beginner’s guide to getting into non-fate type-moon works
Hello, hello, hello! With all the buzz about the Tsukihime Remake, I thought that now would be the perfect time to help people get into other fantastic Type-Moon works that, perhaps, have flown under many radars on account of not making billions of dollars like FGO.
Therefore, this post will list every single non-Fate Type-Moon work that I can think of, a few bullet points as to why you might like them, a more complete summary, and then detail how to find them. If you could read this post and walk away with even one more interest, then my work is a success, and I would be delighted.
A note before we get started: Where possible, I will provide links to buy these directly from Type-Moon. However, for most of these, that’s just not possible. Piracy, it has been said, is a matter of access. If Type-Moon will not provide any way to access this media legitimately, better to experience it illegitimately than not at all, I think. If Type-Moon deigns to make it accessible, that is the preferred way, and I will refrain from encouraging piracy; where they do not, I say there is no moral or ethical dilemma there.
I have checked every download myself, and they all came up clean. That doesn’t necessarily mean there are no viruses, it could be that Malwarebytes couldn’t find them. It should be safe, but exercise appropriate caution.
Oh, and if I’ve accidentally given bad or dangerous advice, feel free to yell at me and I’ll change it if necessary.
(21/08/25: Updated a couple of links, revised some phrasing in the April Witch section)
(23/12/18): Removed instructions on pirating Mahoyo in favour of official release, added link to the Tsukiweb Tsukihime browser port, added section on Melty Blood Type Lumina
Without further ado:
MAHOUTSUKAI NO YORU
Do you enjoy stories about modern day witches?
Do you enjoy period pieces about the tail end of the 1980s?
Do you like inventive monster design based on classic nursery rhymes?
Do you wanna see some of the best visuals in any Type-Moon work?
Do you want to see (a remake of) Nasu’s first novel?
Would you relate to a bad-tempered teenage witch?
Do you enjoy Suffering because many questions were left unanswered to make room for two sequels that vanished into the ether?
Then Mahoutsukai no Yoru (Mahoyo for short) is absolutely the Visual Novel for you!
Mahoutsukai no Yoru (officially anglicized as “Witch on the Holy Night” but more literally translating to “Magician’s Night”) stars Aoko Aozaki, a temperamental newbie magus with a mean streak; her mentor and best... friend...?, an icy, traditionalist witch named Alice Kuonji; and a painfully naive country boy named Soujuurou Shizuki who is endearingly oblivious and thoroughly sweet and nearly gets himself killed multiple times due to not understanding how things like “the big city” “modern technology” and “windows” work.
And they were roommates. Oh my god, they were roommates.
The story begins with Aoko and Alice living together in a “haunted” mansion on the hill overlooking Misaki Town. For the past nearly two years, Alice has been teaching Aoko (who had quite suddenly been selected as her family’s heir over her sister, who had been heir apparent up to then) magecraft. In this time they’ve formed a fascinating bond in spite of (or because of?) their clashing personalities and occasional homicide attempts. Meanwhile, Soujuurou, living on his own, has just arrived in the city from his tiny mountain town with no electricity or modern convenience at all, and is having some difficulties fitting in due to the insurmountable culture clash. Aoko... does not get along with him. At all. Firstly because she had to go to school on a day off to show him around on only a couple hours’ sleep, and then because he was simply too oblivious and sweet-tempered to notice how mad at him she was because of that.
Anyway, things happen. First, a couple of chapters of sweet slice-of-life. And then Aoko and Alice are discovered by an ordinary person while destroying the familiars of a rogue magus. The unknown person escapes before they can be identified and the witches conclude that, to keep their secrets as magi, that person will have to die. Meanwhile, Soujuurou, while out late at night, happened across what he believes to be a murder - two young girls mysteriously burning a man to death in the park...
Mahoyo is... really, truly incredible. The writing is well-done (especially the character dynamics), the atmosphere is strong, the slice of life is delightful and the action is cool... and the presentation is magnificent. I don’t think I can get across in words just how incredible it is, so please do give it a chance yourself.
The official English localization can be purchased for PS4 or Nintendo Switch on their respective digital storefronts, or on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/app/2052410/WITCH_ON_THE_HOLY_NIGHT/
KARA NO KYOUKAI
Do you enjoy stories about mystical detective work?
Do you enjoy stories that are heavy on the buddhist and taoist symbolism?
do you enjoy stories with a lot of odd and interesting philosophy and psychology?
Do you enjoy stories examining the innermost natures of human beings and how souls are constructed?
Would you enjoy a story about what it means to live, the value of death, and the importance of compassion and reaching out?
