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.
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 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.
Instructions on how to install the VN can be found at https://pastebin.com/XgkJFs3H
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/
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, 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 incomplrehensible. 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.
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.
