what all the talk about that was for.
  • Cursed with Awesome: See above Blessed with Suck entry - the Eyes are generally seen as both simultaneously.
  • Curtains Match the Window
  • Dangerous Forbidden Technique: once again, his Mystic Eyes
  • Deader Than Dead: He can make people this via One-Hit Kill
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: In Melty Blood. If something angers him enough, he'll have these. In particular, Roa's presence will invoke these instantly.
  • Enemy Without: Nanaya. In addition, TATARI creates a copy of Shiki Tohno to fight Ryougi in MBAA. That Shiki, while being more mellow and true to Shiki's personality, is not really hesitant to use his Eyes.
  • Evil Eye: his defining ability; the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception allow him to perceive the nature of death as lines and dots over everything. Basically, he can kill anything under Gaia with a fruit knife.
  • Expy: he's very similar in looks and personality to Mikiya Kokutou (and is voiced by the same guy), and his power is similar to Shiki Ryougi's and they both got that power from traffic accidents (they share the same given name too). Both are characters from Kara no Kyoukai, an earlier Nasu work.
    • He actually takes after Ryougi more than he seems. While his "default" persona is most similar to Kokutou, his "stoic" mode is very similar to Ryougi's personality. Interestingly, the way he behaves around Arihiko is rather similar to how Ryougi behaves around Kokutou.
  • Future Badass: His possible future as Satsujinki, who can assassinate Dead Apostles in SECONDS.
  • The Glasses Come Off: As the main trope page says, one of the crowning examples - Shiki taking off his glasses isn't merely a sign that things are serious, but literally how he activates his power.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: In Kohaku's route, he encounters SHIKI in the middle of the night and ends up having coffee with him while they chat for hours about things like their abilities, killing and it's meaning, and so on. Granted, they didn't know each others identity.
  • The Grim Reaper: He's been called a "Shinigami" ("God of Death") twice. Once by Sion in Melty Blood and another time by Dust of Osiris in Actress Again.
  • Harem Seeker: All the Type-Moon male leads seem to have far more love interests than they could possibly need, but Shiki tops them all...there is a reason the Tohno gland exists. Unlike Kokuto or Shirou, however, after Tsukihime itself Shiki seems to be going out of his way to keep all the girls around him as seen in both Kagetsu Tohya and the non canon Carnival Phantasm.
  • Ill Guy: Played with - the injury that gave him his Mystic Eyes leads to him often passing out from anemia, and other characters constantly worry about his health as a result, but otherwise he's quite physically fit.
  • In the Blood: he kept the assassination abilities of his true family, the Nanaya clan.
  • Jack of All Stats
  • Knife Nut
  • Loners Are Freaks: Not touched on much in the main game, but in Kagetsu Tohya it's said that Shiki's unusual relationship with the concept of death (and not just regarding his Mystic Eyes) subtly freaks out his more normal classmates. Except for Arihiko, who despite being a Muggle can actually relate due to events in his own past, and Satsuki, who senses something odd about Shiki, is unable to pinpoint what it is, but is nonetheless strangely attracted by it.
  • A Man Is Not a Virgin: Almost all of the heroines are all virgins at the start of the story, even one that has lived very long time. Shiki? Nope, not a virgin. Just how much of a man is our hero? He lost his cherry at around age 13 or so. Before the events of the Visual novel, the Tohno-gland was working from the moment he was born I'll bet.
    • If half-serious Geccha exposition story is to be believed, he had sex with all five heroines, despite Arcueid Good Ending being canon one. All girls lampshade jokingly how much of evil jerk he is.
  • Nice Guy: As long as something isn't mind raping him into insanity.
    • Not in bed though. While making love he turns to psychopath. Not gentlest lover.
  • Won't Work On Me: The reason why the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception is such a fearsome power - it bypasses all forms of protection from injury and/or death. Those that Shiki cut react with horror and dismay when they realize they cannot regenerate or reattach their limbs.
  • Not Afraid to Die: As a result of an intimate relationship with death.
  • Oblivious to Love: It takes Shiki a while to realize when a girl likes him, unless he's beat over the head with it.
  • One-Hit Kill: Co-deity of it, along with Shiki Ryougi.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: To Roa before killing him. It's even better in the manga where he's casually killing Roa's magic and Roa is completely horrified and unable to understand.
  • Reverse Grip: Once you see him reversing his grip on his knife, it means that Nanaya is starting to take over.
    • Played with. The above holds true with the visual novel, but Shiki, in and out of Nanaya mode (and the Nanaya Shiki TATARI shadow) tend to swap grips depending on what suits them. His slashes tend to be reverse grip and his stabs tend to be normal grip in Melty Blood. Nanaya too.
  • Sanity Slippage: In the Flower of Thanatos sidestory in Kagetsu Tohya he narrates casually how he raped Hisui and Kohaku out of boredom.
  • School Uniforms Are the New Black: Although he's been shown to have casual clothes in Tsukihime, in all subsequent media, he is only shown wearing his school uniform. Which is all well and good because frankly, he looks good in it and his casual clothes are hideous anyway.
  • Sociopathic Hero: his Nanaya personality.
  • Story-Breaker Power: The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. And Ryougi's are even worse. The boy makes Goku look balanced. Sequels/spinoffs have had trouble coming up with ways to legitimately challenge him: He doesn't want to kill his 'opponent' in Kagetsu Tohya and can't use them for 95% of the story anyway and Wallachia is a unique existence that can't be properly killed at all except under very special circumstances. There's even a Word of God statement out saying that he can't kill the top Dead Apostle Ancestor simply because it views death differently!
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Shiki Nanaya
  • Taking The Knife Stab: As a child, Shiki shielded Akiha from newly-inverted SHIKI's knife, and would have died if not for Akiha giving him half of her life force.
  • Tsundere: Towards Arcueid, and only towards her. Since she's a bit of a ditz, at first she thinks he hates her or is just mean to everyone. Upon being informed that he only treats her that way, she reacts in an oddly genre savvy manner by being pleased.
  • Wall Crawl: Can do this when his Nanaya abilities come forth. Though, he himself lampshades that even he can't crawl on the wall like a spider and defy gravity, being only able to muster enough speed to go up the wall while moving through the hallway and taking a single step off the ceiling.
  • Weak but Skilled: All Shiki has are his ability to detect dangerous non-humans, his eyes and a physique inherited from a clan of assassins. Yet he has killed dragons, unicorns and other monsters summoned by Nero Chaos, Nero himself, Roa, Tatari, the forest of Einnashe and has shown the ability to beat Satsuki, Ciel, SHIKI[1] and Vermillion Akiha. He even took down Arcueid at the start of the story and did a damn good job of doing it again at the end of Ciel's route. These are all heavyweights of the Nasuverse power tier and at their worst only ungodly killing machines.
  • Weirdness Magnet: In one side-story, Arihiko comments that Shiki gives off this "vibe" that repels anyone normal who are affected by death; but attracts people who are abnormal. Arihiko himself classifies himself as abnormal after watching his grandmother kill herself in order to save him when they were both trapped in a collapsed building. The only other classmate who was similar was Satsuki... Aoko actually warns him about becoming a Weirdness Magnet, saying in regards to his Mystic Eyes that "special powers attract other special powers."
  • What Beautiful Eyes!: Vermillion Akiha gasps out and says this after Shiki Nanaya takes off his glasses to fight her in the climax of Kohaku's route. In the Bad End where he decides to kill her immediately, they were the last things she ever saw.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Prolonged use of the Mystic Eyes puts an enormous strain on the human brain - perceiving death is not very conductive towards one's mental stability.


Arcueid Brunestud

Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame (JP - Anime), Michelle Ruff (EN - Anime), Ryoka Yuzuki (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm)

"When everything's over, let's come here again, Shiki! It won't have any meaning, but I'm sure it will be really, really fun!"

