To see the death of things is to be tossed into a vague, fragile world. A world where there's no ground below. Where even the sky appears frail, as if it will fall at any moment.Shiki Tohno
So you want to kill me, monster? Then we have something in common. Very well. Let's kill each other... Nrvnqsr Chaos.Shiki Tohno
Shiki Tohno, originally born Shiki Nanaya, is the main protagonist of the Tsukihime franchise.
He is a young man who wields the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, which allows him to physically see the concept of death and the inherent mortality of everything (both living and non-living) in the form of lines.
He is voiced by Kenji Nojima in Melty Blood and Carnival Phantasm, while in the anime adaptation, he is voiced by Kenichi Suzumura in Japanese and Steve Staley in English (the latter also voices Tōshirō Hitsugaya in Bleach and Neji Hyūga in Naruto). In Tsukihime: -A piece of blue glass moon- and Melty Blood: Type Lumina, he is voiced by Ryousuke Kanemoto.
Appearance
Shiki is a 17-year old boy with an athletic build. He has unruly, short black hair with a cowlick sprouting out at the top and black eyes. He also wears a pair of glasses which are actually used to suppress his Mystic Eyes. He also has a massive scar across his chest.
In all his appearances, Shiki wears a standard Japanese school uniform, consisting of a neatly buttoned-up, dark blue gakuran jacket with a standing collar, and trousers matching the jacket in color. In the remake, Shiki also now wears a gray and black jacket on white t-shirt with jeans.
Personality
Shiki Tohno is an amicable, well-meaning, laidback and honest person. He is considered to be a fairly normal high school student most of the time. He can also be quite snarky and playful towards his loved ones and is somewhat naïve at times. Shiki is anemic and is prone to fainting, but he tries his best to live a normal life.
Due to his ability to literally see death combined with his near-death experiences, Shiki has a great appreciation of life and seeks to cherish every moment of his life. He also values the lives of others and is quite hesitant to kill another human being. Shiki displays a remarkable amount of empathy, being capable of putting himself in the shoes of others, such as when he empathized and felt sympathy for the life and eventual fate his adoptive brother suffered. He is also rather forgiving, as shown when he forgave Ciel for attempting to kill him and seemingly manipulating him and also towards Arcueid who attempted to harm Shiki and drink his blood.
Profile
Backstory
When he was just a kid, Shiki was involved in a particularly nasty car accident that left him with a massive scar on his chest, anemic and with a condition that allowed him to see mysterious lines everywhere. The lines are horrible to see and if he runs a sharp object along them the object will fall apart. In a fit, he tries to claw his eyes out and eventually runs out into an open field where he meets Aoko Aozaki. The two of them spend a long time talking and she teaches him to respect life and explains his strange new ability, which she calls the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. Her parting gift is his trademark pair of glasses that prevent him from having to see the lines.
Overview
Shiki goes to live with a branch family of the Tohnos for eight years before eventually returning to live with his sister Akiha. From here, the story splits into the Near and Far Side. In the Near Side routes, he runs into a beautiful young woman on the streets and feels a sudden urge to kill her. He then proceeds to cut her into 17 pieces, passes out and eventually returns home, unsure of whether what he just experienced was a dream or not. The next day, the woman shows up again demanding an explanation for why she was just murdered despite being very much not dead. From here he is launched into a battle between various vampires.
In the Far Side routes, Shiki returns to the Tohno mansion eager to renew his relationship with his sister and to hopefully see his childhood friend and a mysterious girl he sometimes saw in the window watching everyone play. However, he soon finds his family isn't all what it seems, and will have to face secrets about his family that connect them to the random murders occurring around the city.
Abilities
Shiki's primary weapon is a small knife, a relic of the Nanaya family named Nanatsu-Yoru. His knife's form is always shifted in many ways. Normally, the Nanatsu-Yoru is a tantou (dagger) styled blade which, can be seen in the manga and Melty Blood games. Though in the Tsukihime anime and the original visual novel, along with the one Roa uses, it is instead a short switchblade with a decorated hilt.
Other versions
Melty Blood and Kagetsu Tohya sports different versions of Shiki, who take the name Shiki Nanaya. They are brought out of Shiki's own fears.
In Kagetsu Tohya, he is considered the version of Shiki who never experienced death or learned the value of living. This Shiki, unlike the real one, recognizes the world around them to be just a dream. The Melty Blood incarnation is the materialization by Wallachia of the rumors of the killer that strolls at night; according to this Shiki Nanaya himself, he can see the lines of death, unlike the Kagetsu Tohya version. The incarnation of Shiki Nanaya in Melty Blood Re-Act is a reflection created by White Len using the killing instincts of the 'Nanaya' that Shiki Tohno does not use. However, this Shiki gradually changes beginning to (almost) care for others around him, and by Actress Again, states that he has 'lingering affections'. This sets him apart from the previous incarnations of 'Nanaya Shiki' where he begins to be more of a physical apparition (stated has he seems to be more prone to damage), and even Kishima Kouma takes note of this change, saying that before, he felt as if he were talking to a beast but now, almost human.
A new version of Shiki would made an appearance in the as yet unconfirmed Tsukihime 2, called Satsujinki (lit. Homicidal), whose name is a wordplay on the second kanji of Shiki's name and the word for "homicidal maniac" or literally "killing demon". Unlike the original Shiki, Satsujinki's Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are much more powerful and because of that his Magangoroshi glasses lost their effectiveness, so he must wear a bandage at all times to seal his eyes. He is mentioned jokingly during one of the bad ends in Tsukihime[1], but makes a full appearance in a side stories Talk (where he eliminates Forest of Einnashe) and Prelude (where he kills Louvre). Still, these two side stories aren't confirmed canon. Tsukihime manga shows that Shiki starting to wear bandage at the end of his second meeting with Aozaki Aoko during the epilogue of Tsukihime.
Additionally, some characters call the 'third' incarnation of Nanaya Shiki (mentioned above) 'Satsujinki' in the Melty Blood series. In combat, Nanaya heavily utilizes the Nanaya-style arts, and is even able to kill well without the usage of his eyes. This is notable in that in Melty Blood, his Arc Drive is different from Tohno's in that he makes a clear single cut as opposed to multiple cuts at once from reading the lines from his eyes. His Last Arc also involves him tossing his dagger at the _target's heart, then using a Sensou to appear from above them to snap their neck, which is a reference to one of Tohno's bad endings in the original Kagetsu Tohya.