Do you enjoy stories about fundamentally messed-up people and one normal dude struggling to get by?
Do you think Nasu’s loose grasp on how psychoactive drugs like weed actually work is really funny?
Do you want to watch some genuinely fantastic animation?
Do you think fancy-looking magic eyes are cool as hell?
Would you relate to a woman struggling to figure out her identity in the wake of a long coma and the death of her other self?
Then you should absolutely check out Kara no Kyoukai (”Rakkyo” for short)!
Kara no Kyoukai (meaning “Boundary of the Void”) takes place in the run-down and rusty Mifune City, and stars Shiki Ryougi, a yakuza princess with a catlike personality and terrifying supernatural powers, Touko Aozaki, a capricious, spiteful, duplicitous magus with extraordinary talent and skill, and Mikiya Kokutou, the aforementioned normal dude; they form a sort of supernatural detective agency called Garan no Dou. Together, they fight crime well, mostly they go broke a lot because Touko won’t stop impulse-buying useless crap on Dark Amazon.
I’m not shitting you, "Dark Amazon” is literally something Nasu has called it. Despite the name, I can’t imagine it’s less ethical than Light Amazon...
Anyway, in between going broke, they investigate and put an end to supernatural phenomena, especially dangerous people with mystic powers. The first movie/novel, for instance, is about Garan no Dou investigating a series of suicides who all jumped off the same building despite having no other relation, and whose death was mysteriously foretold by their ghosts, hovering above the building since even before they jumped.
It’s a lot of fun. It’s also animated by Ufotable, an animation studio whose work I’m sure Fate fans are quite familiar with! If you’re not, then allow to tell you that Ufotable’s work is among the best of the best. Good, good, good stuff.
If you’re coming from FGO, you’re probably at least a little familiar with Shiki, since she’s, y’know, in that game.
Be aware of explicit subject matter such as graphic violence, incest, and sexual assault.
I’ve heard the fanmade translations of the novels are not very good, but have no real frame of reference myself, so I cannot recommend for or against them. The anime adaptation, however, I can absolutely vouch for the quality of, minor flaws and the entire sixth movie notwithstanding. There’s also a manga adaptation, but having read only the first chapter, I can’t speak for its quality (and the scanlation seemed pretty bad) but it does seem to have some fun nods to Mahoyo and also Shiki wearing leather pants.
Rakkyo is strange, baffling, maddening, and absolutely beautiful. It’s a dark, twisted, and wonderful experience.
... as a side note, release order and chronological order are not the same. Watch in release order. I mean, it’s not like Type-Moon published it in that order by accident! Release order is the experience the story was designed for! Well, there are people who will probably get more out of the experience watching it in chronological, but unless you’re absolutely certain you’re one of those people, my recommendation is firmly release order.
If you want to watch Kara No Kyoukai, then you can find it on Crunchyroll at https://www.crunchyroll.com/the-garden-of-sinners
If you want to read the manga, it can be found at https://mangadex.org/title/6d4e768d-d68a-449f-8983-f7acbc160d9c
If you want to read the novels, then they can be found at https://emptyboundaries.wordpress.com/2011/07/25/kara-no-kyokai-translations-2/
TSUKIHIME
Do you enjoy stories about vampires?
Do you enjoy a story that despite its heavy death thematics is more of a Memento Vivere than a Memento Mori?
Do you enjoy stories about vampires?
Do you enjoy stories with heavy themes of personal identity where almost every character is desperately trying to rebuild their sense of identity after a tragic backstory and/or maintain their identity in spite of their fundamental nature?
Do you enjoy watching the viewpoint character repeatedly spiral in and out of complete insanity?
Do you enjoy stories about vampires?
Do you enjoy stories about a person’s whole life being upended and revealed as nothing but lies?
Would you relate to a lazy, unambitious teenage boy with an incredibly fragile and easily-influenced sense of identity?
Do you enjoy Suffering because most of the sequels and spin-offs were put on hold or cancelled until the remake comes out, and the remake was announced in 2008 and still doesn’t have a release date? NEVER MIND, SUMMER 2021 BABY
Do you enjoy Suffering because the remake will only contain 2/5ths of the original VNs routes to begin with, and no word on when the remaining three and the promised new sixth route will arrive?
Then Tsukihime might just be up your alley. Your bloodstained, corpse-filled, dead-end back alley.
