DVD
Tsukihime Lunar Legend
Volume 2 - Lunar Dance

Starring (voice): Hitomi Nabatame and Kenichi Suzumura
MVM
RRP: £19.99
MVD 2085
Certificate: 12
Available 08 August 2005


Tohno Shiki is an ordinary kid when he is involved in a near fatal accident. Following the accident Shiki is sent away to the care of a relative. But, ever since the accident Shiki can see things - no, not dead people - but lines of death. In order to lead a normal life he is given a pair of glasses by a woman he meets that he knows only as Teacher. When his father dies he must return to his own household and start school...

Volume Two of Tsukihime (2003) contains episodes five to eight of the twelve episode run. Episode five (Bow of the Sky) continues the Buffy the Vampire Slayer type stories, with Arc (a vampire girl he previously killed. The boy has a way with girls) turning up at Shiki's school much to his chagrin. They continue their hunt for the reincarnated being known as Roa. But, when Shiki cuts his arm, it looks like Arc's vampire side might get the better of her.

In episode six (White Dream. Pay attention I said "White Dream") all the boys in class 2B have gone missing. This is a more romantic tale with Arc turning up at school again. At first Shiki has a problem with this and Arc leaves, but when Shiki finds that Arc is making money as a model he changes his mind and asks her for a date. Strange that! Oh, and for no real reason the class of 2B have been turned into shishas, only to be defeated by Arc and Shiki. All in a days work really.

Episode seven (Blue Ruins) really should be called Teen Blues as it consists of nothing other than Shiki's love life. The story doesn't really advance the ongoing story except at the end when some more vampire victims are discovered.

Episode eight (Origami) find the vampire story starting to kick in properly. Roa finally turns up and Shiki finds out some freaky things about his family - like why no one seems to have died a natural death. He discovers his sister Akiha drinking blood from one of the maids, and he thought she had hit rock bottom after the sherry stealing incident... Ah, well.

DVD extras are very thin on the ground. You get a non-credit closing, as if the credits did such a good job of spoiling something you're not going to pay attention to anyway. Still, the orchestral arranged song is nice to hear one more time. And just to prove that they really have scrapped the barrel on this one we have the usual trailer section and the DVD credits. Now I know these guys do a great job and without them we wouldn't have any DVD's but who is going to want to see that?

Audio comes in either English or Japanese stereo, with subtitles for all you non-Japanese speakers. Still, all in all, the sound is clear as a bell and you can't really expect anything else from a television program. The title song is really quite haunting. Continuing their run of good prints the picture is clear and artefact free.

Overall a bit of a lacklustre offering, though it's nice to seen four episodes on offer (who mentioned Trigun?). They really represent the middle section of the twelve episode arc, so if it floats your boat, I suggest you invest in all twelve episodes.

Charles Packer

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£14.99 (Amazon.co.uk)
   
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£16.99 (Moviemail-online.co.uk)

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