Often called the Princess of the True Ancestors or White Princess, Arcueid is a vampire born as a living weapon to hunt down and destroy the Dead Apostles, other vampires who used to serve her kind. For a long time she was kept asleep, only being woken up when there were targets around and kept completely ignorant of the need to drink blood until Roa came along. She has hunted him down ever since and killed him many times. She also shares a connection with Ciel and neither of them particularly like each other. Shiki was the first person to ever treat her as something more than a tool or a weapon; ironically it was his killing her that began their relationship.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Action Girl
  • Action Girlfriend
  • Animal Motif: A cat. Selfish, moody and elegant. Cranked Up to Eleven with Neko-Arc.
  • Anime Hair
  • Anti-Hero: Type II-III ish. She won't involve normal humans in her business and only kills vampires, but she's not exactly doing it out of the kindness of her heart. And when we say kills vampires, we mean she brutally tears them apart no matter who they are or what they're doing.[2] She can also be kind of vicious and her chief motivations in Tsukihime are revenge followed by following her programming.
  • Artificial Human: Or rather an Artificial True Ancestor. The other True Ancestors created her through unknown means to be a living weapon. Apparently, they intended to let her have a normal life after that was all done but things just didn't work out as planned.
  • Ax Crazy: As Red Arcueid/Warcueid
  • Badass
  • Battle Aura: Either that or Pure Awesomeness. Whenever Arcueid faces down an enemy with the full intention of annihilating them, the atmosphere around her physically becomes more oppressive. Various people have described themselves as suffering actual physical pain merely from being the target of Arcueid's killing intent.
  • Battle in the Center of the Mind: Climax of her and Archtype Earth's plot in Current Code is this; with the winner coexisting with humanity or destroying it.
  • Boobs of Steel
  • Catgirl: Not canon but her Neko-Arc counterpart has made her often depicted in doujins as a cat girl during her more goofy moments. Some doujins straight up turns her into a catgirl. The fact that her canon personality is often compared to that of a cat likely also contributed.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: She disappears from the story completely in the Far Side routes. She makes one appearance in Akiha's route when Shiki sees her walking down the street from behind, but that's it. This is even lampshaded in the "Teach Me Ciel-Sensei" scenarios.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: In Ciel's route.
  • Cloudcuckoolander
  • Continuity Nod / In-Joke: Arcueid's Last Arc, if used against Shiki, will hit him 18 times. A reference to how he originally cut her up into 17 different pieces.
    • It's technically a secondhand reference, too. Shiki gets chunked into 18 pieces by Crimson Moon in Kagetsu Tohya, and Shiki's last living thought (before time resets), is that she was trying to one-up him in revenge.
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
  • Defeat Means Friendship: It's either that or the Tohno Gland...
  • Ditzy Genius: So we're told. The ditz part is undeniable, but the truth is that she's actually just lacking in social skills and common sense. Some side material in Kagetsu Tohya indicates that she's actually highly intelligent and able to learn just about anything she wants to instantly. Not that she should since it's dangerous for her.
  • Drama-Preserving Handicap: The first one is that she's forced to maintain herself at 30% power all the time. The second is that Shiki forces her to waste most of that power. Third is the fact that by the way he did that she's recovering incredibly slowly. Arcueid is one of the absolute top tier characters in the Nasuverse, and that is saying something.
  • Emotionless Girl: What she was before Shiki "broke" her.
  • Empathic Weapon: Her original purpose
  • Enemy Without: When the TATARI creates a copy of Red Arcueid and lets her loose. Fortunately for the other characters and the world, he had to weaken her to avoid losing control.
  • Everything's Better with Princesses
  • Eyes of Gold: Be very afraid if her eye color turns to this.
  • Flanderization: She was perfectly capable of strategizing and even being a dead serious, outright scary combatant in the original story, but adaptations tend to focus almost entirely on her airheadedness.
  • Flash Step: Can do this like most vampires, but not as fond of it as Red Arcueid. Perhaps due to her disadvantage, or Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass status.
  • Forceful Kiss: Does it twice to Shiki in Ciel Good Ending. First time to save him from Roa, which would had side effect of turning him into her servant whom she can mindcontrol at will, if she succeeded. Second time is just expression of love... in front of Ciel, who was not amused, especially since Shiki reciprocated to kiss.
  • Foreign Fanservice: So stunningly beautiful and cute she turned every head at Shiki's school the second she arrived there.
  • Friendly Neighborhood Vampire
  • Game Face: Like most vampires and demons in Tsukihime. Although, she has two. Her first, minor face is a simple eye color change from crimson to Eyes of Gold. This powers her as high as she can without turning into Red Arcueid. Her true Game Face is the one she sports as Red Arcueid. Gaining the Eyes of Gold in the iris but also changing the schlera to blood red. Other changes include her teeth becoming razor sharp, giving her a Slasher Smile, and having her face become somewhat inhuman all together. Her hair even joins in on the fun.
  • Genki Girl
  • Green Lantern Ring: Her Marble Phantasm allows her to reproduce any phenomenon found in nature. However, this is limited to what is actually possible in nature and thus she cannot pull the tricks of a Reality Marble. The metaphor used is that in a bag of 99 black marbles and a single white one, her power lets her always get the white marble. A Reality Marble turns them all white instead, which is an 'impossible' trick.
  • Guest Fighter: As Magical Girl Phantasmoon in Fate/tiger coliseum UPPER. And as a Berserker - class Servant in Fate/Extra. She's unplayable there, though.
  • Hair of Gold
  • Heroic Willpower: After Shiki kills her, she's forced to resist her vampiric bloodlust on nothing more than her strength of will. It almost fails her several times, though. In the backstory too, as she's the only (known) True Ancestor to have retained her sanity after drinking blood.
  • Hunter Of Her Own Kind: Created for the specific purpose of killing other True Ancestors who begin feeding on humans, A.K.A. Demon Lords.
  • Hypnotic Eyes: Of the strongest sort, much more powerful than Ciel's. She does not appear to use this ability frequently, however, since she's so incredibly strong even without them.
  • Idiot Hair/Hair Antennae
  • Kick the Dog: Arc's naivety can result in very callous acts, ones she's not wholly aware are wrong. For example, asking her exhausted and dying familiar, Len, to give Shiki some nice dreams. She also has no concerns about killing anyone with her bare hands at the drop of a hat.
    • There's also the time Shiki let her see his glasses when she became curious about them. She says she would have broken them (on a whim) but they were somehow constructed such that even Arcueid couldn't break them. It's Played for Laughs since she couldn't have gone through with it, but if she had...well, they're irreplaceable and the only thing preventing Shiki brain from frying from the strain of his Evil Eye.
  • Magical Girl Parody: Phantasmoon, who becomes so by stealing Caster's staff.
  • Manic Pixie Dream Girl
  • Mayfly-December Romance: With Shiki, since they're the Official Couple, due to their vastly different lifespans. Made worse by the fact that Shiki's lifespan is even shorter than normal humans. Given the circumstances at the end of Tsukihime, I doubt they would have much time together even if they do finally find peace. However, Arcueid mentions in several works that when Shiki gets close to death, she'd be tempted to turn him into a vampire to keep him alive. As she's shown to be willing to do this in the Ciel route... And finally, this may at least partially subverted as there are implications that Arcueid herself won't last nearly as long as she would have originally.
  • Mood Swinger
  • Nerf: In Tsukihime, see Willfully Weak below. In Fate/EXTRA, she cannot use several of her innate abilities as a True Ancestor as a result of her master forcing Mad Enhancement onto her - she cannot use the Moon (incidentally the setting of the game) as an energy source, and her terraforming Noble Phantasm is reduced to a sixfold increase in the local gravity. Had she willingly taken on Mad Enhancement herself - essentially going into Warcueid mode - she would essentially be the Crimson Moon itself, and undefeatable. Even with all that, she's still an absolute BEAST.
    • Given that she's basically the strongest thing on the whole freaking planet, there wouldn't be much of a story if she wasn't conveniently nerfed. Also, Shiki would had never had chance in hell to score with her but that's secondary.
  • Nice Girl: A sweet and friendly ray of sunshine who just happens to a vampire.
  • No Social Skills
  • Oh Crap: If Arcueid beats Roa in MBAA, and you don't skip the winning screen, prepare for a little surprise. And don't do it at 2 in the morning.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Has shades of this even when at 30% of her max power, but at full strength she's capable of feats such as instantly melting the polar caps, halting the rotation of the globe, and playing continental pinball with a thought.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: Her original set of clothing, complete with:
  • Psychotic Smirk: As Red Arcueid when trolling around For the Evulz. When she drops the facade and puts on her Game Face, it evolves into a Slasher Smile complete with laughter.
  • Rapunzel Hair: Her original hair.
  • The Red Baron: Refereed to as "The White Princess of The True Ancestors" by Dead Apostle Ancestors and her other foes. Can also double as an inverted form of The Dreaded for the majority of them.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Subverted; while she has red eyes, she means no harm to humans. It's the gold eyes you have to worry about.
  • Secondary Character Title While her actual name itself is not in the title, the title is a direct reference to her, the titular "Moon Princess."
  • SNK Boss: In Actress Again, she has another new form called Shinzo Arcueid "Archetype: Earth", which is basically what would happen if she hadn't fallen for Roa's tricks.
    • Or if Roa was able to fix it like in his ending in Actress Again; he "kills" her and she basically reboots to the default setting.
    • In Fate/Extra, Arcueid is summoned as the Berserker class. Her physical attributes are enhanced at the expense of her sanity, and her "Noble Phantasm" allows her to terraform planets. Even after the Nerfing brought on by her master forcing her into Berserker mode, still a tough cookie.
  • Stepford Smiler: Subverted. When she approaches Shiki day after he killed her with big smile, it seems like its the case, but it turns out her smile isn't fake at all. She really is sweet ray of sunshine.
  • Story-Breaker Power: So, naturally, she doesn't get to use it.
  • Strange Girl
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Red Arcueid/Warcueid
    • It Got Worse, Archetype:Earth. Worse still, Arcueid is a potential vessel for Crimson Moon Brunestud, the ultimate being of the Moon.
      • Archtype-Earth is not really evil, just not nearly as lovable or nice.
  • Sweater Girl
  • Title Drop: A real title drop rather than a joke one as in the case of Tsukihime Souka. The title of Arc's True End is "Tsukhime." Also, the name of Arc's Blood Heat Arc Drive in Melty Blood is named "Melty Blood."
  • To the Pain: In Ciel's route. If Shiki decides to refuse her offer and cuts her neck open she gives us this gem:

"Destroy. Destroy. Destroy. Slowly, completely, gently beyond comparison, cruelly to the point of numbness, I'll violate your life. That's right. The instant I rip off your limbs, tear open your ribs and pull out your intestines, biting into your neck as you scream in agony, chewing through your eyes as I ignore your pleas for mercy and spreading your brains on the ground like butter...!"

  • Vampires Are Rich: Arcueid is able to rent out entire floors of hotels and apartment complexes despite having no obvious source of income.
  • Vegetarian Vampire: While she doesn't require blood to survive, she craves it to a crippling degree. See Willfully Weak. And if she does drink blood, she turns into Red Arcueid.
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: It may surprise you to know that she and Ciel are friends despite occasional attempts to kill each other.
  • Willfully Weak: Even without being effected by the below trope, Arcueid still holds her power back, directing most of it to suppressing her bloodlust.
  • Winds of Destiny Change: Her Marble Phantasm.
  • Wolverine Claws: She's been seen turning her fingers into large claws. They make for pretty effective weapons.
  • Woman Scorned: In Ciel's route. Arcueid does not take Shikis rejection well. Subverted in Ciel True Ending, when after killing Ciel couple of times, she calms down, forgives him cutting of her head with knife, and pleads with him again to accept her help. Averted nearly completely in Ciel Good Ending, where Shiki rejects her in much less "scornful" way, she is somewhat angry, but nowhere near homicidal.
  • Worf Had the Flu: Extremely weakened by having been dissected in 17 parts by Shiki and continuously trying to suppress her vampiric urges. Despite her saying she only needed to rest a few days to recover, she never regained her full power in Tsukihime itself. Got pretty close during Ciel's route though, where she didn't exert herself as much as in her own. This is, in fact, a bad thing for Shiki.

Ciel

Voiced by: Fumiko Orikasa (JP - Anime), Wendee Lee (EN - Anime), Kumi Sakuma (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm)

"Tohno-kun, you shouldn't say that. Please, listen to my selfishness. For once -- For once, I want to protect you out of my own will. If I don't do that, I'll never be able to face you with a smile from my heart."

Ciel is one of Shiki's classmates and is a Sempai of sorts to his circle of friends (thanks to her memory manipulation), president of the Tea Ceremony Club (of which she is the only member) and a model student. She also leads a double life as an Executor for a super-secret branch of the Catholic Church called the Burial Agency. She has crossed swords with Arcueid on several occasions and warns Shiki to stay away from her, but at the same time they have a common objective that becomes clear as the story progresses. Ciel also seems to be hostile towards Akiha for reasons unknown, mostly because she can sense the Tohno family's true nature even if she doesn't know all the details.