Tsukihime (literally translating to “Moon Princess”) is about Shiki Tohno, a high school boy who for eight years has been cursed with a horrifying and self-destructive power. But really, he’s a normal kid - loves his foster family, goes to school each day, sits at the back of the class, hangs out with his one friend. Normal stuff, right? And then his dad (his real dad who disinherited him, not the foster dad) dies, and his little sister, the heir, calls him back to his childhood home. And one dissasociative fugue later, he’s a murderer - followed a woman to her apartment, used his powers to cut her apart. The next morning, as he’s walking to school and contemplating turning himself in, he finds that same woman waiting for him at the gates. Overnight, his life goes from pleasant to a waking nightmare, and his home, Misaki Town (Souya City in the remake), seems as if to transform from a slow, sunny place into a dark, surreal, den of monsters.
Also, if you do decide to give Tsukihime a chance, there’s something I’d like you to know: The five story routes are divided into “Near Side” and “Far Side” which are very different experiences. Unless my memory is very wrong, the VN forces you to do the Arcueid route, a Near Side route, first, but if you don’t like it, please try either the Akiha or Hisui route before you drop it entirely - as Far Side routes, they are extremely different experiences (and personally, I think they’re leagues better).
Also, if for one reason or another you cannot read the VN but still want to give it a shot, read the manga instead! They have their own individual virtues - the manga follows the Arc route (with details from the Akiha route mixed in) and is more of a complete story than any one route, but much less of a complete story than the full five, with multiple important characters left by the wayside out of necessity. It’s also, on the whole, more visually intense and appealing, with one especially notable example being the final battle’s overhaul; also, it shows a certain villain’s backstory in greater, heartbreaking detail. On the other hand, it adds a couple plot holes (but also fills in at least one of the VN’s plot holes that I can think of, mind you), and the scanlation drops massively in quality partway through. I strongly recommend the VN over the manga, but it’s a perfectly sufficient alternative (or if you have the time and patience, you could read both. Both is good.). Do not watch the anime. Do not watch the anime. If you must know why: it’s the most absurdly flaccid adaptation I’ve ever seen; the artstyle is ugly, the animation is limp, the plot follows more or less the right beats but rearranges or alters them in ways that make the story incomprehensible. It’s garbage.
Be aware of explicit subject matter like graphic violence, incest, and sexual assault. Some of which is shown in a first-person perspective due to the aforementioned spiraling in and out of complete insanity and certain other factors. (some of it is avoidable depending on player choices. Usually reasonably obvious ones)
Tsukihime is a wild ride, to say the least, and let me tell you, it’s a damn good one. Sure, it was made with a budget of two paperclips and a half-eaten pork bun, is incredibly rough around the edges, and almost completely devoid of polish, but that’s part of the charm - this is Type-Moon’s first VN! This is Type-Moon at their most heartful and raw! It’s an experience unlike anything else, and I can only hope you all will enjoy it as much as I do.
Indeed, despite the upcoming remake, I fully recommend checking out the original. The remake promises to make many changes (and not include 3/5ths of the story), and it may be fully worthwhile to know what the original was like. It’s the sort of thing I get a lot out of, anyway. And hey - maybe you’ll find you love the original and the remake separately, and wouldn’t it be grand to find two new loves? Or maybe you won’t like the original, but you’ll appreciate the remake more for knowing that. Or you won’t like either, which, hey, at least you tried something new, isn’t that something? But on the whole, I really am sure you’ll probably like one or the other.
Probably the best way to play the VN is Loïc France‘s incredible browser port fan project, available at https://holofield.fr/tsukiweb/title (make sure to fiddle with the settings to your preference! Particularly, try out the three different soundtracks to find the one you like best.)
If you’d prefer the original, instructions on how to install the VN can be found at https://pastebin.com/8P1uQGG1
If you want to read the manga, then it can be found at https://mangadex.org/title/477800d5-bae8-4adb-b422-23e6cfa7ec87
Alternately, a higher-quality version of the manga in Japanese can be read entirely legally at https://web-ace.jp/tmca/contents/2000013/
I will not be helping you watch the anime. Figure it out yourself, you masochist.
Details on playing the Remake will be added once the official localization releases.
FURTHER READING
If you enjoyed Tsukihime, good news! There’s some more! Nothing new since 2015, but, like, take what you can get, right? This got a bit long, so it goes at the very bottom of the post.
DECORATION DISORDER DISCONNECTION
Do you enjoy stories about demons and deals with the devil?
Do you enjoy supernatural mystery stories?
Do you like stories about people working for mysterious, untrustworthy benefactors?
Do you enjoy baseball-playing villains with effective tragic backstories?
Would you relate to a broke, mentally-ill, disabled college drop-out?
Do you enjoy Suffering because the three-volume light novel series has been stalled on Vol. 2 for more than a decade?
In that case, perhaps Decoration Disorder Disconnection is the thing for you!
