DISCLAIMER!
I don't profess to know 100% of the Tsukihime plot. Like a lot of other stuff, everything is me doing speculation via 3rd party analysis. Oh, and music clip URL above should be Arc-Shiki instead.
So what's so special abt a H-game?
Call me a liar, but I nvr had any experience in playing VNs, let alone anything done by TYPE MOON. In short, you'll be amazed over how much you can know via mere curiosity. Seems that despite my Chinese zodiac sign being a dog, my character is more like a cat.
A certain Met in a certain forum once poured scorn on Tsukihime b/c he believed nothing good can come out of any plot H in nature. I disagreed with him back then, I realised I sucked at debating back then also.
Arguably the crucial fictional work awakening the Vincent van Gogh in me, this was where I started going philosophical mode even till now. Met, whatever prejudice you had back then is now invalid, mark my words.
Intro
Tsukihime's focal theme is all about life. In short, this is NOT your customary Twilight romance, so if you're a Twi-hard, you can close this window unless you really want to know some super cheem philosophy about humans and other freaks.
Any Tsukihime fan can and will tell you that the philosophy factor lies in the conflict between eternity and mortality, but to me, the concept of eternal living is merely there to highlight the fragility called life.
What is the meaning of life?
Interestingly, the main character is NOT the titular character. Tsukihime (lit: Moon Princess) refers to Arcueid Brunestud. Main character is some generic boy named Tohno Shiki. If not for a certain "accident", Shiki would still be living your everyday life. Sadly for him, this is not the case.
We all know he had the ability to perceive death. Everything in this world has an end, said end is called death. Death isn't merely the process of dying, but rather the absolute end of any existence. Try to see things this way: If the world is a massive database and any given existence being part of the data, what will happen once that data got deleted? Or maybe you can ask yourself what's the difference between delete and reformat.
And herein lies the most fundamental meaning of life: Life itself has no meaning apart from having that certain end called death. This is especially poignant when Nasu started linking "beginning", "process", and "result" (in this order) together. 'Tis really scary when we consider this to be a linear pattern nobody can win against.
A/N-There's a difference between cutting the lines and piercing the dot. The former case is all about cutting apart target existence without any chances of healing/recovering. Latter case, however, is the true process of reverting any existence back to nothing (death). The dual Origins belonging to Emiya Kiritsugu (Fate/Zero and Fate/stay night), namely Binding and Severing, actually gives us a clear visualization on how cutting the lines work. Albeit to be fair, I believe this to be some accidental coincidence on Nasu/Urobuchi's part.
Shiki and Sensei
Shiki possessed the power to reformat rather than just pressing delete. The only catch? Said reformatting is a one way traffic. In short, any data (i.e. existence) Shiki kills (erases) can never be recovered. No one believed Shiki when he mentioned the lines, everyone thought him to be a mischievous fibber.
This brings to mind a certain episode where I got my glasses cracked during secondary school due to me crashing down the stairs (said process actually involved the kid at the staircase entrance tumbling down, which resulted in me being squashed at the bottom). Any attempt to make straight my glasses' frame ended up in failure, one lens got cracked. Despite my most truthful protests, my mom was convinced I got myself into this fix due to running around. Why was she so sure? Because the uncle running the spectacles shop said so.
Similar to my aforementioned past, he ended up cutting apart a wooden table in his hospital ward (whether that's also part of original VN plot, I dunno since I'm talking abt the manga adaptation). Doctor asked him what happened, Shiki told him the truth. Again, he became the liar despite being truthful. Everybody started seeing him as some crazy kid where in fact he's perfectly sane.
Having nobody to confide in, Shiki got unwittingly shunned by those who should be believing him (or at least granting him some benefit of doubt). This is understandable from the adults' POV b/c that's Nasu's way of telling us "people can only perceive things they chose to believe in".
Shiki could perceive death in its entirety, the rest couldn't. This is why he has to live a life no normal human being can understand/empathize.
Enter Aozaki Aoko, Shiki's teacher (sensei). Suffice to say, fate did truly bring them together since Aoko is a character acting on personal impulses/whims above all else (albeit in Mahou Tsukai no Yoru, she's arguably more reckless).