Ciel also hosts the "Teach Me Ciel-sensei!" hint corners when the player meets a Bad End, in which hilarity often ensues as she and other characters lecture the player on what they did wrong, fill in random plot tidbits, and cause general Mood Whiplash.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Action Girl
  • Action Girlfriend: In her own route.
  • Anti-Hero: Type IV
  • Badass Longcoat
  • BFG: Ihe Seventh Holy Scripture.
  • Blue Eyes
  • Broken Bird: Not apparent but there. Some of the things she says are very sobering even before her past is revealed, hinting on her personal experiences.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Ciel is half-French and half-Japanese.
  • Church Militant: A servant of it.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl: In her own route.
  • Cosplay: Her Church Militant outfit is not a uniform provided by the church, but clothing she made herself.
  • Curtains Match the Window
  • Death Seeker
  • Empathic Weapon: Nanako; aka the Seventh Holy Scripture
  • Enemy Within: Ciel was taken over by Roa and became one of his incarnations, slaughtering her entire family and hometown.
  • Expy: Has one (approved by TYPE-MOON) in Chie-Sensei, also voiced by Fumiko Orikasa.
    • Also, she works at a church, uses lots of blades as weapons, and hunts down vampires, even the ones in the protagonist roles. Sounds like Alexander Anderson to me!
  • Fetish: Ciel has a weakness for anal sex.
  • Gratuitous French: "Zero! Trois!"
  • Hair Color Dissonance: She's noted to have black hair in the narration, but illustrations depict it as blue.
  • The Hunter
  • Hypnotic Eyes: Ciel possesses an unspecified variety of Mystic Eyes[3] that allow her to implant hypnotic suggestions. She used them to convince the school that she's a student there and always has been.
  • I Just Want to Be Normal: Born as a baker's daughter, all she wanted growing up was to take over daddy's business. Then look what happened.
  • Immortal Life Is Cheap: Ciel gets killed a good many times in her scenario in the original game.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: She does this in Kagetsu Tohya in a high percentage of her screen time. She appears rather depressed regarding her low popularity.
  • Male Gaze: Has the biggest ass of the cast (tied with Tokie Jinan), although this mostly makes her the butt of fat jokes.
  • Meganekko: Arguably invoked, since Ciel's eyesight is just fine and her whole school persona is mostly just a mask. Also The Glasses Come Off.
  • Nigh Invulnerability: By virtue of her being the previous incarnation of Roa, yet still being alive despite Roa being in a different form (basically, "Ciel = Roa" but "Roa =/= Ciel"). To avoid creating a paradox from her dying while Roa still exists, the World itself keeps her alive no matter what, excluding Shiki's ability.
  • The Nose Knows: Ciel has a curious tendency to draw close to Shiki and start sniffing him (in public places no less) whenever she suspects he's been engaged in suspicious activities, such as meeting up with Arcueid.
  • Nosy Sempai: Ciel masquerades as this.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Averted late in her route. When she catches Shiki being forcibly kissed by Arcueid, she punches out Arcueid rather than Shiki, and listens to his explanation, despite being seriously pissed at him.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity
  • Older Than They Look: While her body is forever that of a teenager's, Ciel is actually 24 years old.
  • Orgasmically Delicious: She screams when she encounters the delicious curry from the Messian restaurant.
  • Self-Mutilation Demonstration: Ciel slits her own throat to prove her immortality to Shiki.
  • Sempai-Kohai: A core part of her character and relationship with Shiki.
  • Superpower Lottery: Part of the reason why she is a Burial Agent, and also the main reason why she was chosen as Roa's 17th vessel. She had a body potent enough to revive from death 3 years after having gotten killed. Despite having been born from a normal family, she still possessed 5 times the magical potential of Tohsaka Rin from Fate/stay night, by Word of God.
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: seems to be the chief method of using Black Keys. May be justified by the manga, which on at least one occasion shows them moving on their own even after they've left her hands, suggesting that either she or the swords have some telekinetic effect to them.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Curry, which is present in all adaptations and sequels except the anime.
  • Was It All a Lie?: Once her true nature as an agent of the Church is revealed. Ciel tries desperately to convince both Shiki and herself that yes, it was all a lie, but in the end relents that she did fall in love with Shiki.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?
  • The Worf Effect: In Melty Blood, she proceeds to get her ass kicked by around half the cast as their arcade mode's midboss. Poor, poor Ciel.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Akiha Tohno

Voiced by: Shizuka Itou (JP - Anime), Julie Ann Taylor (EN - Anime), Minami Hokuto (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm)

"Please don't say such foolish things. You are my only Nii-san. Now and back then, even if you forgot, from when we were little ---- To Tohno Akiha, you are my only Nii-san, Shiki."

Shiki Tohno's younger sister. After their father, Makihisa, dies, Akiha becomes the new head of the family and invites Shiki to come back to the Tohno family mansion. This is where the game begins after the prologue. Shiki quickly realizes Akiha has changed dramatically from the little sister he grew up with, and has become very focused on etiquette and acting according to her station. She is quick to scold Shiki on numerous things, but he takes it in stride. Circumstances soon cause him to suspect Akiha is hiding many things about the family from him.

Akiha has in fact loved Shiki ever since they were children, and used to play with him, her true brother SHIKI and Hisui. When SHIKI inverted and tried to stab her sister, Shiki took the hit, and would have died had Akiha not given half of her life force to him. The thing is, SHIKI in turn stole half of that life force from Shiki to avoid being killed shortly after; this gave the two boys the link they have which is explored in the game.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • A-Cup Angst
  • Aggressive-Submissive: A very dominant young woman at first glance (almost creepily so early in her own route), she is actually waiting for Shiki to make the first move and turns into a total sub during the h-scene.
  • Berserk Button: If you value your physical integrity, do NOT say she's flat-chested. (Though also see Flanderization below.)
    • Shiki does this in Kagetsu Tohya when he accidentally walks in on her getting dressed and ends up being turned over to Kohaku for some "needle time"

Shiki: Akiha, your chest is still as steep as a cliff side.

Hisui

Voiced by: Yumi Kakazu (JP - Anime), Kate Higgins (EN - Anime), Miyu Matsuki (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm)

"Good morning, Shiki-sama"

One of the servants at the Tohno family mansion, along with her twin sister Kohaku. On Shiki's return to the mansion, Hisui is assigned to be his personal servant. She is responsible for all of the cleaning in the mansion. She refuses to accept help from Shiki with her chores, or to talk with him less formally. She personally wakes him up every morning and waits at the front entrance (or inside the lobby) for him to return from school. She is not help hired from outside the mansion, but was raised to be a maid there since her childhood.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Kohaku

Voiced by: Kana Ueda (JP - Anime), Kari Wahlgren (EN - Anime), Naoko Takano (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm)

"Yes. I liked this Kohaku the best, too."

Hisui's twin sister and Akiha's personal servant. She is very cheerful and upbeat, in contrast to Hisui's stoic demeanor. She agrees to call Shiki -san, instead of -sama when he asks, and also lets him help her with her chores (as long as Akiha doesn't find out). She was also trained as Tohno Makihisa's personal doctor and holds a license to practice pharmacology. Like Hisui, she was also raised to be a maid for the Tohno family from her childhood.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Animal Motifs: Cats, tying in with the witch theme that appears in Melty Blood and later routes. And in her route in the original game Akiha refers to her as a "dorobou neko" (usually translated as "cat thief" or "thieving cat") which is rougly the equivalent of the English phrase "homewrecker" when she discovers her relationship with Shiki.
  • Ascended Extra: Kohaku originally wasn't supposed to have her own route, but one was added at the last minute. This is why she only has one ending instead of two like all of the other heroines.
  • Batman Gambit: "That's right. All of it was something I wished would happen, Shiki-san." (The entire plot of Tsukihime is shown to be a set of multiple gambits made by Kohaku, from Makihisa's death to Shiki killing SHIKI, and her plan to take revenge on the Tohno family succeeds in Hisui's True Ending. Contextually, Arcueid and Ciel are both Spanners in the Works because they keep Shiki away from the mansion.)
  • Becoming the Mask: Especially in Melty Blood.
  • Break the Cutie
  • Broken Bird
  • The Chessmaster: Kohaku is responsible for Makihisa's death by SHIKI. Technically, the entire plot of Tsukihime is her fault, since that's what causes Shiki to return to the mansion. This is highly exaggerated in sequels and doujin items such as Battle Moon Wars.
  • Cool Sword: In Melty Blood. Hidden in her broom no less.
  • The Cutie: If only Hisui was as bright and cheerful as Kohaku? Ouch. I don't think so, Shiki.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Kohaku went through this when SHIKI first raped her, and she realized even after Makihisa died, SHIKI would still be there to abuse her.
  • Desperately Looking for a Purpose In Life: Despite everything she does, she actually feels no malice whatsoever. Rather, she has so much in the way of bottled up emotions and has no idea what to do that she picks up a revenge plot as a way of coping.
  • Dojikko: Cleaning the house is NOT her forte.
  • Driven to Suicide: In Hisui's routes. In Hisui's Good Ending, she survives, but loses her memory. It's implied she lost her memory on purpose.
  • Emotionless Girl
  • Expy: Of Fujino Asagami from Kara no Kyoukai. Both women belong to families in the Demon Hunters' Association; both have gone through the same horrible experience, and both Feel No Pain (though for different reasons). Their stories' Shikis also end up killing "something bad" within their bodies using their respective Mystic Eyes of Death Perception: Fujino's terminal appendicitis and Kohaku's ingested poison.
  • Eyes of Gold
  • Feel No Pain: One of the first indications that Kohaku is a Stepford Smiler is when she cuts herself and doesn't realize she should attempt to bandage it in front of Shiki. Note that this is a psychological block more than a lack of nerve endings or anything physical. It's so effective that Kohaku claims she feels no pain even after stabbing herself in the heart and slowly bleeding to death.
  • Flanderization: In Tsukihime, it's revealed that Kohaku is the only person with a television in the house. In Kagetsu Tohya, it's revealed Kohaku owns a Playstation2 with several games for it (including Bloody Roar 3, Grand Theft Auto, and Paperboy), as well as giving her a penchant for Cosplay as her alter egos Mister Chin and Broom Girl Magical Amber. Some doujin authors have run with this and depicted Kohaku as an outright Otaku or Hikikomori.
    • Not to mention the Twin Threesome Fantasy erotic scene in Kagetsu Tohya, where Kohaku quite happily volunteers to, um... prepare Hisui while Shiki recovers. Considering her sexual tendencies elsewhere and her history, there's some actual logic behind her actions...but doujin artists tend to grossly exaggerate this into flat-out twincesty obsession.
    • Later works also greatly tend to overplay her manipulative/mad scientist-y behaviour. Remember that for most of Tsukihime, she was just a (supposedly) cheerful servant, not constantly seen plotting.
  • Forgotten Childhood Friend: However, she technically isn't a childhood friend, so much as a girl from Shiki's childhood he saw from afar and only directly interacted with once that nonetheless had a large emotional impact on him.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: In Melty Blood. She creates a robot-version of Hisui. And an entire factory to mass produce them. It's implied that she doesn't actually have the skill to do this, but since the Tatari is around...
  • Genki Girl: Subverted.
  • Guest Fighter: As Magical Amber in Fate/tiger colosseum.
  • Hair Decorations: Her ribbon.
  • Intimate Healing
  • Joke Weapon: Kohaku fights with plants, molotov cocktails, and a sword hidden in her broom in Melty Blood.
  • Kansas City Shuffle: Most of Kohaku's Gambits rely on providing someone with disinformation, or revealing a real piece of information at the right moment.
  • Late Arrival Spoiler: Sequels not only don't hide her plotting nature, they greatly exaggerate it.
  • Mad Doctor: Provides the trope page image, even.
  • Meaningful Name: Her name is the Japanese word for amber, referring to her eye color.
  • Meido: Though she wears the traditional outfit of a Japanese maid rather than a more familiar Western one like Hisui does.
  • Milkman Conspiracy: Despite everything she does in the Far Side of the Moon routes, she really is nothing more than a maid.
  • Playing with Syringes: In Kagetsu Tohya. "It's needle time!" ^_^
  • Rape as Backstory: Kohaku was eight when it first happened, and her abuse continued for years.
  • Rose-Haired Girl
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: With Hisui.
  • Stepford Smiler
  • Sunny Sunflower Disposition: The final shot of her True Ending, with her waiting for Shiki in a sunflower field with outstretched arms and a bright smile.
  • Supreme Chef: She sucks at cleaning, but is a wonderful chef. (Even when she poisons her food!)
  • Tag-Team Twins: Kohaku and Hisui can fight solo, or as a tag team in Melty Blood.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: Kohaku's reaction to any hint that Shiki has taken advantage of Hisui.
  • Twin Switch: Used in Hisui's route and several others. Kohaku dresses as Hisui to feed Shiki poison in the form of medicine. Then she forcibly has sex with him to give him her synchronization power. It's revealed in the Plus-Disc that Kohaku has a special set of contact lenses which allow her to make her eyes look like Hisui's to complete the deception.[4] An unintended one has also occurred over the years when Kohaku started faking being a Genki Girl and Hisui took her place as the Emotionless Girl without Kohaku really being aware of it. Causes severes issues in Hisui route.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds

Satsuki "Sacchin" Yumizuka

Voiced by: Kaori Tanaka (JP - Anime), Carrie Savage (EN - Anime), Omi Minami (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm)

"Tohno-kun, will you come and help me when I'm in a pinch?"