Decoration Disorder Disconnection is the story of a mysterious, supernatural disease that preys on the neglected, abused, and forgotten - the people who’ve slipped through the cracks in society - and causes them to turn into monsters with superpowers based on their idiosyncracies and untreated mental illnesses (People with mental illnesses that are being treated or at least have a healthy environment and people who care about them are not affected). Arika Ishizue, a young man with a missing arm, a strange kind of amnesia, and a pathological inability to feel threatened, is regularly roped by his rich employer into investigating the people the public call “Demon-possessed” so that the real demons can feast on the affliction that mutated them.
DDD might sound a bit insensitive to the mentally ill, but as such a person myself, I found it a very good story (I saw it more as a critique of the way Japan treats mental illness than an attack on the mentally ill, anyway) and I absolutely think you should give it a look.
Unfortunately, the only English fan translation, from the second chapter onwards, passed through Russian instead of being directly translated from Japanese, which can seriously be a detriment to the enjoyability of the novels.
Be aware of explicit subject matter like graphic violence.
DDD is an engaging story about a colourful cast of characters painted with a strange and decaying urban veneer. It’s a fascinating novel, and I hope you all love it.
If you want to read it, DDD can be found at https://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread.php/2637-DDD
ANGEL NOTES
Do you enjoy bleak post-apocalyptic stories about some schmuck trying to earn his daily bread?
Do you enjoy stories about a dead-inside sniper and his chipper roommate who is also an angel who is also an all-powerful alien entity?
Do you enjoy settings where the people of Earth have struggled and obtained hard-fought victories against a legion of alien lovecraftian terrors that ultimately cannot be stopped?
Would you relate to a grizzled and depressed man just trying to make ends meet?
Do you enjoy Suffering because the official content consists of one fairly short story, two pages in an art-book, and a two-second cameo, and there’s almost no fan content either?
Then please, go ahead and read Angel Notes (technically, it’s actually called “notes.” but many people - especially the older cohort of the English-language fanbase - just call it Angel Notes)
Angel Notes is the story of the last surviving pure human on a dead Earth and his freeloader roommate who, it turns out, is the resurrected consciousness of a monster he killed. It’s the story of a weary man and an ingenue full of hope and love - Godo, a tired, depressive gun-for-hire struggling to survive in an apocalyptic wasteland far too harsh for human life and in a society designed by and for superhumans descended from living weapons, and V/V, an angelic alien born from the death of an all-powerful lovecraftian monstrosity who came into the world a blank slate knowing only love for the living things she was meant to destroy. It’s the story of how they live, as well as...
There’s barely any of Angel Notes to read, even. It won’t take you very long at all. Please read Angel Notes. It’s really good. It’s a very sweet little story. And I love those two and I need there to be more fans of them.
If you want to read it, Angel Notes can be found at https://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread.php/73-Angel-Notes-Translation-by-Evospace or at https://archive.org/details/manga_Angel_Notes/mode/2up
MAHOUTSUKAI NO HAKO - STARLIT MARMALADE
Would you enjoy a story about a bunch of high school girls hanging out that takes an abrupt and incredibly sharp swerve into the supernatural?
Do you enjoy stories about an inexorably optimistic (and absolutely oblivious) idiot walking up to an abusive friendship and just wedging herself in between the abuser and victim despite neither wanting her around?
Do you like casts that consist primarily of different strains of lovable moron?
Do you like cute lesbian couples consisting of one lonely tsundere and one unstoppable ball of cheerfulness?
Do you like seemingly innocent, humorous, small-scale stories that have baffling connections to the setting’s deep lore (such as one major character turning out to secretly be a living weapon created by the 27th most dangerous vampire on the planet)?
Would you relate to a dour young woman who hates marching to the beat of anyone else’s drum, lives in the shadow of her hugely popular and successful elder sister, wants to be left alone, and is just completely surrounded by a bunch of energetic and relentlessly positive people?
Do you enjoy Suffering because Vol. 2 hasn’t been translated? Or, if you understand Japanese, because it was supposed to be a three volume series but there’s been no sign of Vol. 3 since the release of Vol. 2 in 2013?
Just a quick note before we start: Hibiki and Chikagi, those two girls at the front, with the orange and green hair? They were created as the mascots of Type-Moon’s now-defunct mobile site, “Mahoutsukai No Hako” (meaning “Magician’s Box,” and referring to Cafe Ahnenerbe, the interdimensional crossroads where the protagonists work part-time). The idea, as I understand it, was that they (and to a lesser extent their co-stars Keitai-san and Sunao Sugata) would be the face, to some degree, of all of Type-Moon’s mobile-phone-related stuff.
