(Notice: expect spoilers for Tsukihime, so don't highlight the black spaces between the paragraphs if you don't have amnesia dust.)
Arcueid is my favorite character in Tsuki. Indeed, she is one of my favorite female video game characters of all time. She certainly looks like a typical video game heroine: large breasts and butt, somewhat tall, blonde, and reasonably thin, but at the same time, she doesn't look like a typical video game chick. One reason many people seem to favor Japanese designs is that they don't always draw the faces of sexy women with perpetual pouts. Arc, thankfully, is a good example of that. She smiles when she's happy, she looks confused when she's confused, and really only pouts when she gets a little angry. Also, she doesn't dress like a slut; she doesn't expose herself, and her outfit is basic enough for me to describe. Observe:
"She was wearing a white sweater that only exposed her face and beige hands, and had a long purple skirt on to compliment the sweater. She had black low-heels on, and dark stockings on her legs, but what I found most captivating was her eyes, her crimson red eyes."
She doesn't subscribe to the Victoria's Secret ideal of sexy, and because of that, I find her to be very attractive. And yes, she has nice eyes, and I almost never find anime eyes to be attractive. But of course, beauty only works on a physical level, and Arc is memorable as a person too. Despite going for a more sexual look, she acts . . . cute. And while she's not an idiot, she has little knowledge of the present-day world. She's like a vampire version of the many characters Marilyn Monroe portrayed: cute and sexy at the same time, intellectual yet naive at the same time. Then again, when she acts on her vampiric impulses, she ceases to be like Marilyn and starts behaving like an uncontrollable force of nature. She is quite deadly, yet will only show this side of her when absolutely necessary.
By meeting Shiki in the Arc route, she learned what it was to love and be loved for the first time. This is why her true end is so bittersweet; she can never be with him again, but she will always have her memories of him. The same is true of Shiki; he even says "I will never forget Arcueid." And that scene with the two of them in the fast food restaurant wasn't just cute; it was very sweet, in more ways than one. But what's important is that Arc no longer sees herself as a tool to kill wayward Dead Apostles; she now sees herself as a real person, with real feelings. Just this route alone was worth the playthrough, but it doesn't end with just her, oh no.
My second-favorite character is Akiha. She is the inheritor of a fortune, and as such, tries to behave like how a noble would. She doesn't do the frivolous things a teenage girl would be expected to do, and behaves in a more mature manner than most other people her age. And yet, she is quite an insecure individual. She has magnificent hair, flawless skin, nice clothes, and is overall an absolutely gorgeous girl, and yet, she thinks boys won't be interested in her because of her small breasts. (It's okay, Akiha-sama; I don't care about boob size myself.) Even despite her insecurities, she is very sociable. She does have drinking parties at the mansion despite being a minor, and she's made friends at her school. Most people come to like her because she is charismatic, and she knows how to entertain people.
And yet, as we learn, there is a side of her she can never open up to people, the side of her that she is, in fact, a human/demon hybrid. A fear running throughout the Far Side routes is that she will "invert" and behave entirely like a demon. She is fearful of this, and does what she can to prevent this from happening. There is also the fact that she is on love with Shiki, and since they're not blood relatives, it's okay. She does genuinely care for him, but she also feels that if she can't have him, then life is no longer worth living. The Kohaku route sees her giving in to her jealousy, but she's not a bad person; she just wants what's best for Shiki. Her sharing her life force with him is proof of that. The Normal end of the Akiha route is such a beautiful scene; Shiki giving up his life so that this girl from a cursed bloodline will no longer live in pain. She is alone now, but feels that he may come back, somehow, and the sequel of this ending in Kagetsu Tohya hints that this may be the case. And lastly, I agree with Shiki on one point; Akiha looks better with black hair! Then again, that was probably the developer's intent; she looks much scarier in her red-haired demon form.
And now I've shattered my heart into a million little pieces just by revisiting my favorite story arcs of Tsuki. I dare not even contemplate how the rumored Satsuki route will turn out.