Shiki's classmate who watched him from afar since she was young and had a crush on him. Her crush began when her sports club was trapped inside a room after-hours in the winter, and Shiki freed them (by 'killing' the lock). She liked him from that moment onward, but he never noticed her. One day she finally worked up the courage to walk home with Shiki, and convinced him to promise her: "If I'm ever in a pinch, you'll come and help me, right?" They soon part ways. That's the last time she appears as a human. When she goes to investigate rumors about Shiki wandering around town late at night, SHIKI appears and bites her, turning her into a vampire. Most people simply die or possibly turn into a weak zombie when bitten, but Satsuki was a rare exception who became a vampire right away. In the Far Side routes, Shiki discovers what has happened to her and kills her.

It's worth noting that in the anime and manga, Satsuki remains a Muggle throughout the storyline. She is neither killed, nor does she end up with Shiki. This was probably done to give Shiki one more Muggle friend besides Arihiko.

Is alive in Melty Blood, the specifics of which have much speculation. Has formed the "Back Alley Alliance" with Sion and Riesbyfe.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Butt Monkey: In the original Tsukihime she was tragic. In side material, she's mocked mercilessly.
  • Cute Little Fangs: VERY visible during Tsukihime and Kagetsu Tohya, but downplayed in Melty Blood.
  • Demoted to Extra: She was originally supposed to be one of the main Tsukihime heroines with her own route. This was removed at the last minute and she simply became a minor character. In the Manga/Anime community Satsuki has become a famous example of the trope. In fact, she was the former trope namer. Isn't it sad? The upcoming remake is supposed to finally include a route for her.
  • Disc One Final Boss: In the Far Side of the Moon routes Shiki believes at first that Satsuki is the vampire stalking the town. He's proven wrong when the incidents continue after he kills her.
  • Girlish Pigtails
  • Just Friends: And she barely qualifies for that. Sorry, Satsuki, but you don't even really register for Shiki.
  • Odd Friendship: With Sion and Len - the "Back Alley Alliance"
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Her normally brown eyes turn red upon becoming a vampire. The in-game sprites show this inconsistently.
  • The Reveal: Satsuki is revealed to be a vampire when she lifts up her arms from behind her back, revealing they're soaked in blood.
  • Superpower Lottery: If they survive (1/100 chance), those bitten by a vampire will initially become mindless zombies that take several days to even reanimate, and a few years to become feral ghouls. Even then only 1 out of 1000 bitten have a chance to regain sentience after a few more years. And even with that, only 1 in 10,000 bitten can become an actual vampire with another few years on top of those. Satsuki became semi-aware in minutes, and fully sentient after a day. On top of THAT, in her un-released route and Melty Blood as her Last Arc, she has a Reality Marble, a very powerful magic ability that only a few Dead Apostle Elders have. It is called "Depletion Garden" and drains all the mana from the air around her, effectively giving her the power of Anti-Magic, an ability she didn't even know about.
    • On top of that, with some help from Sion, she only needs about 200cc of blood a week to get by - which includes getting into scraps with the assorted mages, vampire killers, and other vampires and walk in sunlight. In biological terms, that's the amount of a large blood sample, yet not one that would hurt someone terribly. Basically, she's ridiculously efficient blood consumption-wise. For all that she's been tormented for her troubles, she may have lost the farm only to win the jackpot.
  • Throw the Dog a Bone: Her endings in the more recent Melty Blood games have things looking up somewhat for her, such as coming to terms with - and even accepting - her status as a Dead Apostle in Act Cadenza, or welcoming Riesbyfe in the Back Alley Alliance in Actress Again.
  • Tragic Monster
  • Unskilled but Strong: Due to winning the Superpower Lottery out of nowhere, being such a young vampire, and being such a gentle person throughout her life. She lacks any real technique or hand to hand ability, instead relying on her instinct and raw power by throwing clumsy punches in Cute Little Fisticuffs fashion, grabbing her opponents and tossing them, or jumping into the air with them and slamming them back into the ground.
    • Her attacks look as weak as stumbling, non-uniform punches from a girl should, and one may be tempted to underestimate her, but seeing one of her cute and flimsy looking wind-up punches connect with her opponent with a sound resembling thunder or a bomb going off, sending them across the area and smashing into a wall, or seeing her punch the ground so hard it shakes and tosses anything nearby into the air - with the accompanying thunder sound, will change that.
    • Also shows a penchant for Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs in one of Arc Drives in Melty Blood by holding the enemy in the air and letting go before releasing a barrage of punches that would make Kenshiro proud and finishing with a Megaton Punch that only hits the ground below the opponent but is so strong that it still sends them flying into a wall.
  • Vampire Refugee
  • Yandere/Cute and Psycho: After her becoming a vampire, she's way too cheerful sounding when describing the acts of violence she's performed on random people. She also tries to make Shiki her vampire servant so he can't leave her.

Michael Roa Valdamjong

Voiced by: Hiroyuki Yoshino (JP - Anime), Kirk Thornton (EN - Anime) (anime), Ken Narita (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm)

A high - ranking member of the Church, who fell in love with Arcueid upon first sight. However, as a human, he couldn't be with her forever. So he tricked her into sucking his blood and making him a Dead Apostle, although he is not considered an official Dead Apostle. To preserve his life, he perfected the science of reincarnation. Whenever he dies, he reincarnates into a new person by taking over a victim's body when they reach a certain age. The exact science of this is vague, but he is able to control who he reincarnates as, and only chooses people with a high magic potential as well as a high position in human society. When Tsukihime begins, he has already reincarnated himself seventeen times. His private war with Arcueid has gone on for centuries.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Big Bad: In Tsukihime, only in the Near Side routes.
  • Butt Monkey: In several story routes in Actress Again. In Kohaku's route she trolls him (see the Crazy Awesome entry on the Melty Blood page); in White Len's she informs him with a smirk (right after he makes a "strong-eat-the-weak-law-of-nature" speech) that he is at the very bottom of the Back Alley Alliance.
  • Canon Immigrant: It took several years for him to finally appear in Melty Blood: Actress Again. This form of Roa uses electrical attacks.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Like Arcueid and Nero, no mention is made of him in the Far Side routes.
  • Fallen Hero: He was a member of the Burial Squad before he became a vampire.
  • Graceful Loser: Only in the Good Ending of the Ciel Route.
  • Grand Theft Me: Everyone calls it "Reincarnation" but really, he just jumps to a different person's body.
  • Immortality Immorality: Justified; he drove himself insane because he didn't understand his own feelings and thought immortality was the answer, and then he began to seriously lose his "self" after a few reincarnations. By this point all that is left of Roa is his need to live forever and a desire for Arcueid. Neither one is very conducive to being a nice a person.
  • Immortality Seeker
  • Love Makes You Evil
  • Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: The Roa vs Arcueid fight in Roa's storyline of MBAA is full of this, from both sides.
  • Psycho Electro: In Actress Again. This is based on his Reality Marble, something he never got to show off in the story.
  • Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny: The cause of his Face Heel Turn was his inability to come to terms with his attraction to Arcueid.
  • Thanatos Gambit: His psyche takes control immediately when a Tatari avatar of himself is formed; he knows he just has a single night to do anything; so in his ending he awakens Archetype Earth within Arcueid just to see how long he could survive.
  • Villain Decay: Both In-Universe and outside of it. His first incarnation was powerful enough to defeat someone even Arcueid wasn't able to win against. By his 18th incarnation he's barely able to beat a heavily weakened Arcueid. By Melty Blood he's regarded as a total joke.

Nrvnqsr "Nero" Chaos / Fabro Rowan

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (JP - Anime), Jamieson Price (EN - Anime), Joji Nakata (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm)

"Very well. I now recognize you as an obstacle to me."

A man who became a Dead Apostle vampire through magical research. In order to prolong his immortality, he took the bodies of many different types of beasts and made them a part of himself. However, he kept doing this to the point his body now contains 666 different animals inside him (including mythological creatures). He has added so many other lives to his existence that he has lost his original personality and exists as an form of "chaos," which he likens to the primordial soup from which life formed. He intends to keep adding lives to himself to see the end result.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Biological Mashup: his body is made out of 666 beasts fused together in a single being. They literally leap out of his body, and he states that until they've taken a form, even he doesn't know what creature will come out.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: On the Far Side routes, there is no mention or other indication he ever existed. Presumably Arcueid kills him by herself in these routes.
  • The Comically Serious: Plays this role on occasion, especially when he's forced into a game of tag in Kagetsu Tohya
  • The Corruption: Nero's 666 beasts are fusing into something else entirely, taking his personality with it. Had he not been killed, his mind would have been consumed.
  • Crack Pairing: Some side stories and doujinshi suggest Nero/Kohaku make a good couple. His Melty Blood Victory Quote against her hints that Kohaku is so tragic a figure his beasts instinctively refuse to eat her. [Invoked]
  • Disc One Final Boss: Shiki believes Nero is the vampire Arcueid is hunting until he realized Nero ate all of his victims and the vampire Arcueid is hunting sucks their blood.
  • The Dragon: In the Near Side routes. Though he's actually just a friend of Roa and doesn't work for him.
  • Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: One of the beasts contained within him is a shark, which causes one of the most hilarious and unexpected Bad Ends in the game. Imagine being eaten by a shark at the top floor of a hotel.
  • Expy Look at his above picture! Does it remind you of this??
  • Kick the Dog: He comes across a girl and consumes her merely for the sake of doing it during the fight against Shiki. This later becomes a Tear Jerker of a fan written side-story in Kagetsu Tohya, when the girl is revived as a 'second' Nero Chaos who is unable to control their powers and is slowly dying.
  • Mad Scientist: Shades of. His entire existence is basically one big experiment to him; he is fully aware that his personality is being destroyed by his unique nature, and rather than be worried about this, he's actually impatient to see what he'll become next.
  • Meaningful Name: The written out 'Nrvnqsr' may seem random, but the letters correspond to numbers in the Hebrew numbering system which add up to 666.[5]
  • Nakama: Is stated to be 'friends' with Roa.
  • Nigh Invulnerability: The only way to destroy him is to take out all the 666 beasts at the same time, which is virtually impossible. Unfortunately for him, he didn't count on Shiki's Mystic Eyes.
  • Number of the Beast

SHIKI Tohno

" I will be counting on you. Nanaya..."