... Those of you coming here from FGO can start laughing now.
For a while, Mahoutsukai No Hako consisted of random fluff, basically. The cast had a few hijinks, hosted variety shows starring various Type-Moon voice actors, starred in a special episode of Carnival Phantasm, and so on.
And then Starlit Marmalade wrote their backstory.
Starlit Marmalade is mainly about Chikagi Katsuragi and Hibiki Hibino, a pair of apparently pretty ordinary high school students. Chikagi, a solitary, caustic person with only one friend (and not a good friend, either, a heavily abusive friend who only cares about Chikagi as a tool to get to her sister Chidori), suddenly finds herself set upon by Hibiki Hibino, who, for reasons as clear as mud, has decided she absolutely has to be Chikagi’s friend, wants nothing more than to make Chikagi smile, and who proves to be a special kind of bull-headed where it’s hard to tell if she’s extremely perceptive as to what people need as opposed to what they say they want, or just completely incapable of listening to what people tell her.
Meanwhile, students at their school have been disappearing under mysterious circumstances...
Starlit Marmalade is... one hell of an anomaly. It’s a very, very silly and sweet story, but because it takes itself just the right amount of seriously - not seriously enough that it comes off as unaware of how silly its being, but serious enough that the silly things come off as, for lack of a better word, “real” - it manages to get away with having some surprising tonal twists and lore connections It’s pretty delightful. I’d certainly recommend checking it out.
... oh, by the way, apparently Sunao - an character who makes her debut toward the end of Vol. 1 - appears in one Fate/Extra drama CD as the Nameless Archer’s master and dies in battle against Leo Harway. What the hell?
Anyway, a translation/summary of the first drama CD can be found at https://heavens-feel.com/starlitmarmaladevol1disc1translation.html
the manga can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/e850e497-2d50-40cc-a0da-186e3857e33a
FIRE GIRL
Have you ever wondered what the result of the author of Fate/Requiem doing something ~kind of~ similar to an isekai (except instead of reincarnation it’s more like... spelunking but with an alternate dimension instead of a cave, I guess?) would be?
Do you enjoy parallel universes that have the same name as a popular hazelnut spread for some reason?
Do you think Wasei-Eigo related mixups are hilarious? Because there’s a real big one involving the word ‘trans’ in the second volume.
Would you relate to a mildly narcoleptic, apathetic, over-imaginative teenage girl?
Do you like stories about both literal and figurative exploration of the unknown and pushing boundaries?
Do you enjoy Suffering because the English translation only goes up to near the end of the second of three volumes?
For the Japanese-fluent, I don’t know, there might not be Suffering involved this time, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Fire Girl is about a high school girl named Homura Hinooka, who joins a kinda shady club at her school dedicated to exploring and studying a mysterious alternate universe called “Nutella,” which can only be reached by people between the ages of 9 and 19 (limited further by law to those in the last few viable years).
This so-called “Imaginary Earth,” which operates on rules that are occasionally suspiciously video-gamey, presents numerous mysteries of physics and history: despite being far, far larger than Earth, Nutella’s environment is still Earth-like; magic is a legitimate possibility there, utilized not only by human explorers but even some select specimens of the wildlife; humans who travel there may find themselve metamorphosized into demihuman forms like elves, demons, or slutty cat-boys (to be clear, the only thing added there was the ‘cat’ part. ‘Slutty’ and ‘boy’ were already part of Saho’s character); and most mysteriously, although numerous ancient ruins have been found, not a single other trace of sentient life has been found.
By the way, you might think the ‘tella’ in ‘Nutella’ is an Engrish-ization of ‘terra,’ but the rings around the planet are referred to as ‘The Bagel,’ so maybe Meteo is just being funny.
I can’t give a complete opinion on Fire Girl, owing to my incomplete experience, but I really did enjoy the time I had with it.
If you want to read it yourself, it can be found at https://firegirlthetranslation.wordpress.com/
TSUKI NO SANGO
Do you like stories about stories?
Do you like soft-Sci-Fi renditions of classic fairy tales?
Do you like the tale of Princess Kaguya?
Would you like to read a story about a dying earth, and the importance of love and patience and the inevitable victory of emotion over reason?
Do you like stories about machines becoming human, even when it costs them their wellbeing?
Would you relate to an emotionally crippled princess, who is being pressured to marry but really just wants to do her own thing?
Or, would you relate to an emotionally dead young man with auditory dyslexia, whose only wish is to be left alone?