At this point of time, let me just ask you all one simple question: When you're feeling all alone and afraid, how would you feel if someone comes along and assure you of a listening ear?
*Note that I'm talking about childhood/teenage phase, not grown up stage.*
This was Shiki's only chance of being heard, he's actually taking a major risk in trusting a stranger. Yet, we must know that Shiki had nothing to lose by then, that even the simplest indulgence any kid should have was brutally taken away from him. In this sense, I believe we all can identify ourselves with little Shiki.
You see, any human being will go mad once he/she got subjected under prolonged solitude/ostracizing. We're not born this way, this stems from the human instinct to feel loved/needed. Given the nature of Shiki's actual lineage, that's the last thing he (or the society at large) wanted.
Amazingly, Aoko never got tired of talking with him. I believe it's down to her innate tendency towards self-accountability, which is an important character development point for her in Mahou Tsukai no Yoru. And this actually extended towards respecting every manner of living things/existence. This is NOT to say the user of Fifth Magic is a good person (since she won't hesitate to destroy anything even if it's for whimsical purposes). But suffice to say, at least Aoko is decent enough to devote 100% effort towards anything she decided to do. Which in this case, her relevant decision was Shiki.
Struggles and Morals
Why Aoko felt a deep affinity towards Shiki's anguish is still beyond me, I think we will only discover the full answer come the much awaited sequel to MTnY. Either that or I'm missing out something important due to the much obvious 3rd party syndrome. No matter what though, it's a no-brainer to see Aoko having 100% obligation towards her charge. Interestingly, said trait might have rubbed off on Shiki years later if we're talking about his character dynamics with Arc (albeit this would have already spiraled out of control per proven in Arc's True Ending).
The decisive moment in Shiki's character actually came about after he killed a tree via cutting its "lines". Apparently, Aoko wasn't amused and slapped him without questions asked. Given how Aoko activating the Fifth Magic meant the imminent destruction of the world (as evidenced/implied in Notes. ****ing hate the fact that Gun God died despite symbolic importance being legit. *cough* Shirou *cough*), 'tis only natural to guess correctly her reaction even though one needs to play MTnY first to understand.
Ofc given Shiki's just a kid, he ended up crying. Why? Not just because he got slapped by that only person who cares about him, but above all the innate knowledge that what he did was wrong. As Aoko stated what little Shiki did is wrong, our little future protagonist managed to apologize before things got out of hand. While it's likely that Aoko's company had matured a little boy beyond teenage standard, we must also note that kids will always be kids, they'll always be out to please/impress the nearest person. For Shiki, the only one present turned out to be the only one willing to approach him. Ironically, this reason behind his apology was the EXACT reason why he killed that tree. Needless to say, such emotion also justified his stance that only Aoko is deserving of his respect (hence, the term sensei although Shiki's original intent was down to Aoko disliking her full name. Not to mention Aoko IS indeed a bossy woman).
On Aoko's side, she felt an obligation to give him a pair of glasses stolen from her elder sis, Touko (and we all know this is a sibling rivalry turned somewhat violent due Touko being the Fifth Magic's original heir). The glasses, however, could only block out the lines from sight as taking them off means going back to square one. Eerily speaking, this was a symbolic moment where Shiki's future struggle against his murderous alter-ego is concerned.
Lastly (for now), Aoko actually complimented Shiki's forthright honesty in facing up to his own mistakes, that even though she wouldn't demand this scarred little boy to be saint, Tohno Shiki will still nevertheless become a splendid man ten years after.
To be cont'd....
Part 2-Tohno Shiki's interaction with the various chicks and how the actual dynamics work themselves out. Weirdly enough, some Tamil aunty in a certain dept actually joked that everyone in a certain sub-dept can be certified as my sisters. Yes, said sub-dept is all-female and that include all the young ones. Way to go there, makcik. You might have accidentally created an Akiha joke w/o knowing what is Tsukihime. :o
No comments:
Post a Comment