The real brother of Akiha Tohno. He was imprisoned when his demon-powers activated and he tried to kill Shiki when they were children. He is kept in an underground prison for years and cared for by Kohaku. He kills Tohno Makihisa at Kohaku's direction, and later escapes into the city at night to kill random people. In the Near Side routes, he becomes possessed by Roa and loses his sense of personality. He maintains it in the Far Side routes. His goal is to kill Tohno Shiki and regain his place in the Tohno family.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Ax Crazy: What he becomes after trying to kill Shiki.
  • Blood Magic: Can even shape into COUNTLESS BLADES. Got enough swords, indeed.
  • Brother-Sister Incest: If you thought Akiha was bad, SHIKI ups the Squick factor in her route, where it's heavily implied that he raped her offscreen. Not to mention what Shiki's dream connection with him shows, where his serial killings are targeting girls he thinks are Akiha or look like her, because he wants to "defile" them. His dialogue implies that this is actually some sort of twisted attempt on his part to give Akiha what she wants, but is too insane for anything approaching reason.
  • Demoted to Extra: SHIKI is one of the only Tsukihime characters, major or minor, to not be featured as a playable character in any version of Melty Blood. Several 4koma comics have made jokes on this.
  • Forgotten Childhood Friend: Before inverting, SHIKI used to play with Shiki and Akiha. Until fairly late in most routes, Shiki only has the vaguest recollection of there being another boy they played with, let alone his real identity.
  • Monster Sob Story: Let's look at his life: At a young age he had an ungodly violent awakening of his demon blood while simultaneously a vampire was taking him over from the soul outwards, which resulted in him trying to kill his sister and impaling his best friend through the chest. The nail in the coffin, though, was probably him spending eight years with only Kohaku, who was brainwashing/shaping/twisting him even more, purely for the sake of her revenge. In Kagetsu Tohya, a side story shows that he really is a pitifully nice guy when sane.
    • In Hisui's route, he becomes so Ax Crazy that Shiki is able to kill him easily with little effort. Shiki also remarks that he never thought their dream connection would be as disturbing for SHIKI as it was for him, and that he really seems very pitiful.
  • Soul Jar: of Roa
  • Tragic Monster: Moreso in the manga, where his role in everyone's childhoods was more emphasized.
  • Unwitting Pawn: To Kohaku, in the Hisui route. While Akiha and Shiki were also used as pawns, Akiha had most likely deduced it beforehand and played along with it out of guilt while Shiki was somewhat aware and learned the truth a short time later. SHIKI, on the other hand, was being used as a tool the entire time and never realized it even to the moment of his death.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy

Aoko Aozaki

Voiced by: Akiko Kimura (JP - Anime), Karen Strassman (EN - Anime), Kotono Mitsuishi (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm)

"Hey boy, you're in my way."

One of the three or four remaining Sorcerers, the users of True Magic/Sorcery (miracles unattainable by normal magecraft or science); her specialty is the Fifth Sorcery, Blue. She met Tohno Shiki by chance after he was in the hospital. They formed a close bond, and she taught him many important things about life. Since she hates her name, Shiki decides to call her 'Sensei'. She provides him with the special glasses he has to block his Mystic Eyes of Death Perception ability. She then disappears. She shows up in the epilogue to Tsukihime, where she tells Shiki he's become a fine young man and Shiki finally thanks her for being there for him.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Makihisa Tohno

The Head of the Tohno Family before he dies and his daughter Akiha takes over. His death sets in motion the events leading up to Tsukihime. Known to be both kind and very cruel at times.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Best Served Cold: It is implied that the reason he went after the Nanayas is because Nanaya Kiri badly wounded him during a moment of berserker fury.
  • Half-Human Hybrid
  • Kick the Dog: Literally. Kohaku narrates that Makihisa used to go around the mansion grounds kicking puppies during his "mood swings".
    • Kagetsu Tohya has Shiki mentioning that he brought small animals to the mansion specifically to kill them.
  • The Mole: While being head of one of the strongest family of demon-hybrids, he worked with the demon-hunters.
  • Posthumous Character
  • The Unseen: We read his diary, and there's a lot of references to him, but no actual appearances of him, even in flashbacks. He also lacks any character artwork, and the only description of him is that he was very intimidating in stature and personality.

Arihiko Inui

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (JP), Dave Wittenberg (EN)

"You're my dear friend, right? I'd exchange fists with even my parents, but I have a policy of not fighting with my friends. I'm the very model of chivalry."

Shiki's best friend and rival. One of the few muggle characters in the game.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Kagetsu Tohya

Len

Voiced by: Kaori Mizuhashi (JP)

"............"

A dream familiar owned by Arcueid. Her role in the original Tsukihime is to give Shiki an erotic dream as a reward for him destroying Nero. She has a shy personality, but is known to like to play tricks when she is bored. She's the star of Kagetsu Tohya, although this isn't apparent at first. She appears either as a small girl with elf ears or a black kitten. She loves sweets.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Animal Motifs: A cat. More specifically, a black cat.
  • Badass Adorable
  • Catgirl: Normally either a little girl or a black kitten, but when surprised at one time the two seem to slightly blend, which gives her cat ears instead of the normal pointy ones. This may imply that her shapeshifting ability is not limited to just those two forms and she merely prefers them.
  • Cute Kitten
  • Cute Mute: By choice. She only seems to have two lines: One during a sex scene in Kagetsu Tohya where she says Shiki's name and one during Melty Blood where she rejects White Len.
  • Dark Magical Girl
  • Dream Weaver
  • Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: Has them, but she's not necessarily unhappy. It seems that they're meant to symbolize her inability to outwardly portray her emotions. In contrast, White Len, who was created from the unused parts of Len's personality, has normal, albeit demonic, eyes.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning: For some of her attacks.
  • Familiar: Works for Arcueid at first, but is technically not a familiar because it's impossible to make a connection as they are too similar. Becomes Shiki's at the end of Kagetsu Tohya via a contract made either with sex or by feeding her his blood.
  • Foot Focus: During one of her h-scenes.
  • Hair Decorations: Wears a ribbon.
  • Horny Devils: She is a succubus, after all.
  • Intelligible Unintelligible: Despite never saying anything, Hisui and Shiki seem to be capable of understanding what she wants to say. Shiki has always had a sort of empathetic connection with her that seems to have strengthened after forming a contract with her. Hisui, on the other hand, seems to be able to understand her simply due to the two of them being "similar characters".
  • Intimate Healing: At the end of Kagetsu Tohya, Shiki and Len forge a contract in order to give Len the magical energy she needs to live. They can do this either by her drinking some of his blood, or by having sex. The choice is ultimately left up to the player, but the game drops several hints as to which is the 'correct' option.
  • Legal Jailbait
  • Little Miss Badass
  • Lotus Eater Machine: Kagetsu Tohya seems to indicate until the end that she's making one for Shiki's benefit while he heals. However, it turns out that she's actually dying and (unknown to her) she's really doing it so that she live a normal life, or at least watch Shiki's.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Best not to think about it, see above.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning
  • Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red oni to White Len's blue oni.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: Not really siblings, but Len is literally the yin to White Len's yang.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Anything sweet. Especially, cakes.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Akira Seo

An underclassman of Tohno Akiha's at her school. She technically first makes her appearance in the Tsukihime Plus-Disc, but she appears in Kagetsu Tohya as well. She has the power to see the future of others, but she can't seem to control it at will. Has the tendency to speak too quickly and say things she didn't mean to say, especially about Akiha, who she is afraid of.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Audio Erotica: She notes in her narration that she has a thing for guys with nice voices. Naturally, hearing Shiki's voice over the phone makes her heart skip a few beats. This actually becomes an important clue in her Plus-Disc story since the man she'd been meeting up with thinking he was Shiki didn't produce a similar reaction.
  • Screw Destiny: She can and has changed the futures she's seen to achieve a more favorable outcome.

Shiki Nanaya

Voiced by: Kenji Nojima (JP)

"You know where you're going? If it's hell, give the devil my regards."

A representation of Shiki's fear of what he would have been like if he grew up in the Nanaya family and never learned to respect human life. His physical ability surpasses Shiki in many ways. He does not wear Shiki's glasses and usually has a cool emotionless expression on his face. Note that this is not the same character as Tohno Shiki's Nanaya side alterego.

He also appears in Melty Blood, where he is made into a TATARI avatar by Wallachia. This version appears to have Shiki's memories as well.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Badass: Shiki at his best is never able to match up against him in Kagetsu Tohya. Although Tohno wasn't able to use his eyes, which probably would have leveled the playing field. And those fights were him fighting against his nightmare inside a dream.
  • Character Development: When he starts talking about his 'Pride as a Nanaya' in MBAA, you know he's changed alot.
  • Common Knowledge: Shiki Nanaya is not Shiki's Nanaya instincts give form. He is simply what Shiki fears he could have become.
    • What makes this odd belief even more confusing is that Shiki's actual Nanaya mode is almost nothing like Shiki Nanaya.
  • Disc One Final Boss
  • Enemy Without
  • If You Know What I Mean: Nanaya is afraid he 'spanked' White Len too much when he wins a battle against her. And muses whom is the 'master' in their relationship.
  • Stealth Mentor: It is implied that Master Panda, Miyako's fighting instructor, is actually Nanaya in disguise (speaking with the same voice in Carnival Phantasm, the symbol for "Nanatsu-yoru" on his back, their tagteam name in Act Cadenza is "The Long Road of the Panda," etc.)
  • The Stoic: Nanaya never gets angry at anyone, kills calmly and cooly, and enjoys it with the satisfaction of a spider eating a fly.
    • Not So Stoic: ... Except when Kishima Kouma appears. You can hear the emotion start cutting through his facade.


Kouma Kishima

Voiced by: Jurota Kosugi (JP)

"...Do as you wish. That is, if your tiny arms could pull it off."

A half-demon hybrid from the Kishima clan, a sub-family of the Tohno family. Very powerful, even relative to demon-hybrid standards. He only has one eye, as he lost the other one to Shiki's father. He's responsible for killing Shiki's father Nanaya Kiri in an attack by the demon-hybrids on the demon hunter family Nanaya, on Makihisa Tohno's orders. Another representation of Shiki's fear in Kagetsu Tohya.

In Melty Blood he is revealed to be living as a hermit in the mountains, having decided to isolate himself from human society after Akiha decided to repent for her father's mistakes on time for Shiki's arrival on her mansion, by cutting ties with the Kishimas, forcing Kouma out.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • All There in the Manual: Most of Kouma's background and character, given he plays a very minor (or none at all) role in current events of the series.
  • Alliterative Name
  • Badass: It was settled in stone by the time anihilated the Nanaya family single handedly, also his entrance as Shiki's fear, he easily beheads Shiki Nanaya, someone who Shiki Tohno was having a lot of trouble with.
    • Badass Abnormal: Strongest half-demon hybrid known, and it shows when characters are uttely terrified by his presence alone.
    • Badass Longcoat: When Kouma actually wears his coat normally.
  • Bare-Fisted Monk: His early portrayal, Kouma was just an extremely strong half-demon hybrid who attacked with his fierce strenght alone; even though Melty Blood gave him flame powers, he still fits as this to certain degree, in fact, he functionally lives as a monk now.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Kouma shouts out almost all of all his attacks in Melty Blood, but special metion goes to:

Dokuhaku, Enbu ENNNNNNJOOOOOOUUU!!!
Koushuu Enbu DAIIII EEENNNJOOOOOOOUUUU!!!

