Underrated Manga: Lunar Legend Tsukihime

With American anime sales on a downward trend, a lot of attention is being paid to its partner in crime manga, the Japanese comics that are often adapted into anime (if they’re not already adaptations themselves). In North America and Europe manga has exploded, but the sheer volume of manga published in Japan means that not every series makes it over here— and even the ones that do don’t always get the attention that they deserve! So here’s one of our Top Ten Underrated Manga that we recommend that you should get your hands on:

Lunar Legend Tsukihime

A high school boy named Shiki is suffering from a life-threatening injury, and as a result he has started to see “death lines” on the people around him. He discovers that if he traces the lines with a sharp object he can kill people. He protects himself from his ability by wearing a special pair of glasses that prevent his ability to see the lines.

After eight years of separation from his family, Shiki is finally permitted to return to his family’s mansion to live with his sister Akiha. Over time he discovers his own mysterious past, thanks in part to meeting a vampire named Arcueid Brunestud.

Tsukihime was originally an erotic visual novel (a kind of video game that is heavily dependent on text), and was eventually adapted into a mainstream manga and anime. The series is infamous amongst hardcore anime and manga fans, especially the ones who play visual novels, but it remains fairly unknown to the fandom as a whole.

The manga, published by DrMaster in North America, is particularly praised for containing the entirety of the game’s canon (minus the erotic scenes) on paper— a thoroughness rarely seen in adaptations of visual novels.

Gia Manry is a Portland, OR-based professional writer specializing in pop culture/entertainment writing. Read up on more of her work at giapet.net or hire her at GiaManry.com.