Tsuki no Sango (”Coral of the Moon”) is a loose adaptation of the folktale of Princess Kaguya, designed as a quote-unquote “Tsukihime 3000.” It is the story of three people, in total: the protagonist, known only as the “Storyteller Girl”; her ancestor, known only as the “Girl of the Moon”; and the person that the Girl of the Moon loved, referred to as the “Man of Earth.”
Some 1000 years from the present day, in a decaying world where the spirit of humanity has been all but extinguished, and people are barely husks of their former selves with only scraps of drive and emotion, the Storyteller Girl lives as princess of an island of fifty people. Many people come to her island seeking her hand in marriage, for one reason or another (such as the Prince of Arishima, who believes her island is “the hope of humanity,” being less affected by the decline of man than the rest of the world). The Storyteller Girl, having no understanding of love, seeks to have her suitors define it for her, by presenting them with impossible tasks. She believes that, should someone somehow succeed, and then be willing to trade such an impossibly valuable thing for her hand, it will prove the measure of love. Naturally, no one has yet succeeded.
One day, a tiny, machine-like merchant riding a strange flying craft appears. Being a merchant, he wants to trade goods - more specifically, he would like the princess to write down the story of her distant ancestor, who legend says came from the moon.
The novel can be found at https://kisalnarchive.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/tsuki-no-sango/
The manga can be found at https://mangadex.org/title/a0880b76-9d26-40b6-94a0-740fe31ead50
CANAAN
Do you enjoy depictions of synesthesia that I’m pretty certain are wildly inaccurate?
Do you enjoy adorable fluff about a hardened mercenary and a bubbly photojournalist?
Do you like cool gunfights and other such action movie spectacle?
Do you like comic-book-y pseudo-science mutants?
Are you one of the, like, five English-speakers who read 428: Shibuya Scramble? Because this is a sequel to that.
Would you relate to a troubled, bull-headed, serious mercenary who lacks a strong sense of self and is on a quest for revenge?
... Yeah, does Canaan even count? Nasu and Takeuchi did do the writing and designs, but it’s a sequel to a visual novel (which I can’t tell you anything about... it’s on my backlog, though) that is definitely not a Type-Moon work. But it’s specifically a sequel to a scenario from that visual novel which was written by Nasu, so... Anyway, here it is.
... also, it’s been a while since I watched it, so sorry if I’m not covering it as well as I should be.
Canaan is about a woman named Canaan and her quest for vengeance against the person who killed her mentor Siam - a terrorist named Alphard, who was once another orphan taken in by Siam before Canaan. Alphard’s organization, Snake, possesses a deadly bioweapon capable of causing horrific mutations (or just death), the Ua Virus. Canaan battles Snake across Shanghai, both in the name of finally killing Alphard, and in the name of...
It’s also about a girl named Maria Oosawa, an aspiring photojournalist, and Canaan’s only friend. She’s in Shanghai to cover a big anti-terrorism conference, and very quickly gets wrapped up in the whole affair with Snake. Canaan prioritizes her safety over everything else, and will stop at nothing to protect her.
At the end of the day, Canaan and Maria’s relationship is probably the anime’s main draw, because they really are adorable, and in-between the action sequences, there’s a lot of just them hanging out and being cute and in love. It’s pretty great.
Canaan can be viewed at your preferred anime piracy site, if you have one. If you don’t, then I happen to use 9anime,me, but cannot vouch for its safety. Be sure to take appropriate measures, such as adblockers.
ROOM OF THE APRIL WITCH
A short one-shot published as Type-Moon’s annual April Fools joke in 2011.
“Shigatsu no Majou no Heya” (”The April Witch’s Room” or “Room of the April Witch”) is the story of April, an immortal witch with the power to grant any wish. Having suffered for her powers, April long ago retreated into her sanctuary, and sealed it away so that no one could ever enter and hurt her again.
But, she was still human, and she still desired human contact. So, one day out of every year, she unlocked the door. Over the many hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, a great many people arrived, with a great many purposes. Some sought to help April, some to hurt her. Some came only to make a wish for themselves, some came for no reason at all. None ever came a second time. Except...
Can be read at https://forums.nrvnqsr.com/showthread.php/308-Room-of-the-April-Witch?p=27884&viewfull=1#post27884 or at https://bimyou.blogspot.com/2011/04/room-of-april-witch-type-moon.html
CLOWICK CANAAN-VAIL
Published in the same anthology as Angel Notes, Clowick Canaan-Vail tells the story of an android courier named Gabriel, who lives in a barren, apocalyptic world that has long since lost the capacity to repair a machine like her, and how she spends the last five days of her life.