  • Coat Cape: Kouma is regularly seen wearing his coat like this, rarely he will actually wear it normally.
  • The Coats Are Off: Kouma drops off his white coat before he fights, also seen in one of his intros in Melty Blood.
  • Death Glare: his default expression, Hisui comments on the times Kouma lived in the Tohno mansion, he scared people away by just looking at them, with no clear intention.
  • Does Not Like Shoes
  • Dramatic Wind: his idle animation in Melty Blood, it's not clear if it's his powers or the ambience, but there are wind currents available for his clothes and hair to be flapping in the breeze.
  • Evil Laugh: Kouma drops one when he is being beaten in Melty Blood, he really likes the action.
  • Expy: Kouma borrows some aspects of Araya Souren's design: hair style, chiseled body and stoic expression.
  • Eye Scream: Had an eye put out by Kiri Nanaya when he was a child.
  • Fingerless Gloves
  • Half-Human Hybrid: The only one that Kiri Nanaya couldn't kill.
  • Hot-Blooded: While this not his base personality, Kouma delves into one when performing his more devastating attacks in Melty Blood.
  • Implacable Man: His incarnation as Shiki's fear, Kouma doesn't utter a word, he keeps pushing foward as Shiki struggles to defeat him, plowing through trees like they were nothing. It's implied that the forest scenario of Shiki's fear might be a memory of what really happened when Kouma killed the Nanaya Family.
  • Informed Attribute: The fact Kouma is taken a born insane, and still should be one to give meaning to his extreme control of his powers; this doesn't match to his actual characterization in Kagetsu Tohya and Melty Blood, in which he is a quiet, soft spoken individual, hell, he is even said to be fond of poetry; Kouma can't be said to be insane at all.
  • Large and In Charge: The strongest half-demon hybrid in the series, and the last leader of the Kishima family.
  • Last of His Kind: The last Kishima, by his own doing no less.
  • Lightning Bruiser/Mighty Glacier: Depending on how you play him, but the story definitely places him as the former.
  • Minor Injury Overreaction: During his fight with Kiri, he is silent and mostly unresponsive as the assassin continually attacks him, his weapons bouncing off with no effect. However, when Kiri's final strike to his neck manages to -actually- hurt him (and would have killed him if it had gone deeper), he goes on a batshit rampage and kills a good majority of the Nanaya clan by himself.
  • Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Kouma has been dubbed as Crimson Red Vermillion and Red Fierce God.
  • Playing with Fire
  • Power Dyes Your Hair: Extreme usage of his powers makes his hair go crimson red, the same as Akiha.
  • Prophet Eyes: in Melty Blood, during his Arc Drives.
  • One-Man Army: Nanaya Family's sole nemesis.
  • The Quiet One: Kouma is not fond of lengthy conversations, he only talks when extremely necessary for him. Kouma's stay at the Tohno's Mansion had him at his most silent times, Hisui comments that he talked with no one except Makihisa, and even so, as minimum as possible.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Reverting to his demon heritage, his Last Arc in Melty Blood, grants Kouma striking red eyes.
  • Retool: his initial appearance in Kagetsu Tohya made no mention that Kouma could ignite flames, only that he was ungodly strong. Come Melty Blood and Kouma's powers apparently shares similar origins to Akiha's, as they actually are distant relatives.
  • Rule of Cool: Apparently the reason Melty Blood introduced his flames as the standard power set for being a half-demon hybrid, it looks damn cool with his attacks.
  • Self-Made Orphan: killed his entire family in a fit of rage, most likely by reverting to his demon heritage.
  • Sleeves Are for Wimps
  • The Speechless: Kouma said only a few words through all of Kagetsu Tohya; his first appearance was that of a child that didn't know how to talk, because his parents kept him locked in a cage without any proper affection and education. His appearance as an adult was Shiki's fear taken form, while adult Kouma could talk normally, this illusion could not, or chose not to.
  • The Stoic
  • Unholy Matrimony: He was the fiancee of the Touzaki Family's third daughter, how this was proposed is a mystery.
  • Unskilled but Strong: The reason why Kiri Nanaya was able to last so long against him. He had nothing but brute strength and incredibly tough endurance when they fought.
  • Warrior Poet: Some of his winning quotes in Mely Blood are of poetic nature, given his liking of poetry and all.
  • With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Strange mixture of played straight and subverted; he is the most powerful demon hybrid in existence, which he controls effortlessly by the virtue of being born insane. Despite that, he is an introvert who lives quietly in the mountains among the animals.
  • World's Strongest Man: Kouma is the strongest half-demon hybrid in the world, and one of the heavy contenders in the Nasuverse.
  • You Will Be Spared: decided to spare a young Shiki during the massacre against the Nanayas, Kouma believed fate would pit them against each other in the future.

Souka Tsukihime

One of Tohno Akiha's roommates at her school. She is into punk rock and goes to a concert every week. When not at school, she dresses very masculine.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Bifauxnen: Dresses as this unless she's in her school uniform. Shiki thinks she's a male when they first meet.
  • In-Joke / Title Drop: Her family name of Tsukihime was given to her to draw more attention to her.
  • Muggle

Misawa Hanei

The second of Tohno Akiha's roommates at her school. A bit of a ditz. She is able to handle Akiha easily because she is too oblivious to be intimidated by her. She goes by the nickname "Hanepin."

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Cloudcuckoolander: As stated above, she's immune to Akiha's intimidation because she doesn't even know she should be scared. Her general thought processes are a bit...odd - she has a habit of derailing conversations, much to her room mates' annoyance.
  • Informed Attribute: You can't tell just from the character art, but Hanei officially has the largest breasts of all of the female characters in the Tsukihime-verse (beating out Arcuied and Aoko by two centimeters). There is no official sex scene with her.
  • Muggle

Tokie Jinan

Daughter of Sougen Jinan, who Shiki often visited for medical treatment when he lived with the Arima family. She was Shiki's first.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Sougen Jinan

Father of Tokie, and a medical doctor. At the start of Tsukihime, he's officially retired. He had connections both to the Nanaya family and to the Tohno family. He knows a lot about demon-hybrids. He also taught medicine to Kohaku. According to Shiki, he is a Mad Doctor. He also taught Chinese martial arts to Miyako Arima.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Ichiko Inui

Older adult sister of Arihiko. Has a similar gruff personality to her brother, but she has also grown fond of Shiki over the years. She has a smoking habit and is usually seen with a cigarette dangling from her mouth. She lives with Arihiko alone because both of their parents are dead. It has long been a mystery to Shiki just what sort of job Ichiko does for the rent. It's hinted she's an artist.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Nanako/Seven

Voiced by: Haruka Tomatsu (JP)

The spirit that lives inside of Ciel's ultimate weapon, the Seventh Holy Scripture. She can manifest herself as a weapon, or as a cute horse-girl with blonde hair. She runs away from Ciel to Arihiko's house in Kagetsu Tohya, where he gives her the name "Nanako." (Previously she had only been referred to by Ciel as "Seven.") She is afraid of Ciel's angry side, but is also attached to her. She once was human, but was fused with the weapon to help unlock its potential.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Attending Your Own Funeral: Unlike most examples, she really was dead at the time. She rather enjoyed her send-off.
  • Butt Monkey: She runs away from home to take refuge in Arihiko's house and escape Ciel's abuse. Considering how badly Arihiko treats her, she still doesn't want to go back home.

Nanako: Wow, another insult. That makes it the two hundred and eighty-second time Arihiko-san has hurt my feelings.

Tonami Kugamine

Head of the Kugamine family, which is another branch family of the Tohnos like the Arimas. Their family, like the Arimas, has very little demonic powers. However, the Kugamine family is incredibly rich. Tonami was a person living at the Tohno mansion as a freeloader before the events of Tsukihime, and he was engaged to Akiha. Once Makihisa died and Akiha became head of the family, she dissolved their engagement and kicked him out with all of the other relatives staying at the mansion before Shiki returned. He is fat, perverted, a Jerkass, and downright creepy. He's basically put in the story as a joke whenever a character needs to deal with or beat up someone especially slimy.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Melty Blood

Sion Eltnam Atlasia

Voiced by: Rio Natsuki (JP - Melty Blood, Carnival Phantasm)

"All according to my calculations."

An Alchemist of Atlas, (a magic organization in Egypt), Sion was from the disgraced line of Eltnam but quickly advanced through the ranks of Atlas due to her intelligence, earning the name Atlasia. At some point prior to Melty Blood, Sion accompanied Church Executor Riesbyfe Stridberg to investigate and destroy a Dead Apostle. However, the Apostle turned out to be The Night of Wallachia/TATARI who killed Riesbyfe and drank Sion's blood. Due to the odd nature of the Night of Wallachia, Sion did not become a vampire immediately, but she broke away from the Atlas in an attempt to discover the cure for vampirism, marking her as an enemy to both the Mage's Association and the Church. Having calculated that TATARI would appear in Misaki city eventually, she went there and encountered Shiki Tohno. After some persuasion they teamed up both to fight the Night of Wallachia and to see if Arcueid, who was close to Shiki, could assist in Sion's research. Although she had a number of different fates in the original Melty Blood, she has canonically suppressed her vampiric impulses and is still continuing her research to cure vampirism.

Vampire Sion/Sion TATARI is story-wise an Alternate Continuity where Sion has succumbed to her vampiric impulses and is on the verge of succeeding Wallachia as the new TATARI; despite this she can still fight her normal self.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Alchemy Is Magic: "Mental" Alchemy, where the lineage is constantly upgrading their bloodline to have higher cognitive abilities. Traditional alchemists also exist.
  • Alternate Continuity: Within Melty Blood itself, one can play as "V. Sion/Sion Tatari" and "Normal Sion." Unlike other Evil Counterpart who are just Tatari Nightmares; Vampire Sion is an Alternate Continuity where she succumbs to the bloodlust. Compare "Evil Ryu" from Street Fighter.
  • Awesomeness By Analysis: Alchemists of Atlas are even capable of predicting the future because of this; it's basically a form of Laplace's Demon.
  • Ax Crazy: Kinda. Since ReAct, Vampire Sion picks up her parent vampire's habit of shouting Katto during battle. It's not as extreme as his case, but hey, she still has to grow into the role...
  • Berserk Button: Implying that she has been careless annoys her.
  • The Chessmaster: Her forte.
  • Curtains Match the Window
  • Defeat Means Friendship: With Akiha.
  • Handguns: Sion is the only Melty Blood character to carry a ballistic gun. She will run out of bullets and need to reload if you use it too much.
  • Hyper Awareness: Sion can "overclock her brain" through her techniques; and predict probable future outcomes using math and magic.
  • Magi Babble
  • Magic A Is Magic A
  • Meaningful Name: In Japanese, her name is pronounced shion. That's the name of a flower associated with memories. Sion can read and manipulate memories using her Etherlite.
  • Odd Friendship: With Satsuki and Len - the "Back Alley Alliance!" Also with Akiha, once she reveals that she has a method to control Shiki.
    • Sion tends to have a lot of these; she was also good friends with Riesbyfe Stridberg. Ordinarily, mages and the Church aren't on good terms.
  • Only Sane Girl: At times. Just... watch Satsuki's ending in Actress Again!
  • People Puppets: A use of Etherlite.
  • Psychic Link: Etherlite is also capable of doing this; Sion's family are literally nicknamed "spiritual hackers" because of this.
  • Purple Eyes
  • Rapunzel Hair: Although it's braided up most of the time, its quite obvious her hair is really, really long if her winpose is any indication.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: In Vampire Mode.
  • Significant Anagram: Her family name of 'Eltnam' can be rearranged to form the word 'Mental', which is the school of Alchemy she practices.
  • Split Personality: A really unique twist on this. She has multiple "rooms of thought" while most people have one, so she thinks of up to at least seven subjects at a time. It's the same personality, but it's thinking about seven different things at once with the same focus.
  • Spock Speak: Goes into this on occasion.
  • Super OCD: The notion that something might be "random" irritates her incredibly.
  • Teen Genius
  • Tsundere: A more subdued example of a Type A, but she shows the associated traits; especially in her ending for Re-ACT.
  • Vampire Refugee
  • Whip It Good: Her Etherlite in Melty Blood's gameplay.
  • You Gotta Have Light Purple Hair
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Yes! Really! It rivals Rin.

Miyako Arima

Voiced by: Miwa Kouzuki (JP)

"I don't care for whatever plans you have for humanity, just give Onii-chan back!"