Can be read at https://imgur.com/gallery/ZcbYG
TSUKIHIME FURTHER READING
Plus Disc
Basically a collection of little extra stuff. If you just want to follow the storyline, you only really need to worry about the Alliance of Illusionary Eyes sidestory, which introduces a new character and has some nice character moments for Shiki in the climax.
Instructions on how to install can be found at https://pastebin.com/1Z1ibay0
Kagetsu Tohya
A direct sequel... of sorts... to Tsukihime. Kagetsu Tohya (roughly translating to “Ten Nights of the Singing Moon”) is a dream of one endlessly repeating day, Shiki seeks to learn what happened to him and how he can return to his real life - in between a whole lot of cute, fluffy slice of life. Since it’s all a dream, not much actually happens per se - it can basically be summed up as “Shiki gets a familiar” (it’s still a very nice story, mind you) - but there’s some good character stuff (although on the other hand, there’s also a lot of parts where characters are flattened and exaggerated for comedic purposes), lots of fun fluff and comedy, and the sidestories are pretty good - Dawn is a sad little story following a (formerly) unnamed background extra from Tsukihime (and is also the first published work by the author of Overlord!), Red Demon God gives some nice backstory and expands on the Nanaya clan as well as posthumously developing the character of Kiri Nanaya, Crimson Moon does the same for Roa and Brunestud, A Story For The Evening is an extended epilogue to Tsukihime’s Akiha route, and Drinking Dreaming Moon is just magnificent and ought to be required reading for any Tsukihime fan.
... you may want to use a guide. The path to the ending is otherwise a bit of a labyrinth. I think the download I’m linking comes with a flowchart? Although, the game has a built-in help function, and I’d recommend making use of it first. If the help function doesn’t work, and the flowchart isn’t getting you anywhere, here’s a step-by-step walkthrough.
Instructions on how to install can be found at https://pastebin.com/DNRx6RC3
Melty Blood
A fighting game, (in)famous for being played in bathrooms, parking lots, gazebos, and other unlikely locales around the world. As you might be able to tell from the frankly ludicrous dedication of its fanbase, it’s a pretty damn good fighting game, too. As a side note, many of those fans are getting rather sick of the bathroom jokes, so it may be best to refrain from them in future.
Melty Blood’s VN-like story mode takes place the summer after Tsukihime, when an Egyptian alchemist named Sion Eltnam Atlasia comes to town searching for and hoping to put an end to her ancestor, a terrifying vampire poised to wipe out the whole city - naturally, Shiki lends a hand.
Incidentally, while the game’s route map only shows five endings, some of those ending squares can be reached in multiple ways, and actually have entirely different endings for the occasion.
There’s a manga adaptation you can read, if you prefer. Like the Tsukihime manga, it mixes the routes a little while primarily following the “main” route. It also has a sequel manga, ”Act 2,″ adapting the joke endings.
Anyway, unless you’re really keen to see the gameplay in its rawest state, don’t worry about playing Melty Blood, because:
Instructions on how to install can be found at https://pastebin.com/BxPtZwQs
The manga can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/36999805-52e9-451f-94de-ca50e8e7e873
Melty Blood Re-Act
Everything that was in Melty Blood with a new coat of polish, plus a new story, featuring a mysterious villain creating living Jungian Shadows from some of the cast and hypnotizing some of the others.
Instructions on how to install can be found at https://pastebin.com/8QCU3Ayt
Melty Blood Act Cadenza
Most of this is retelling previous stuff. Don’t worry too much about Act Cadenza.
The only story progression is White Len contracting Shiki Nanaya, one of the phantoms she created, as her Master, creating a bizarre perpetual motion machine of Master/Familiar bonds
Installation instructions can be found at https://pastebin.com/ucChcXGS
Melty Blood Actress Again
Ever get that feeling of deja vu? It seems some mysterious enemy is somehow causing the events of the previous summer to repeat themselves - naturally, Shiki and Sion and a miscellany of others head out to get to the bottom of this.
Also, Sion’s Swedish paladin wife comes back from the dead after cameoing in Sion’s evil alternate self’s super move in every previous game!
Also also it’s just a really good fighting game. If you want to get into Melty as a fighting game rather than as part of Tsukihime’s story, this is the one you’re going to want to get. That said, I would, in that case, have to recommend taking a look at the fanmade “Community Edition,” which is the usual standard for online play on account of having rollback. That said, it’s technically piracy, so as there’s a legitimate alternative, I’m going to leave you to find it for yourself.
One thing that’s worth noting is that the official localization is... uh, wonky. For example, translating one of Aoko’s lines as referring to “my little sister” (something Aoko doesn’t have) when it was actually “the little sister” (I.E. what people who only know Akiha through Shiki keep calling her). I’d recommend taking a look at Mirror Moon’s unfinished fan translation, but I’m not sure if it’s compatible with the Steam version. I think it’s compatible with the Community Edition, though.