The young (estimated twelve years old) daughter of the Arima family who Shiki lived with for many years. She rarely talked with Shiki, so he assumed she didn't like him. In fact, the opposite was true: she loved him very much, but was shy so she couldn't approach him. Instead, she would get embarrassed, tackle him, and then run away. She views the Tohno family as having 'kidnapped' Shiki and goes to 'rescue' him. She has a fascination with Chinese martial arts, and Wallachia increased her fighting ability.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

The Night of Wallachia (Tatari/TATARI) / Zepia Eltnam Oberon

Voiced by: Yasunori Masutani (JP)

"Spin the vermin, reverse the guilt.
 Reverse the birth, reverse the world.
Spin spin spinspinspinSPINDai-Guard (talk)!"

The main villain of Melty Blood, and the thirteenth of the Dead Apostle Ancestors. The Night of Wallachia or Tatari (literally "curse") is a is a vampire that turned into what is essentially a sentient phenomenon-slash-Reality Marble thanks to the power of the Crimson Moon and Altrouge Brunestud. He manifests over a number of (possibly predetermined) places, then uses the rumors in those areas to create a form for himself on the full moon, which fulfills said rumors by sucking out every single drop of liquid from everyone in the area before vanishing. Then, years later, he reappears in another place. He is completely insane (evidencing disorganized schizophrenia through his speech patterns) and views most of what he does as a theater play; this is arguably because when he manifests a rumor he's takes on a personality appropriate to it- playing a role, as it were.

His real name is Zepia Eltnam Oberon, Sion's ancestor, and is responsible for the disgrace of her family name by becoming a vampire. Some time ago, he drank Sion's blood causing her to slowly transform into a vampire, not because of their relation, but rather because he thinks she is his "alike", a being that needs information to exist, and wants her to be his successor. The reason for his transformation into TATARI is because having calculated that humanity will be destroyed under something called "Program Number Six", he uses TATARI in an attempt to become a miracle that could Screw Destiny. He also has a time limit; he will turn back into a "normal" vampire the next time the Crimson Moon appears, which is about a thousand years from the events of Melty Blood.

Although he has a number of fates in the original Melty Blood, canonically the Night of Wallachia ends abruptly when Arcueid channels Crimson Moon Brunestud, announces that even in a thousand years Zepia will not succeed in making his miracle, and pulls the Crimson Moon from the future to turn him back into the vampire Zepia Eltnam Oberon. He is then killed by Sion and Shiki. Despite his death, TATARI somehow still exists without him, first manifesting in White Len and later the Dust of Osiris. This causes him to appear in future games as a TATARI avatar; not Back from the Dead but basically a copy of his vampire self.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Axe Crazy: "Katto! katto katto katto kattokattokattokattokattokatto [[Gratuitous English|KATTODai-Guard (talk)!!!]]"
  • Back from the Dead: Subverted, like the other Tsukihime villains in Melty Blood; it's not really them but an exact copy created by Tatari.
  • Big Bad: in Melty Blood.
  • Cryptic Background Reference: So what the heck is Program No. Six anyway?
  • Curse Escape Clause: Only when the Red Moon shines on him will he be mortal. The next Red Moon is in about...1000 years.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: It still took Summon Bigger Fish.
  • Dracula: The game does in fact point out that Vlad Tepes was a mortal; but one of the first massacres that the Tatari did in the past was a town in the Romanian province of Wallachia that feared the legend of the Son of the Dragon.
    • Amusingly the real Vlad Tepes appears as a Servant in Fate/EXTRA; one wonders what would happen if the two encountered each other.
  • Enemy Without: He does not have a true form, he simply takes form according to the dominant fears and rumors in his "hunting grounds".
    • The fact that he does this is the reason for Red (Bousou/Berserk) Arcueid, stabby-mode Nanaya Shiki, Mecha Hisui, Magical Amber Kohaku, and possibly also Vermillion (Kurenai Seki Shuu) Akiha existing.
  • Everything's Better with Spinning: AND HOW! "Mawase mawase mawase mawase mawasemawasemawasemawasemawasemawase MAWASEDai-Guard (talk)!"
  • Evil Laugh: Both evil and maniacal.
    • Don't forget the demented giggling.
  • Eyes Always Shut: Because he drinks so much blood it leaks from his blood filled eyes when he opens them.
  • Jackass Genie: Hey, he just materializes as people's wishes. If people want a bumper crop, dead bodies for fertilizer. People want to be friends? Running in terror from him before they die is a great way to connect. People want the favor of their god? He'll become their god and favor them when they die for him. Really, he interprets every single wish as demand for a bloodthirsty rampage.
  • More Teeth Than the Osmond Family
  • Nigh Invulnerable: It takes something really special that Shiki can't just hit his Death Spot and kill him.
    • That may be a technical point. Shiki's power doesn't work on imaginary/weirdly-existing beings, hence Nasu's clarification that he wouldn't be able to kill a Servant (therefore proving that the famous crossover doujin is on crack and then some...sigh); He's literally described as a phenomenon, so killing him would be like killing a storm, or an earthquake... Maybe. ...Goddamn it Nasu!
    • To clarify, Shiki cannot kill beings outside of the Gaian cycle of life, as he himself is one of those beings. It's the reason why he can see death spots on living beings but lines on inorganic beings. It's easiest for him to comprehend death in beings most similar to himself, although he can still see death for anything under Gaian reality. TYPEs (the ultimate beings of each planet), beings like TATARI, and assumedly Servants, have a different concept of absolute death (Servants can die, but since they're stored in the Throne of Heroes, unless he can kill the record itself, Shiki can't "kill" them).
  • Not So Different: According to his warped logic, this is why he made Sion into a vampire.
  • Passing the Torch: Villainous version; He wants Sion to be his successor.
  • Reality Warper: Through his Reality Marble, he can manifest people's fears in the physical world.
  • Start of Darkness: See Well-Intentioned Extremist below.
  • Tears of Blood: Mixed with Slasher Smile, both dripping blood.
    • You get a full screen of this when you pull off his super damn magnum epic attack in Melty Blood. You will fail to not scream. TRUST ME.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: His final speech to Sion reveals that, after tracing out countless hopeless scenarios of humanity's self-destruction, he became the Tatari in hopes of eventually creating a variable that could alter the future.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Despite his best efforts, he never found a way to even stave off humanity's extinction let alone stop it.

White Len

Voiced by: Kaori Mizuhashi (JP)

"IDIOT! You super IDIOT! Incredible IDIOT! Unbelievable IDIOT! I won't forgive you IDIOT!"

A version of Len created by Aoko Aozaki from the remains of Wallachia after he was defeated. Said to contain all of Len's repressed bad emotions.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Red Arcueid (Warcueid)

Voiced by: Ryoka Yuzuki (JP)

"Fufufufufu... AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"

A tatari version of Arcueid that gave into her blood lust. She was created by Wallachia. As a consequence, she only has 1/3rd of the power of the real Arcueid because she would be too powerful for him to control at full power.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Red Arcueid: You're quite the monster, Arcueid. Compared to you, I'm just a small fry!

Red Arcueid: Even if I made mincemeat out of your arms and legs, you'd still try to bite my head off!

Cat-Arcueid (Neco-Arc, or just Neco)

Voiced by: Ryoka Yuzuki (JP)

Started as a parody version of Arcueid that served as Ciel's foil in the "Teach Me Ciel-Sensei" hint corners when the player met a bad end in Tsukihime.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Cat-Arcueid Chaos (Neco-Arc Chaos)

Voiced by: Joji Nakata

Similar to Neco-Arc, he is a parody of Nrvnqsr "Nero" Chaos, and possibly Joji Nakata for that matter. He wants to be an actor, but never seems to be able to make it.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Mecha-Hisui

Voiced by: Miyu Matsuki (JP)

A robotic version of Hisui created by Kohaku, most likely while under the influence of Wallachia. Her duty seems to be to guard the Tohno Mansion from intruders, of which there are a large amount. It's revealed that Kohaku had built an entire factory that mass produces these units.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • BFS: Big Effing Chainsaw, therefore...
  • Chainsaw Good
  • Insistent Terminology: Kohaku is addressed by Mecha-Hisui as either 'Doctor' or 'Doctor Kohaku'. (And 'Nee-san'.)
  • Magic-Powered Pseudoscience: What exactly Mecha-Hisui isn't quite known; but she was created "under the Tatari's Influence." It is highly unlikely that Kohaku; no matter how twistedly smart she is; knows traditional electronics, programming, and robotics to the degree necessary.
    • In the pre-battle dialogue with Aoko; Aoko refers to Mecha-Hisui as a magic doll.
  • Mid Boss
  • Overly Long Name: Pleasant Type Latent City Subjugation Weapon Hisui
  • Robo Speak: Used in general for Calling Your Attacks. Also, will call out: "Nee-san... Nee-san..." if beaten by Kohaku.
  • Shout-Out: Mecha Hisui's chainsaw is the Chainsawd weapon from Phantasy Star Online along with her aerial laser bazooka.
  • Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Seriously, are missiles, lasers, and a chainsaw really necessary for a "Pleasant Type" robot? Of course, she was designed by Kohaku...
    • Don't forget the jetpack.
  • Take Over the World: She (and the other mass produced Mech-Hisuis) try to do this at the end of her arcade mode in Act Cadenza. Wether or not they succeed no one knows.

Riesbyfe Stridberg

Voiced by: Akeno Watanabe (JP)

A Church Executor, she was a close friend of Sion before dying at the hands of the Night of Wallachia in the incident that infected Sion with vampirism. However, Wallachia absorbed her information, that is her memories and personality. Sion was able to steal this from Wallachia and save the information in 2 of the partitions of her brain; and then destroy him using a bullet she created from both her's and Riesbyfe's Empathic Weapon (which had Riesbyfe's soul). Later in the alternate future, Dust of Osiris used her timeline's version of that same information to recreate or copy her as a "Defense System Physical Spirit". In Sion's good ending, Sion is able to use her own mana to maintain Riesbyfe's current existence after Dust's defeat (much like a Servant). She appears to be effectively a part of the "Back Alley Alliance"

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Back from the Dead: Sort of. In Actress Again The Dust Of Osiris animated her existence; and in Sion's good ending and Satsuki's ending; Sion sets it up so Ries's continued existence is fed by Sion's Mana instead. What Time Paradox?
    • Sion had already captured her data from Wallachia. She used a combination of the program Dust of Osirus made and her own.
  • Bifauxnen
  • Church Militant
  • Downer Ending: Her story ends in one. Having taken place during the Sion TATARI continuity, Riesbyfe is forced to take her down. In the end, Riesbyfe defeats Dust of Osiris, the person who resurrected her. Osiris tells her how she instigated the new TATARI in order to save her. After a heartfelt talk between the two of them, the two die together as TATARI collapses.
  • Expy: Not particularly her character, but her existence is very similar to the Servants of Fate/stay night. She's a Defense System Physical Spirit created from the previous Tatari's perfect information of her after Oberon ate her.
    • In the manga, she even boasts that she is Sion's Shield; a similar oath to the one that Saber made.
  • Knight in Shining Armor
  • Won't Work On Me: Riesbyfe doesn't have to obey Dust of Osirus because her special weapon True Apocrypha/"Gamaliel" nullified her commands.
  • Phlebotinum Rebel: She was animated to protect Dust of Osiris.)
  • Posthumous Character: She was member of the Church and mentioned as a companion of Sion's in the group that was sent to try to stop Tatari, and died trying to buy her time to escape. Sion was extremely close to her, and kept a memento of her at all times. Then she appears in Actress Again, reanimated by the Dust of Osiris.
  • Shout-Out: In sixth chapter of Kara no Kyoukai, the headmaster of Reien Girl's Academy is stated to be "Mother Riesbyfe" and mentioned to have a large string instrument case in her office.
  • Staking the Loved One: Playing as her in Actress Again takes place in the Sion Tatari continuity, and she has to put down both V. Sion and The Dust Of Osiris; also Sion.
  • White-Haired Pretty Girl

The Dust of Osiris

The Big Bad and Final Boss of Actress Again. The TATARI of a possible future, created from Sion's blood that was sucked by Wallachia. It is effectively Sion as she would have been had she never been bitten by Wallachia or met Shiki, a Well-Intentioned Extremist. When Arcueid pulled the Crimson Moon from a thousand years in the future to defeat Wallachia, the Dust of Osiris was able to follow it. Having felt that humanity was unsavable, she hoped to utilize the Philsopher's Stone, as well as a distorted space caused by the Crimson Moon's Time Travel to Kill All Humans and leave behind a record of their existence, at least giving the lives of humanity significance. In all endings where she is fought she is defeated and vanishes; except V. Sion's where V. Sion absorbs her power.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Shiki Ryougi

Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (JP)

"I see... you're definitely some kind of imitation." [said to Shiki Tohno]

Shiki Ryougi from Kara no Kyoukai makes a special appearance in Melty Blood: Actress Again. For a proper writeup, please consult the Kara no Kyoukai characters page. Shiki is explicitly stated in Melty Blood to have come from another universe (thus confirming that Kara no Kyoukai and Tsukihime/MeltyBlood are in different universes, if it isn't simply the Shrug of God used for most Guest Fighters and crossovers to avoid canonically linking stories). She was apparently brought there by Archetype: Earth, and her story mode ends with the two of them starting to fight.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Archetype:Earth

The original form of Arcueid, and the template for the vampires for planet Earth (thus an archetype, rather than Type like Brunestud and ORT below). However, in Current Code, she doesn't actually exist as a separate character despite being playable, merely as Arcueid's personality.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

Backstory

Brunestud of the Crimson Moon/Type-Moon

The first vampire. Crimson Moon Brunestud, also known simply as the Crimson Moon, is the Ultimate One of the Moon itself, the most powerful being on the planet (or in this case large celestial object) that embodies its will. When Gaia could not create an Ultimate One for itself, it called the Crimson Moon to Earth, allowing it to stay on the planet if Gaia could use the Crimson Moon as a template to create its own guardians. Thus the True Ancestors were born from Gaia, based off the Crimson Moon. However, from Gaia's perspective there were two problems with them: The first is that, having foresaw its death, the Crimson Moon could use the True Ancestors to reincarnate itself. Since the True Ancestors were supposed to be exact copies of the Crimson Moon, this could be possible. The second flaw was that Gaia-created beings (like fairies) could not drink blood or they would go insane. Since the True Ancestors were Gaia-created beings, they could not drink blood either, but because they were copies of the Crimson Moon, they had an urge to drink blood that could not be controlled without using a large amount of their own power. This meant that True Ancestors who did drink blood and go crazy (also known as the Demon Lords) were more powerful than the sane ones (as the Demon Lords did not suppress their power). This is why Arcuied was created; she was born without an innate desire for blood, and so could fight the Demon Lords at full power.

Eventually, the Crimson Moon revealed that it wished to create a kingdom on earth. Then its foreseen death came about, though unexpectedly. Zelretch used the Second True Magic to warp it to an Earth with nothing on it, then dropped the moon on it. However, as an Ultimate One, it still, in a sense, exists.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Ambiguous Gender
  • Cloning Blues: The True Ancestors are essentially it's imperfect clones.
  • Eldritch Abomination
  • Evil Eye: It has Rainbow Mystic Eyes that allow it to "crush reality".
  • Friendly Enemy / Go-Karting with Bowser: Has a conversation with Shiki in the guise of Arcuied in a dream in one of Kagetsu Tohya's side stories. Although it does shred Shiki into eighteen pieces after the first conversation, the next chat was far more cordial.
  • Our Vampires Are Different
  • Shout-Out: The term "True Ancestor" is one to Castlevania; Symphony of the Night which has a Dracula whose endboss form is called Shinso/True Ancestor Dracula.
  • Soul Jar: All True Ancestors who can summon the Millennium Castle (and therefore carry the title Brunestud) were originally intended to be these for it, allowing it to take a new physical body after death.

Altrouge Brunestud

A vampire who is a mix of True Ancestor and Dead Apostle. She is called the "elder sister" of Arcueid because she is the only other thing in existence that can cause the Millennium Castle to appear, which earned her the 'Brunestud' title, and likely because she is older. Her normal form is as a 14 year old girl, though she apparently has a second form as well. She has no role in Tsukihime, and is only mentioned in world-building asides. She has reportedly won a fight against Arcueid in the past (and is the reason Arcueid's hair is short), lost a fight to the first incarnation of Roa, and was responsible for giving Wallachia his powers. She controls Primate Murder, the Beast of Gaia (generally portrayed as a dog or wolf) and some other Dead Apostles apparently work as her flunkies.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:

The Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors

The 27 most powerful and influential of the Dead Apostle vampires, recognized as such by the Church and the Mage's Association, with the ranking based primarily on how great a threat they pose to humanity. Whether they turned into vampires by having their blood sucked by other vampires or had their bodies warped by their own magecraft, they are those who have transcended the normal limits of humanity and are now effectively immortal. Succesion rites ensure that the number is kept constant at twenty-seven even if one is slain.

Five of the known Dead Apostle Ancestors have their own entry on this page: Nrvnsqr Chaos, The Night of Wallachia, Brunestud of the Crimson Moon, Altrouge Brunestud, and Kishua Zelretch Schweinorg.

It should also be noted that Michael Roa Valdamjong, despite being an extremely powerful vampire, is explicitly excluded from the ranks of the Dead Apostles, with the given explanation that his 'goals' differ from theirs.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • Animal Motifs: Gransurg Blackmore is styled after a raven. His Reality Marble is even called 'Nevermore'.
  • The Beast Master: Merem Solomon's preferred mode of combat. His beasts actually comprise his four limbs.
  • Bottle Fairy: Sumire, who is described as being constantly drunk.
  • Cool Big Sis: Again, Sumire is described as being like a drunken older sister in Character Material. In Tsukihime 2 she was supposed to turn up and drunkenly annoy Shiki.
  • Cosmic Horror: Brunestud of the Crimson Moon and ORT are Ultimate Ones of the Moon and Mercury respectively. Special mention goes to ORT, whom Word of God has stated to be the single strongest being in the Nasuverse, and it earns 5th spot on the list simply by virtue of it existing.
    • Primate Murder would also count for a sufficiently loose definition of 'cosmic'.
  • Detachment Combat: Merem Solomon fights by detatching his own limbs, which then turn into demons to fight for him.
  • Friendly Neighbourhood Vampire: Merem Solomon and Zelretch are both friendly to humanity, with the former being employed by the Church's Burial Agency. Gransurg Blackmore might also count, given that he's a devoted servant of Arcueid, and Arcueid herself pretty much defines this trope.
    • Potentially Van Fem and Sumire as well.
  • Heel Face Turn: Enhance is said to have turned against a group of Dead Apostles planning to assassinate Arcueid.
  • Klingon Promotion: If the one who kills a Dead Apostle meets the requirements (that is to say, drinks blood as a matter of course), they will instantly earn the Dead Apostle's ranking. Incidentally, this is how ORT got on the list, by virtue of obliterating a Dead Apostle foolish enough to disturb its slumber.
  • Meaningful Name / Hoist by His Own Petard: Caubac Alcatraz has been trapped inside a labyrinth of his own devising for the past century, And he hasn't been able to free himself nor has anyone helped him it's not even known if he still is alive after all that time.
  • Ravens and Crows: Gransurg Blackmore
  • Red Baron / Names to Run Away From Really Fast: They pretty much all have at least one of each.
  • The Rival: Rizo-Waal Strout to Shiki Tohno in Tsukihime 2, according to Kagetsu Tohya.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The Dark Six, aka. the first Dead Apostle. It's currently regenerating and summoning it is the focus of the Aylesbury Ritual.
  • Sword and Gun: Enhance's fighting style.
  • When Trees Attack: The Forest of Einnashe, a tree that ended up becoming a sentient, mobile, and bloodthirsty forest after absorbing the blood of a Dead Apostle that Arcueid had killed and failed to properly dispose of.

Kishua Zelretch Schweinorg

Wizard Marshall and the master of the Second Sorcery, which is also named after him (alternate name Kaleidoscope), and deals with alternate universes. He vanquished the Crimson Moon, though the latter managed to suck his blood, turning him into a vampire.

Though listed as one of the Twenty-Seven Dead Apostle Ancestors he still is friendly to humanity at large, and has contacts with various characters across the multiverse: Aoko Aozaki, Arcueid Brunestud (to whom he acted as godfather) and the Tohsaka family, Rin in particular. In fact, more than one Rin.

Tropes exhibited by this character include:
  • All the Myriad Ways / Alternate Universe: Has control over these.
  • Badass
    • Badass Grandpa: Old enough that even as a vampire, he's starting to feel his age. And still one of the most powerful beings on the planet.
  • Big Damn Heroes: in the True End of Heaven's Feel he pops in from an alternate universe (just as Rin was about to lose everything in a Mage Association's kangaroo court) to announce that he was taking apprentices. Rin's case was forgotten in the ensuing excitement; Zelretch praises her and takes her under his wing.
  • Colony Drop: One of the few things we know he's done is taking Crimson Moon Brunestud, dragging it into an alternate reality with an empty Earth and dropping the moon on it. Dropping the moon on someone is badass enough, but he dropped it on TYPE-Moon itself. Which definitely makes him a
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Why, yes. Yes he did.
  • Empathic Weapon: Created one known as the 'Kaleidostick'. Unfortunately, in addition to being sentient it's sort of a jerk and has a distinct taste for humiliating its wielders. So rather than using it himself, he 'loans' it to apprentices. Poor Rin...
  • For the Lulz: Giving your apprentice a magic wand which provides a lot of mana (among other things)? Tres cool. Not telling her that said wand has a mind of its own and likes to force its wielder into embarrassing costumes? Hilarity Ensues.
  • Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Well, he's still a jerk, but he's a good jerk.
  • Spell My Name with an "S": His first name is sometimes romanized as 'Kischur.'
  • Training from Hell: Students (hand-picked and initially very eager, mind you) are more often than not left a gibbering mess and unable or unwilling to continue their careers.
Back to Tsukihime
  1. ↑ He has a different power set than Roa
  2. ↑ Apart from Zelretch and, after she calms down a little, Sion. The former is her godfather and quite possibly too strong for even her to beat, while she's only restraining from taking out Sion because she hasn't drunk blood yet and Shiki doesn't want her to do it.
  3. ↑ Probably Whisper, an artificial type which is suggestion for use on muggles due to the ease in overriding them for a magus
  4. ↑ Everytime Hisui says "my sister", it's actually Kohaku. Hisui only uses Nee-san to refer to her sister. Her eyes also become very dull.
  5. ↑ The Hebrew characters for "Nrvnqsr" can be pronounced as "Neron Kesar" -- Nero Caesar
Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Tsukihime/Characters?oldid=2040615"