Actress Again can be purchased on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/app/411370/Melty_Blood_Actress_Again_Current_Code/
Carnival Phantasm
Comedic fluff consisting primarily of short, standalone comedy sketches. Crossover with Fate/Stay Night. HibiChika are in one episode.
Carnival Phantasm can be viewed at your preferred anime piracy site, if you have one. If you don’t, then I happen to use 9anime,me, but cannot vouch for its safety. Be sure to take appropriate measures, such as adblockers.
Take Moon and Ahnenerbe No Nichijou
More comedic fluff.
Many segments in Carnival Phantasm were adapted from Take Moon.
Ahnenerbe no Nichijou (”Daily Life at Ahnenerbe,” roughly) revolves around the main heroines of Tsukihime, Fate/Stay Night, and Kara No Kyoukai hanging out in the titular cafe and getting involved in humorous shenanigans, often involving their respective extended casts. Also, HibiChika are in it sometimes.
Take Moon can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/c728b682-514e-4490-b099-a43eb9077b40
Ahnenerbe no Nichijou can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/b4101937-158d-496d-95c7-03c540032ed5
Melty Blood X
A comedic spin-off manga that acts as a sequel of sorts to Actress Again. Sion’s attempts to improve her living conditions go extremely awry and nearly get everyone killed.
can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/daf449f6-9f05-480e-858d-4597c9908a1e
Koha-Ace
A super-deformed comedy manga starring Kohaku and Akiha. Mostly consists of self-deprecating shots at Type-Moon.
Long-lasting compared to the rest, bafflingly.
Is actually the source of multiple Servants in FGO - most notably Okita and Nobunaga, who were originally joke characters created specifically for this manga (Okita, in particular, being a recolour of Kohaku). Fate/Red Line is actually an adaptation of Koha-Ace’s one semi-serious storyline, with the rest of the nonsensical comedy and all Tsukihime elements removed.
Can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/223f03db-b8fa-4087-8dfe-9bb04efecd3b
Melty Blood Back Alley Alliance Nightmare
A somewhat bipolar half-comedic half-serious manga acting as a sequel of sorts to Actress Again. Sion and her friends attempt to visit the beach, only for her to get abruptly thrown into a Fate/Grand Order crossover where she is repeatedly forced to experience the lives of her alternate timeline counterparts, who never meet happy ends, while also being harassed by the ghost of Olga Marie Animusphere.
There’s also a subplot about Lev trying to escape from Hell The Great Cats Garden (which is probably a worse place to be anyway).
... a fairly large chunk of the manga has been rendered nonsensical thanks to the Fate Worlds/Tsukihime Worlds retcon. What? No, I’m not still bitter about that shitty goddamn retcon.
He said, bitterly.
can be read at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16jgRv-WneCDBF324U_MFsuguPFTt2J0S (thank you @shadouko for the updated link)
Hana no Miyako!
A lighthearted spin-off manga taking place five years after Tsukihime. Hana no Miyako! (Something like “Miyako of the Flowers!” or “Flowery Miyako!” I think) features the misadventures of Shiki Tohno’s foster sister Miyako Arima as she attempts to make it through high school without getting into too much trouble. And fails. A lot. At least she gets a girlfriend very-close-friend-who-is-also-a-girl-but-not-her-girlfriend-she-swears out of it
Also for some reason one of the most major antagonists is the daughter of Caster and Kuzuki from Fate/Stay Night. She’s very in love with Miyako. It would be cute if she had any sense of boundaries.
Got cancelled halfway through. The author continued it as a doujin work with Type-Moon’s approval, but hasn’t released a new chapter in literal years. Hope you enjoy Suffering.
Can be read at https://mangadex.org/title/9a07cfcf-858f-4e4d-befe-34522a896e46
Melty Blood Type Lumina
The newest iteration of Melty Blood, updated to the Remake’s setting. A sort of out-of-continuity prequel with a pared-back cast, some cool additions like the Remake’s new midboss Vlov Arkhangel, and some less-than-welcome guests. In addition to the standard arcade ladders, it also has a story mode, added in a later update, but I haven’t checked it out yet because I’m still too blown away that they managed to make me actually angry that one of my favourite literary characters ever is playable in a fighting game I like to go back to it.
Can be purchased for PS4 or Nintendo Switch on their respective digital storefronts, or on Steam at https://store.steampowered.com/app/1372280/MELTY_BLOOD_TYPE_LUMINA/
